#twd 10x11

[richardgrimes]

michonne hasn't been in the last umpteenth episodes and she's about the leave the show in 2?? i hate it here

[frangipanilove]

An Upcoming Easter Miracle, Foreshadowed By Jesus in 6x10…?

And just to be clear, 6x10 The Next World was when Jesus was frist introduced to the TWDU...

The opening minutes of TOWL 1x5 mirrored TWD 6x10 like a carbon copy.

We had cold drinks:

We had finding food in cars:

We had drinking soda sexily:

We had spearmint and baking soda flavored toothpaste:

We had interrupted sleep:

Right after Rick and Daryl find the food truck in 6x10, Jesus suddenly appears before them. He comes out of nowhere, and as he does, he delivers this dialogue:

Ten walkers in 11 minutes. As Noah's t-shirt taught us, 11 can be read "one one". So it could be 10 and 2 (one + one = 2), and it could also be 10x11 as in a reference to 10x11 Morningstar. Jesus was referred to as the Morningstar in Revelation 22. Read this post for more on why that's significant, and how it relates to the Slabtown clock. And keep in mind that Sirius is a Morningstar, which is fitting, because we got a surprising appearance by Father Gabriel, a one-eyed Sirius figure.

Now, I've been talking a lot about licence plates lately. Here we see another interesting exemple:

LK8-4167

And the reason it's interesting is because we've seen it before, in 5x9 WHAWGO:

In WHAWGO, we see it practically as we simultanously hear Beth singing Struggling Man, as this was the last episode Beth appeared in (in Tyrese's fever dream). And back when season 5 aired, someone clever in TD (I'm sorry I don't remember who, it's been like a decade) theorized that it could be a reference to Luke 8:

Why Luke 8, is that particular part relevant? Well...

...there is that part about Jesus raising a dead girl, I suppose that could be relevant...especially now, just before Easter...

In this post I talk about Officer Lichari's Dodge Magnum and why it's such an interesting vehicle for TD, and in this post I talk more about the symbolism around the rams.

I'm bringing that up again, because the car where Rick and Michonne found the RAMen noodles was in fact a Dodge:

...and the Dodge logo is a ram...

And we did see some very fierce taxidermy rams in TOWL 1x5:

...so yeah! Happy Easter I guess! Let's keep an eye out for suspiscious resurrections!

[youmakethelight]

Hours of TWD that were better than the dd season 2 finale:

1. No Sanctuary, 5x01

2. Squeeze, 10x09

3. Pretty Much Dead Already, 2x07

4. The Grove, 4x14

5. Morning Star, 10x11

6. A Certain Doom, 10x16

7. On the Inside, 11x06

8. Ts-19, 1x06

9. Days Gone Bye, 1x01

10. The Calm Before, 9x15

[9lives2mics]

Nine Lives Two Mics (Caryl Podcast) | New Episode

🎙️Episode #34 - A Deep Dive into Season 10 of TWD (Part 4)🎙️

Join us as we discuss #TheBookofCarol Tribeca premiere and dive into all the #Caryl scenes from episodes 10x10 to 10x11 of #TWD.   

Spotify | Youtube

[wolfish-nightmares]

Game of Survival

Pairings: The Group x fem!reader

Era: Season 1-11

Warnings: TWD gore and violence. Bad language. 18+

Category: Fluff. Angst.

Word Count:

Summary: With no other choice, you must learn to play this new game of survival. 

Prologue

Season 1: 

1x1 - Days Gone Bye 1x3 - Tell It to the Frogs 1x4 - Vatos 1x5 - Wildfire 1x6 - TS-19

Season 2:

2x1 - What Lies Ahead 2x2 - Bloodletting  2x3 - Save the Last One 2x4 - Cherokee Rose 2x5 - Chupacabra  2x6 - Secrets 2x7 - Pretty Much 2x8 - Nebraska 2x9 - Triggerfinger  2x10 - 18 Miles Out 2x11 - Judge, Jury, Executioner  2x12 - Better Angels 2x13 - Beside the Dying Fire 

Season 3: 

3x1 - Seed 3x2 - Sick 3x3 - Walk With Me 3x4 - Killer Within 3x5 - Say the Word  3x6 - Hounded  3x7 - When the Dead Come Knocking 3x8 - Made to Suffer  3x9 - The Suicide King 3x10 - Home 3x11 - I Ain’t Judas 3x12 - Clear 3x13 - Arrow on the Doorpost 3x14 - Prey 3x15 - This Sorrowful Life 3x16 - Welcome to the Tombs

Season: 4

4x1 - 30 Days Without an Accident 4x2 - Infected 4x3 - Isolation 4x4 - Indifference  4x5 - Internment 4x6 - Live Bait 4x7 - Dead Weight 4x8 - Too Far Gone 4x9 - After 4x10 - Inmates 4x11 - Claimed 4x12 - Still 4x13 - Alone 4x14 - The Grove 4x15 - Us 4x16 - A

Season 5: 

5x1 - No Sanctuary  5x2 - Strangers 5x3 - Four Walls and a Roof 5x4 - Slabtown 5x6 - Self Help 5x7 - Consumed 5x8 - Coda 5x9 - What Happened and What’s Going On 5x10 - Them 5x11 - The Distance  5x12 - Remember  5x13 - Forget 5x14 - Spend 5x15 - Try 5x16 - Conquer 

Season 6: 

6x1 - First Time Again  6x2 - JSS 6x3 - Thank You 6x4 - Here’s Not Here 6x5 - Now 6x6 - Always Accountable  6x7 - Heads Up 6x8 - Start to FInish 6x9 - No Way Out 6x10 - The Next World 6x11 - Knots Untie 6x12 - Not Tomorrow Yet 6x13- The Same Boat 6x14 - Twice As Far 6x15 - East  6x16 - Last Day on Earth 

Season 7: 

7x1 - The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be 7x2 - The Well 7x3 - The Cell 7x4 - Service 7x5 - Go Getter  7x6 - Swear 7x7 - Sing Me a Song 7x8 - Hearts Still Beating 7x9 - Rock in the Road 7x10 - New Best Friends 7x11 - Hostiles and Calamities  7x12 - Say Yes 7x13 - Bury Me Here 7x14 - The Other Side  7x15 - Something They Need 7x16 - The First Day of the Rest of Your Life 

Season 8: 

8x1 - Mercy 8x2 - The Damned  8x3 - Monsters 8x4 - Some Guy  8x5 - The Big Scary U 8x6 - The King, the Widow, and Rick 8x7 - Time for After  8x8 - How It’s Gotta Be 8x9 - Honor 8x10 - The Lost and the Plunderers  8x11 - Dead or Alive Or 8x12 - The Key 8x13 - Do Not Send Us Astray  8x14 - Still Gotta Mean Something 8x15 - Worth  8x16 - Wrath

Season 9: 

9x1 - A New Beginning 9x2 - The Bridge 9x3 - Warning Signs 9x4 - The Obliged 9x5 - What Comes After 9x6 - Who Are You Now? 9x7 - Stradivarius 9x8 - Evolution 9x9 - Adaptation 9x10 - Omega 9x11 - Bounty 9x12 - Guardians 9x13 - Chokepoint 9x14 - Scars 9x15 - The Calm Before 9x16 - The Storm

Season 10: 

10x0 - Holiday Special 10x1 - Lines We Cross 10x2 - We Are the End of the World 10x3 - Ghost 10x4 - Silence the Whisperers 10x5 - What It Always Is 10x6 - Bonds 10x7 - Open Your Eyes 10x8 - The World Before 10x9 - Squeeze 10x10 - Stalker 10x11 - Morning Star 10x12 - Walk with Us 10x13 - What We Become 10x14 - Look at the Flowers 10x15 - The Tower 10x16 - A Certain Doom 10x17 - Home Sweet Home 10x18 - Find Me 10x19 - One More 10x20 - Splinter 10x21 - Diverged 10x22 - Here's Negan

Season 11: 

11x1 - Acheron: Part 1 11x2 - Acheron: Part 2 11x3 - Hunted 11x4 - Rendition 11x5 - Out of the Ashes 11x6 - On the Inside 11x7 - Promises Broken 11x8 - For Blood 11x9 - No Other Way 11x10 - New Haunts 11x11 - Rogue Element 11x12 - The Lucky Ones 11x13 - Warlords 11x14 - The Rotten Core 11x15 - Trust 11x16 - Acts of God 11x17 - Lockdown 11x18 - A New Deal 11x19 - Variant 11x20 - What's Been Lost 11x21 - Outpost 22

[whiteprissybitch]

@twd writers i know daryl has some crazy plot armor but can we plz make it more believable. why did alpha hit an artery in his leg in 10x11 and he didn’t bleed out in minutes, then he’s literally fine to fight the next day and barley has a limp. what

[taiturner]

top 5 twd episodes

you're so funny for asking me this again but they're mostly the same, with the addition of 5:

10x12 “Walk With Us”

11x03 “Hunted”

10x11 “Morning Star”

9x09 “Adaptation”

11x23 "Family" or 11x19 "Variant"

[red-moonz]

Daryl signing "Oceanside" to a room full of people that can hear. Holy shit. The impact Connie has on him. This reunion's gonna be AMAZING 😭😭😭😭👌👌👌

[thewalkingdead-imagines]

TWD - Negan Imagine ~ “Morning Star”

Imagine about the the 11th episode of season 10.

Summary: While the Reader prepares along with the rest of Hilltop for the upcoming battle, Negan has no idea that his wife is actually inside the community Alpha plans to destroy.

Bright sunbeams shone down on you as the carriage beneath you jerked a little, shaken by the potholes in the old roads that winded through the forest that lead you closer to Hilltop. You hadn’t even thought that you would be able to join the others at first, not with the staff shortage you currently had in the infirmary anyway, but things had turned out in your favor. The last three victims of Dante’s water contamination were doing pretty well again but the whole act had other consequences than just sick patients. Dante’d done a pretty good job on using, even wasting, the majority of Alexandria’s most important meds, had made sure that not much was left after and especially with the Whisperers sitting in your necks, it was more important than ever to stock up again. So that was your job now, getting new meds, judging which ones you needed and which ones you could pass on, and if things worked out, maybe recruit someone from Hilltop to come back with you to the infirmary to have another pair of helping hands. And you were glad about that, you needed to get out of the infirmary and Alexandria in general for some time. In the mostly empty infirmary you had too much time to let your thoughts get the best of you and whirl up new worries about Negan. They wouldn’t be gone now, for sure not, but being distracted in an environment you weren’t as used to as Alexandria was hopefully a good thing. Sighing you leaned back into the small pillow that was protecting your back from pressing directly into the rough wooden backrest and glanced around, watching as the green trees passed by. It was beautiful outside and part of you hoped that it could lift your mood a little. You were close to spiraling deeper into that dark hole with all those worries about your husband, the grief about Siddiq, the frustration about this whole Dante thing pooling within you and mixing with the shock of last night, you knew that, and you didn’t want to hit it’s bottom nor dive just a tiny bit deeper into it. So instead of dwelling more on your thoughts you tried to catch some of the conversation that was going on in the front of the wagon, still circling around the cave like it had a couple moments ago. “It was...”,you could hear Aaron say in his front seat as he leaned back to glimpse at Rosita,”It was Carol. There was some dynamite in the cave, we agreed on not risking it...she took it anyway.” He scoffed slightly, clearly frustrated while you could only think back at what had happened in the night you’d met Alpha at the border and her shot that would have almost resulted the war to break out earlier. She was troubled after Henry’s death, you got that and you didn’t even want to imagine what it was like to lose a child. Hell, you would do anything to get the head of the bitch that took it as well and you wouldn’t judge her on this but anger and grief were a dangerous mix, and it was putting people she cared about in danger, and that’s where shit like that had to be stopped. “We should look forward now though. That’s what’s important”, you heard Aaron quickly add, as if he was trying to not make the mess bigger than it already was before you glanced away from the conversation again and glimpsed back at the green forest around you, hoping that Hilltop wouldn’t be all to far away anymore. About a half day had passed since Beta had come back from his unsuccessful mission to bring the little spy back and in all honesty, in these kinda terms things couldn’t have worked better for Negan. The boss lady was definitely pissed at the weirdo giant for failing his mission which only let Negan rise in the skin freak ranks and just knowing that Gamma was in one of the communities was a whole different kind of jackpot. She’d spill all the secrets for sure, and with that, Beta’s failure wasn’t only a direct advantage to him but hell, also an indirect one to everyone at home. He was a little calmer than last night as well, after eavesdropping on the skin freaks that had accompanied Beta for some of the way and who’d grumbled about the deaths inside the walls. Some poor fuckers had to let their lives that night, he knew that but from everything he had heard and from trying to use the method of elimination, he was sure that Beta hadn’t gotten his hands on his girl. He couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, hell, he didn’t even know if she’d actually been in Alexandria that night, but he kept on telling himself that she was fine, that she had known what to do that night.  He kept on telling himself that she was okay. And while these were the advantages of Beta’s failure, Negan’s rise in the ranks got him to do a damn task the big ass freak probably usually did, and that was everything else than what Negan was in the mood for now. It was whipping Alpha’s arms with some thin branch for fuck knows which reason, maybe some fucking fetish, maybe because she thought that shit would get her stronger, he didn’t fucking know, all he knew as that he was growing tired of this crap. First that fucking kiss, now this shit. "Does this mean I've graduated to the next level of kinky Whisperer shit?”, he chuckled as he reached towards the branch with furrowed brows, trying to overplay how fucking ridiculous and absurd he actually found this whole situation. “You joke to hide your fear”, she said cooly, eying him for a moment while he let out a small sigh, pushing himself on his feet while she remained seated on one of the rocks that surrounded them. Well, she was sure partly right there, just didn’t he hide his fear, he tried to hide how weirded out he was right now. “You know, seems to me you've been cut up enough”, he grumbled as he watched more scars appear on her arm as she reached it out and pulled her sleeve further up. This shit was fucked up, holy shit was this fucked up. “Begin”, she insisted, closing her eyes as if she’d await the greatest fucking gift in the next moment before Negan furrowed his brows once more at her until he finally lifted the slim branch up and rushed it against her forearm, cutting into her flesh and leaving a red mark. She smiled, she fucking smiled as she glimpsed at her arm before she pushed it forwards again. “Again”, she mumbled, and so he did, not trying to argue anymore. Fuck, if she wanted this, she was gonna get it. The second lash left a brighter red mark on her arm than the first, leaving her looking even more satisfied than before as she stood up from the spot and abruptly took the branch out of his hand, just to nod towards him. “Now you.” Oh what the fuck. What was this crap gonna turn into now?  “Ah, does this mean we're bonded for life?”, he joked, trying to somehow process whatever the fuck was actually going on here. “Depends”, she said just as ice-cold as ever, while he slowly began to push the sleeve of his leather jacket up, just trying to get it over with as she rushed the branch in the very next moment against his arm “Aah”, he let out, half in pain, half in a chuckle while a wide grin painted on his face, his body’s odd way to cope with this bullshittery just as another whip rushed against his arm and elicited another flinch and chuckle to mix with one another. Well, at least that crap was done now. “Well done”, she said with a nod, tossing the branch away before she reached to the back pocket of her pants where she usually kept her mask, only with the difference now that she pulled a different one out and held it towards him. “You will need it tonight”, she added as soon as she caught his furrowing brows and the confused look on his face. Hell, was that his reward now for this whipping session? Getting to wear a dead dude’s face? ”For what?”, he asked, glancing down at her while the eerie smile from before started to grow on her lips again. ”Tonight, the enemy will die.”

The sun was already starting to near the skyline of the trees as you finally rolled through Hilltop’s gates and could hop from your crammed position on the wagon onto the ground to shake your legs a little out, glancing around the place you hadn’t visited in god knows how long. It hadn’t changed all too much, there was a whole new field of crops in front of the gates and some more stands and smaller houses in its inside but for the most part if looked pretty similar to the last time you’d walked in here. Mary hopped down the wagon beside you, a little insecure as she started to follow Aaron, before Rosita moved down as just as you grabbed the first empty box that was supposed to be filled with meds when you’d leave again and heft it down the wagon. ”I’ll go to the doc here right away and get some painkillers, want me to tell him you’ll come in later?”, she asked as she stopped beside you, nodding to the wound that was hidden underneath the boasting bandage you’d renewed earlier on your way here. ”Yeah, please. That’d be great”,you said, nodding as she was already starting to walk towards the trailer that had a big red cross painted onto it,”Thank you.” ”All good”, she responded back just as you got back to the wagon, reaching towards the medical bag that was filled with the couple bandages and salves you’d used a few from for Rosita, just as the sound of a familiar motorcycle sounded through the air. A little irritated you glanced up, just in the very moment you caught it rushing past the wagons through the gates, carrying Daryl and Lydia on the back and slowing immediately down before it came to a complete stop in the middle of the road that let to the mansion. For a moment you let the bag go, curious, a little irritated but relieved that your half brother was back and had found Lydia, while you made your way up to them while they attracted Yumiko, Luke and a couple other people who’d been standing on the mansion’s porch to make their way over to them as well. “My mother's coming”, you heard Lydia say just in the moment you reached them, immediately stopping you as an ice-cold shudder washed over you the moment Lydia’s voice hushed. ”The herd’s on its way”,Daryl grumbled, scoffing thickly as he shock his head and glimpsed at the people in front of him while you felt like you were glued to the spot for a moment,”Far away but it’s coming.” Curses sounded through the air, mixing with people starting to ask what they were supposed to do now just before Daryl’s voice sounded again through the air, shutting them down for a moment. ”We’ll meet up in the main room, we can talk it out there.” ”Good idea, I’ll get everyone”, Luke said, quickly nodding before he turned around and quickly hurried up the stairs, and while most eyes were on him in this moment, yours were on your half-brother. He was starting to lead these people and you doubted that he realized what he was doing there nor that he’d ever thought he would. But he was, he was leading them and for a moment you were a little taken aback by how easily the others followed him. “Hey”, you heard him suddenly say as he turned around, glancing a little irritated at you as he nodded towards you while Lydia vanished behind Luke in the mansion, ”Why’re ya here too?” ”We don’t have many meds left back home. Need to get new ones, maybe get someone to help out but I guess I can forget that now”, you gulped, feeling the tension rise within you as you started to realize that probably thousands of dead assholes were on their way to this small community, and you were stuck in its middle. Still, for a moment you got distracted from that as you glanced at Daryl, first noticing how battered he looked now that he stood right in front of you. He had some makeshift bandages wrapped around his hands and his leg, the one on the latter big and partly doubted in a dark red color. ”It’s nothing”, he said before you could even say a word, though he quickly let out a thick sigh as he caught the glance in your eyes. He couldn’t bullshit you, not you. That even counted after all these years. ”Was a fight after the cave...with Alpha, got her good too”, he reluctantly said, just adding onto the tension that was cursing through you before he quickly spoke up again,”Don’t have time to get that treated.” ”We have five minutes for sure”,you mumbled, glimpsing at the stubborn man. The wounds looked bad, especially the one on his leg and you knew him more than well enough that he’d even downplay an injury if his leg was shortly before falling off.  ”Will take some time till Luke and the others will get everyone in the meeting room. We could use that time window, I still got some stuff in the wagon”, you added, nodding towards the wagon you’d spent the last hours on before you caught Daryl shifting from foot to foot before he reluctantly started to nod. ”Mhmm okay.” ”Lydia made it”, Daryl grumbled as you found yourself sitting next to him the back of the wagon, cleaning the wound on his hand just to be sure even though it definitely already looked better than you expected, especially knowing that she’d done it in the middle of the muddy woods. ”Did a pretty good job, really”, you said, putting the disinfection liquid and the cloth to the side before you grabbed  one of the fresh bandages in the bag,”Is she okay too?” ”Yeah, made sure”, he nodded, though he seemed to tense up for a moment as he gulped thickly, shifting uncomfortably as you reached back for his hand. ”Couldn’t find ‘em”, he mumbled, barely audible as you had to take a moment before you realized that he was talking about Connie and Magna, and judging from how he was looking right now, it was hitting him harder than he lead on, especially because it was Carol who’d caused the cave to collapse. ”I’m sure they’ll make it out. Don’t know them well but they’re survivors...and smart. they’ll find a way”, you said, trying to give him a small but genuine smile as you wrapped the bandage securely around his hand and secured it, before starting to move to his leg.  ”Hope so”, he nodded, gulping thickly once more while you decided to not bore further. It was too fresh and if he’d want to tell you, he would, but right now, it didn’t seem like he wanted to talk to anybody about this more than he already had. So instead of speaking you started to unwrap the bandage on his leg, carefully to not hurt him more before a sharp breath fell from your lips the moment you uncovered the wound in its entirety, cleaned but deep and probably caused by a large hunting knife that had dug itself into his thigh. ”Holy shit, Daryl that’s deep-” ”Just get a tight bandage ‘round it...please”, he cut you off, already knowing that you’d tell him what he’d really need with a wound like that before you glanced from the boasting wound to him and realized that he’d already made a decision. His stubborn head had become set on just getting the most necessary for his injury before heading inside to make a plan, you wouldn’t be able to change anything about that. ”Alright...”, you said, sighing slightly as you moved closer and started the procedure you had done on his hand all over again, starting at cleaning the wound carefully from the last bit of any mud before starting to get a bandage around his leg, with just enough pressure to make sure it wouldn’t start bleeding again and judging from its look, it already had done so more than enough. ”There you go”, you said as you finally finished the bandage watching as Daryl looked at it before he moved himself with a push from the wagon, wincing slightly as the foot of his injured leg met the ground before he looked back at you. ”Thank you”,he nodded, shifting a little to get the bandage to sit more comfortably before he nodded towards the mansion,”Now let’s get inside” Shock was still stuck in Negan’s bones as he walked through the forest, still trying to process the news of Alpha’s planned massacre at the communities as he made himself on his way to try to change this whole shitshow into something else. He couldn’t let it come so far, he couldn’t let her nor this fucking herd of dead assholes come close enough to any of the communities his wife could be located in. First and fucking foremost, he couldn’t let that happen to her but he also couldn’t let that happen to anyone she cared about, he wanted to protect her from that pain and that part counted for Judith and any other kid that was stuck in there too. He was in here to work against that whole crap, not to be part of it. Clasping that fucking stinking mask in his hand he slowly moved out of the forest onto a small clearing that was streaked with a small creak, that splashed softly against the rocks Alpha was standing on, almost looking as if she was meditating. “Got a little unsolicited advice...everyone's favorite kind, I know, but I can't help myself. And maybe I thought of an idea that you haven't yet”, he said as he moved closer, though remaining a little behind her as she didn’t even move an inch, only opened her eyes as she heard his voice. “I respect a well-deserved massacre”,he said, clearing his throat as he shifted a little from foot to foot,”Some people they just have it coming. And I get why you want to take out Hilltop and Alexandria. It would just It would feel good.” Still no reaction, so hell, he was just gonna keep going, he had to take this chance. “But you know what might feel goddamn fantastic? Getting those assholes to surrender, bend a knee”, he said, slowly growing a little impatient and nervous, though he sure did everything in his might not to let it shimmer through,”Alpha, we can get them to join us.” Inwardly, he was cursing to himself as he still saw no reaction coming from her, part of him asking himself if he should talk more and add something onto it just before he finally heard her voice sounding through the air. “Explain.” "You heard them out there. We have to go. Even if you took out half the herd in that cave, she's got thousands left. You can't stay here”, Lydia said as she paced around the main room that was filled up with each Alexandrian that had come over to the community and Hilltop’s highest members, discussing what should be done next with the dead army marching closer to you with every moment. “The skins could march straight to Alexandria for all we know”, Earl said as he shifted over his spot on the couch while Daryl stood next to you and gripped the backrest with his hands, leaning a little forward to glance at the group. "Yeah, we're right in their way”, he mumbled, his fingers squeezing the cushion as if he was trying to get rid of the tension that laid over him this way before Earl cleared his throat again. “Maybe she goes around us.” “She doesn't need to go around you. She'll just run through you”, Lydia said, the stress clearly sounding through her voice as you watched Jerry shaking his head vehemently. "I'm not running again - Hell no.” " Lydia's right. We can rebuild anywhere”, you now hear Diane chime in while you could feel yourself growing more uncomfortable the more your mind started to realize how real everything about the growing threat was.  “Come on. We can't. How many scouting missions you been on, son? Hundreds? Have you ever seen a place like Hilltop?”, you could hear Earl say, and while the thought of fighting a herd more than just a couple sizes larger than the one that had once broke into Alexandria, there was something right about what he said. There weren’t many places the Hilltopers could go to, Alexandria had its capacities too and every place that might have potential in terms of buildings had fallen victim to nature. Building a place like this one up again, that would take a whole lot of time and effort, and in the current situation, no one in here had that. The only chance they had if they fled was letting the herd pass by and then rebuild of what was left of hilltop, which to you, seemed like the best possibility right now. “ No”, Aaron grumbled before you could think any further.  “We have a few dozen able-bodied fighters here. Maybe. You like those odds? - 'Cause I don't”, Yumiko said, standing up from her spot on the bench as she glimpsed around the room, looking at Aaron as he shook his head again. “Neither do I.” “Now, we don't have to die here. We're going to have to fight, and if we die, we die fighting for a place that means something. Can you think of a better way to go?”, Earl nearly cut him off and that’s where you and by the look on everybody’s else's face the entirety of the room disagreed with him. You weren’t gonna die here. You came here to get some new meds and recruits for the infirmary, you weren’t gonna just let Alpha’s herd kill you when there were other ways to get out of this situation, even if this meant that Hilltop was lost. “Yeah. We go with my daughter's life intact. And Judith's and Ezra's and Adam's. You want me to keep going?”, Aaron quickly said, almost snapped, back, the tone in his voice strained and angered while for the first time in a long time, you agreed with him.  You had no plans to go on a suicide mission just to play along with the others the big heroes that go down in a fight, especially not on the costs of children. There were times you just had to give in, no matter how bitter it was, and flee, if you wanted to survive, and one of these times had come now. “Alright, let's get the kids out first. Everybody, pack up. We're going to Oceanside”, Daryl said, motioning his fingers to spell Oceanside while his voice calm compared to the others,”Grab weapons, food whatever you can. We'll regroup there.” Hilltop seemed like a bustling beehive as everybody started to pack up, pushing the most important supplies and weapons into the wagons while the first one with the Lydia, Judith, RJ and a couple of other kids had left along with Daryl and Diane about a fifteen minutes ago. You were just about to pack a few light spears into the back of one of the larger wagons as you heard the voices becoming louder for a moment mixing with the sound of Daryl’s motorcycle, enough to make you back away from the wagon’s entrance to see him moving back into the community, closely followed by the wagon with the kids. “What happened?”, you heard Aarons voice call out for them, as the confusion and moreover the thought that this couldn’t mean anything good shot through you as you walked towards the small group of people that started to grow around Aaron and Daryl. “She blocked all the roads. Means they're closing in on us. If we had a window to get out, we just missed it”, he scoffed, and with these few words washed a new wave of tension over you. This was bad, this was fucking bad. “But we can't stay here”, Kelly said, her voice breaking as she tried to suppress the tears that started to pool in her eyes,”You said...you all said we can't stay here.” “We can call Alexandria, right?”, Luke asked, his voice letting it shimmer through that he was rather grasping for straws than actually believing in what he was saying ,”Call Alexandria, and they'll get fresh fighters here, right? And...And it's not just gonna be us. It's not gonna be just us, right?”  “Oceanside can't get here. Alexandria, either. Not in time. Not after what happened. We're on our own”, Diane mumbled while you glimpsed at Daryl, meeting his glance for a moment that had an odd glance stuck in him, tensed as before, but there was something else about him you couldn’t quite grasp yet. "Divvy up your arsenals. We got catapults up on the walls. And a damn good militia. This is what you've all been practicing for”, Earl’s stern voice ripped you away from Daryl and lead you glance immediately to him as he stomped towards the group,” Come on, now, people! Do whatever you need to get your heads on straight! This is gonna be the fight of our lives.” This was enough to let the group sprawl out again over the place, while no one, including you, was as pumped up about this fight as Earl seemed to be. Still, there was no way past it now and you had to get through it now, no matter what. For another moment, your eyes laid on Earl before you caught Daryl moving closer to you, still with that odd look on his face as he finally rose his voice again. “The roads, that was your hus-”,Daryl started to say, stopping at the last word as if it tasted like poison in his mouth while his glance and just the beginning of this word washed an ice-cold shudder down your back ,”Negan’s with them now. He’s blocked ‘em.” “What?”, it nearly instinctively slipped out of your lips, even though one part of this whole accusation didn’t come as a giant shock or surprise to you. You’d suspected he’d infiltrated himself into their ranks to destroy them, but that last part rubbed you the wrong way,”How do you know that’s him?”  “Trees blocking the road, some guy hanging strangled from a tree, remembers you of something?”, he said, a thicker frown growing over his face as he forced you to remember the hours before the bloody night in the clearing and you couldn’t even completely disagree with Daryl on this. It seemed like the same strategy, but who knew, maybe he’d done it on purpose.  “But if that’s him, I’m sure he’s got a plan”,you said, gulping thickly as you looked at him, trying to choose your words right to not anger him to the extent that he’d just storm off without hearing your whole point and putting your relationship back to square one,”He’s probably just trying to earn their trust to take them down from the inside. He’s playing them.” “Nah”, he quickly shook his head,”He’s one of ‘em now.” “No, no he’s not. He might be at their camp but he’s not one of them”, you repeated yourself, while you didn’t even see anger growing over Daryl’s face but rather desperation, maybe even pity while the frustration within you grew. You didn’t want this to start this debate over Negan all over from the beginning, not again. “You’re blind”, he said, glimpsing at you through the brown strands of hair that hung into his face,”You’re so in love with him you don’t see the truth about that asshole.” “That’s not true”,you said, growing more desperate as well while you tried to grasp for straws,” Daryl, You saw the note he left for me.” “Yeah, maybe started out that way”,he grumbled, clenching his jaw as he shook his head again,”But asshole stays asshole. Think he saw that he’s free now...he switched you against freedom.” “He wouldn’t do that”, you tried to urge again while you felt dumb for repeating yourself over and over again as you just didn’t know what else to tell him to believe you on this. “He did”,he grumbled again, stepping a little closer to you as he gulped thickly,”and he doesn’t deserve how much you protect him. He’s scum.” “He’s not and I know him”,you responded quickly, feeling a shot of pain boring through you just having to hear Daryl talk like that about him before you shook your head, trying to keep your cool,”and I know how naive I sound to you. But I’ve been with that man every day for over eight years. I know how he thinks, he’s got a plan, you’ll see.” “Yeah, we’ll see”,he grumbled, while you could tell that he didn’t put one bit of belief or hope into your words as he looked at you one more time before he moved past you towards the mansion ,”Hope you won’t be too disappointed.”

Explaining to Alpha how he thought he could make them bend the knee had been one fucking tricky thing to do. It had taken a whole lot of effort for sure, talking his mouth off on how favorable it would be to have a bigger army while he smeared some more honey around her mouth and eventually, he felt like he might have persuaded her by topping her original plan of closing the roads a little off. He didn’t like what he had to do but it was necessary, the roads would have been closed either way and everything else just wouldn’t have stilled her thirst for blood. So right now, he was standing on a small cemented road that paved its way though the forest. A tree was blocking the street, one dead Hilltoper hanging from a tree beside the fallen one, their undead corpse growling and flailing its arm slightly while the rope cut into its throat. This one and all the others who’d hung on the other streets had been long dead before they’d gone up there, already killed last night when Beta had made his way to Alexandria and had killed another outpost on the way, recruiting new “guardians” for the horde in this night.  It had been seven in total, all wearing Hilltop’s armor, and he didn’t enjoy seeing particularly that guy in front of him up in that tree. He didn’t know the others, but the guy who was hanging from the tree there had been a Savior once, not a high ranking one but high enough that Negan have had a couple conversations with him during the time he’d ruled and enough to still remember the nickname he had for him: “Skinny Joe”, the counterpart to “Fat Joe” who’d had met his demise at Daryl’s hands. He wasn’t getting sentimental here, fuck no, but he’d be a liar if he’d say seeing one of his former loyal men in that tree would do nothing at all to him. Still, it was worth it as he glimpsed to his side and saw how Alpha nearly smiled satisfied, looking at the dangling corpse up there and that facilitated the feeling in him that his plan might work.  ”This was the last”, she said, the odd grin widening a little as she nodded to the skin freaks behind her and then back to Negan, “It is time to gather.” A half hour later, your mind was still occupied fully by Daryl and Negan as you walked through the wagons and stands within Hilltop, trying to find a way to distract yourself and simultaneously prepare for the battle.  Daryl hadn’t shook just an inch on your belief that Negan had a plan, nor on the belief that he was working towards destroying them from the inside, but the fact that Daryl thought he had merged into a full-blown whisperer bothered you unspeakably, not mentioning the side effect that soon, the whole rest of this community would think so as well.  You had no idea how this whole thing would go down tonight, if it would just be the herd or them as well, but if the later was true, first thing after Alpha and Beta people would point their weapons at would be him and there was nothing you’d be able to do to persuade them of the opposite.  No one of Hilltop’s head members would believe you that he was working against them, that if he was among them even tonight, it would be part of his plan to gather their trust.  That’s the way Negan thought, that was his type of strategy and all you could hope for was that Negan would be somewhere in the back, somewhere in safety. But that for sure depended on how deep he was in this whisperer misery as well. Negan was a sly fox, a charmer on top and he for sure knew how to handle people even if they were as fucked up as those skin freaks. Maybe he’d already made his way to the core of its ranks and hell, maybe he had tried to lessen this attack as well. Either way, there was no way you were gonna find that out before tonight, if at all and you first had to concentrate on surviving the next hours if you wanted to just have the chance to see him again. Sighing thickly you made your way into another stand, trying to stop your mind from wrapping itself around new confusing thoughts as you reached towards a sharpening stone. You’d get a machete, spear or whatever else they’d want you to use from hilltop, but if all things failed you’d still need a sharp knife and you couldn’t necessarily give that attribute to yours anymore. Grabbing the stone you made your way back to the mansion, hoping you’d find a free spot on its stairs as you winded yourself through the mass of people who were preparing their weapons as well, or were getting themselves warmed up until you finally got to the mansion’s porch that was filled with a couple of people, including Judith who was bowing over Daryl’s vest, some paint, brushed and a glass of paint daubed water sprawled around her. “Watcha doing?”, you asked as you sat down next to her onto the stairs, glimpsing at the part of the vest you could see from your side. “Painting uncle Daryl’s vest. I’m fixing the wing, I’m almost done”, she said, moving a little to reveal the part she’d been painting in a light blue that got now primped with some small white start at its end. “Looks great, sure he’s gonna love it”, you said, giving her a smile as you shifted a little over the wood, trying to get a little comfortable before you grabbed your knife and started to move the blade over the sharpening stone, just before you could see Judith stirring a little beside you before she moved a bit away from the vest and glanced at you. “Do you think Negan will hurt us?”, she asked, her voice trembling a little at the end, though you could hear that she was trying to keep it calm while a painful sting shot through you just hearing her question and you didn’t want to imagine how Negan would feel if he’d hear this now. “No, no he won’t”, you said, shaking your head softly and trying to keep the small smile on your face though you had a hard time doing so as you could feel the tension within you risking. “But he blocked the roads”, she mumbled, sadness filling her eyes a little more as she sat down next to you, moving the vest that looked finished by now next to her while you let out a small sigh. This was gonna get tricky. “Your uncle Daryl and I disagree on this but-”,you mumbled, halting as you tried to collect your thoughts and explain it to her in the right way,”I think he is trying to make them believe he’s on their side to help us take them down in the end. Like one of those double agents from the book you read some time ago.” “You think?”, she asked, her eyes growing a little more hopeful as she looked at you. “I’m sure”, you nodded, giving her a slightly bigger smile now before you let out a nervous but soft chuckle, trying to loosen yourself up to let that whole tension fall not only from you but her as well. Even if she was a tough kid, she was still a child and she shouldn’t have to worry about this as well beside the whole whisperer shit and tonight’s battle. ”C’mon you know him too, he sometimes has a bit odd ways to get to a goal. Remember his solutions to your math problems?” “Yeah, they were weird sometimes”,she nodded, laughing softly as he fumbled on the brush that was still in her hands. “Yeah”, you said, glimpsing down at her as you could gladly tell that she was looking much more relaxed than a couple moments ago,”See, he’s taking a special way to help us now too, just like he had very special ways to solve your math problems.” She nodded again, responding to the small laugh that left your lips, facilitated by the nervousness and tension that was still stuck within you before she nodded towards the vest, “I’ll give it to him now.” “Yeah, do that. Bet he’s gonna put it right on”, you said, giving her another smile as she stood up and grabbed the vest. “I hope so”, she said, glancing one more time at the painted wing before she headed inside, leaving you to get back to trying to distract yourself with the sharping stone. Dragging the blade along the stone you focused on it's slight twinkling in the evening sun, right before you glanced up as you heard footsteps walking right towards you. “You can shoot, right?”, you heard Diane ask as she got closer, holding a bow in one hand and a quiver with arrows in the other just before she reached you. “Yeah”, you nodded, stopping the dragging movements for a moment. “Good, we need another one in the back, would you join?” “Yes, sure”, you said, nodding once more as you laid the knife and the stone to your side so she could hand you both and just in the moment the wood of the bow smoothed against your palm and you gripped the belt of the quiver, a panicking voice echoed through the air and sent another shot of tension through your body within the matter of seconds. “The herd is coming!” Walking like a fucking dead asshole was harder than Negan had thought, especially when you had much more brain activity than those fuckers going on that allowed him to have thoughts and even worse, worries. He still believed that he might have persuaded Alpha with his tactics, but with her, you could never know for sure. The sky seemed to become darker with every slurfing step he took, looking through the holes of his damn mask to have a little bit of orientation while he tried to keep exactly those thoughts from taking his whole mind over. It was Hilltop. The odds that she was there were as fucking small as a fly’s sack. Hell, the odds that anybody else from Alexandria like Judith or Lydia were there was just as damn small.  He shouldn’t try to wrap his head around this shit anymore and just hope that things would work out as he intended, that they’d try to make them bend the knee and they’d use the right moment to attack or what fucking ever, just so this damn massacre wouldn’t start here and move to Alexandria in the end. And just as he tried to ban these thoughts out of his head, he heard the skin freaks starting their whispery chant again as they moved with the dead towards Hilltop. Night had fallen over Hilltop when you found yourself standing before its gates, with the bow in your hand, an arrow loosely clamped into its string while the leatherglove that smoothed against your skin allowed you to hold it securely. It was still pointed downwards for now, waiting for the moment the herd would appear but in these moments, there was an eerie silence, only disrupted by the trembling breath by everyone next to you and the echoes of the thousands of groans that came from the forest. Hilltop was prepared, that was the only thing that made your heart beat calm down a little as you glanced around yourself. At first, about two hundred meter away from your spot, there was an electrical line spanned by Eugene and Rosita this afternoon that would hopefully split the first walkers in two that would try to make their way towards you. Then, if this part would fail, and everybody knew that this moment would come earlier or later, the fence was the next step. It was Hilltops regular fence that protected the crops that were located behind you and in front of the gates, a quite study fence with wood pillars and a whole lot of branches and undergrowth in between that would cushion the walker masses at first and which had been strengthened over the last hours.  After that, the melee fighters were located, at first the ones with the medieval looking shields and their swords, directly behind them anyone else with a melee weapon, from spears to machetes, to morning stars like the one in Daryl’s hand right now. And then, there was your line, the ones with bows or slingshots like the one of Kelly, and melee weapons that were put on the ground beside you after the arrows would be gone. After that, only the next cushion zone of the crops followed for about fifty meters, and then the gates. You could feel the ground starting to quiver beneath your feet as the heard started to roll closer and the groans started to grow louder with every second, sending chills through your body as you gripped the wood of the bow tighter. Only a couple more moments. A shivering breath fell from your lips as you saw the first dead appearing in the dark right  as the first walker met the electrical line and sparked red sparks through the night as it burned through its throat and cut its rotting head off right from it’s neck. “It works”, you heard Yumiko mumbling beside you as you tried to keep the hope in you controlled as the first full line of dead met the line. More sparks flew, you could see the electricity burning  bright yellow lines into their bodies as they pressed against it, more and more while only a few lost their heads, while the taller majority pressed themselves only deeper into it, doing nothing more than burning their torsos. “Fuck”, you mumbled gulping, nearly too quiet for anyone else around you to hear as a load boom made you flinch back, right before you had to watch the electrical line break down into pieces as it sunk to the ground and let the dead march towards you without anything stopping them anymore. “Formation!”, you could hear Aaron scream through the night, immediately followed by the metallic booms of the rising shields clicking against one another while you gulped thickly and grabbed the bow in your hands even tighter, enough for your knuckles to turn pale as your heart beated up into your throat.  “On my command, splitting ranks!”, you heard him scream again, cut off for a moment by the loud groans of the dead before his voice echoed once again through the night,”And break!” The first group split on his command, marching towards the fence as the first dead were only a couple feet away from it anymore and you glanced to your side, watching as the others started to nod to each other. “Now”, you heard Yumiko call out beside you, shooting another wave of adrenaline through your body as you pushed the bow forward, adjusted the grip on the string before pulling it back until your leather clad fingers rested against your cheek and the arrow darted into the walker mess, before you let it go and watched it shooting into the ranks of the dead. Grab a new arrow, span it into the string, bow into the front, pull the string back, adjust and release.  That’s what you did over and over again, almost mechanically as you watched the others fighting in the front, saw their weapons dive into the rotting heads, smashing skulls while more walkers pushed into the limp bodies that were hanging into the branches. You could feel yourself tensing more with each shot, could feel the pulling of the string tearing on your arm’s muscles while the adrenaline in your body kept you going, forcing you to near the edge to switch into the survival mode. Breathing heavily you reached back into the quiver, feeling sick by the thought that you didn’t even had that many left, especially with the massed of walkers surrounding the fences that wouldn’t be stopped by the couple arrows you had left. And just as you moved the arrow to clip its end into the string, your eyes captured  handball sized objects flying through the dark towards the fences, exploding into uncountable splatters as they crashed into the walkers, the fence and the melee fighters. Furrowing your brows you stared for a moment at the scene, at the splatters that looked like water at the first glance but that were something completely different judging from the smell that made its way through to you. It was smelling like freshly cut down trees but stronger, almost as strong as those little tree shaped air freshener you could hang into the front of your car and whose smell wouldn’t even leave your nose until you’d gotten out of the car. “Smells like a Christmas tree!”, you could hear Jerry scream in the front, stabbing another walker while he looked like he was drained in the liquid and before you could hear anybody else saying something else, your eyes caught something bright flying through the night sky, a flaming arrow that suddenly crushed into the walkers in front of the fence. Within a millisecond a ball of fire roared through the dead, nearly exploding part of the fence as a blood freezing scream let you flinch. Your fingers gripped the bow tighter as you suddenly saw one of the fighters tumbling burning away from the fence, his whole body covered in flames as he flailed his arms around himself before he crushed against the ground and let the tension within you to skyrocket once more. “It's like gasoline!”, you heard Jerry scream from the fence as you tried to pull yourself together and drag your glance from the man who started to stop moving back to your bow, before forcing yourself to go back to the old procedure and shoot another arrow into the mass.  Even if you could just kill one at a time, it was better than nothing. You could feel your ribcage tightening as you reached for another one over and over again, trying to help the people in the front as best as you could before you suddenly grabbed into emptiness in your quiver and had to realize that you’d just shot your last arrow. ”Fuck”, you cursed underneath your breath as you glanced at the empty quiver, gulping thickly just in the very moment you heard a dangerous cracking coming from the fence. Shooting your glance back up you could see the first Walkers starting to break through, heard screams of Daryl and Aaron for everyone to fall back and stop the fight at the fence, just before the first dead forced their way successfully through the fence. Fuck. Fucking fuckity fuck shit. Negan couldn’t think much more than in curses as groans of the herd sounded loudly through the air while he had to watch the dead and the fences of hilltop blow up in flames from afar. He hadn’t persuaded her, this fuck there, that wasn’t trying to make someone bend the knee, that crap was meant to kill them and nothing else. She’d played him, pretending as if she’d listen to him, that fucking skin freak had played him. Feeling the anger in him rising he tried to keep himself controlled from the outside and tried to get a look at the fight hilltop was fighting in these moments, still trying to persuade himself that his girl wasn’t anywhere in there, trying to tell himself how damn close to zero the odds were over and over again. He couldn’t judge how well they did from his position on the field behind the heard, all he could tell was that they were still fighting and right now, that was a good sign. Fuck, even if none of the people he could worry about were in there, Alexandria still needed Hilltop to fight these skin freaks, losing that community would be a fucking disaster. Uncomfortably he glanced to his side, watching as Alpha gathered a small group of whisperers around a fire before she moved a little away from them to take a look at Hilltop, giving him enough space to approach her. Gulping his anger away the best he could to not let it shimmer through before he walked towards her, putting a slight grin on his face as soon as she caught him. “I thought you wanted them to join us”, he said, his voice calm and not in any way resembling the anger within him as he watched her beginning to smile the fucking oddly again while she slowly stepped closer. “They will”, she said, moving even closer as she nearly bored her glance into his eyes,”As part of my horde.” Fuck. He should’ve known, he should’ve fucking known and done more, he should’ve done more to persuade her. “Holy shit”, he chuckled, overplaying the desperation and frustration that started to make its home in his body, while he knew that right now, it was too late for him to intervene. Everything else would make him look suspicious, everything else could cost him his head. “You are a badass”, he instead added, grinning widely at her in hopes to charm her a little more and cover up what he was actually feeling in these moments, to have the chance to lead her into another direction next chance he got, hopefully with more success. “This is yours”, he heard her say in the next moment, watching as she waved another whisperer over who carried a bow in his hands next to his own, “You will need it now.” This was a test now, wasn't it? He’d asked her again about letting them bend the knee so she tested him if he would question her again or if he would obey, and right now he hadn’t much of option than do the later if he didn’t want to risk to blow his cover just the tiniest bit. So he took the bow into his hands and let her lead him and the other skin freak towards the fire, spanned one of the prepared arrows that had some tree sap soaked cloths attached to its shaft into the string and watched as they passed the flame from one arrow to another, like some STD in a fucking college fraternity.  ”Up high, towards the walls”, he heard Alpha say, feeling the tension within him rising with every second as he gulped thickly and moved the bow up, dragging the string back as he could feel his heart pounding against his ripcage and could feel nausea starting to claw at his throat while he tried to get his mind under control. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t there. She was not fucking there. And then, he let go. Screams, groans and desperate calls echoed through the air, mixing into an eerie symphony as you could see the herd starting to further break the fences, forcing the fear and survival instinct in you to skyrocket in the very moment the dead grabbed the first Hilltopers that had been fighting them only seconds ago. “They're already dead! Let's go!”, a voice screamed through the dark, mixing with calls to just let them break through as the first melee fighters started to run towards your line, waving for you all to move towards the gates. ”Move inside!”, you heard Daryl scream, waving towards you as you dropped the bow and the empty quiver from your shoulder before the adrenaline pushed you to start running as fast as your feet could carry you. Panting you found yourself within the others, within the running group that fled like animals from a wildfire before you suddenly saw some bright points shooting through the dark above you, right before the arrows that carried them landed into Hilltops walls, setting them aflame in the matter of seconds while your whole body started to wrench in fear and shock, forcing your heart to pound against your chest as if it tried to escape while a wave of fright induced nausea washed over you and dared to put a relentless tension over your body. Walkers were coming from the back and the sides, flames were eating up Hilltops walls in the front and soared into the sky. There was no way out.

(If you would like to be tagged, just let me know! The gif isn’t mine/ it was originally posted by dancing-at-the-funeralparty)

[amethystmerm4id]

Well I have no idea how they're going to save themselves and I'm scared and worried as hell. I hope Michonne shows up next episode with the military base people and save their asses!

[vvalliu]

[frangipanilove]

More Pharmakon: Why Alcohol/Ethanol Is Sirius Symbolism

This time illustrated by Denise and the Danville Bridge Whiskey in TWD 6x14 Twice As Far

We learned about "pharmakon" in TOWL 1x3 Bye, when Major General Beale explained how it was an ancient Greek word, meaning "a poison and a cure". We saw cans of ethanol in the back of Richonne's yellow escape car in TOWL 1x4 What We, and I've since explored, in a series of posts, the connections between pharmakon, ethanol/alcohol and fire, and how they all tie into the Sirius symbolism we've seen around Beth and Rick for years.

Read about how FTWD season 4 established the ethanol=cure symbolism here. Read the "Fighting Fire With Fire" posts on how the ethanol, fire and pharmakon symbolism all ties together here, here and here.

We learned in TWD 4x12 Still, that Beth would come to be deeply connected to the symbolism around alcohol/ethanol. And we learned as far back as in 1x6 TS-19 that Daryl wasn't exactly opposed to it either.

Resurrection symbolism in TWDU is about "fire", and Beth has always been all about fire, she's a fire starter, she’s quite literally an arsonist, she’s a Light Bringer:

As we remember from Still, Beth established a direct connection between alcohol/ethanol and the eh... issues relating to eye sight. And in 6x14 Twice As Far, we watched Denise become intextricably linked to the same symbolism, when she was killed by Dwight, who shot an arrow through her eye:

The issues surrounding eye sight are of course tied to the Sirius symbolism from 4x13 Alone, when Beth and Daryl were visited by a "celestial being", a one-eyed dog, representing Sirius the Dog Star, or in the words of poet Robert Frost, the "heavenly beast with a star in its eye":

As I explained in the "Fighting Fire With Fire" posts, fire/Sirius symbolism is connected to the alcohol/ethanol symbolism.

In 6x13 Twice As Far, we saw this connection illustrated by the tragic death of Denise. She was shot through the eye with an arrow, marking her as a Sirius character in a nod to the one-eyed dog from Alone, which is ultimately a clue to Sirius the Dog Star.

Denise's death affected Daryl deeply, and in what to me is one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the entire franchise, we saw Daryl, numb with pain, bury Denise, his angel wings laying on the grass next to him.

A few notes on this tragic tableau: the angel wings on Daryl's vest represent the bird symbolism (wings=birds because, well, birds have wings, for the most part). The Danville Bridge Whiskey is a reference to the notion of bridges, elevators, ladders and stairwells as metaphorical "passages" through which the characters can pass between “the realms”.

I wrote about this symbolism after TOWL 1x4 What We.

Of course, for TD, the most notable exemples of the bird symbolism came in the form of a painting, the Blue Heron, seen around both Beth and Rick:

I've written many posts on bird symbolism, here's a selection: (X) (X) (X) (X)

And just as a reminder, after TWD 10x11 Morningstar, one of the wings on Daryl's vest is now blue, further cementing the wings as blue bird symbolism:

We also saw Daryl empty a miniature bottle of Danville Bridge Whiskey, which they had found earlier that day:

It might be worth remembering that Denise had specifically rejected Rosita’s offer to drink the whiskey, claiming alcohol was her parents thing, which is why it wasn’t hers:

While that’s an admirable position in real life, one can suspect the symbolism of TWDU works according to a different logic. It might seem as though Denise's refusal to drink the Danville Bridge Whiskey is what, at least on a symbolic level, sealed her fate.

If FTWD season 4 is to be believed, drinking alcohol/ethanol is the "antidote" to "death" in TWDU, it represents the "cure", the pharmakon:

And we saw that theme revisited in TOWL 1x4 What We, when Rick and Michonne escaped in an electric/bio-ethanol hybrid truck, with cans of ethanol in the back seat:

Sadly, it seems like Denise, by refusing the offer of a drink, set herself up for a tragic outcome in 6x14 Twice As Far.

Beth, on the other hand, spent the entire episode of 4x12 Still searching for booze:

In Denise’s case, there was therefore no “resurrection” involved. The arrow pierced her brain stem, and she was sadly dead, in the most permanent sense.

In contrast, we’ve seen how this symbolism has allowed Rick to recently “resurrect” in TOWL. The symbolism doesn't guarantee resurrection, but it allows for it. Remember, death and resurrection are two sides to the same story. Resurrection symbolism will be found around both "deaths" and "resurrections". The metaphorical "passages" between the realms are ever present, regardless of whether a character "chooses" to utilize them or not.

Rick “died” on a bridge, and he “resurrected” in TOWL, in an episode where we saw him choose life with Michonne and his family, over remaining “dead” in the CRM.

And as @bethgreeneprevails pointed out here, “echelon” as in the "echelon briefing", refers to "the rung of a ladder", indicating that the echelon briefing we kept hearing about in TOWL, would eventually be heavily tied up in resurrection symbolism. That's a post for another day, but it's a super interesting observation worth mentioning.

In episode TWD 8x2, the episode that had been foreshadowed by Noah's T-shirt with the stylized heron, we saw the Blue Heron painting around Rick. It was the same painting we had seen behind Beth in Still, and the bird symbolism of the heron foreshadowed his resurrection.

In the same episode, we also saw Rick and Daryl climb through elevator shafts, illustrating the presence of the aforementioned metaphorical "passages", allowing characters such as Rick (and Beth) to move "between the realms", from the "realm of the living" to the "realm of the dead". And sometimes, such as in Rick's case, they allow him to go back again, to "return" to the realm of the living, as we recently saw in TOWL.

For TD, this is of course interesting because we saw an elevator shaft feature prominently in TWD 5x4 Slabtown:

Again, we see that Beth is consistently surrounded by the same type of resurrection symbolism we see around Rick, a man who has now "died" and "resurrected" twice.

I also recently wrote about the bridge/elevator/ladder/stairwell symbolism in relation to Alicia from FTWD, who, as the first person ever in TWDU, was "cured" from the infection and subsequent fever she suffered following her walker bite in season 6. Her "transition" from someone with one foot in the grave, to someone who was competely healed, happened in a stairwell, one of these metaphorical "passages" between the realms.

In Denise’s case, there wasn't ever going to be a resurrection. Maybe drinking the Danville Bridge Whiskey instead of rejecting it could have changed that. But we see from the symbolism present at her burial that the ritual of “death” and burial in TWDU is always accompanied by an abundance of resurrection symbolism. Death and resurrection are two sides to the same story. The presence of the whiskey tells us that resurrection symbolism is always afoot in TWDU, but in this case, the character in question “rejected” it. It serves as a counterpoint to Beth’s intense hunt for alcohol/ethanol back in 4x12 Still, an episode named after the apparatus used in the production of alcohol/ethanol.

The "bridge" in Danville Bridge Whiskey refers to the "death and resurrection" symbolism we saw around Rick's "death" in TWD 9x5 The Bridge. It’s the same symbolism that has allowed him to die and resurrect twice now. It represents one of the metaphorical “passages” through which selected characters can travel between the “realms”, along with elevators, ladders and stairwells.

The “whiskey” in Danville Bridge Whiskey is an ethanol reference, which in turn plays into the symbolism around pharmakon and "fighting fire with fire".

And fire symbolism is Sirius symbolism. It refers to Sirius the Dog Star, the brightest star on the night sky, that returns one morning before dawn, after having been gone for some time. The word "Sirius" comes from Greek and translates to "glowing, scorching".

In other words, fire!

Fire born from ethanol/alcohol, as illustrated below by Beth and Daryl in 4x12 Still:

Beth has been at the center of this symbolism ever since the one-eyed dog visited in 4x13 Alone.

And as Denise was buried as a one-eyed Sirius character, the Danville Bridge Whiskey was there to remind us that "death" in TWDU is never far removed from "resurrection”.

[annoyingabouteverything]

the scene between carol and lydia on the porch might be the best dialogue writing the walking dead has ever done.

"You should hate me"

"It's hard, you seem to hate yourself so much"

Like that is such an intense opening exchange that I could still picture a real person saying

"That won't save us"

"but it'll feel good"

This is the most honest Carol has been is ages and it makes so much sense for it to come here, instead of with daryl who has been begging for her honesty but she loves too much to say these things to

[rcsitastark]

Rosita Espinosa | 10.11 - Morning Star

[magieek]

<3

[ssinahumanbody]

Daryl + Carol | The walking dead | I'm never gonna hate you.