The Details

• Gabriel runs back to Michonne and Carl with a horde of walkers chasing.
• The group reassembles to rescue Beth.
• Dawn and Beth discuss the point of life and whether things will ever change.
• Tyrese admits to Sasha that he lied about killing Martin.
• Beth stabs Dawn while saying,

The Big Q

What does The Walking Dead‘s “Coda” conclude?

The Impact

A coda is a conclusion for a major artistic work. From tonight’s episode, I can draw the following conclusions. First, life and death are inseparable. Second, both require blood sacrifice. The first conclusion is seen especially with Dawn and Beth, who live and die together in this episode, but even their conversation by the elevator begs the question of what separates the living and the dead. The crumbling of this veil is what gives Gabriel such a difficult time. The second conclusion could also be stated that it takes blood to live and blood to die. This is featured in the church, where “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life.” When Tyrese lies about killing Martin, who goes on to kill Bob, he shifts the blood sacrifice from one person to another. When Dawn adds Noah to the exchange, it is an example of blood sacrifice. The debt was paid, but Dawn demanded more. Noah sacrificed himself for the greater good–until Beth stabbed Dawn, something she had to have known would get her killed. By sacrificing Dawn, Beth sacrificed herself. And this is the cycle of life and death: life continues through death, and death is only a state of being because life exists.

What did you think? What are your predictions for the second half of the season?