‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: Abraham’s Group Hits A Snag
In the opening scene, Rosita is playing with Abraham’s hair as they drive along in the school bus. After she offers to cut his hair later, Tara jokes that maybe Eugene should get a trim, too. Mullet hater!
Something is up with Eugene though, and he admits that what happened inside Father Gabriel’s church is sitting with him. We can’t blame him for this, because what he last witnessed was nothing but pure bloodshed and brutality as Gareth and his cronies were slaughtered by Rick and the others.
Glenn and Maggie are talking about their hopes and dreams for Rick, Daryl, and Carol. They hope they grabbed the map, picked up some cars, and are on their way to D.C. behind them. “They’ll catch up,” Glenn says, hopefully.
Not likely, dude.
Eugene explains his mullet after Glenn asks about it, and it turns out he just really likes it that way. Well, that and his old boss told him it made him look like a “fun guy.” Business in the front, party in the back!
Unfortunately, this lighthearted moment isn’t meant to last. Just after Abraham drives past a group of walkers, he blows a tire and the bus swerves into another car before flying into the air and crashing down on it’s side. Seconds later, the group of walkers they just passed are descending upon them.
It turns out they are all okay, thankfully, but now they have to make it through this walker herd in order to survive. Abraham, Glenn, Maggie, and Rosita head out first and leave Tara on Eugene detail.
Just as they are about to make their way out of the bus, a walker breaks through a window and nearly grabs Eugene. Thankfully, Tara is there to take it out, but she gives Eugene a knife and tells him it’s time for him to man up. He looks terrified, but he follows after her.
Tara’s advice doesn’t help much, because Eugene just stands there awkwardly watching everyone around him attack walkers. But finally, just as Tara is about to get attacked, Eugene slams his knife into a walker’s neck before Tara delivers a kill shot. Go Eugene!
Once the coast is clear, Abraham has a near nervous breakdown when Eugene suggests they walk back towards the church because it’s only 15 miles away. It’s Glenn who talks him down again by reassuring him they are all going to moving forward, and it’s not surprising to see Glenn has continued his role as the “sane” one in the group. Now, it’s just with a different group.
Eugene Tells Tara An Unexpected Secret
While this is happening, we’re getting glimpses of what Abraham’s life was like before he found Eugene and Rosita. One memory shows him slaughtering other living humans inside a grocery store, and the next shows him with what we can only assume are his family: a woman with long, brown hair, and two red-headed little children — a boy and a girl.
The group finds somewhere to sleep for the night, and it looks to be an old library. Eugene makes a small fire in a trash can from book pages, while the others seal off the windows and search the property for food and water.
If anything, at least they found somewhere safe to get some rest before they are forced to go back on foot up the east coast.
During a quiet moment on watch, Abraham and Glenn have a heart-to-heart about their decision to move on together. Abraham even thanks Glenn for making the decision to go with them, and Glenn tries to get Abraham to relax a little bit.
Abraham gives Glenn a major TMI by telling him he needs to “get some” before getting any rest, and that he does. Just as Abraham and Rosita are getting into the thick of things — ahem, literally — they spot Eugene standing behind a bookshelf watching them. And they keep going. Not sure which part of that is weirder.
Tara is the one who stops Eugene, although it’s unintentional. After he explains why he’s watching them (a distraction!), she seems a little flabbergasted because she only came to tell him thank you.
That’s when Eugene drops a major bombshell: he is the reason the bus crashed. He crushed light bulbs and put them in the gas tank because he assumed it would make the bus stop before it even hit the road. Tara is floored by this, not to mention angry because he nearly killed each and every one of them with that nasty accident.
Tara starts to question Eugene, and he realizes he’s made a grave mistake by telling her his secret. When he tries to run she stops him, and demands answers. His explanation? He knows he can’t survive on his own. Hell, everyone knows that.
“If I don’t cure the disease, if I don’t save the world I have no value,” he finally tells her. Eugene continues to say that they’ll abandon him, maybe even kill him if his plan doesn’t work out. He’s probably right, but Tara assures him otherwise.
To prove her loyalty, she even promises to keep his secret. They bond over a fist bump and move along.
In another part of the library, Maggie and Glenn share a quiet moment as they lay together on the floor. Maggie admits she feels guilty about leaving their friends, but she also admits that it’s nice to be able to rest and relax without all of the violence. It’s an unspoken truth we all saw coming: the reason why Glenn and Maggie were finally willing to move on from Rick.
We get yet another flashback, and this time Abraham’s wife and children are terrified of him after witnessing him killing others. They are visibly shaking as he tries to console them, and they won’t let them come near him.
Eugene Finally Mans Up To Save His Friends
The next day, Abraham and Rosita get into a fight after she suggests that they stay in one place for a day. Glenn, Maggie, and the rest of the group walk in on the fight and back up Rosita’s plan to stick around, but suddenly she’s on Abraham’s stubborn side and demands they continue on their way.
That’s when Abraham reveals that he has a car set up for them already, and he leads everyone across the street to a fire truck. At first it’s a bit tricky to start, but then he gets it started. Everyone jumps on board and they make their way down the road… Or, not. It’s actually more like about 5 feet before the engine stops.
While Abraham is ranting and raving about how things never work out in their favor, you vaguely see a door behind the truck open on it’s own. Moments later a tire comes rolling out and passes them, which brings the group to complete silence. Next, something predictable happens: a herd of walkers make their way out of the door.
Just as Abraham and the group start to take out walkers, they become overwhelmed. As Abraham gets taken over by a couple of them, suddenly the fire hose from the truck is on and knocking walkers out left and right. The man behind the hose? Eugene. Saving lives for the second time!
In another flashback from Abraham’s past life, we see him waking up inside the grocery store to find that his family has abandoned him. “Don’t try to find me,” reads a note written on receipt paper. Of course, he goes running out of the store screaming their names in hopes he’s not too late.
Eugene Finally Reveals The Truth Behind The Cure
After the fire truck breaks down yet again somewhere down the road, Eugene takes some time to read a book he stole from the old library/book store they slept in the other night. Maggie finds him sitting alone and tries to bond with him by telling him she likes his mullet. She also tells him that she knows he’s not like everyone else, and that he should know that. That’s why he has his mullet, because it separates him from the rest of the world.
Glenn gets distracted by a nasty stench that comes through the air, and the group is left walking again. Before too long they come upon what was sending the stench their way: hundreds, if not thousands of walkers all just standing around across a large piece of farm land.
The group immediately decides they need to turn around and go back, but Abraham is determined to pass through. When he realizes that everyone — even Rosita, finally — is standing against him, he grabs Eugene and starts dragging him down the road.
Everyone flips out and starts trying to pull Eugene away from him, but a fight ensues that leaves Glenn and Rosita thrown on the grass. Just as things are about to get even worse, Eugene drops another bombshell: “I’m not a scientist. I lied. I don’t know how to stop this.”
Holy. Walker. Cow. How do we even react to that? Honestly. I am floored.
Nothing but silence from the group as they all stare at him, baffled by his confession. He says it again: “I’m not a scientist.”
It seems like everyone has a different reaction. Maggie looks horrified, Tara looks pissed, Rosita and Glenn look confused. Abraham? Regret, mixed with… I don’t even know.
Eugene tried to explain himself, by stating that he needed people to protect him because he was not capable of doing that for himself. He admits that he messed up, and that he’s sorry, but he did what he had to do to survive.
That’s when Abraham finally snaps, and he starts punching Eugene repeatedly until his head smacks flat against the fire truck and leaves him passed out on the floor.
In our final flashback, Abraham finds his wife and children. They’ve been eaten alive by walkers, left in pieces on the grass. Just as he puts a gun in his mouth and plans to put a bullet in his brain, he hears the screams of Eugene running from three walkers. And that’s how Abraham and Eugene meet. And that’s how Eugene once saved Abraham’s life with a lie.
So, what did YOU think about this episode, HollywoodLifers? Are you surprised by Eugene’s confession? Do you think the group will go back to Rick and the rest of the survivors now? Comment below!
— Lauren Cox
Follow @Iaurencox
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