The Walking Dead – Recap: “The Next World” (06×10)
[WARNING: THIS IS A RECAP SO THERE WILL BE SPOILERS]
Last week’s episode of The Walking Dead starts off great with the song “More Than a Feeling” by Boston playing in the background. Love that song. Baby Judith is playing with a plastic party cup on the carpet and Michonne enters the room asking Rick for some toothpaste. How mundane is that? It’s almost bizarre watching them act so… well, normal. Michonne is even wearing a towel turban!
Carl then enters the room with a bandage over where his right eye used to be, but other than that, he’s in pretty good condition. He throws his tennis ball at Rick before heading out so Denise can change his bandage.
Outside, Denise asks Daryl to fetch her some medical supplies before he heads out with Rick on a scavenging hunt. She also asks him to bring her some soda Tara likes if he ever comes across it, but that it wasn’t a priority.
On the road, Rick tells Daryl that they might find some food, maybe even some people. Daryl says that they haven’t seen anybody for weeks and maybe that’s a good thing. Instead of responding, Rick turns on the car stereo and sings along to a country song, revealing his terrible taste in music.
They come across a big truck full of food. Rick says, “Well how about that? Law of averages.” Daryl agrees. Walkers haven’t been a problem and now the duo have found themselves a load of supplies. Luck really has been on their side lately.
Daryl finds a soda machine and remembers Denise’s request. They chain the machine to the truck and drive the truck forward to flip the machine over. While they hunch over the machine, a random guy slams right into Rick. He backs up quickly, unarmed, and raises his hands up in surrender. He’s unarmed. Rick and Daryl automatically point their guns at him. The guy tells them hi.
He tells the duo he was running from the dead. Rick and Daryl believe him and lower their weapons. Both sides deny that they have a camp. The guy runs off and says, “If this is the next world, then I hope it is good to you guys.” Rick then introduces himself and Daryl and asks for the guys name. Apparently, the guy’s name is Paul, but his friends call him Jesus.
He runs off. Rick considers giving him a place in Alexandria, but Daryl doesn’t like the idea. His exact words were, “Nah, guy calls himself Jesus.”
Firecrackers go off behind the building. Daryl and Rick go investigate, leaving the truck unprotected. And guess who steals the truck? That’s right. Jesus.
Back at Alexandria, Michonne sees Aiden, Deanna’s son, wandering alone in the woods with a shovel. She joins him, but he doesn’t tell her why he’s there.
Carl and Enid are also in the woods. They are eating snacks and reading comic books. Michonne and Aiden make noise as they by, alarming the two, but Carl tells Enid that it’s just Michonne. Enid tells Carl that she doesn’t want to be out there anymore. Carl stashes his comic books away, grumpily. As they make their way back to the camp, they come across the Walker that used to be Deanna. Carl stops Enid from killing it. He tells her that she wouldn’t understand and to just go home.
Meanwhile, Rick and Daryl chase after the truck Jesus drove off on. I still have no clue why they didn’t take their car. They find the soda machine stranded in the trail and take a few bottles of the soda Crush. When they finally reach Jesus, Jesus proves to be a worthy adversary. Unarmed, he lands a one on both Carl and Daryl who each have weapons. The duo overpower him though, and Jesus falls to the ground. While they point their guns at Jesus, he asks them if they even have any ammo. The duo respond to this by shooting at a nearby Walker. They get their keys back and tie up Jesus. It’s okay though. The knots are loose. Oh! And they left him some Crush.
Rick and Daryl drive back happily. The happiness is short-lived, of course. Jesus somehow managed to climb onto the top of the truck. They pull over, sending the guy go flying across the field of grass. Daryl chases after him and for a while the two look like two kids playing tag. You know, when one person wants to get to base, but the tagger is guarding that base so they’re just moving side-by-side without any advance? Yup. About a minute of Daryl and Jesus playing tag. Rick then gets involved and starts stabbing a few Walkers that came out of nowhere. Seriously, there was hardly any Walkers in this episode compared to last episodes one thousand. I don’t think they’ll ever top that, to be honest.
Anyway, Jesus climbs on the truck and tries to drive away, but Daryl stops him. A Walker comes behind Daryl and get this: JESUS SAVES DARYL’S LIFE. And for that sole reason, am I able to forgive Jesus for accidentally sending the truck down the river.
Oh yeah.
Jesus accidentally sends the truck down the river.
As the truck loaded with food sinks, Daryl scoffs at Rick’s previous, “law of averages” commentary.
The duo take Jesus in because he never really imposed a threat to them other than being a nuisance like setting off firecrackers to distract them while he steals the truck, swiping Rick’s keys and climbing on top their truck. Oh, and let’s not forget being responsible for sending all of that precious food down the river. Honestly, I was pretty upset over this. It felt like a likable character died. Seeing all that food go was painful.
Carl leads Deanna the Walker to Aiden and Michonne before taking off. “I though I saw her that night,” Aiden says, drawing his knife, “I thought I did.” Aiden kills the walking corpse that used to be his mom and holds her in his arms (just like Carl did to Lori back in season 3, remember?) Aiden looks back at Michonne and tells her, “So that’s why I was out here.” The two head back to Alexandria.
Rick and Daryl leave a note and some water to a tied up Jesus. Rick tells Daryl that it was stupid of them to go out there. Daryl agrees. “Do it again tomorrow?” Rick then asks to which Daryl replies, “Yup.” I love them.
Back at home, Rick and Michonne chat for a little while. Rick hands her some mints because he didn’t find the toothpaste she was asking for at the beginning of the episode. They hold hands for a bit and then look at each other’s eyes. Richonne shippers rejoice! YES! They finally kiss!
The episode ends with Jesus barging into Rick and Michonne’s bedroom telling the couple that they need to talk. Talk about bad timing.
