The Walking Dead has returned for the second half of the tenth season this week and it picks up right from where it last left off as members of Alexandria are stuck in the cave that Alpha lured them to. Who makes it out alive and who does not? Here is my recap of “Squeeze.”
The episode opens as Daryl, Carol, Aaron, Jerry, Connie, Magna, and Kelly are stuck in the cave full of thousands of walkers, They all look around for an exit and Carol notices Alpha at the very top from where they fell into the cave. Carol screams at Alpha and after this, Alpha exited the cave and told a few Whisperers to make sure that they do not go out as she tosses her torch to the ground. Daryl comes up with a plan to jump on to large boulders to get to the other side. They all do exactly that one by one. Connie and Kelly were concerd due to Kelly’s injured ankle. When Kelly jumped, she was almost devoured by the dead. When they all reached the other side, walkers tried to reach their arms out to the group and the group fought them off including when Jerry cut the arm off one of the walkers. Daryl then used that walker arm as a torch and Kelly, Aaron, and Jerry were talking about what they would do for food and that it is clearly Alpha’s horde.
Magna blames Carol for getting them all in that situation and even asked her why did she run towards Alpha in the first place and Aaron and Daryl told her that they did not have time to fight. Outside of the cave, Negan is seen eating with a few Whisperers while Alpha has a conversation with Beta and Gamma. Alpha says that they found the horde and also told Gamma to go to the border to look out for other members of the communities. All of this is going on and Negan is still eating. Back at the cave and Carol is having water being poured into her drinking canister. Connie and Kelly talk about whether if it is dark or light outside, but Connie does not want to worry about it too much. Daryl and Carol also have a conversation and Daryl does not want to be shut out by her anymore as he will always be there for her. Carol also does not only want to kill Alpha, she wants to hurt her for everything that she put her and every community through. Daryl sympathizes with her as he feels the same way and Carol told him that she did not mean for all of this to happen. Also to note, Carol told Daryl that she is claustrophobic. Daryl wants to know if she can promise him that they are on the same team and that they are fighting for their future and not for revenge.
Magna then goes to another area of the cave and lights a match. She observed the area until a Whisperer run towards her. Magna killed that Whisperer, and more were approaching after that. Daryl and everyone else took care of them and killed them. Daryl asked where did they come from and Jerry noticed a sign going left (Also, Jerry said that he knows road signs when he sees them). They followed the sign. While Alpha was using a makeshift bathroom, Negan tells her that there is a spy among The Whisperers. Negan compares himself to Alpha and says that they are exactly the same. Alpha disagrees and told him that they are different. Negan calls Beta Frakenstein and says that Gamma is the spy. Alpha places her knife on his crotch and told him that if he is lying, that she will cut “them” off. She then pushes him down.
Daryl found an opening and told everyone to follow his voice. Connie then checks on Carol due to her phobia and everyone squeezes through. Carol was afraid to go through the tight space and he told her that she would be okay. She made it through. Jerry told everyone else that did not go through to remain silent because he hears noise. Jerry sees that walkers are crawling through the tight space behind him and as everyone else in front of him gets through safely, Jerry becomes stuck for a moment while he is kicking away the walkers. Jerry finally gets through and Daryl and Aaron killed those two crawling walkers. They all check Jerry’s boot and he was safe as the walkers bit his boot and it was thick enough to not contact his foot inside the boot. They all also realize that they are close to getting out and that they are above Alpha’s horde. Daryl tossed the torch into the wide space of the horde. Now everyone is walking through the mine section of the cave and then we go back to Alpha as she asks Beta if he seen Gamma. Beta told Alpha that she never made it to the border. Beta says that he will kill Gamma if she betrayed them and Alpha told him that she will deal with Gamma when she sees her.
Kelly found a stack of dynamite in the mines and and Jerry told Kelly to put it back since he suspects that it could be a trap (also, Carol looked right at the dynamite the second Kelly found it). Magna mentioned that she wanted to fix things with Yumiko as they were clearing the logs. Negan is with a Whisperer and Alpha called for Negan to walk with her. Negan is not used to long silences as he thought it was disturbing since all she is telling him to do is to look forward and keep walking. Alpha then told him to stop and undress until he is naked. Negan tried to talk his way out of it and told her that she was right and that they are very different. Negan is then told to turn around and Alpha is completely naked (her mask is still on). Alpha wants to thank Negan for not lying to her and she does this by wanting to have with with him. Negan asked if this was a “preying mantis” situation and she did not say that she would kill him afterwards. The two kiss as they are about to engage in sex.
At the cave, they breakthrough a hole and Kelly notices that they are at the exit of the cave. Carol is missing again as she went with the dynamite. At the same time, everyone begins to escape, and Daryl saves Carol as she wanted to blow up the boulder to take out half of the horde. The cave then begins to come down due to the explosion and Jerry tries his best to keep the pillar up. Connie wanted to see if Daryl and Carol is okay. As Kelly and Aaron was outside, they fight off a few Whisperers and kill them. Magna and Connie does the same thing while they were in the cave about to exit. Everyone exited the cave except for Magna and Connie as another explosion happened which caused for the exit to crash down while Connie and Magna were still there. Carol blames herself for this happening and she wanted to be taken to The Whisperers and she also wanted Daryl to tell her that she is the blame. Daryl tried to dig through, but Aaron and Kelly told him that it would take too long to try this as Whisperers could be coming from miles away. Daryl says that they know where the horde is as they all leave. The episode ends as Connie and Magna’s fates are unknown since they did not escape.
This episode is a great way for The Walking Dead to return from the fall break as it did not waste any time to continue right where we left off. Seeing everyone trying to squeeze through the tight spaces of the cave really brought in that tension and fear of them all getting stuck. I am still questioning why Carol is being written that way with making poor decisions that affected the group during this whole season so far. I do not want to go on the “Carol blame train”, but there is no way to go just ignore that this has been happening all season and to find excuses to justify it.
The few moments that I thought that Jerry was doomed was great storytelling and it proved that anyone of any size could be stuck in the cave and could have a hard time getting out. I also hope that Magna and Connie are not done for good. Also, I would like to see more of Negan and Alpha interracting as they have a chemistry as much as Negan and Beta did. However, them getting naked together was bizzare, but it made sense for who Alpha is. Now that almost everyone is out of the cave, what is next for everyone?
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