This article originally appeared on DarkMediaOnline.com

Original Airdate: November 16, 2014

It’s hard to believe that after tonight we’re only two episodes away from the midseason finale.  Crazy.

And of course it will be another week before we learn whether or not Eugene is still alive….

But for now, we start out tonight with a return to when Rick left Carol in the little neighborhood.  She drives for a while, but then she breaks down in tears down the road as the reality sets in.  Walkers surround the car, but she doesn’t care.  “Go away!” she screams before driving off again.  She arrives in a town and finds a law office that seems to be untouched.  She shakes a pencil holder to see if the noise draws anyone out.  It seems to be empty, so she gets comfortable, though she sleeps with her hand on her gun.  The next day she awakens to see fire rising from the prison.  She drives like mad and arrives to see that the whole place is on fire.

We return to the night that Daryl and Carol drive off after Beth.  Daryl is explaining how he and Beth were together.  (As they drive and converse, they run over a Walker)  Their car is about to run out of gas.  They plan to surprise whoever has taken Beth, with the plan to do whatever is necessary to get Beth back.  They follow the car into Atlanta and it stops.  Daryl stops and sees that there are two people in the car.  One is a cop.  He clears the road so that they can drive through.  Walkers surround their car.  The car carrying Beth drives away.

Daryl can’t start their car so Carol tells him that she knows a place they can hide.  They run off into the night and find themselves in an office building.  Daryl asks if Carol used to “work here or something,” to which Carol replies “or something.”  The building is quiet and they have a set of keys courtesy of the dead guard.  Carol says that it’s temporary housing for abused women and children.  Carol says they didn’t stay long.  There are bunk beds and Carol tells Daryl to take the bottom bunk while she takes first watch, even though they are pretty secure.  She asks him about being able to start over.  He says he’s trying to.  He encourages her to say what’s on her mind.  She doesn’t think they can save people anymore.  I suppose that’s a double entendre.  “Then why are you here?” Daryl asks.  She lies down on the bed with him.  He asks what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up when she was at the car.  She isn’t sure.  There is a banging noise, so they go to investigate.  Inside one of the rooms is a pair of doors made of frosted glass.  There is a woman and her child, both of them Walkers.  He tells her she doesn’t have to do anything, but she feels she must.

The next day, Carol awakens to find that Daryl is outside on the roof.  A fire is burning and he’s carrying the body of the child, draped in a white sheet.  She joins him, and she thanks him after the body is in the fire.  Smoke billows up into the air.

We return to the cabin as Tyreese and Carol bury Lizzie and Mika.  She has the same vacant expression on her face.

Back in the present, they pack up and get ready to scout the city on foot in search of Beth.  Daryl lights a fire to distract the roaming Walkers, and he and Carol make their way to the inside of a parking garage.  They’re an office, and a man is watching.  Inside one of the corridors, there are a dozen Walkers in sleeping bags and tents.  The duo quickly kills the sleeping bag Walkers and sneak inside the hospital proper.  They find a well-appointed office with a view of the burned out city.  Carol wonders how they got there.  She tells Daryl that he still hasn’t asked about when she was with Tyreese and the girls.  He said he knows they aren’t here, and she says it was worse than that.  Daryl spots one of the vans with the crosses on it like the one that took Beth.  Carol fills their water bottles while Daryl admires the expensive art that some asshole probably paid a lot of money for.  They leave, but the man who had been watching them confiscates their weapons.  He cuts open the tents full of Walkers and takes off before Carol and Daryl can stop him.  Now they have no weapons, and Daryl tells her that she has to be in the moment.  She doesn’t want anyone to die, but she’s not sure she believes in God anymore.  She drops her bag, and Daryl sees the book about helping people deal with abuse.

Carol flashes back to when she set Karen and David on fire at the prison.

Now she and Daryl are walking around in Atlanta.  They find the van on a highway bridge, dangling off the edge.  The city is eerie and quiet.  And empty.  Daryl jumps into the van, even though Carol is lighter.  Walkers approach the teetering van.  Inside they find papers and a little statue of Mary.  The gurney says Grady Memorial Hospital.  Before they can do anything with that information, the van is surrounded by Walkers.  They climb in and drive the off the bridge.  (They’re holding hands)  The van lands on its wheels and Walkers soon start plopping and splatting on top of them.  They get out and start walking again.

Later, Daryl asks Carol to prove she’s fine.  She’s in bad shape, but she says she’s “had worse,” referring to a nasty bruise on her collarbone.  They figure they are three blocks from the hospital.  Daryl wants to scout it out to see what they can find.  They go inside a nearby building and they camp out with a perfect view of the hospital.  While they wait, Daryl asks what she meant when she said he isn’t the way he was before.  She says before he was like a little kid, and now he’s a man.  She tells him that she and Sophia were in the shelter for almost two days before they went back to her husband.  Carol thinks that she got to be the person she was meant to be when they were at the prison.  But now everything “consumes you.”  Down the hall, a Walker is pinned to the wall with an arrow.  They hear gunshots and Carol and Daryl race to see what’s happening.  That’s when they see the man with their weapons, but they’re intercepted by Walkers.  Carol is attacked but she can’t fight, so Daryl saves her.  He finds the man who took their weapons and he pins him to the ground with a bookcase while Walkers try to burst in the door.  Now we can see that it’s Noah, the kid that Beth saved from the hospital.  Daryl seems content to leave him there.  He lights a cigarette and tells him that he tried to save him once but he isn’t going to do it again.  Carol begs him to save the boy as the Walker bursts in.  Daryl shoots the Walker with an arrow and gives Carol a long look.

Carol flashes back to the battle at Terminus when she was covered in Walker blood and gore.   Gunshots ring out as the battle rages on and the fires burn.

Carol helps to free Noah from the bookshelf.  He races to the window to see what’s happening.  He says they probably heard the gunshots and will come after them.  Daryl demands to know who he’s talking about.  Noah says it’s the people at the hospital, and Daryl asks if he saw a blonde girl.  “Beth?” Noah asks.  Noah explains that she saved him and he’s trying to save her.  Now that they know they’re on the same side, they move along together.  They go downstairs because Noah says there is a safe building across the street.  He stumbles and falls, so Daryl helps him while Carol steps outside.  As she crosses the street, she’s run down by the medics, who load her up on a stretcher.  Noah holds Daryl back, telling him that they can help her at the hospital but they’re going to need a lot of help getting her out.  They have guns and people.  “So do we,” Daryl says.  They work to escape the throngs of Walkers and take a van so that they can flee the city.  They drive along in silence.

Well, now we know who is with Daryl back at the church.  This was definitely a slower-paced episode, but it gives us a look back to what Carol was up to before she reunited with Tyreese.  Are the flashbacks a sign of strength, or madness?  Will she be able to move forward after this?

What did you think of the episode?  Leave your comments below!