Oh wow, the Congresswoman is from MY district.

I enjoyed this episode. Glen ducking the punch and then cold cocking the Congresswoman's son was awesome. The tension within the group of being "safe" was noticeable. I thought they portrayed that well. Rick shaving his beard and cleaning up was symbolic, but he (and the rest of the group) have changed forever. Even though Rick looked like he did in Season 1, he's no longer naive. He will do whatever it takes to protect his people, including taking over the town. He's nowhere near the level of insanity of the Governor or the Termites, but he's in no way "normal" anymore with how he views the world. I wonder if Michonne will fall into line if she finds out Rick is thinking about taking over the town? She seemed like she "needed" this town more than any of them.

I really enjoyed this episode. After being in this exact position several times before throughout the series I'm impressed that they've mana he'd to still keep us guessing as to what will happen.

Some great stuff in this episode but my favorite was how the entire group had Glen's back when he had the confrontation with that ROTC guy.

Also, Carol playing the naive housewife from the moment she walked through the gates was pure awesomeness! Her fumbling with the guns when she handed them in was great.

At first (the turning in the guns scene), I thought she had a hurt shoulder or something. It wasn't until the "interview" that I realized she was playing them. So awesome!

It was apparent that Rick, Carol and Daryl are all plotting an exit strategy if things go bad and looking for weak points in this community. I don't think any of them really believe this is a permanent sanctuary.

I did find it weird they placed Noah, practically crippled from his recent experiences, on the scout team. Why do I have a feeling we will discover the community gets rid of undesirable members through "accidents" on the scout team?

Does that mean

Good episode.

We know that in this world, these kind of communities can't last. There will always a more powerful group, of evil people, that comes and takes over.

They need something like The Governor had to survive. I didn't see a lot of armed people watching all around the place.

Ricks group knows, because they have been there before, weak people won't survive.

Pretty clear it will be you could see her light up at Rick when he was clean shaven...

Yea, looks like they are probably splitting Sasha/Michonne apart a bit from comic storylines. Sasha has taken Andrea's job as and I expect to see her fairly soon that was shown if you watched this episode close enough.

Other random thoughts:

- Alexandria leader most likely brought Rick's group in to protect themselves. They know about "certain" threats in the area and they are ill-adept to deal with them on their own. I wonder if the chained up walker was to throw off our group. Was the supply run team ambushed?

- I doubt Morgan took the gun. He's probably looking for our group. The entire junk site looked like that Lurker was put under the mattress to get Rick when he came back for the gun. This was mentioned on Talking Dead.

- The girl who doesn't talk much is suspect, as she is first seen by Carl outside of the fences. She obviously comes and goes everyday. Also, Carl followed her, lost her, and quickly ran into Rick, so she was moving in the same general direction where the gun was hidden.

- Carol and Daryl are both wild cards in this storyline. Carol has successfully blended in as a regular resident with limited survival skills. Daryl's story can go anywhere from here. Should be interesting what they do with him.

- It's interesting that Rick's group was unable to detect that they were being watched prior to Aaron recruiting them.

I hope not, it would be a pretty big change from the comics

I loved when Carol asked Daryl if he had showered and he said he had. Still looked filthy.

Daryl looks like the type that would take a shower and then go out into the yard and roll around in the mud to get the clean scent off.

Maybe he meant a golden shower.

Overall, a pretty good episode, but a couple of questions:

Why are the walls bolstered on the outside? It would be more difficult to break out of the community, than into it.

The scouting guy said they've done semi-circular patrols out to 53 miles from the base? That's over 4000 square miles they're claiming to have covered. Seems a bit far-fetched.

Agree on the walls (been a while since i read the comics, but I think they specifically bolster them from the inside in that storyline - oh noes! spoiler alert!).

If they were doing this to the north of Alexandria this would encompass both the Washington DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas. An area roughly the size of the state of Connecticut.

The guy seemed to have been talking out of his ass from what we saw by the end of the episode.

... and the episode lulled me to sleep.

that crazed homeless-guy beard was pretty gnarly looking - I kept on thinking that some critter had up and made it a home.

I think it is pretty clear they are not really following the comics...so I don't see why it would matter.

My GF pointed out the Daryl would be uncomfortable in a place / house like that even if there was not a zombie pandemic. Just not the way he grew up, surroundings he was used to, and the people, culture, and norms that go hand in hand with a $800K community.

Why not ...

I agree, but this is an $800K a house community, not a community filled with people who could afford a $800K house.

Daryl's job should be to operate a still and make moonshine.

This is great.

Oh, Eugene.