The Walking Dead s11e08 Episode Script

For Blood

1 - Get 'em back! - Aah! Previously on "The Walking Dead" Yeah, we need a long-term fix.
If we can't make Alexandria safe, we need to start thinking about other options.
Alexandria's our home.
I'm not ready to abandon ship.
Your brothers are dead! Are you not ashamed?! We have to get them all of them.
We have a whole community to protect.
Pope's got a puzzle to solve, and he's riled up.
How can these people be so hard to find? Carver: Spotted them about an hour ago.
Why are they moving like that? [Growling.]
No reason.
Wrong.
There's a reason for everything.
What about you, Dixon? You ever seen rotters move like that? Yeah.
Yeah.
I've seen that before.
South of here.
Don't know why it happens.
They just gather up a whole bunch of them and move off.
Carver: Could take them down, like we did at that hospital in Rockville.
Easy.
Till you almost bought it and I had to save your ass.
That was just when things were getting fun.
I can lead them out about two miles and just double back.
Less work, less risk.
Yeah, less balls.
[Growling.]
We'll try it Dixon's way.
Alright.
Wells.
You think you could move those rotters? Yes, sir.
I can do it.
I've done it before.
Wells can handle it.
[Walkers growling.]
[Click.]
Hey, Pied Piper.
How's the pipin'? [Walkers growling.]
You kiddin'? [Scoffs.]
I'm the belle of the ball out here.
They love me.
Alright, Belle.
[Walkers growling.]
Step it up, ugly.
It's getting late, and I'm getting hungry.
[Sighs.]
Come on, man.
Come on.
[Walkers growling.]
Sir, we have a situation here.
What kind of situation? [Wells grunting.]
[Wells screaming.]
[Squishing.]
Leah: Wells, do you copy? [Thunder crashing.]
[Baby crying.]
[Wind whistling.]
[Rattling.]
What's with that door? It's rotted out.
This storm keeps up, it'll shake apart.
- [Thunder crashes.]
- [Gasps.]
I'll check on the babies.
[Baby crying.]
It's only thunder.
It can't hurt.
Remember what Mom said about storms? They're always followed by clear skies.
I wish she was here.
I know.
Me too.
- [Thunder crashes.]
- [Gasps.]
[Glass shatters, children scream.]
[Indistinct shouting.]
- Stay here.
- [Whimpers.]
- Move! - Okay.
Keep it closed! [Thunder crashes.]
Is everyone okay? That's even worse.
What was that? A piece of the wall.
Come on.
Back.
Wells, it's Shaw.
Do you copy? Over.
I'm going after him.
There's no point.
He's already dead.
No, I've seen him kill dozens of rotters at a time.
Oh, they didn't kill him.
She did it.
My enemy.
[Inhales sharply.]
Unh.
[Chuckles.]
So you did come back.
You thought that woman was out there and you sent Paul in? What was he bait? He was a soldier.
Soldiers sometimes fall.
No.
He was more than that.
He was family.
Yes.
Whose fate God decided.
God didn't send him out there.
You did.
A decision you disagree with, Shaw? You have had a hell of a lot to say, ever since your boyfriend showed up.
Anything else you wanna share? No, sir.
Wells may have been your brother but he was a son to me.
Because of his courage we now know the enemy is close! And I promise you, they will not escape this time.
Aaron: The storm blew down one of the panels in the wall over by the gardens.
Hopefully it's just the one.
Now, what's worse, there's a fire in the windmill that's drawing the walkers from the surrounding areas.
We have to get that panel back up and the fire out.
Yeah, so we're gonna need three teams.
I'll take one to fight the fire.
And I'll take a crew to repair the wall.
We're gonna need another team to protect everyone in here.
And I can handle that.
Okay.
Good.
So volunteers? No.
You just got back.
If she's up for it, we could use the help.
She wants to go with Carol.
Thank you.
Well, then, I'm joining, too.
It's not up for discussion, sis.
I'll go with you.
Virgil: So will I.
Virgil, you can barely stand.
I'd like to help.
Rosita: I can use all the help I can get here and make sure nothing gets in.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'll stay here.
Alright.
Let's move.
[Thunder crashes.]
I can go with you, too.
Oh, thank you, Judith, but I'd prefer it if you stayed here.
- I'm not scared.
- No, I know you're not, but I was really hoping maybe you could help the other kids feel a little less afraid.
Can you do that for me? Good.
I'll be back in a little while, sweetie.
You do whatever Rosita tells you, okay? Why can't you stay and have somebody else go? Because it wouldn't be fair of me to ask someone to do something I wouldn't do myself.
Understand? I can stay with you.
Thank you.
[Wind whistling.]
Let's move.
[Door opens.]
Powell: Rotters are gone.
But she's not.
How long did you travel with her for? Not long at all.
What can you tell me about her? Not Not much.
Why am I keeping you around? You said God chose me.
[Chuckling.]
Oh, Dixon.
I had this dog.
Named Tick, on account he was a Bluetick hound.
Found him on the side of the road.
He was starving, half-dead.
But the thing with some of these rescues like Tick, they don't trust easy.
Now, sometimes, I would reach for Tick, and he'd give me this look.
That look.
Like he couldn't decide whether to lick my hand or bite it off.
[Scoffs.]
Don't worry.
I ain't gonna lick ya.
[Chuckles.]
[Laughing.]
There he is! [Laughing.]
Fair enough.
Just don't try to bite me, either.
Tick did.
Hurt like hell having to strangle that dog.
We kept him here 'cause he's an excellent tracker.
I'm sure he noticed something.
She's She's a great shot.
I know that.
That's probably how she took out Wells.
So, where would you look for her? Well, she's gonna want to see us coming.
She's got that bow, so I'd look up.
In the trees maybe.
- Trees? - Yeah.
We'll see.
Carver: Sir, they're back.
[Walkers growling.]
[Pope laughs.]
What is it? Somehow, she has turned the dead against the living.
Ooh, that's impressive.
How strong is this gate? Oh, it's strong enough.
They won't get that far, though.
[Explosion.]
[Walkers growling.]
[Thunder crashes.]
We need more boards.
Use the furniture.
Aaron will understand.
I'll help.
[Wind whistling.]
I wish I was more like you.
You're never afraid.
That's not true.
I've been scared plenty of times.
It never seems that way.
[Thunder rumbling.]
That's 'cause I've learned how to use my fear.
- Use it? - Yeah.
You can, too.
My mom taught me.
Just like how you can run faster when you're scared, you can fight better, too.
It makes you stronger.
Virgil: She'd be proud of you.
[Chuckles.]
Do you know where she went? I don't.
I'm sorry.
[Thunder crashes.]
I haven't heard from her in so long.
I just wish she was here.
Virgil: She is.
I see her in the way you hold your sword.
The way you're ready to run into the storm and how you talk to those kids, helping them believe in themselves.
Your mama's still with you.
And you can bet that wherever she is, you're with her.
Gracie, be careful! - [Walker growling.]
- [Gracie screaming.]
Get 'em! Get 'em! They're all over out there.
Radio Carol, tell her there must be another breach.
A close one.
Go! Judith.
Candles, now.
[Thunder crashes.]
[Walkers growling.]
[Thumping.]
What's on your mind, Shaw? - Nothing.
- Come on.
I know you better than I know myself.
What? I'm thinking of the ones we've lost.
[Explosion.]
And you blame me.
I didn't say that.
"Will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.
" These are all tribulations, Leah.
The black horse of famine, it rides after us all.
I knew this war was coming.
And in every war, there is sacrifice.
[Explosion.]
That's why we were chosen in the first place, 'cause we didn't run from the fire.
Just like we don't run from our enemies.
Those men that have died they didn't die in vain.
[Explosion, walkers growl.]
It's their sacrifice that shows we are still worthy.
That's why we will prevail.
[Explosion.]
[Explosion.]
Daryl: Man, you're missing all the fireworks! Dixon.
What are you doing up here? Pope told me to walk the perimeter, so I'm walking the perimeter.
You want a smoke? Yeah.
There you go, man.
Quit these once.
Guess I'll have to quit them again.
[Scoffs.]
Why? [Both chuckle.]
Alright.
Here you go.
Ohh.
[Body dragging.]
Man: We're holding good at the northern gate.
Walls are holding strong.
Hey.
Hey.
Psst.
Around that way.
Go.
[Walkers growling.]
[Explosion.]
[Explosion.]
Where were you? Just wanted to be ready.
Well, you're not gonna need them.
The rotters are scattering.
You sure about that? [Explosion.]
Pope: My enemy never gives up.
Secure the gate.
Shaw.
Ready the hwacha.
Daryl: What's that? It's how we're going to end this.
[Walkers growling.]
What is that smell? Anything too rotten to eat or use.
That's why there's nobody out here.
You remember where you're going? Top floor, second room, southwest corner of the building.
Just remember to wait for my signal.
Got it.
We do this, then we get the food, and we go home.
[Walkers growling.]
[Walkers growling.]
[Thumping.]
Oh, the hinges are coming apart! And the frame.
[Grunts.]
Geez.
What are you doing? I'm buying us time.
What? - What can I do? - Close the door behind me.
Keep it closed.
Alright.
On my count.
One two [Walkers growling.]
three! [Walkers growling.]
[Thunder crashes.]
[Thump, thump, thump.]
[Thunder crashes.]
Let's stay away from the windows.
[Walkers growling.]
- Ready? - Ready.
Go.
- You built this? - Yep.
Leah: Ancheta was a combat engineer.
Now's he's our DaVinci, right? This hwacha will make short work of those rotters.
We can mop up everything else.
Let me know when you're ready.
Alright.
Sorry about Wells.
I shouldn't have let him out there by himself.
- That wasn't on you.
- It was my responsibility.
I should've had his back, like he's always had mine.
My people, we protect each other.
At least we used to.
Hey.
Can I ask you something? What? Pope says God chose us.
You believe all that? Why? Just asking.
Look.
I know how it sounds.
But when we had nothing, he gave us something to hold onto.
We're all alive 'cause we believed in him.
What about now? Doesn't matter whether I believe or not.
Well, it matters to me.
You ever think about what it'd be like if we'd never left that cabin? Yeah.
Yeah, I do.
It's hard to watch something you care about change when they're hurting other people you care about, too.
It is.
Daryl Pope: What's the status of the hwacha? We're ready and standing by.
Okay, Leah.
It's time to do this.
I'm on my way.
Hey, hey.
I have to tell you something.
What? There's people down there walking with the dead.
- My people.
- What? They're here for the food that Pope took from them.
They'll starve without it, and they're good people.
They got families.
They don't know what's about to happen to them.
Please.
You can't let them die like this.
You lied to me.
To protect my family.
I'm sure you can understand that.
Carver told me not to trust you.
But I wanted to.
So badly.
I didn't think I could trust you either when I saw who you were with.
What do you think Pope is gonna do when he finds out you're with her? He doesn't have to know.
You could come with me.
Just please let me stop him.
Please.
You gotta help me.
Pope: It is time for our enemy to face their reckoning! Oh, my.
What were you two talking about? Family.
Ain't nothing more important.
The only real thing that we got left in this world.
Would you agree, Dixon? Yeah.
Yeah, I would.
When this is done I want you to find that woman for me.
Bring her to me, Dixon.
Good man.
[Walkers growling.]
[Explosion in distance.]
[Crackling.]
Carver: Deaver, what's the status on the chain on that gate? Heading to the garage now.
[Engine starts.]
Hey! No! Hey! Come here! No! [Grunts.]
[Tires squealing.]
[Grunts.]
[Shouts.]
[Walkers growling.]
Carver, what the hell's going on down there? It's the enemy.
They're inside the walls.
[Walkers growling.]
Aim into the courtyard and fire.
Sir? Uh-huh.
You heard me.
Now! Our people are out there.
I am aware of that.
So let's call them back in.
Alert the enemy? No.
God will protect them! And what if he doesn't? Then it was their time to die.
Pope.
We can win this another way.
We will win this our way.
- You can't kill - I can.
I can! The Lord speaks through me! You don't question the Lord! You don't question me! Light it up! [Lighter clicks.]
[Breathing heavily.]
[Grunts.]
[Walkers growling.]
- [Gunshot.]
- Aah! Man: Shots fired! [Bullet ricochets.]
[Groans.]
[Grunts.]
[Leah grunts.]
Leah.
Come on.
Before they find us.
- [Radio clicks.]
- Pope is dead.
[Radio clicks.]
Dixon murdered him.
He's with the enemy.
Carver: Shaw, repeat! Pope is dead?! Leah! Do you copy? We're on our way.
Why would you do that? He forgot about what mattered.
Not war.
People.
My people.
You'd do anything to protect your family.
So would I.
- Carver: Leah! - [Metal bangs.]
Should've killed him when I had the chance.
Go get the gate closed.
Then what? Then we're gonna kill everything inside these walls.
[Door closes.]
[Grunting, walkers growling.]
This isn't gonna hold them for long.
Lydia: There's too many to fight off! Dianne: Do I need to radio Aaron and Carol? No.
They need to put out that fire and close those breaches.
[Walkers growling.]
If we get everyone upstairs, we can hold them off to the first floor, right? - Right? - Yeah.
Everyone! Upstairs, now! Go! [Baby crying.]
Judith: Go with Hershel, RJ.
[Thunder rumbling.]
[Baby crying.]
No, no, no.
Don't worry about me.
You go and get up those steps.
I will.
With you.
- I'll get him.
Okay? - Yeah.
- Ready? - I got it.
[Walkers growling.]
Dianne: I'll take him from here, Judith.
Just lean on me.
Gracie?! Gracie?! Gracie: Judith! Gracie? I'm down here! Gracie: Judith! [Thunder crashes.]
I got this, okay? You go get Coco.
Go! Go! [Walkers growling.]
What are you doing? I wanted something to fight with, a weapon like you and Rosita have.
[Thunder crashes.]
Here.
We have to go.
- [Walkers growling.]
- [Gasps.]
Judith: Go, go, go! [Thumping.]
Come on.
[Thumping.]
[Walkers growling.]
[Grunting.]
Leah: Fall back! Go! Fall back! Fall back! Negan: You have got to be shittin' me.
They are retreatin'.
But why? [Lighter clicks.]
[Fireworks whistling.]
Man: Spotted them about an hour ago.
Why are they movin' like that? Kang: We're starting with this image of these Walkers that are moving in a swirl.
And what we really wanted to show is that through time our characters have learned from their enemies.
You know, you're going up against this group that is trained in warfare, is very, very formidable, is bigger than the group that they have and they're gonna have to use any tactic that they have to gain some kind of advantage.
And our people remember very, very clearly that when they first encountered the Whisperers and the way that they move, it threw them off balance.
It was something that they didn't understand that they were trying to, like, figure out and so they kind of smartly, like, figure it might do the same for the Reapers.
It's all just showing how our people get smarter and smarter and are having to do whatever it takes to survive.
How long did you travel with her for? Not long at all.
What can you tell me about her? Not Not much.
Why am I keeping you around? I think that Pope, at this point, has kind of accepted that Daryl is part of the group and Daryl has won enough trust.
But I think that Pope, in general, is quite paranoid and doesn't trust anybody around him entirely and is constantly testing them in ways that are big and small.
But, I do think he admires Maggie.
No, I've seen him kill dozens of rotters at a time.
Oh, they didn't kill him.
She did it.
My enemy.
He has no reason to believe that she's driving the horde and yet, he's right because he was once brilliant at sussing out what's going on with the enemy.
But now he's just sort of in this spiral where he's embracing the fact that warfare's gonna come to his door and he's relishing that.
Pope: [Laughs.]
Kang: For Leah, she sees that Pope is spiraling and for her, this group has given her the only family that has ever meant anything to her.
It's the only stability that she's ever really had in her life, and at the point at which it becomes Pope obsessing about this person Maggie out there and not protecting her own brothers-in-arms, that's not gonna work for Leah.
It's really upsetting and she feels like he has definitely crossed something that is a clear, clear line.
But she's hoping that he can be pulled back from that in some ways, but the evidence is mounting that he no longer cares if the collateral damage happens to their own people.
And in every war there is sacrifice.
It was really important for us, as we were crafting the story, to be able to go back and forth to remind everybody that here's all the people that they're fighting for back at home.
And what a struggle they're going through.
And I think Rosita, she's always been a great soldier.
She does what has to be done.
She's very tough and pragmatic, a great warrior.
Also, she is a mother, she is somebody who is a leader of this community, who cares about everybody that's there.
And so we felt that this was a really great opportunity to sort of showcase that even though she's not on the mission to get the food, she is key to the mission of keeping the people back at home safe so that there's somebody to some and bring this food back to.
And for Rosita's part, she's not afraid to do what has to be done.
Everybody in that house, including her child, are in incredible danger, so she goes out and buys them a little bit of time.
Christian Serratos, she is one of our best action fighters.
She just really, like, dove into the role and, like, learned how to handle every weapon.
So she's just great at all of that.
And we just thought it'd be really fun to kind of have her go out and kind of kick ass.
[Thunder rumbles.]
We really felt like it'd be great to have Virgil and Judith connect here, and I think that the moment is just really very poignant.
It's easy in a show, sometimes, to just kind of be like, "Well, that person's gone.
" But I don't feel like that's how grief just works in life.
My mother passed away when I was a teenager and I still think about her every single day of my life.
And it's meaningful to be able to talk about those people that you love and miss, and to have people talk about them to you.
I just wish she was here.
Virgil: She is.
I see her in the way you hold your sword.
"The Walking Dead," it's this show with zombies but it's also just, it's really about the people and who you love and about family.
And so, for Judith, it would be important to be able to, like, talk about Michonne, because she misses her so very much and still believes she's out there and believes she's gonna come home some day.
Your mama's still with you.
And you can bet that wherever she is, you're with her.
The thing that we wanted to show with this story is that Daryl and Leah, in a lot of ways, have exactly the same attitude.
They may have once had a romantic relationship, but they're never gonna choose each other over the people that they have loved and fought for, because they simply cannot really trust each other.
There's sort of like, a toxicity at the base of that relationship.
And so, when Daryl tells Leah it is absolutely a gamble.
He doesn't know what the outcome is gonna be.
What he has seen of her, in the more recent episodes, is that there is that core to her that still believes in things that are not just what the Reapers believe.
I think that he sees that there is still a good person in there, there is somebody that is still emotionally affected by pain and suffering, who cares about other people and is protective.
And, Daryl doesn't really have the heart to try to kill her right there, and so the best thing he can do is to try to bring her in on it.
There's people down there walking with the dead.
My people.
In his mind, he thinks either she's going to help me or she doesn't.
Either way there's going to be a battle here, but I feel like, at this moment in time, I might be able to gain more by telling her what's going on then by not telling her.
In this case, it does help in the short term, you know.
And it does help with a major problem.
It causes its own problems, but if he hadn't told her he would've had that problem anyway.
- [Grunts.]
- [Groans.]
Leah does kill Pope and Daryl was right, Leah was at a place where she was willing to help him with that because Pope was too far gone.
But when he threw that knife into the heart of Ancheta's chest, it became this reminder for her of, "yes, he was right about Pope, but how many of my people have died because of this Maggie coming back into these walls? How many more of my people are going to die?" And she cannot bear that because at the end of the day, Daryl chose his family and she chose hers.
Pope is dead.
Dixon murdered him.
He's with the enemy.
It's a really complex situation because it's like, they don't even try to kill each other.
Like, she doesn't try to kill him and nor does he try to kill her.
But, this was never gonna turn out right.
But in some ways, she gives him a chance to have enough of a head start to have a fair fight.
Where's Leah gonna end at the end of all of this? I think is just the question that we've gotta see when we get into Episode 9.
[Music climbs.]

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