Season 5, Episode 6
Consumed
- Daryl and Carol journey into the heart of Atlanta in search of Beth, questioning how far they've come along the way.
Carol is exiled by Rick after admitting to the deaths of Karen and David at the prison. As she drives away, her eyes well up with tears, and she stops a short time later, crying in the station wagon while a walker hits on the window. Shortly afterwards, she locates an abandoned building and scavenges some supplies before resting, but upon waking up the next morning, she notices a plume of smoke in the distance — the direction of the prison. Heading back as quickly as she can, Carol arrives at the front gates only to find the prison is on fire and abandoned...
In the present, Daryl and Carol are still chasing after the white medical hearse, similar to the one that kidnapped Beth. The duo chase the vehicle into Atlanta along the I-85 freeway, eventually tailing the vehicle to a base within the city. The duo watches as a police officer gets out, starts pulling together a collection of bicycles into a pile, and drags what appears to be a body into the backseat. His attention is momentarily diverted by a walker banging on the car after it was alerted to Carol and Daryl's presence, but he soon ignores it and gets back into the car, driving off. Daryl says they'll need to find a spot to hole up for the night, then do more recon in the morning. Carol says she knows a place, and they set off.
Upon getting to the location, the duo break in and find a corpse with a set of keys for the facility. When questioned as to why she knows of the place, Carol tells him it was "temporary housing", and they settle in for the night. After discussing each other's abuse at the hands of other family members, the pair are distracted by a pair of walkers — presumably a mother and daughter — that are locked in a nearby apartment. The next morning, Daryl dispatches them and gives them a proper burial. Carol briefly pauses to remember how she and Tyreese buried Lizzie and Mika at the grove.
The pair pack some additional supplies and set out to find a higher vantage point. Passing through streets in the downtown core, they see scorch marks from the firebombing originally conducted by the military. Upon spotting a building they can use to survey the area, the pair use a distraction to get in and make their way upwards, dispatching several walkers along the way as they move through a parking garage — but they are being tailed by an unknown individual. Up several floors, the duo moves into an apartment and looks out over the downtown core, which has been bombed out from Operation Cobalt. Carol points out that Daryl never asked her about what happened to Lizzie and Mika, and he says he has a pretty good idea - "You're here. They're not." Carol claims it's worse than he could imagine, but she doesn't elaborate further.
Looking across the area, they notice another of the white hearses stuck at an angle on a bridge, and decide to check it out. However, on their way back down to ground level, they are impeded by... Noah, who uses a distraction to grab Carol's rifle when she pushes it through a narrow opening, and holds the duo at gunpoint. He confiscates Daryl's crossbow, telling them he needs weapons, before fleeing and cutting a set of tents the duo passed earlier, which had walkers in them on his way out. The duo dispatches the walkers, but are unable to follow Noah due to him barricading his exit door. Conversely, Carol tries to shoot Noah as he flees, but Daryl throws off her aim, reasoning that he's just a kid. The pair begin to argue over their choices since leaving the prison as they exit the parking garage through another entrance, and Carol notices Daryl took a book about domestic abuse from the apartment when it spills out of his bag.
The pair make their way to the crashed van by the bridge and begin to search for documentation, while walkers begin to converge on their position. Carol discovers a medical gurney that identifies it as having come from Grady Memorial, but their search is cut short when walkers begin to surround the car. Despite dispatching several of them, they are quickly forced to make their way back inside and close the rear doors. Strapping themselves into the front seats as the walkers continue to push on the vehicle, it begins to give way and teeter over the bridge. Carol holds Daryl's hand as the vehicle falls off the bridge, landing rightside up. Despite being mildly injured, both manage to climb out of the van.
After recovering for a few minutes, the pair make it to a building across the street from Grady Memorial. While scouting the site and collecting supplies, Carol tells Daryl that she stayed at the temporary housing facility with Sophia for a day-and-a-half while running from Ed, and comments on how much she's changed since the onset of the apocalypse.
The calm moment is broken by the growl of a walker. When the pair goes to investigate, they find a walker with one of Daryl's arrows stuck in its neck, indicating that Noah had used the weapon to impede it. After retrieving the arrow and dispatching it, they find Noah further down the hall, attempting to hold off another walker by pushing a bookcase into a door and shooting at it. Daryl bum-rushes him and knocks him down, causing him to be trapped under the bookcase. Noah begs for them to help him, but Daryl disregards his cries, claiming he already turned on them once. Before leaving, he stops to have a smoke and stomps off, while Carol tells him to do something. Just when it seems Noah will be eaten, Daryl dispatches the walker with an arrow.
In a final Flashback, Carol stumbles through the forest after dispatching Mary in Terminus, and cleans the blood and gore-covered sheets off herself before moving on. In the present, Noah thanks the pair for saving him, and says that the hospital staff probably heard the gunshots and will be looking for him. Upon realizing he was at the hospital, Daryl questions him about a "blonde girl", and Noah says that Beth helped them escape. Realizing that Noah is an ally, they bring him along as he directs them to a building next door while they'll be safe.
As the newly-formed trio moves to escape the building, Carol moves on ahead — but is suddenly hit and knocked away by a station wagon driven by the hospital cops. Daryl is horrified, but Noah tells him to wait, as he indicates that the hospital will be able to treat her injuries, and that she'll be safe for the time being. He also indicates that they will have to storm the hospital if they'll want to rescue Beth and Carol.
Together, Daryl and Noah sneak out of the downtown core and steal a truck, driving back out of the city and towards Rick's group so that they can plan a rescue mission...
Tropes:
- Action Survivor: Noah is far from being a Non-Action Guy, but he's far from being a bonafide Action Hero either.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Daryl and Carol.
- Arc Symbol: Fire, mostly for Carol, but it's used for both her and Daryl too.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Walkers are repeatedly distracted by fire, then by any nearby movement.
- Badass Boast:Daryl: What's it gonna take? (to take down Grady)Noah: A lot. They've got guns and people.Daryl: So do we.
- Big Bad: Grady Memorial Hospital and Dawn are cemented as this by this episode.
- Brass Balls: Noah, according to Daryl when he's being threatened by him.Daryl: You got some sack on you, for sure.
- Camera Abuse: Blood splatters onto the camera when Carol shoots a walker coming towards her while the pair fight beside the van on the bridge.
- Character Development: The episode spends most of its time focusing on Daryl and Carol questioning if they've really changed since the apocalypse began.
- Continuity Porn: Lots of references to previous episodes in the series are made.
- Flashbacks throughout the episode focus on Carol disposing of infected corpses, when she was exiled from the prison by Rick, when she discovered the ruins in the wake of the Governor's attack, and right before she reunited with Rick and Daryl after Terminus.
- Carol passes the shot-up "Inmates" sign on her way to the prison, which is walked past by several characters late in the fourth season.
- Daryl and Carol entering Atlanta is a shot for shot reference to the iconic shot of Rick entering the city in the pilot.
- It may not be the exact same tank, but the shot of a derelict tank is another reference to the pilot.
- There are scorch marks in the streets from the napalming of Atlanta, an event referred to several times and seen in a season 2 flashback.
- The walker that only has half its torso is a clear nod to the first walker Rick encountered during the pilot and later put down.
- The child that turned clearly served as a cruel reminder of what happened to Sophia, as few child walkers have been seen since.
- Daryl takes a book instructing how to treat victims of child abuse. It was revealed in "Home" that Daryl and Merle were victims of abuse at the hands of their father, with Daryl taking the brunt of it after Merle abandoned him.
- Similarly, Carol mentions her past as Ed's battered wife.
- Due to the Dead: Having encountered a pair of walkers (likely a mother and daughter) trapped in one of the apartments within the facility they camp out at for the night, Daryl dispatches them and incinerates the bodies the following morning, much to Carol's relief.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: When Daryl asks Noah for Beth, he mentions her blond hair. In turn, Noah immediately figures out its Beth upon hearing it.
- Foregone Conclusion: We know from "Slabtown" that Carol will end up a captive of Grady Memorial, and from "Four Walls and a Roof" that Daryl returns to the church with a companion, but this episode shows us how it happened.
- Ghost City: With the exception of Daryl, Carol, Noah and the staff/patients of Grady Memorial, Atlanta appears to be completely derelict, with only walkers left roaming the streets.
- Gut Punch: What seeing the child walker very clearly is for Carol.
- How We Got Here:
- The episode serves as this for the conclusions of both "Four Walls and a Roof" (Daryl returning to the group) and "Slabtown" (Beth seeing Carol being brought to Grady)
- The episode also explains Carol's actions between many of the fourth season episodes — specifically, what she did after she was exiled, up to the point where she found Tyreese, Lizzie and Mika.
- Idiot Ball: Carol's lack of situational awareness fuels the plot of the last half of the episode, as she pushes her rifle through a door before crawling through and before checking that the coast is clear (especially since the hallway they are moving through still has active walkers, albeit trapped in tents), thus enabling Noah to steal her weapon and hold Carol and Daryl at gunpoint.
- Late to the Tragedy: In the opening flashback, Carol makes her way back to the prison after seeing smoke rising in the distance, but arrives to find the place on fire and abandoned, having been decimated during the battle between Rick's group and The Governor.
- Machete Mayhem: Daryl recovers a machete held by a walker, and uses it to great effect to take down several walkers and rescue Carol from one.
- Noodle Incident: The situation Daryl and Carol find in the parking garage access bridge — several people died and reanimated while in sleeping bags and tents, with no explanation as to why all of them died at the same time. The scene causes Daryl to remark that he's now Seen It All.
- Precision F-Strike: Unlike the previous season finale, which had a line censored by AMC due to dropping the F-bomb (Rick's "They're messing with the wrong people"), Daryl is heard making the remark when he and Carol look out over Atlanta's bombed-out downtown core:Fuck the way it was.
- Rescue Arc: This episode marks the true beginning of one for Beth and Carol.
- Runaway Hideaway: It's heavily implied, but not explicitly stated, that the apartment Carol directs Daryl to is a shelter for female victims of domestic abuse. When questioned, Carol refers to it being "temporary housing" and states that she didn't stay long, only for a day and a half with Sophia when they once ran away from Ed.
- Scenery Porn: Outside of the first season, this is the longest look we've seen of Atlanta yet, with the firebombed downtown core, surrounding streets and parks all glimpsed in various states of disrepair.
- Security Cling: Before their van goes off of the bridge, Carol grabs Daryl's hand for comfort.
- Seen It All: Averted, when Daryl and Carol come across walkers trapped in tents and sleeping bags.
- Sequel Hook: Noah and Daryl head back to Rick's group with the intent of rallying the Badass Crew into action to save Carol and Beth.
- Ship Tease: Daryl and Carol.
- Spotting the Thread: Despite the darkness, a Grady officer notices the walker banging on Carol and Daryl's car, making him realize he's being followed.
- Storming the Castle: What Noah advocates if they're going to take down Grady.
- Throwing the Distraction: Stuck in an overrun city and with limited resources, Daryl and Carol rely on stealth and distracting walkers more than in most episodes. Daryl improvises a distraction by throwing a pack of paper he lit on fire into the street.
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Discussed in-universe, when Carol and Daryl muse over a piece of abstract art they find in an office in the downtown core.Daryl: Bet this cost some rich prick a lot of money. Looks like a dog sat in paint, and wiped his ass all over the place.
Carol: Really? I kind of like it. - Verbed Title
