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

Rick isn’t doing well. He’s lost a ton of blood and he’s losing consciousness fast. When he spots a mailbox that says “Cardille” he urges the horse ahead along a dirt path off the road. He arrives at a cabin that has “Come face me assholes” spray painted across the door. He runs inside and binds his wound. He’s wheezing from a possible collapsed lung, but now that he’s safe he can sit back and close his eyes.

We return to the moment Rick rode the horse through the streets of Atlanta. He’s on a white horse, and we see that this is present-day Rick. He’s still bleeding, but he’s in Atlanta. He comes upon a police car and Shane is in the passenger seat. “Hot damn, Cowboy. You look like shit,” he says, giving Rick the once over. They share some burgers and return to the site where Rick was shot before the apocalypse. It’s the accident site and he tells Shane he’s looking for his family, and Shane says they could call it his family. He asks about “his” baby girl and wonders if she has his eyes, and Rick, still bloody, laughs and says she didn’t get Shane’s nose. They laugh together. Shane’s glad she didn’t get his ears.

Shane knows he’s an asshole but he wants to take credit for what happened and how his actions in the field that night were a page from Shane’s book. Shane’s glad Rick did it because that’s what had to happen. Shane needs Rick to think about biting the man’s neck and the red machete in the church. He needs Rick to find his rage and loyalty and that’s the only way “this” gets done. Rick says he’s sorry for what happened in the field, but Shane isn’t concerned about it. He eats his fries and starts to say something but then he turns into a walker. Walkers have infiltrated the cabin and Rick has to flee through the broken door. Rick makes it back to the horse (which miraculously waited for him) and they ride off.