This week, Tara discovers an entirely different community who have been living in apparent isolation.

We open on two young girls, walking along the beach. One of them, Rachel, kills a walker. As she and her companion, Cyndie, continue on, they spot another body washed up on the shore. Rachel is about to dispatch it when Cyndie tells her to stop. They realize this one is not a walker. As the camera zooms in, we see that it’s Tara. Rachel, who seems to really relish killing, wants to stab her anyway, because they’re supposed to kill strangers. Cyndie, however, persuades her not to.

We then flashback to Tara and Heath in an RV. Remember, they set out to find weapons and ammo? Heath is messed up in the head from the attack on the Saviors at the satellite station. He is NOT okay with the mass murder. Tara tells him they had to, and Heath gets it, but he’s disillusioned. This is the world they live in now – one where people do terrible things in order to survive and everyone is out for themselves. He wants to go back, but Tara tells him the others are counting on them for supplies. He agrees to keep going.

Cyndie is apparently living in some sort of beach cottage. We can tell from the post-apocalyptic shabby chic weathered paint and the coral knick-knacks on the side table. She wakes up from a nap and heads back to the beach, where she left Tara amongst some driftwood logs. She lays some bottles of water, a packet of something, and, after some thought, a spear next to the still-unconscious Tara before heading back. Tara awakens as soon as Cyndie is gone – she was totally faking. She thirstily gulps down the water and unwraps the packet which turns out to be a dried fish (yum?). Tara watches Cyndie and then follows her.

the-walking-dead-episode-706-oceanside-3-935

Turns out Cyndie lives in some kind of Amazonian village. What’s the opposite of a sausage party? Because that’s what this is. All women and girls, busily gardening and training and scampering about. Tara notes that there is a large stash of weapons. Then, a signal sounds and everyone heads for shelter. The grownups grab guns and one of them fires directly at Tara.

the-walking-dead-episode-706-oceanside-935

Tara takes off running. One of the women corners her, and Tara takes her out. Instead of killing her, she knocks her out, but before she can get any further, she finds herself surrounded. It seems like the women are about to kill her, but Cyndie jumps in front of Tara. An older woman named Natania, who is the group’s leader, tells Cyndie to get away from Tara, but Cyndie isn’t budging.

We flashback to Heath and Tara again. They come to a bridge that’s been blocked off with shipping containers. On the other side, they see a kind of encampment with cars and tents, but no sign of life. As they explore, they find a truck that’s dumped a huge pile of sand. Tara sees a duffel bag half-buried and pulls at it to see what’s inside. As she does so, she dislodges the sand and – horrors! Underneath the mound are dozens of walkers who begin stirring. Tara and Heath try to fight them off, but the walkers have got Tara surrounded. Heath looks back desperately before running off. Nice, Heath.

the-walking-dead-episode-706-tara-masterson-935

Back in Amazonville, Tara is handcuffed. Natania and her subordinates have a lot of questions for her. How did she find them? Tara makes up a story about being on a fishing boat with a friend. She says she needs to go find him and that she’ll just be on her way, but the ladies think she knows too much about them now.

Later, they uncuff Tara and we’re not sure if she’s going to be executed, but it turns out they’re just bringing her to Natania’s for dinner. Fish stew. They have an unending supply of fish, what with being on the beach. Tara gobbles it down appreciatively. Natania wants to know Tara’s real story – nobody buys the fishing boat thing – and she thinks maybe Tara would be a good addition to their community. She even offers to let Tara’s friend join them. Tara is skeptical because, well, there is a distinct lack of dudes around the place, and her friend is a guy. She learns that all the men and boys were killed in a fight with another group. After that happened, Natania says, the surviving women and girls left the place where they’d been living and came here. They were determined to survive at all costs, even if that meant killing strangers on sight. She thought maybe Tara could understand that.

Tara appears to be thinking it over and then makes a decision. She tells the women about Alexandria and suggests the two groups could work together. They can’t live in isolation forever. Eventually, they’ll need friends. She tells them the Alexandrians took out an entire satellite station of Saviors, not because they wanted to, but because they had to survive. She understands that sometimes you have to do terrible things in order to live. Natania agrees to let Tara go back to Alexandria along with two of her women, Kathy and Beatrice, so they can see what it’s like. Cyndie, who is Natania’s granddaughter, wants to go, too, but Natania says not this time. There will be other chances. Tara reassures her that this is true. It’s all very civilized.

And it’s all too good to be true. Kathy and Beatrice (Beatrice is the one Tara knocked out) escort Tara through the woods and they come upon a walker in the trees. Kathy appears to hesitate, so Tara jumps up to deal with the walker and as she does so, Kathy and Beatrice open fire on her. Heath was right, man. You can’t trust ANYONE anymore.

twd-s7e6-swear-kathy-tara-beatrice

Tara runs for her life, but Beatrice catches her. She’s about kill her, but Tara pleads. She had the chance to kill Beatrice back in the village and she didn’t. Beatrice doesn’t have to kill her now. Beatrice tells her that they know about the Saviors. That’s who killed all their men. Tara tells her it’s okay, they got them all, but Beatrice tells her that was only an outpost. There is no beating the Saviors. There are too many of them, more than Tara knows. And if the Alexandrians took out one of the Saviors outposts, then that is bad news. Beatrice can’t take the chance that they’ll lead the Saviors back to them.

Once again, however, Cyndie comes to rescue! Just as Beatrice fires, Cyndie leaps out and pushes Tara out of the way, yelling for her to run. Tara does (boy, she’s doing a lot of running) and Cyndie catches up to her. She gives her a backpack with food and a spear – what nice kid. She tells Tara to swear that she won’t tell anyone about their community and Tara does.

They make it to the bridge and Tara flashes back to the moments before Heath left her. She’s swarmed by walkers and she yells to Heath that they are in this together, but Heath doesn’t believe that anymore, remember? She falls over the side as Heath leaves. Now, after fighting her way through more walkers while Cyndie covers her from the barricade, Tara finds Heath’s glasses and a badge that says “PPP.” She spots a dreadlocked walker and for a moment she thinks it’s Heath, but it turns out to be a woman.

Eventually, Tara makes her way back to Alexandria. Eugene spots her from his post in the guard tower and he greets her at the gate, in tears. Tara learns what happened to Denise and the others. Later, we see her sitting on the floor in the infirmary. Rosita finds her there and asks if she found anything. Rosita is desperate to find weapons so that they can avenge themselves on the Saviors. But Tara tells her she found nothing.

I found it surprising that Tara actually kept her word, especially after seeing all those weapons that the women had. We’ll see if that turns out to be a good choice. Also, what happened to Heath?

Sign up to receive exclusive offers, fun content, and updates from Nanea!

Your confirmation email will arrive shortly after you sign up. Don't forget to check your spam or junk folder!

We keep your data private and share your data only with third parties that make this service possible. Read our full Privacy Policy here.

Facebook Comments

comments