Carol and Daryl go to save Beth.

The Details

• Carol takes Daryl to stay at a domestic violence shelter she stayed at before.
• Carol tries to tell Daryl about the girls, but he insists on a fresh start.
• Noah robs Carol and Daryl. Daryl stops Carol from shooting him.
• They survive a van dropping off the bridge.
• Carol and Daryl talk about how they’ve changed since their separation. Carol says their identities have been burned away. Daryl says, “We ain’t ashes.”
• They catch up with Noah. Daryl wants to leave him pinned under a bookshelf, but Carol insists they save him.
• Carol gets taken by the evil hospital people, so Daryl has to return to the camp with Noah.

The Big Q

If “we ain’t ashes,” as Daryl says, then what are we?

The Impact

We’re the smoke. There are three smoke-watching scenes in this episode (the prison, the shelter, and Terminus), one legal pad fire, and one cigarette. If the fire represents the changes we endure and ashes represent our pasts, then we are the smoke rising above. As we find our true identities, who we are is easier to see from any distance. We’re also more pervasive. You know how if someone has been at a bonfire you can tell from the smell of their clothes? Our mark can stick to the people around us like that. We see that in this episode between Daryl and Carol. They are entrenched in each others’ lives simply by who they are. Eventually we all disappear into each other.

What did you see this week?