The Walking Dead season 7 episode 6 recap: Swear

Here’s your complete recap of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Swear.”

A woman and a young girl walk along the beach. The little girl takes joy in killing “Bobbers” with her stick. She spots another Bobber in the water but the older woman stops her before she can kill her. It’s Tara, and she’s alive. The girl points out that even so, they’re supposed to kill her, but the older woman tells her to stop. The girl says they’re supposed to kill everything, including Bobbers and hurt people. She wants to kill her, which is very disturbing. When the older woman says no, and asks if the younger girl is going to be a snitch, which angers the little girl, who says she won’t tell, but she won’t help, either.

Heath is in the RV eating some rations. He’s talking to Tara about scavenging and life on the road. They have been gone for two weeks, but they don’t have gas and they need to get back. Tara says they have to keep going, and as long as the Hilltop keeps their end of the deal, then they have food back home. They need to find ammunition, but Heath is still upset about what they did at the outpost. He is having trouble reconciling killing those people for the meager rations they found there. She picks up a gun that has something etched into the handle.

The woman on the beach notices that the markings on Tara’s arm match the Roman numerals on her clock at home. She returns to the beach to leave bottles of water and food there for Tara, who still isn’t awake. She even leaves a makeshift weapon for her before leaving. Tara wakes up after she’s gone and finds the supplies. It looks like she may have been awake the whole time, pretending to be asleep. She peers around the wood on the beach to see where the woman has gone, and then she turns her attention to the food she left. The woman leaves the beach and Tara follows her. From the way Tara is acting, it looks like she’s afraid of the woman even after the woman left her some food and water, suggesting that Tara may have encountered her group before.

As she sneaks through the woods, Tara finds a camp with a little hut. There are children there, hurrying out to play. As she moves in closer, she finds that there is a larger colony there, made up entirely of women as far as she can see so far. Suddenly the women rush toward a shed full of guns and they all grab guns and take up arms. Shots are fired, and soon the little girl, Rachel, points her gun at Tara and says “It doesn’t matter, we’re supposed to.” Cyndie, the woman from the beach, gets in the way of the group of woman before they can shoot her, and Tara tries to talk her way out of it. The women are all gathered around her, guns drawn, but they say nothing. Tara tries to stay light hearted by saying that it’s all cool.

Flash back to the RV. Heath and Tara come upon a blocked bridge and climb on top of some cargo boxes to see what’s going on. Heath doesn’t like the blind spots, so he tosses a bottle into the mess of cars and debris to see if any Walkers are present, but nothing happens. There are tents set up among the cars but the whole area looks abandoned. At the other end of the bridge are two dump trucks full of sand. Heath notices bullets in the sand while Tara tries to pull a bag out of the sand and she accidentally triggers a landslide that reveals the pile is full of Walkers. They try to get away, but they’re surrounded. Tara is backed against the edge of the bridge. Heath leaves her and runs away.

Kathy, Beatrice and Tanya talk to Tara and explain that they have a system in place to trigger the Walkers. Tara says she’s from Atlanta, and she’s traveling around with her friend. She doesn’t mention that Heath abandoned her. She made it to the shore and passed out. They want to know about her intentions. Tara had been sneaking around, but as she points out she didn’t know if she could trust them or not. Tanya isn’t so sure. Normally they shoot strangers on site, but Tanya’s granddaughter was the one who saved her. They don’t want to kill her but they don’t know what to do with her. Tanya tells her to rest up and hopefully they’ll have a brainstorm.

Later that night Tara is brought to a house where a table has been set. Tanya says that she’s making dinner. She made stew. She introduces Cyndie to Tara officially and Tara thanks her for saving her life. Cyndie says that while her grandmother doesn’t really approve, her mother would. She had been trying to save Rachel from having to kill anyone. Cyndie has killed people. She’s a really good shot. Her grandmother agrees, but Cyndie clearly doesn’t like what she’s doing.

Tara eats quickly, saying that she hasn’t had a lot of food lately. Tanya wants to know if Tara would be willing to stay with them in their colony. Tanya is wondering why Tara is confused that they’re offering Heath a place to stay, but there are no men. Tanya explains that the men were killed in a skirmish with another group, so they left their old home and rebuilt, with the decision made to shoot anyone on site in order to stay alive. She tries to get Tara to see that they aren’t bad people. They know Tara is lying about her past. Tara reveals that she’s from Alexandria, and that they have a community. She tells them about what they did to Negan’s satellite station, and how they did it to stay alive. Tara thinks that they might be able to offer each other protection, and that they can’t stay hidden forever. Tanya finally agrees that they will send a scout with Tara to help her find Heath and then go on to Alexandria to see what it’s like. Cyndie wants to go, but Tanya shuts her down and it’s agreed that Kathy will go with Tara.

Tanya wishes Tara a good journey, and then she and Kathy head out. Rachel spits at Tara as she walks by, so Tara offers her a middle finger as she leaves. Beatrice and Kathy guide Tara to the bridge. There is a Walker there, and neither Kathy nor Beatrice make a move to kill it. Tara volunteers and suddenly they start shooting at her. She takes off running and manages to hide before tangling with Beatrice. Beatrice tells her that her group is dead, and that there are more Saviors and outposts all over the place. The Saviors are the ones who killed their men. Beatrice says they killed every boy over ten. They tried to fight, just like Tara, but they decided to leave in the middle of the night and escape instead of working for Negan’s men. They can’t risk being discovered.

Cyndie comes out of nowhere and tackles Beatrice, letting Tara escape. Cyndie follows and makes Tara swear that she won’t tell her people about them. Tara doesn’t understand why they think she’d ever return. Cyndie says that they didn’t have to kill those people at the outpost, but they made a decision to forget who they are and make a decision to kill. Tara promises not to reveal anything about their group, so Cyndie offers her supplies and takes her to the bridge.

Once they get to the bridge, Cyndie wonders how Tara will clear the Walkers. She says she’ll run. Cyndie wants to stay as long as it takes for her to get across the bridge. Tara wants to know why Cyndie isn’t like the rest of them, and instead of answering she turns the question back on Tara. They both get down onto the bridge and Tara starts killing the Walkers. They are quickly overwhelmed, but Cyndie manages to shoot them all so that Tara can get free.

That’s when we see the flashback, and Tara tells Heath she’s trying to get free but they’re both overwhelmed. She falls off the bridge and into the water. Now she finds Heath’s glasses and a tire track. She hopes that Heath was able to escape. Beatrice and Kathy have found Cyndie and are taking her back home, so Tara is truly on her own.

More from Undead Walking

Tara makes her way across a field. There’s a burned out boat blocking the road so she tried to see what she can salvage. She comes upon a store and takes refuge inside to hide from the Walkers outside for the night. Inside her bag is another fish, which she manages to eat this time. There’s also a seashell bracelet that makes her smile.

She heads out the next day with sunglasses on, and finally she reaches Alexandria. Eugene opens the gate and she can tell from his expression something is horribly wrong. Inside the clinic, Rosita says she’s sorry. Tara is sorry, too. “We don’t have to just sit here,” Rosita says. She begs Tara for information, but Tara is reluctant to say anything. The enormity of their situation is clear to Tara, who says she didn’t see anything like that out there.

Home/Walking Dead Season 7