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

Anne hears the chatter on the radio as she waits for the helicopter. You can hear it in the distance as it approaches. She looks out into the water as the walker bodies float past when suddenly she spots Rick, barely alive on the shore. She calls in and says she has a “B” instead of an A and he’s alive. She tells the copter that she isn’t playing games and that he’s a friend who saved her. She asks if they have a deal and after a few tense moments they land. But we have no idea who “they” are.

When Rick opens his eyes Anne is there and she tells him he will be ok. He’s on the helicopter and he has oxygen and his wound has been tended to. He’s alive, but he has no idea what’s happening. Together they fly off into the distance.

Rick Grimes is alive, but no one knows that.

Not yet, anyway.

In a field, a new group of people fight the herd. Even though they’re surrounded they keep fighting. Someone starts shooting the walkers so that an escape path opens up. A little girl’s voice rings out that it’s all clear. They run into the forest to find the little girl there. She’s about 10. She has a katana slung on her back and a Colt Python strapped to her hip. When they ask who she is, she reaches for her sheriff hat on the ground and puts it back on. “Judith. Judith Grimes,” she says.

The Walking Dead just jumped ahead a few years, folks, and there’s a new sheriff in town!