The Walking Dead season 9 episode 5 recap: What Comes After

The day has come to say goodbye to Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, but fans are in for a few surprises. Here’s your recap of “What Comes After.”

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead begins with birds flocking outside the hospital in Atlanta. Rick, present-day Rick, tells his season 1 self to wake up as he sleeps in the hospital bed. The birds become helicopters, and season 1 Rick says “Yeah, wake up asshole.”

Rick wakes up at the construction site as the herd bears down on him. He uses his belt to pull himself off of the rebar, and then he manages to get back to the horse and start riding away from the dead. Thankfully the horse is a lot faster than the herd, even at a brisk walk, and they make their escape.

Cue the credits. It’s time for “What Comes After.”

Anne drives along until the car runs out of gas. The voice on the radio asks “Jadis” (not Anne) the status of her location and of her “A.” We know she’s alone, but she reports back anyway. She says she has the A and he’s ready for trasnport. The voice on the other end thinks it’s a trick, but she says she’s desperate and needs to get out of there.

Rick and the horse walk along ahead of the herd. The white horse is covered in Rick’s blood and all he can think about is staying awake to lead the herd away. When he blacks out a few moments the herd catches up so he leads the horse forward at a run to give them some space.

Maggie and Diane ride along the road when they come upon a lone walker. Maggie gets off the horse and kills the walker with her crobar, showing a lot more force than she needed. Diane watches as she wipes the blood off and says they can go now.