Consumed

"Consumed" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the fifty-seventh episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 16, 2014. It was written by Matt Negrete & Corey Reed and directed by Seith Mann.

Plot
Cautiously, members of our group must venture into a familiar location on a heroic rescue mission. It's a huge stage, but so are the stakes.

Synopsis
The episode begins with a flashback of Carol driving away from Rick in the station wagon, right after she was exiled from the group. Carol parks on the side of the road, and is sobbing against the steering wheel. A walker comes up and starts banging on the window. She screams at it to go away, before driving off.

Carol pulls up in front of a building that used to be a law firm. She goes inside, and rattles a can of pens to see if any walkers are inside. There is no response, so Carol gathers some empty bottles from a recycling bin to use for water storage. Later that night, Carol finishes reading a magazine and blows out a candle. She goes to sleep with her pistol in her hand. The following day, Carol is at the window, setting up plastic bags to capture rain water. She spots a plume of smoke billowing up from the direction of the prison. Carol quickly gets in her station wagon and drives to the prison, presumably to see if her old group needs help.

Presently, Carol and Daryl are following the car with a white cross on its window. Carol asks Daryl about his time with Beth after the prison. She then suggests that they end their search quickly by just running the car off the road. Daryl is unconvinced, reasoning that the driver might refuse to talk. He points out that they have the advantage right now, and if Beth is being held, they will do what they have to do in order to get her back.

As the car enters the city, it comes to a stop. Daryl stops a few yards behind it, trying to be inconspicuous. The car sits still for awhile, after which someone dressed in police uniform gets out on the passenger side. Daryl observes that there are actually two people in the vehicle, then suddenly, a walker comes up and starts banging on their car.

The police officer starts grabbing bicycles, and putting them in a pile of sorts. He then appears to be dragging something that resembles a body. At one point, the police officer appears to look back at Daryl and Carol's car, after which he gets back in his own vehicle. As it drives off to leave, Daryl tries to crank the engine so they can follow. However, the gas tank is empty and it won't start.

Daryl tells Carol that they need to find some place to hold up until sunrise. Carol says she knows a place just a couple blocks away, then rolls down the window to stab a walker in the head.

They come upon an office building, and decide to take shelter for the night. Daryl finds some keys on the body of a walker, which helps them unlock several doors inside. Daryl asks Carol if she used to work in this building, or something similar. Carol says, "Something." and doesn't encourage the conversation.

Daryl asks what this place is, and Carol says that it's temporary housing. He asks if she came here, and Carol says that she did, but didn't stay long. They find a room with bunk beds, and Carol says that she will take the top bunk. She then tells Daryl to rest, because she's got first watch.

As Daryl sits on the bottom bunk, Carol asks, "You said that we get to start over. Did you?" Daryl says, "I'm trying." He asks her what's really on her mind, and Carol says that she doesn't think they get to save people anymore. Daryl asks, "Then why are you here," and Carol replies, "I'm trying." Daryl asks what would have happened if he hadn't shown up when Carol was out by the car, and Carol says she still doesn't know. She lays down beside Daryl, on the bottom bunk.

Suddenly, they hear a sound, and Daryl grabs his crossbow. They both go down a long hallway to see a couple of child walkers and a female walker clawing on the other side of a glass door. Carol starts to go in the room with her knife, but Daryl tells her that she doesn't have to.

Carol wakes up the next morning to see smoke billowing up outside. Daryl has built a fire. He is carrying the bodies of the child walkers in sheets and puts them into the fire. Carol goes outside and thanks Daryl.

In a flashback, Carol is digging a grave, and Tyreese is carrying the bodies of Lizzie and Mika. Carol looks up to see smoke billowing up in the distance.

Back in present time, Daryl and Carol are packing up to go outside. Daryl says they need to get up in a tall building to look around for whoever has Beth. They make their way outside and keep close to the building walls. Daryl peers around a corner and sees several walkers in the roadway. He sees a bridge crossway linking two buildings, and he tells Carol that they can get up there. Daryl takes a notepad out from his backpack and lights it on fire. He throws it out to distract the walkers. Then, Daryl and Carol run by the walkers. They traverse a covered parking lot and enter the building through a door. As the door closes behind Carol, the outline of a person can be seen standing up between the cars, watching her.

As Daryl and Carol try to go across the bridge between buildings, they find several walkers in sleeping bags and tents. Daryl shoots arrows into and stabs the sleeping bag walkers, and they carefully make their way around the walkers trapped in tents. The camera focuses on a window beyond the bridge, and the outline of a person (the same person watching them from the garage) can be seen moving the curtains. Daryl and Carol crawl through an opening in a door that is chained up.

Daryl and Carol make their way into what looks like an executive's office. Carol looks out the window at the burned and destroyed city below. Carol says that Daryl still hasn't asked her what happened after she met up with Tyreese and the girls. Daryl says he knows what happened that they ain't here, but Carol says it was worse than that. Daryl says that the reason he says that they get to start over is because they have to. "Fuck the way it was," Daryl says. Carol agrees.

Daryl notices something outside. He looks through the scope of Carol's rifle. He shows Carol a van that is wrecked on the bridge. It has two white crosses on the rear window, so he thinks it could be a lead to whoever has Beth. Carol starts filling up her canteen from a water cooler. Daryl looks at a painting and says that he bets it cost some rich prick a lot of money. Daryl says it looks like a dog sat in paint and wiped its ass all over the place, but Carol says she kind of likes it.

Daryl and Carol make their way back through the small opening in the chained door. Carol pushes the rifle through the doorway and goes outside first. When Daryl gets outside, the person who watched them from the garage and from the window across from the bridge is revealed to be Noah, who is holding the rifle and has the drop on both of them. Noah tells Daryl to lay down his crossbow. Noah says that no one has to get hurt that he just needs their weapons. Noah tells them that they look tough and that they will be alright. Then, he cuts the tents open and lets the walkers out, before running away.

Daryl stabs one of the walkers, and Carol pulls out a pistol and shoots one of the walkers. Carol points her gun at Noah's back, but Daryl pushes the gun away so she misses.

They chase after Noah, but he is gone. Carol asks Daryl if he thought that she was going to kill him. Carol says that she was aiming for his leg. Daryl says that he was just a kid. Carol points out that he got their weapons and without weapons they and Beth could die.

In a flashback scene, Carol is burning the bodies of Karen and David back at the prison.

Back in the present, Daryl and Carol make their way to the van on the bridge. The van is halfway off the edge of the bridge, and Carol points out that it's not stable. As they search the van, a horde of walkers approach. Daryl notices hospital supplies in the van, and Carol says Grady Memorial Hospital is nearby.

As the walkers reach the van, Daryl stabs some of the walkers, and Carol uses her last three bullets. However, they are overrun by walkers and have to climb back into the van to escape.

As they climb into the front of the van, Daryl tells Carol to buckle up, as the walkers push the van off the bridge. The van lands right side up. Daryl and Carol are dazed, but they are both okay. A couple of walkers fall off the bridge onto the van. Daryl and Carol make their way out of the van and take off on foot.

Daryl and Carol are stopped outside a building to rest, and Daryl gives Carol some water to drink. Carol's shoulder is injured, but she says that she's had worse. Carol jokes that they made good time getting down.

Carol says they are only three blocks from Grady. Daryl and Carol enter a building, and Daryl finds a very weak walker on the floor, still holding a machete. He takes the machete and uses it to put down the walker. They look across at the hospital. Daryl asks Carol that if he isn't like he was before what was he like before then? Carol says that he was like a kid, but now he's a man. Daryl asks, "What about you?" Carol says that she and Sophia stayed at the shelter for a day and half, then she went running back to Ed. Carol says that she got beat up, but she didn't do anything. Carol says that who she was when she was with Ed, got burned away. Carol says that at the prison she got to be who she always thought she should have been, but then she got burned away. Carol says everything now consumes you. Daryl says, "We ain't ashes."

Daryl hears something, and they both go to investigate. It's a walker that is stuck to the wall by an arrow. Carol asks Daryl if it's one of his arrows, and Daryl says, "Yeah." They hear gunfire, and they walk around the corner of the hall to see Noah struggling with a walker. Noah breaks free, and the walker attacks Carol, but Daryl kills it. Daryl chases after Noah and finds him trying to move a bookshelf that is blocking a door. Daryl pushes Noah into the bookshelf, and it falls back on Noah pinning him beneath. There is a walker struggling to get through the door that was behind the bookshelf.

Carol catches up, and Daryl and Carol take their weapons back. Noah asks why they followed him and begs them for help, but Daryl says he already helped him once and it "ain’t happening again". Daryl finds a carton of cigarettes and lights a smoke. Carol yells at Daryl to help Noah, but Daryl says to let him be and walks away. The walker pushes through the door and is about to get Noah, but Daryl turns around and shoots the walker with an arrow at the last second.

In a flashback, Carol is in the woods after her attack on Terminus. She falls to her knees and starts to wipe off all the walker blood and guts she smeared on herself to get past the walkers and get inside. She picks up her weapons and starts to walk, while the smoke from Terminus billows in the background.

Daryl and Carol pull the bookshelves off of Noah. Noah goes to the window, and he warns them that "they", the people at the hospital, will come now because they probably heard the shot. Daryl asks him if he saw a blonde girl at the hospital, and Noah says, "Beth, you know her?" Noah explains that Beth helped him get away, but that she is still there. Carol spots one of the cars belonging to the hospital, circling the building below them.

Daryl, Carol, and Noah take off running to try to escape before the people from the hospital get there. Noah falls down and Daryl stops to help him up, so Carol runs out the door first where she is instantly hit by a station wagon with the distinct white cross on the back. Daryl struggles as Noah holds him back from going outside and the pair witness Officer O'Donnell and Officer Alvarado load her onto a stretcher, carry her into the car and speed off back to the hospital. Noah says that they can help her that they have medicine, machines, and a doctor. Noah states that if Daryl had went out there, he would've had to kill them, and then Carol wouldn't be able to get their help.

Daryl asks Noah what it's going to take to get Carol and Beth back, and Noah says "A lot, because they have guns and people." Daryl replies that, "So do we." Daryl and Noah escape through a fence, and they find a truck to drive away in. Daryl and Noah are driving in the truck as the episode ends.

Co-Stars

 * Ricky Wayne as Officer O'Donnell

Uncredited

 * Sammy Hadid as Officer Alvarado
 * Matthew Lyda, Stephen Vining and Chris Harrelson as Walkers

Deaths

 * None

Trivia

 * Last appearance of Karen. (Flashback, Corpse)
 * Last appearance of David. (Flashback, Corpse)
 * The title of the episode, "Consumed", refers to Carol claiming that the new world "consumes you".
 * The original title was "Heart Drift", but it was changed for unknown reasons.
 * The scene where Carol and Daryl enter Atlanta, via Interstate 85, is identical to the scene from "Days Gone Bye" where Rick enters the city on horseback.
 * On Talking Dead, it is revealed that Noah is the one with Daryl at the end of "Four Walls and a Roof".
 * This is the second episode to feature the prison in a flashback after the group had left it, the first being "A".
 * There are 10 fires shown in this episode. All fires in the flashbacks are lit by Carol (sans for one of the towers at the prison) while all in the present are lit by Daryl. White or black smoke from fires is a recurring theme that's often associated with Carol.
 * This episode features nods/flashbacks to nine previous episodes, "Days Gone Bye", "What Lies Ahead", "Chupacabra", "Infected", "Indifference", "Too Far Gone", "Inmates", "The Grove", and "No Sanctuary".
 * The shot of Rick Grimes riding on horseback in "Days Gone Bye" into Atlanta is paralleled when Daryl and Carol drive into Atlanta in the same fashion.
 * The exact same shot of the tank in "What Lies Ahead" is shown in this episode, however this time with more plant growth.
 * The aftermath of the bombings in the "Chupacabra" flashback are shown in the episode when Daryl and Carol look out the window of a building.
 * Karen and David's corpses from "Infected" are shown in a flashback.
 * Carol and Tyreese burying Mika and Lizzie during the events of "The Grove" is shown in a flashback.
 * Carol taking off the zombie guts-covered robe during the events of "No Sanctuary" is shown in a flashback.
 * Carol is shown driving away from Rick at the end of the events of "Indifference", driving to the prison to see a burning prison tower from the events of "Too Far Gone", and shown driving past the "Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates" sign from "Inmates", in the opening flashback of this episode.


 * The song featured in this episode is "Bad Blood" by Alison Mosshart and Eric Arjes.
 * In the van there is a Virgin Mary figurine facing away from the camera. This is a reference to Lost, where inside a plane that was halfway over the edge of a cliff (like the van is hanging over the side of the highway) there were many Virgin Mary figurines that were filled with heroin.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Daryl lies back on the bunk bed beside Carol, the pillow is suddenly behind him (and under his head) rather than being at the head of the bed as it was in the previous shot.
 * When Daryl throws the notepad he kills a walker that spotted him and Carol. The walker's body falls right next to a red pole like object, but in the next scene the walker's body has been repositioned behind the red pole and is much further away.
 * The vans front end is undamaged, even though it apparently has driven through the thick fence of the bridge.
 * When the van falls off the bridge, even though it flips upside down, it lands the right side up.