In a zombie apocalypse, are you really better off by yourself? This question would seem answered already on AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” but “Alone” tested the connections between Daryl and Beth, and Maggie, Sasha and Bob.
In the cold opening, Bob wanders in a haze, sometimes hiding, sometimes killing walkers. Then he’s stopped by Daryl and Glenn, who don’t know if they can trust the stranger. Bob can’t recall the number of walkers he’s killed, but he admits he’s killed one human – because she asked him to. He has no questions for the two. “It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter.” And that’s how he got to the prison at the beginning of the season.
Now: Bob, Maggie and Sasha have each other’s backs in the midst of a walker attack in a pea-soup fog. Maggie is determined to find Glenn. Sasha believes he’s dead and wants to find a new place to settle. They see the sign promising sanctuary at Terminus. Maggie is sure Glenn would head there.
Daryl and Beth find a funeral home that looks to be in pristine condition. Whoever ran the place left it spotless – and the lack of dust indicates they were around recently. The stash of food in the cupboards: Diet soda, peanut butter and pig’s feet – as Daryl says, a white trash brunch. As Beth plays the piano, Daryl settles into the comfiest bed he’s had in years –a coffin – and you just know Daryl and Beth are getting closer and closer, and it’s going to take something really stupid to wrench them apart, and that happens almost on cue. Daryl thinks a neighborhood dog is at the door and just opens it when you can clearly see a walker shadow against it. This just might have been the stupidest thing Daryl has done in the history of the show. And Daryl is not a stupid man. And it’s not one biter, it’s an entire herd at the door and what follows is another freaky action sequence that only “The Walking Dead” can stage. Daryl is pinned down in an embalming room and uses the tools to stab, slice and dice his way out. It’s claustrophobic and scary, and a seriously great bit of mayhem. He gets outside in time to see a car speed off – with Beth?
This just about destroys Daryl. The woodsman, expert tracker and all-around bad-ass perhaps more than anyone else needs someone else to give him purpose in this insane world, and Beth has become the most important person since Merle and Carol. OK, even more important than them. She lets him see some good in the world, and he does not take well to losing it – and her.
Elsewhere, Maggie goes off on her own, leaving Bob and Sasha to consider their own paths. Sasha wants to find a place to set up camp. Bob is determined to follow Maggie. The two share a moment – and a kiss – but it’s not enough to keep them together when Sasha spies a building. The need for security trumps everything. Ironically, her exploration of the building leads her right to Maggie, who is sleeping outside and unaware of the biters around her. Sasha leads Maggie back to Bob and they are united on the tracks, heading to Terminus. Oh, and somewhere down the line, so is Glenn.
A numb Daryl is surrounded by a group of men with weapons. They look as if they don’t need an excuse to kill. But his bow intrigues the leader, Joe, who tells him, “Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?” Somehow I don’t see Joe stopping anywhere to grow vegetables. These men look as if they prey on the living – what does this mean for Daryl? Like the survivors themselves, it seemed this hour just went in circles, but it did introduce two potential new threats to the survivors: The driver who took Beth and the group who seem to have recruited Daryl.
