AMC’s The Walking Dead
Season 10, Episode 3: “Ghosts”
Directed by David Boyd
Written by Jim Barnes

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “We Are the End of the World” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Silence the Whisperers” – click here
We begin at 6 am, going hour by hour. Carol is up taking pills. Others are training. Even more are dealing with the approaching hordes of walkers headed towards Alexandria’s walls. Eugene and Aaron see “wave after wave” coming for their town. They know it’s because of Alpha, after Carol spied her near the border.
A whole 24 hours goes by and it hasn’t yet stepped. On and on the time extends, and the survivors of Alexandria don’t stop fighting. There are only more coming, too. Michonne sees no end in sight, looking through binoculars in the windmill trying to see if the undead will stop. Doesn’t seem that way.

People are getting tired.
That’s when a Whisperer steps right to the barrier. It’s Gamma. She tells them to head to the border, lay down their weapons, and wait for Alpha. Seems that the Alexandrians have a big decision to make. So they go to the townhouse for a meeting. They ask Lydia if it’s her mother. She doesn’t think so, considering Alpha would likely just kill them all instead of sending bits and pieces of the horde. Certain people are angry, like the remainders of the Watchmen, among others. Siddiq continues struggling with the PTSD, unable to listen to the angry mob.
There are “tens of thousands” of walkers stretching back to the border. Michonne makes clear revenge isn’t an option. They have to make sure they’re safe, and she wants to meet with Alpha. Some groups will watch the northern and southern borders while Daryl and Michonne go meet the Whisperers.
Aaron winds up having to take Negan along, too— ought to be interesting! He’s not taking any chances with their prisoner. The two of them start clearing zombies together, and it’s obvious he isn’t going to let Negan stray too far. Michonne, Carol, and Daryl lead their own group to the border, where they once found their friends’ heads on spikes. Not an easy place for any of them to be, especially Carol, who’s brought a back-up weapon. Out of the darkness comes Alpha. She doesn’t like people walking ‘her’ land. She makes clear they’re “always watching.” She won’t punish them. She’ll take more land. Carol gets angry. Alpha taunts about Henry’s death, so Carol pulls the gun and Daryl stops her before she shoots. Goddamn! Michonne pleads with the Whisperers’ leader, and nothing comes of it. Then the Whisperers claim their land.

When it’s time for Aaron and Negan to go back they get tense. The prisoner won’t be tied up to head for Alexandria. He’s angry for putting his neck on the line and getting disrespected. Aaron would rather him leave their group and Negan talks about what he “had to do” back then. He doesn’t see it that way, when the love of his life wound up killed because of the whole struggle. Whereas Negan recounts the “story of America” as a long line of people taking things from others, blaming Aaron for not saving his man. So Aaron brings up Negan’s dead wife. In the middle of it, Aaron is almost chomped by a zombie, and Negan disappears.

Carol sees several Whisperers across the border and it sends the group into a frenzy trying to find them. She, Daryl, and Michonne go looking, along with others. They come to a building, looking through the place. Carol stumbles onto a Home Economics book. She sees herself on the cover, along with all the dead children of her past, from her own daughter to the girls from the prison, and all the rest she’s watched die. This only has her taking more of those pills, which worries Daryl and Michonne. He actually thinks Carol’s hallucinating because of the pills + not getting sleep. She is, far worse than he knows, considering she’s even hallucinating conversations with him.

“We have no conflict with nature”

In an empty house, Negan hides in the dark, as a frantic, half-blinded Aaron hides away. He ends up saving his pal with a hammer. But is he going to do anything worse? Will he take this time to kill one of his captors? No. He explains that the walkers they fought have hogweed growing out of them. This can cause rashes and all sorts of other nasty stuff. He’s helpful, rather than hurtful. Has the big baddie actually turned a corner? Is he simply waiting for the right time to become his old self?

Carol walks into a trap. She’s suspended upside down after a rope takes her off her feet. Someone in a Whisperers mask watches her eerily, before leaving her to a crowd of zombies slowly approaching her. She fights with a knife and manages to cut herself free. She survives the onslaught in time for her shift on watch to end. Daryl and Michonne get her back to Siddiq so he can help patch her up. This starts to be trouble. Siddiq flashes back to those terrifying moments where he watched Alpha slaughter their friends. Thankfully his other doctor buddy’s there to give him a hand.

Carol keeps on descending into hallucinations. She believes she did see a Whisperer there, but nobody else truly believes her. Did she, really? Hard to tell if it was part of the hallucinating. The walkers were real, that’s for sure. Otherwise, it may be time to worry about Carol’s mental state. Michonne tries to keep a connection going with her children while she also worries about their town as a whole. Daryl remains someone for Carol to lean on, though he’s concerned about her, even if he trusts her word.
In the last moments, we see that Carol was quite right about the Whisperers.
A lot going in this episode. Many interesting things progressing, such as new developments with Carol, and it’s fun to see the various things that are pulling people together v. what’s tearing them apart. Great stuff in Season 10 so far.

“Silence the Whisperers” is next time.