Heads Up

"Heads Up" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the seventy-fourth episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 22, 2015. It was written by Channing Powell and directed by David Boyd.

Plot
Things in Alexandria are quiet, briefly.

Synopsis
In the alley where Nicholas and Glenn tumbled off a dumpster into a herd of walkers, Glenn lies pinned underneath Nicholas' body as walkers disembowel it. Eventually, Glenn squirms to safety underneath the dumpster, stabbing at the walkers reaching for him until their corpses block him in.

Days pass as Glenn waits for the herd to move on. Finally, he crawls out and searches for water. "Heads up," says a voice, moments before a water bottle hits the ground. It's Enid, who is standing on the roof of an adjacent building. She tells Glenn that Alexandria was attacked, but runs away before he can question her further. Glenn chases Enid into the street, but loses her.

In Alexandria, Rick asks Morgan if they can speak later. Rick inspects the perimeter wall and notices a crack in the wall, with blood trickling through from the other side.

Rick joins Maggie at the lookout post, where she anxiously scans the horizon for a sign from Glenn. Rick proposes that they lure the walkers away from Alexandria, so that Glenn and the others can safely return.

Meanwhile, Glenn discovers David -- the Alexandrian who died at the fence and has now turned -- and stabs him through the head. Nearby, he finds the farewell note that David wrote to his wife, the note that Michonne said he would not need because he would make it. He starts to head back to Alexandria, but at the last minute, has a change of heart and goes after Enid.

Back in Alexandria, Gabriel is posting signs for a prayer circle that he has planned for later that day. Rick shreds it as he strides by Gabriel, who patiently replaces it with a new sign.

Rick and Carl teach Ron how to use a gun. Rick stresses the importance of waiting for the right moment to shoot, and not having your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot. He gives Ron an unloaded gun, but refuses to let him practice with ammunition.

Morgan is on his way to the infirmary when Rick flags him down. Rick, Michonne and Carol confront Morgan about his refusal to kill the Wolves during the attack. Morgan maintains that "all life is precious" (what he told Daryl in "Conquer") and that bad people are capable of changing. "Making it now," Rick challenges, "do you really think you can do that without getting blood on your hands?"

"I don't know," Morgan admits.

On the porch, Rick and Michonne come up with a strategy to lure the walkers away from Alexandria. Michonne urges Rick to enlist the Alexandrians' help in executing the plan, but Rick is unsure. Deanna walks up, and excitedly reveals plans for an expansion to the community. She tells them that she now believes there will be an "after".

Rosita offers machete lessons to a group of Alexandrians. Eugene attends, but recoils at the weapon and admits he's scared of dying. Rosita gruffly tells him that dying is easy — what's hard is letting your friends die because you were too scared to save them. Eugene walks away while Rosita continues on with her lesson.

Meanwhile, Glenn finds Enid hiding in a restaurant. He orders her to return to Alexandria, but she refuses. When Glenn becomes more insistent, Enid points a gun at him. However, she begrudgingly complies when he wrests it away from her.

In Alexandria, Rick is building new supports for the wall. Tobin joins him. As they are placing the wooden boards, Tobin sees the crack in the wall, with blood tricking through from the outside. Rick assures him that the wall will survive as long as they shore it up. Tobin admits that residents had been reluctant to change, but acknowledges that Rick has been right all along. "Don't give up on us," Tobin urges.

Glenn and Enid find the green balloons left over from Rick's walker-herding mission. Enid suggests they use the balloons to distract walkers. Glenn directs her to a bush showing more balloons and a helium tank. As Enid inflates the balloons, she tells him that she was "orphaned by walkers". Glenn lectures her against acting rashly out of fear. "We don't have to talk." Enid says harshly.

In the pantry at Alexandria, Ron knocks over items to distract Olivia so he can steal bullets from the armory.

Glenn and Enid finally arrive at Alexandria and find it surrounded by walkers. Enid's mood sinks but Glenn insists they move on.

Meanwhile, Spencer shimmies over the wall along a rope he's attached to the watchtower with a grappling hook. Rick screams at Spencer to turn back, which he doesn't. Tara and Eugene notice that the rope is slackening, and Eugene goes to get help. As the grappling hook loses its grip, Spencer falls into the herd. Tara hangs off the wall, and begins shooting at walkers so he has a chance to escape. Soon after, Rick, Tobin & Morgan manage to pull Spencer up to safety.

Rick chastises Tara for endangering her life (yet again) to save an Alexandrian, and then turns his rage on Spencer. Spencer explains that he had intended to find a car to draw the walkers away from the wall. Rick orders Spencer to come to him before executing any future strategies. Spencer questions whether Rick would have listened to him if he had.

At the infirmary, Denise is curious when Morgan stops by to ask for antibiotics. After some probing, he admits that they are not for him.

Carol suspiciously watches Morgan lead Denise to the townhouse with the jail cell (in which Owen, the leader of the Wolves is being kept). She heads to Jessie's house, and asks if she can watch Judith, under the pretense that she has to stand watch. Sam calls down to her from upstairs, asking if the people who attacked them were monsters. "If you kill people, do you turn into one of the monsters?" he asks. Carol says that killing is the only way to keep from becoming a monster.

At the townhouse, Carol unlocks the door but Morgan stops her from entering. She demands to know who he is holding in the cell.

Meanwhile, Carl is seen walking down the street. Ron quietly follows behind him, gun in hand.

As Rick and Tobin shore up the wall, Rick sees Tara and apologizes for yelling at her. Deanna thanks Rick for saving Spencer, but Rick demurs and says that she should be thanking Tara. Deanna informs him that she already did. Rick then tells her that had he jumped off the wall and found a vehicle himself, Spencer would be dead by now. Deanna agrees that he could have done that, but he didn't. She asks why he decided to save Spencer. "Because he's your son," Rick says. "Wrong answer," Deanna replies.

As Maggie stands watch, she sees the balloons that Glenn and Enid are using to distract the walkers, floating toward the sky. She runs to Rick, saying it has to be Glenn. But just as her hope is restored, the watchtower topples over and crashes into the perimeter wall.

Co-Stars

 * Jay Huguley as David
 * Mandi Christine Kerr as Barbara
 * Katelyn Nacon as Enid
 * David Marshall Silverman as Kent
 * Michael Traynor as Nicholas

Uncredited

 * Chloe & Sophia Garcia-Frizzi as Judith Grimes
 * Curtis Jackson as Bob Miller
 * Marvin Lee as Kyle
 * Anne McBrayer Childress as Alexandria Resident
 * AV Ford as Alexandria Resident
 * Randy Gibson as Alexandria Resident
 * Jennifer Davis Brennan as Alexandria Resident
 * Sebastian Lobo as Alexandria Resident

Deaths

 * David (Zombified)

Trivia

 * Last appearance of Nicholas. (Voice/Corpse)
 * Last appearance of David. (Zombified)
 * The title of the episode, "Heads Up", is a reference to one Enid telling Glenn "heads up" after tossing a water bottle down to him.
 * The title can also be interpreted as a reference to when everyone looked up, and witnessed the tower falling down.
 * After being removed from the "Starring" section in "Thank You", Steven Yeun is relisted in the opening titles.
 * This is the second time that a main cast member has been removed from the opening credits and re-added in the same season. The first being Hershel Greene.
 * This episode also marks the return of Enid, who last appeared in "JSS".
 * This is the first episode in Season 6 that does not feature a living character's death.
 * This is also the first episode in Season 6 that does not introduce a new character.

Comic Parallels

 * Rosita's machete lessons to the Alexandria residents and Eugene is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 86, where Andrea gives shooting lessons to the residents and Maggie instead.
 * Spencer's failed attempt to traverse over the herd with a rope and his subsequent rescue is adapted from Issue 81.
 * The tower collapsing onto the wall is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 81, where the wall collapses due to the herd instead.