The episode begins with Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam) enters Alexandria’s church and destroying their sacred Bible. Afterwards, Noah speaks with Reg Monroe (Steve Coulter) about learning from him and helping to reinforce the walls. Reg gives Noah a notebook and tells him to write everything down. He also agrees to teach him to build stuff. Next, Glenn, Noah and Eugene head out with Aiden Monroe (Daniel Bonjour) and Nicholas (Michael Traynor) to get equipment to fix the power grid.

Rick pays a visit to Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and finds a mess in her garage. Meanwhile, the group arrives and prepares to enter the building. Out of nowhere, Tara Chambler (Alanna Masterson) stabs a zombie in the head. She splits off with Eugene, who confirms his cowardice. Glenn and Noah head off together and discover a hoard of zombies. Despite this, Glenn and his group enter the building and begin looking around. Tara and Eugene find the micr-converters needed to fix the power grid.

A zombie in riot gear enters. Aiden fires at the zombie and winds up hitting a grenade. Aiden dies in the explosion, but Glenn is fine. He rendezvous with Noah and the pair discover Eugene. However, Tara is injured. Eugene is forced to kill a zombie, but fails and nearly gets eaten, before he is saved. Back in Alexandria, Carol finds Sam (Major Dodson) in her closet. He asks her to make him some cookies, but she refuses. She tells him to steal them some chocolate, and she’ll make them some cookies.

As it turns out, Aiden isn’t dead and the group, which is now away from zombies, contemplates saving him. Eugene promises to keep Tara safe, while the others save Aiden. Meanwhile, Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) and crew are out collecting supplies, when they’re attacked by zombies. Abraham is forced to stay behind and save Francine (Dahlia Legault), but he winds up surrounded. He makes an escape, before going on a killing rampage.

Next, Rick gets a visit from Pete Anderson, who offers alcohol. The pair speak about Rick’s wife. Pete suggests they’ve lost a lot too, before offering Rick and his kids a checkup. Meanwhile, Eugene tells Tara she should’ve listened and accepted that he was a coward. He attempts to carry Tara to safety, while shooting down zombies. At the same time, Glenn, Noah and Nicholas make it to Aiden and attempt to free him. Nicholas gives up and leaves Aiden behind. They make their escape, while Aiden is eaten by zombies.

Abraham and Francine make it to safety. With all of the zombies gone, they agree to continue working. Noah and Glenn attempt to escape, but get stuck in a revolving door with Nicolas on the other side. Some chitter chatter back at Alexandria, which was better off skipped. Eugene arrives in the van, while Nicholas, Noah and Glenn contemplate their chances. Eugene lures away the zombies. Nicholas freaks out and attempts to break free, which he does, but Noah is taken and killed by the zombies.

Glenn finally gets it together and rendezvous with Eugene and Nicholas. Glenn attacks Nicholas, before they throw him in the back of the van and leave. Meanwhile, Carol checks on Sam and Jessie, but Pete refuses to let her in. During the ride back, Eugene finds Noah’s journal, which speaks about this being the beginning.

Gabirel speaks to Deanna and attempts to convince her to get rid of Rick and his group, who he suggests are evil. Carol tells Rick she believes Pete abuses Jessie and Sam. Deanna disagrees with Gabriel. He continues to preach, but seems to ignore his accusations. Of course, Maggie eavesdrops and hears everything. The episode ends with Carol telling Rick that he’ll have to kill Pete.

Review


From the very beginning of the episode, it was fairly clear that Noah wasn’t going to make it out alive. Things were going too good for him, which is usually a bad sign. At least some of the group got out of Alexandria. Overall, the whole Alexandria storyline is pointless. The episode had two deaths, which tried way too hard to be gory. Sadly, this failed, since the effects are blatantly fake. This attempt to add gore to the show, which was not necessary in the past, is simply declining the show’s authenticity and realism factor.

The episode was approximately forty minutes long. The fifteen minutes with Glenn and company was interesting, while the thirty minutes at Alexandria drug out to no end. Do yourself a favor and find a way to skip those scenes, before you attempt to watch Spend. The episode deserves a 6 out of 10.