Original Airdate: March 2, 2014
It’s late at night and a storm is coming. Dead bodies are strewn all over a road. Beth and Daryl run through the street, scouting an abandoned car. They’re out of time, though. A herd of Walkers is nearby, so they climb into the trunk to wait for them to pass. They both peek through the crack to watch them. When the sun rises, Daryl is still as tense as ever with his crossbow drawn. They quickly grab whatever supplies they can find, including hub caps, and they continue on. Neither has said a word to the other all night. Beth’s expression is blank.
As they creep through the woods, Daryl spots a squirrel and misses his shot, which leads to a broken arrow. Beth uses the car mirror to start a fire. A rattlesnake slithers through the path and Daryl catches it for their next meal. Beth, by contrast, spots a ladybug and looks at it in wonder. As they share their meal, they sit in silence until Beth says she needs a drink. Daryl tosses her some water, but she says she needs a real drink. “As in alcohol,” she explains. Her dad never allowed her to drink, so she figures they could go find some. Daryl still says nothing, so she grabs a knife and leaves. “Jerk,” she mutters. A group of Walkers approaches, and Beth hides behind a tree, using a rock to distract them. As soon as they pass, she turns and sees that Daryl is watching over her. He tries to lead her back to camp, but she gives him the finger and says that she can take care of herself. She doesn’t think he feels anything at all, and she flaunts that at him while she stalks off in search of a drink.
Beth arrives in a huge field. It’s actually a golf course, and the clubhouse is in the distance, along with some Walkers. “Golfers like to booze it up, right?” she asks. They go to the door to find it locked. The Walkers keep coming, so they find another door that leads to the maintenance room. Inside they find several Walkers hanging from the ceiling. Suicide backfires in the apocalypse. The room is frightening, with the table set with the finest silver. Daryl piles money into a bag and Beth wonders why he’s keeping it. Money has no value anymore. The Walkers pound at the door, so they continue on into the kitchen.
The kitchen has been ransacked, and it’s creepy only having the light from Daryl’s flashlight. He finds a dead body in the freezer, and Beth finds her booze on the top shelf. As she walks away, a Walker lunges at her and she tries to fight him off but she can’t. Daryl saves the day and reminds her that she said she can care for herself. There is a room full of bodies. “Welcome to the Dog Spot” is written on the wall. They continue on into the pro shop, where Beth finds new clothes amid a body pinned to the wall with a sign that says “rich bitch.” Beth wants to take her off the wall, but Daryl says it doesn’t matter, though he does cover her up with a blanket. The clock sounds and Walkers rush toward the noise. Daryl singlehandedly takes out a dozen Walkers, but he gets a bit carried away and splatters blood all over Beth’s new shirt.
Once they’re safe, Beth tells Daryl that all she has wanted to do all day is lay down and cry, but they don’t get to do that anymore. He can beat up on and kill Walkers, but she needs her drink. She finds a bottle of Peach Schnapps and asks Daryl if it’s good. “No,” he says, walking away. He starts playing darts using a picture of the country club’s members. Beth breaks down and cries as she reaches for the bottle. Daryl watches her cry, then he grabs the bottle and smashes it. “If you’re going to have your first drink, it ain’t gonna be Peach Schnapps,” he growls, heading for the door.
Daryl and Beth strike back out onto the trail. They come upon the cabin that Daryl found with Michonne. Beth was thinking that they were going to a liquor store, but “this is better,” Daryl says. Inside they find boxes of moonshine. They carry it into the main cabin and Daryl offers Beth a glass. “That’s a real first drink there,” he tells her. Beth takes a drink and says it’s disgusting, but the second round goes better. He cautions her to drink water, and she accuses him of being her chaperone, calling him “Mr. Dixon.” She laughs at a pink bra bowl, but Daryl says the place reminds him of his dad’s cabin. A lone Walker circles the cabin, but they’re safe for now. Since they’re holed up, she offers him some moonshine so he gets comfortable in the dumpster chair and starts drinking with her.
Now that they’re comfortable, Beth starts a drinking game. She says that one person says something they’ve never done, and if the other person has then he has to take a drink. She learned it from her friends. We learn from this game that Daryl has never left Georgia, never been on vacation, but has done something he regretted while drunk. She asks if he’s ever been in jail, which pisses him off that she thinks that of him. He goes to take a piss, all the while yelling that he’s never had it easy. He drags her outside and tries to “teach” her how to use a crossbow, since she said she hadn’t used one. When he starts taking too much pleasure in shooting him, they argue about how he doesn’t feel anything. She saw the change in him when Sophia came out of the barn. He says they’re all dead now, all of their friends. Beth cracks and starts to cry. Daryl finally breaks down and says that he never should have stopped looking for the Governor. The Governor rolled right up to their gates and killed everyone. As he rants, she wraps her arms around him and hugs him.
Later that night, Beth says she understands why Hershel stopped drinking. She feels so good that it can’t be good. Daryl says she’s a happy drunk, but he’s a “dick.” He starts telling the story of a friend who was a tweaker. They were at his house and Merle was there talking shit during a TV show. It was the tweaker’s kid’s favorite show, so he and Merle get into a fight. They ended up laughing it off, but the truth is that before the change he didn’t do anything other than follow Merle around. He was nobody. Beth asks he Daryl misses Merle. She misses Maggie bossing her around, and she misses her big brother and her dad. She’d hoped that Hershel would live out his life while Maggie and Glenn had a baby, making him a grandpa. “He’d be surrounded by people he loved.” She starts crying that she’s saying stupid things. “That’s how it’s supposed to be,” he tells her. She wishes she could change, given that Daryl is built for this new world. She says you can’t rely on anyone anymore. She’ll be gone someday and he’ll be the only one left. “You’re not a happy drunk at all,” he says. Beth warns him about places like this cabin where old memories come back. You have to put them away or they kill you. He says they should go inside, and she suggests that they burn it down. “We’re going to need more booze,” he says.
They douse the cabin in moonshine, and then he gives Beth a match so that she can light one of the stacks of money on fire. He chucks it in the house and it goes up in flames. She flips off the burning house, and she gets Daryl to flip it off as well. They walk away with smiles on their faces.
After all this time, it’s interesting to learn that before the apocalypse Daryl did nothing but follow Merle around. It’s stunning and anticlimactic at the same time. I love watching the interplay between Beth and Daryl. It’s like night and day coming together symbolically.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Is Peach Schnapps an appropriate first drink, or would you take the moonshine? Are you still enjoying the focus on small groups in each episode? As always, leave your comments below!
Comments are closed.