Now (The Walking Dead)

"Now"
The Walking Dead episode
Rick teaching Ron to shoot.
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 5
Directed by	Avi Youabian
Written by	Corey Reed
Original air date	November 8, 2015 (2015-11-08)
Running time	43 minutes
Guest actors
Merritt Wever as Dr. Denise Cloyd Jason Douglas as Tobin Kenric Green as Scott Ann Mahoney as Olivia Austin Abrams as Ron Anderson Major Dodson as Sam Anderson Dahlia Legault as Francine Ted Huckabee as Bruce Vanessa Cloke as Anna David Silverman as Kent Mandi Christine Kerr as Barbara Jasmine Kaur as Betsy Jordan Woods-Robinson as Eric Raleigh

"Now" is the fifth episode of the sixth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead. It aired on November 8, 2015, on AMC, and was written by Corey Reed and directed by Avi Youabian. It deals with the aftermath of the Wolves' attack on Alexandria.

Plot

As the Alexandrians clean up following the Wolves' attack, Rick flees ahead of a herd of walkers which he leads straight to Alexandria's gate. Deanna is on the wall looking at a commemorative plaque for the first panel her late husband Reg had erected and freezes at the sight of the herd, but Rick's people hear his cries for help and open the gate to admit him. As people gather, Rick shouts at them to keep the noise to a minimum, claiming the herd is big enough to "surround us twenty deep." Although Rick's plan proved only half-successful with many casualties, he proposes to repeat it once the rest of his team returns. Aaron makes a glass-half-full argument to back Rick up, that he did get rid of half of the walkers, and Aaron confesses that his own decision got himself and Daryl caught in a Wolf trap where he lost his backpack, which may have helped lead the Wolves to Alexandria.

Many people lose hope and eschew the rationing regime to raid the community's pantry but Spencer shames them and asks them not to take that first step of selfishness which would destroy the community. However, Spencer secretly takes a basket himself, privately wallowing in defeat, and drunkenly blames Deanna for making the community so soft and for the deaths in their family. Elsewhere, Carl approaches Ron about Enid, who disappeared during the Wolves' attack, and asks for Ron's help getting over the wall; Ron won't let him and makes Carl back down, threatening to tell Rick who will send search parties and likely result in someone dying on Carl's account. Maggie is also preparing to go over the wall but Aaron shows her a way under the wall through a sewer and accompanies her. Tara visits Denise, who is struggling to treat an injured Scott.

Maggie and Aaron fend off a couple of badly-decomposed walkers in the tight confines of the sewer, but are unable to find a clear way out on the other side. Maggie reveals that she's pregnant, and that she and Aaron are going to have to live without answers about what happened. Jessie checks on David's widow, Betsy, only to discover that she committed suicide and has risen as a walker; Jessie kills the walker and tells onlookers that they have to face the world in which they live. However, Jessie coddles her young son Sam who refuses to come down from the second floor of their home. Ron finds Rick on the wall and informs Rick that he'd dissuaded Carl from going over the wall, showing that he can be an ally, and asks Rick to teach him how to shoot a handgun.

Denise finds a diagnosis for Scott's symptoms and treats his infected injury. When she has positive results and can finally worry about what's happening outside, she kisses Tara, thinking it's the end of the world, but Tara tells her it isn't. Maggie and Aaron return to Alexandria and wipe-out Glenn and Nicholas' names from a memorial wall listing twenty-three who died in the Wolf attack and Rick's operation. Spencer relieves Rosita on sentry duty; she thanks him for stopping the truck from knocking down the wall though he is humble about his contribution; he contemplates the walkers crowded outside while carbo-loading for a risky endeavour.

Deanna waits until nightfall to return the remaining food Spencer took, but under the blackout Rick ordered she is surprised by the walker of a Wolf that Carol had left for dead, failing to dispose of the body. Deanna repeatedly stabs it in the chest with a broken bottle before Rick rescues her. Rick challenges a bloody Deanna to be more present as a leader for her community but she responds that her people don't need her, they need Rick. Rick visits Jessie in her garage and with both of them looking for something more to life, he kisses her. At the end of the episode Deanna defiantly bangs on the gate at the walkers; as she leaves the unguarded gate, the camera focuses on a trickle of dark fluid seeping through a small hole in the wall.

Reception

Critical reception

The episode received mixed reviews from critics. It currently holds a 46% rating with an average score of 5.8 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus being that it "provides deeper portrayals of some of the Alexandria crew -- but at the expense of furthering the stories of the Walking Dead characters we actually care about."^[1] Brian Moylan of The Guardian, in his review of the episode, commented that the episode fails to explain how Rick escaped from his stalled camper van in "Thank You", and described it as "a spare, quiet episode, fraught with moments of uncertainty and tension."^[2] Ron Hogan from Den of Geek praised the performance of Tovah Feldshuh, Youabian's direction and Reed's writing, and described the episode as "brisk" and "speech heavy."^[3] Alex Straker of The Independent remarked that the episode "is something of an oddity, an episode that initially suggests another adrenaline-heavy hour of intense action but never really delivers what it promises."^[4]

Ratings

The episode averaged a 6.2 rating in adults 18-49 and 12.44 million viewers overall,^[5] a decrease from the previous episode, which averaged a 6.8 rating and 13.34 million.^[6]

References

External links

• "Now" at AMC
• "Now" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Now" at TV.com