Spend

"Spend" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the sixty-fifth episode of the series overall. It premiered on March 15, 2015. It was written by Matt Negrete and directed by Jennifer Lynch.

Plot
While trying to secure their new home, Rick and his group face many challenges, some life threatening. Is this really the utopia it seems to be?

Synopsis
The episode begins with Gabriel having what seems like an erosion of his faith. He glances at a welcome note from one of the Alexandria residents and begins tearing pages out of his Bible.

Noah has a meeting with Reg, the architect who constructed the walls surrounding Alexandria. He expresses an interest in being taught how to build, thinking it will be valuable to have another person capable of working on the walls as the community grows. Reg agrees and gives him a journal to begin documenting Alexandria's growth in.

The power in the safe-zone has periodically been going down, so a small group consisting of Glenn, Aiden, Noah, Tara, Nicholas and Eugene departs to pick up spare parts from a nearby warehouse. Eugene does not want to go, but they feel that he is too important to the process of finding what they need. After some persuading, he reluctantly agrees to also carry a gun.

Meanwhile, Jessie shows Rick that somebody has destroyed the family's owl statue. He agrees to look further into it.

Once arriving at the warehouse, Aiden believes that they should head inside quickly to grab what they need, but Glenn declines, opting to scout the perimeter first so that they would know what exits were available, should the time to leave come. Once the reconnaissance was over, Nicholas and Aiden splinter off from the group to search for their needed supplies while the others break off into groups of two. After finding two dozen walkers trapped behind a fence, Aiden tells everyone to ignore them. He soon discovers a single armored walker moving towards him, and starts to impulsively shoot it in several places to try and slow it down instead of directly killing it. Despite Glenn's protests, he continues shooting and accidentally hits a grenade on the walker's hip. The resulting explosion severely injures Tara and causes Aiden to be impaled on a broken shelf. Nicholas pronounces him dead and has the others leave his body to focus on entering the nearby office to help Tara.

Sam pays Carol a visit, looking for more cookies. Visibly annoyed, she coldly tells him that the only way he would be able to acquire any is if he steals a sample of chocolates.

Inside the office, the group hear Aiden's cries for help. Though they are cornered by walkers, they agree to try and save him, with Eugene staying with Tara while Glenn, Noah and Nicholas go for Aiden.

Abraham is now working as a part of Tobin's construction team as they are starting the process of expanding the wall. While gathering materials from the mall construction site they are attacked by numerous walkers. During the gunfire, the lookout Francine is knocked from her perch. Tobin shows a need to leave her behind, but Abraham rushes in and manages to save her life.

Some time later, a drunken Pete wanders over to Rick's place with a few beers. Pete offers Rick a beer, but he declines, saying he is "always on the clock." Pete tells Rick he saw him drink at the party. He tells Rick due to the circumstances, they kinda have to be friends, so they will. Rick agrees. Both share an awkward exchange before Pete leaves the house, leaving Rick perplexed.

After ranting to Tara's unconscious body about his cowardly nature, Eugene eyes the nearby exit. He leaves the office, slinging Tara over his shoulder, and is able to get the both of them outside to the van.

While trying to assist Aiden, Nicholas gives up and abandons the attempt. Just before Noah and Glenn are forced to leave him for the walkers, Aiden reveals to Glenn that he had gotten the previous four people killed, and that the cause of their deaths was because he had broken the rules of his system. The rest of the group makes their escape through the opposite side of the warehouse. Eventually, all three end up trapped in a revolving door with walkers surrounding them on both sides.

Tobin recommends to Deanna that she name Abraham the new head of construction, as he sees him as a more fit leader than himself. Elsewhere, Sam, having successfully stolen a ration of the chocolates, delivers them to Carol. Whilst in the middle of baking the cookies, in an attempt to break their awkward silence, Sam admits to Carol about breaking their owl statue, saying that it was because he was angry. He hints that he might need a gun for protection, but not for himself. As Carol attempts to question him about what he had said, Sam runs outside and back to his own house.

Glenn and Noah are trapped in the section of the revolving door opposite Nicholas. Eugene arrives in the van and is able to draw away the walkers pounding from outside the building. Glenn proposes a plan to break the glass on their side to free himself and Noah, before releasing Nicholas. As Glenn attempts to break the glass, however, Nicholas panics and selfishly forces the door open, squeezing himself out to safety and swinging Glenn and Noah's section open towards the walkers inside the building. Noah is pulled in and devoured while Glenn watches in horror.

Nicholas returns to the van ahead of Glenn and demands that Eugene take them home. Eugene demands to know what happened to Glenn and Noah. Nicholas forces him out and attempts to drive off, but Glenn intervenes and throws him to the ground, delivering several punches to the face for leaving him and Noah behind, knocking him unconscious. Glenn then tells Eugene to toss Nicholas into the back before they make their way back to Alexandria. As they drive back, Eugene and Glenn both silently grieve for Noah. Eugene turns around to look at Tara and Nicholas, and sees the journal that Reg gave to Noah. It is open slightly to the first page, on which is written only one sentence: "This is the beginning."

Gabriel heads to Deanna's house to tell her that Rick's group is dangerous and will destroy what she is trying to build. Unbeknownst to him, Maggie overhears this conversation from the basement stairs. At around the same time, Carol pays a visit to Rick's house to inform him that she believes Pete is abusing Jessie, and is possibly doing the same to Sam as well. She tells Rick that there is no other choice when it comes to a situation like Pete's: "You're going to have to kill him."

Co-Stars

 * Corey Brill as Pete Anderson
 * Steve Coulter as Reg Monroe
 * Major Dodson as Sam Anderson
 * Ted Huckabee as Bruce
 * Dahlia Legault as Francine
 * Michael Traynor as Nicholas

Uncredited

 * Duane Kicak as Tommy
 * Robert Morato as Bobby
 * Matthew Lyda, James Frazier and Eric Nordhoff as Walkers

Deaths

 * Aiden Monroe
 * Noah

Trivia

 * First appearance of Bruce.
 * First appearance of Francine.
 * Last appearance of Noah. (Alive)
 * Last appearance of Aiden Monroe.
 * The title of the episode, "Spend", refers to the price everyone has to pay with Noah and Aiden's deaths.
 * While talking to Glenn, Noah reveals it has been one week since the events of "Remember".
 * The van the group uses bears a striking resemblance to the van the group finds on the road in Issue 61. The main similarity being the bird design on the side of the van.
 * The song that plays from the van during the departure to the nearby warehouse scene is "Internet Friends" by Knife Party.
 * Noah's death is foreshadowed in this scene when the lyrics "and now you're going to die" are spoken over a shot of Noah.
 * During the Talking Dead segment, Noah's death was parodied as "Everybody Ate Chris". This references "Everybody Hates Chris" a show based on Chris Rock's life as a teenager, which Tyler James Williams played the main character as.
 * Several easter eggs were confirmed during the Talking Dead segment of this episode. The titles for the last five episodes were taken from the quote Dale said back in "Vatos". "I like what the father said to the son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said: 'I give you a mausoleum of all hope and desire which will fit your individual needs, no better than it did mine and my father before me. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it. For a moment, now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'" a nod to all five titles.

Comic Parallels

 * Gabriel breaking down over his faith is adapted from Issue 74.
 * Abraham's anxiety before going to the construction site is adapted from Issue 73.
 * Abraham saving Francine's life at the construction site is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 73, where he saves Holly's life instead.
 * Francine punching Tobin for his cowardice is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 73, where Holly punches him instead.
 * Abraham taking leadership of the construction crew is adapted from Issue 74.
 * Tobin giving up his position is adapted from Issue 74.
 * Gabriel begging Deanna to exile Rick's group is adapted from Issue 75.