The Walking Dead season 10 episode 9 recap: Squeeze

Aaron keeps working on the exit.

Daryl finds Carol climbing one of the walls above the walker pit. She places a stick of dynamite into a crevice, and then she reaches for some matches.  Before she can light it, she slips and dangles over the walker pit.

Daryl appears and tells her to take his hand. He pulls her to safety and then demands to know what she’s doing. She says she can kill half the horde from there, but he says she could get herself killed. “She killed my boy,” Carol cries. Daryl knows, and he needs her to come back.

There’s an explosion and the cave starts to collapse. Daryl grabs Carol.

Near the exit, Jerry tries to hold the support beam up as the cave collapses around them. Connie and Magna go back to look for Daryl and Carol.

The hole is finally big enough and Kelly is the first one to pop out of the hole and into the light. She blinks at the brightness, but she soon spots the Whisperer heading for her. “We got freaks!” she calls to the others, and then she fights her off.

Aaron makes it out next and he joins in the fight, his mace-hand coming in quite…handy.

Jerry continues to hold up the beam while Connie helps Daryl carry Carol to the entrance. He climbs out and pulls Carol through the opening, but then Magna says that there are Skins coming so she goes back to fight them, Connie following behind her. Magna tells Jerry to go, and Aaron reaches for him.

Magna and Connie are fighting off the Skins when Jerry leaves, and for a moment it looks like they might be able to get out but then the cave explodes and collapses.

Daryl and Kelly run toward the pile of rubble. Daryl starts digging with his hands as Aaron tries to talk to him. Jerry comforts a sobbing Kelly. Aaron says it will take a week to clear the mess, but Daryl keeps going. Finally it’s Kelly who points out that the sound of the blast will bring walkers and whisperers from miles away and they can’t help anyone if they’re dead, too. They have to be smart about this.

Daryl starts to walk away but Carol grabs his arm and tells him to say it to her. She says he was right about everything. She knows he cares about her and now she’s gone and she wants Daryl to say it.

Daryl keeps walking, telling the others to go home and tell the others that they found the horde. He knows that the Whisperers got out before them so there has to be another way in. He walks away and the others follow, walking past a grieving Carol as they go.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.