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SYFY WIRE The Walking Dead

Murder, betrayal, and deceit plague this week's The Walking Dead

By Alyse Wax
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In This Episode...

Carol and Daryl bring in their Whisperer captive into the prison, kicking Lydia out of her "home." He is not helpful, and though he seems grateful for the toast and fresh jam that Carol brings him, he spits it out in her face. So Carol gets mean, and shoves her finger in his wound. Gabriel insists that the captive be cared for, so Siddiq and Dante come in and tend to his wounds and bring him medicine.

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The captive starts convulsing and complains of intense pain. Within minutes, he is dead. It turns out that Dante gave him hemlock, which he claims he only gave him because Siddiq put it in the med pack. 

Siddiq's PTSD has been getting worse and worse. He hasn't been sleeping because of night terrors, and he is making mistakes. He finally figures out what is making people sick: the water tap was broken and it looked like it was set to drinkable, but really, it was undrinkable. Rosita notices things are getting worse (hard to miss it when Siddiq throws himself/passes out into the water and she has to rescue him) and gets him to admit what is going on. He feels like a failure because he watched his friends die and did nothing to help them.

At the episode's end, Siddiq is staring out the window, and Dante comes in to apologize for the water, and the hemlock. Siddiq takes the blame, but he wants to be left alone. Suddenly, Siddiq has a realization: Dante was the Whisperer who held Siddiq down and forced him to watch his friends get slaughtered. Dante sees the recognition in his eyes and the two fight. Dante gets the upper hand and strangles Siddiq, seemingly to death.

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Also: Aaron has been forging a tentative friendship with Gamma. He shares with her Gracie's drawings, and she insists she is an only child. Gamma seems to want to believe in the life Aaron has at Alexandria, but is too caught in Alpha's lies. When she reports back to Alpha, Alpha is not happy that she hasn't learned anything useful, and whips her wrist "with love" to teach her a lesson. Gamma goes back to Aaron, and holds a knife to his neck.

Carol figured something out when her captive saw that Lydia was still alive. She and Lydia head out into the woods, with Lydia under the impression that she is helping Carol. It turns out that Carol wants to use Lydia to prove to Alpha's followers that Alpha is a liar. She interrupts Gamma with Aaron and Gamma is so rattled at seeing Lydia, alive, that she runs off and sobs in the forest alone.

Lydia, meanwhile, does not like the idea of being used by Carol. Carol had told her she had to choose a side. Lydia chooses her own side.

Poor Lydia

Her mom uses her as a tool to prove her worth to her followers. Carol uses her to turn Alpha's followers against her. That's got to be tough for a teenage girl, but I am leaning towards Carol being the lesser evil. The way lesser evil. Alpha killed Lydia's father, Lydia's boyfriend, and though she didn't actually kill Lydia, she told people she did for her own personal gain. At least Carol has never killed anyone in Lydia's name.

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Dante

I've got to admit, I did not see that one coming. I thought Dante was weird and off-putting from the first episode, but I never pegged him as a Whisperer. But what is his end game? He clearly killed the captive to prevent him from ratting him out. So his "undercover" mission is not widely known. Has Dante been reporting back to Alpha? Alpha wanted Gamma to get basic info from Aaron, like how many people the Alexandrians have. It makes me wonder if Dante is acting on behalf of Alpha, or if he has gone rogue. Maybe Dante is hoping to position himself as Delta, the next in line.