Now

"Now" is the fifth episode of the sixth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the seventy-second episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 8, 2015. It was written by Corey Reed and directed by Avi Youabian.

Plot
Trouble is inside and outside the gate.

Synopsis
As Deanna takes in the aftermath of the Wolves' deadly attack, Michonne tells Maggie that Glenn didn't make it back with the group, but had promised to send a signal if he got stuck.

Just then, Rick sprints toward Alexandria as walkers emerge from the woods and surround him. Michonne opens the gate for Rick, slamming it shut just as the massive herd arrives.

Terrified Alexandrians gather by the wall as the herd pounds on the other side. Rick assures everyone that Daryl, Sasha and Abraham will return with their vehicles and lure the walkers away, with Glenn and Nicholas right behind them. He urges residents to keep noise and bright lights to a minimum, in the meantime.

Sensing the Alexandrians' growing frustration, Aaron confesses that the Wolves learned about Alexandria after finding photos of the compound in his lost backpack. He credits Rick with successfully leading half the herd away from Alexandria. Deanna walks away in a daze.

Later, Jessie drags the dead Wolf from her kitchen to the graveyard and starts to dig. Rick reminds her that they don't bury killers inside the walls, although he doesn't have a solution for how they should dispose of the bodies.

Scared residents raid the pantry, despite Olivia's attempts to ration food. Spencer passionately urges them to stop, lest they all suffer the consequences in the future. The residents comply, and Deanna smiles proudly at her son.

While walking, Aaron catches Maggie rigging a flashlight to a rod. Nearby, he sees a group of Alexandrians painting the names of the deceased on a memorial section of the wall. The list includes Glenn and Nicholas.

Aaron corners Maggie in the armory and correctly guesses her plan to search for Glenn. Seeing that she's determined to go through with it, he offers to help and proposes a safer way out than scaling the wall.

At home, Deanna gazes at Reg's wedding ring and snaps out of her daze. She spreads a map on a table and excitedly draws out plans for an expansion of the community. These include forward-looking notes like 'education' and 'exploration'. At the bottom of the plans she writes the Latin motto "DOLOR HIC TIBI PRODERIT OLIM": "someday this pain will be useful to you".

Deanna finds Spencer drunk in the kitchen, along with a bin of stolen food. She chastises him for raiding the supplies after his speech to the group. Spencer accuses Deanna of giving everyone a false sense of security and blames her for Reg and Aiden's deaths. Shocked at his behaviour and the accusations thrown at her, Deanna returns to a semi-catatonic state.

Meanwhile, Carl asks Ron to help him find Enid. Ron refuses and threatens to tell Rick if Carl goes after Enid on his own. They fight, and Carl throws Ron to the ground.

At the infirmary, Denise pores through medical books in desperate search of a treatment for Scott, who's unconscious with a life-threatening infection due to his leg wound. Tara stops by, and tries to lift Denise's spirits. However, Denise remains frustrated and scared.

While walking by a neighbor's house, Jessie spots a zombified Betsy with slashed wrists through a window. Residents gather around and curiously watch Jessie kill Betsy. "This is what life looks like now," she says. "We have to see it. We have to fight it. Because if we don't, we die."

Meanwhile, Aaron shows Maggie a sewage grate, and says the sewer leads underneath the wall. Despite Maggie's protests, he insists on joining her. Once underground, Aaron expresses his guilt over leading the Wolves to Alexandria. He saves Maggie from two walkers that emerge from the sewer muck. Maggie urges him to turn back, as he is bleeding from a wound on his head that will most likely need stitches. However, Aaron refuses and they continue walking through the sewers.

Back at the infirmary, Denise reads a passage in her medical book and injects saline into Scott's infected leg. She smiles as her syringe fills with pus and his heart rate stabilizes.

From the lookout post, Rick radios Sasha and Abraham but gets no response. Ron finds Rick and tells him that he stopped Carl from pursuing Enid in the woods. He asks for shooting lessons. Rick hands his gun to Ron and instructs him to target a walker in the herd.

Meanwhile, Denise walks up to Tara on her porch and kisses her, confessing that she is scared for the community. Tara smiles and insists that it isn't the end of the world.

Maggie and Aaron reach the end of the sewage tunnel only to find it blocked with walkers outside. Maggie says they can't keep going, tearfully admitting that she's pregnant. "I don't know if he's alive,' Maggie cries. "I don't get to know what will happen.' She and Aaron hug.

Back at Jessie's house, Jessie tries to convince Sam to come downstairs. He stays on the second floor, afraid to return to the area where Jessie murdered the Wolf.

That night, Deanna is on her way to return Spencer's stolen rations when a walker (a turned Wolf) attacks her. Once again snapping out of her daze, she stabs it repeatedly with a broken bottle, knocking it down and covering herself with blood. Eventually, Rick arrives and kills it. "I want to live. I want this place to stay standing," Deanna tells him. Rick urges her to lead the residents, but she insists that it's him they need. Still reeling from Spencer's accusation, she asks Rick if her vision for Alexandria was pie-in-the-sky. "No," he tells her.

Maggie erases Glenn's name from the memorial wall. Aaron helps, and jokingly suggests that Aaron/Erin is a good name for a boy or a girl.

Spencer relieves Rosita from the lookout post. She thanks him for taking out the Wolves' truck and credits him with the fact that the wall is still standing. After she leaves, Spencer munches on stolen crackers.

Rick joins Jessie in her garage and admits he expected Glenn and the others to have returned by now. She assures him they might still be alive. "This is what life looks like now,' he says, echoing her words from earlier. Jessie says there has to be a future and asks Rick to tell her there's more. He nods, and kisses her.

Deanna walks up to the gate with renewed determination, watching the walkers banging at the fence. She bangs back. As she walks away, we see blood start leaking through a crack in the wall.

Co-Stars

 * Vanessa Cloke as Anna
 * Ted Huckabee as Bruce
 * Jasmine Kaur as Betsy
 * Mandi Christine Kerr as Barbara
 * Dahlia Legault as Francine
 * Jordan Woods-Robinson as Eric Raleigh
 * David Marshall Silverman as Kent

Deaths

 * Betsy (Alive and Zombified)
 * 1 unnamed Wolf (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)

Trivia

 * First appearance of Anna.
 * First (and last) appearance of Betsy.
 * Last appearance of Charlyne. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Bobby. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Michael. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Park. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Dan. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Dinesh. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Samantha. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of O'Hara. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Adrian. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Jeffery. (Corpse)
 * Ann Mahoney (Olivia) is upgraded from "Co-Star" to "Also Starring" in this episode.
 * Promotional photos released for this episode reveal a deleted scene showing Michonne, Scott, and Heath returning to Alexandria from the previous episode.
 * The episode title, "Now", comes from Jessie's speech to the Alexandrians. "This is what life looks like now".
 * It also may refer to Rick yelling "Open the gate now!"
 * The original title was "The Locket".
 * The zombified Wolf is mentioned to be one that was killed by Carol whose body she could never find. He appears to be the same male Wolf she shot twice in the back in the armory. He ran off and left blood behind but was not seen again. Apparently he crawled under a house where he ultimately died and reanimated.
 * This episode marks Lauren Cohan's 50th appearance on the TV Series as Maggie Greene.
 * Coincidentally, this episode is marked to be around Issue 78 of the Comic Series which then was Maggie Greene's 50th appearance.
 * AMC accidentally uploaded the promo for the sixth episode, "Always Accountable", on their website and on their YouTube channel instead of this episode. AMC took the video down when they noticed their mistake.
 * In this episode, it's revealed that Maggie is pregnant.
 * This episode revealed that Denise is a lesbian or bisexual.
 * Talking Dead revealed that the two walkers that Maggie and Aaron encountered in the sewer were Alexandrians who were exiled trying to return.
 * The Latin sentence which Deanna writes down on the town map, is the second half of a commonly quoted line from Ovid's Amores. The full line is "Perfer et obdura: dolor hic tibi proderit olim". It translates to "Be patient and hardy: this pain will be useful to you one day".

Comic Parallels

 * The walker herd arriving at the gates of Alexandria is adapted from Issue 79.
 * Rick's speech to the residents to try to calm them down is adapted from Issue 80.
 * Carl and Ron's fight is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 71, where Carl fights with Mikey instead.
 * Denise treating an injured Scott in the infirmary is adapted from Issue 73.
 * Maggie revealing to Aaron she is pregnant is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 97, where Maggie reveals it to Glenn instead.
 * Deanna telling Rick that the community actually needs his leadership is adapted from Issue 78.
 * Rick and Jessie's kiss is adapted from Issue 80.