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‘The Walking Dead’ recap: Zombie mega-herd threatens, but Rick has a plan

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With his alpha-male status restored, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) launches a bold plan to lure a zombie mega-herd away from the Alexandria Safe-Zone on “First Time Again,” the Season 6 premiere of AMC’s horror drama “The Walking Dead.”

Toward the end of last season, Alexandria leader Deanna Monroe (Tovah Feldshuh) considered exiling Rick from this exclusive, sheltered society because of his brutal kill-or-be-killed attitude. Now a shattered Deanna understands the necessity of a survivalist mentality.

Deanna essentially cedes power to Rick while mourning the death of her son Aiden (Daniel Bonjour) during an ill-fated supply run, plus the slaying of her husband, Reg (Steve Coulter), by abusive alcoholic Pete Anderson (Corey Brill). Rick summarily executed Pete, viewers will remember, at Deanna’s hysterical urging.

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But not all residents of this walled enclave embrace a Rick-tatorship.

“We kill him before he kills us,” Carter (Ethan Embry) urges at a clandestine gathering, arguing that Rick’s audacious plan could doom Alexandria.

Unfortunately for Carter, Rick loyalist Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) overhears this talk of rebellion. Then Rick himself enters, accompanied by stick-wielding Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) with his ever-present crossbow.

“You really think you’re gonna take this community from us?” Rick angrily asks Carter after swiftly disarming him. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”

Fortunately for Carter, Rick is in a forgiving rather than homicidal mood. He lowers his pistol and announces: “I’m good.”

A far bigger threat than Carter is that ginormous “walker” herd growing ever larger in a nearby quarry. Four large trucks create bottlenecks that keep the zombies from escaping en masse. But one truck will likely fall down a cliff during the next heavy rainstorm, thus freeing thousands of flesh-eating predators.

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“I know this sounds insane, but this is an insane world,” Rick tells the Alexandrians in explaining his scheme. “We have to come for them before they come for us. It’s that simple.”

Rick’s strategy is to play offense rather than defense. He aims to intentionally release the rotting walkers, steer them precariously close to Alexandria and then lead them miles away.

But when that truck falls into the quarry unexpectedly, Rick must hurriedly change a dry run into the actual operation.

Now motorcycle-riding Daryl acts as bait at the front of a macabre “walker parade.” Driving next to him in a car are PTSD-stricken Sasha Williams (Sonequa Martin-Green) and adrenalin junkie Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz).

Because any loud sound could draw zombies off the road, Rick orders Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), Heath (Corey Hawkins) and Nicholas (Michael Traynor) to dispose of noisy walkers attempting to bash their way out of a locked building.

Glenn is understandably leery about this arrangement, since cowardly Nicholas cost the life of Noah (Tyler James Williams) last season in a horrific revolving door scene. Later, Nicholas lured Glenn into the woods and tried to kill him.

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Nicholas redeems himself somewhat, however, by jumping in to save Heath from an undead assailant.

As for Rick’s zombie diversion plan, it initially works well as the walker army sticks to the road while slowly passing Alexandria’s perimeter. Then suddenly the herd takes notice when Carter starts screaming uncontrollably after being bit in the face by a straggler.

Rick fatally stabs Carter in the neck to silence him.

But soon a much louder sound — a truck horn blaring steadily in the distance — starts attracting walkers directly toward vulnerable Alexandria.

Could this be a heinous act of attempted mass murder? And, if so, who would want to slaughter innocent men, women and children?

Those violent, anarchistic Wolves, maybe?

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