The Walking Dead season 5 finally took a turning point in this week's episode Crossed, with Rick and the rest of the group at the church embarking on a major mission to rescue Carol and Beth from Grady hospital - with potentially devastating results.
Episode seven kicks off with Sasha furiously smashing up pieces of wood at the church, clearly not coping with the tragic death of her boyfriend Bob, causing her brother Tyreese to worry about her state of mind. We see that Daryl is back at the church after returning in episode four with a mystery guest who we find out is Noah, the young man who escaped from Grady hospital leaving Beth behind. The group are hellbent on getting their group back together, particularly Rick, who tells Michonne that he “owes” Carol.
Father Gabriel seems to be having a hard time accepting that his beloved church is being smashed into smithereens by the survivors trying to fashion weapons for their rescue mission. “Are you going to take the cross too?” he helplessly asks Daryl who grunts: “If we need it.” With the group now having set off and Michonne, baby Judith and Carl left behind, Father Gabriel tries to rid his church of the bloodshed that happened a couple of nights ago when the Terminus cannibals were slaughtered, by scratching out their blood stains on the floor with his nails. Clearly to no avail though.
In the van on the way to Grady, Tyreese tries to have a heart-to-heart with Sasha telling her: “You know I've been there,” in reference to his girlfriend being murdered by Carol at the prison in season four. Over at the hospital, Beth creeps into Carol's room where she has been hooked up to an IV drip and various other medicines after being run over by the police in episode six.
After the shocking revelation in episode five that Eugene lied about having a cure for the zombie infection, the group are still stationed in the middle of a desolated road with Eugene still knocked spark out on the floor after the brutal beating by Abraham, who is still in the same position, on his knees and staring out into nowhere. All attempts to wake the faux scientist are proving useless but when Glenn suggests taking him back to the church, Maggie says it'll only make his condition worse. Rosita tries to encourage her loverboy Abraham to drink water but he almost explodes with anger, prompting a stern warning from Maggie: “Sit down or I'll put you down,” while aiming a gun at his head. It's clearly all love in that camp!
Rick and co. are in an abandoned warehouse trying to hatch a plan to take on Grady, but surprisingly in an awkward moment, Daryl disagrees with Rick's plan to kill all the guards by slitting their throats, instead agreeing with Tyreese's idea to kidnap a couple of their police officers in a bid to make an exchange for Beth and Carol. Is everyone finally growing tired of Rick's ‘;death or nothing' motto?
Back at the church, young Carol is encouraging Father Gabriel to learn to defend himself and sets out a selection of intimidating weapons. The priest chooses a huge machete which Carl says is a “good choice,” but Gabriel gets a little queasy when hearing all its gory benefits and goes for a “lie down.” If Eugene can learn to kill a walker, it's time he does!
At Grady, a police officer tells Dawn that Carol was “half dead” when they brought her in and she is “wasting valuable resources,” much to the horror of Beth who demands that she be kept on life support. She loses though as Dawn says they should take Carol off the machines to see if she's able to survive by herself. Once the officer leaves though, Dawn has a sudden change of heart and gives Beth the key to a drug locker so she can “save that woman's life.” Glenn, Rosita and Tara go for a walk to fetch some water during which they argue over whether Eugene was wrong for using the only “skill” that kept him alive - lying about Washington.
Glenn is still angry but Tara defends him despite the fact that he's “useless.” Back at the fire engine, Maggie crafts a makeshift tent to shield Eugene from the scorching sun while Abraham sits staring into space, helpless. Rosita explains to Glenn and Tara how she and Abraham met, explaining that he was the first person to ask for her help since the apocalypse started.
Noah uses himself as bait for the police officers, firing shots so they come speeding in their cars but the two guards are met by our heros pointing their guns. After being placed in handcuffs, the male officer asks Rick if he used to be in the police - he can tell by the way he talks and “carries himself.” Just as Noah identifies him as Lamson and says he's a “good one,” another Grady car comes crashing into the scene, sparking a shootout between the two sides and the two officers being rescued by their pals. Sasha manages to fire a good shoot at the tire though and it careers around the corner but when the group arrive, the officers have fled.
As Sasha, Tyreese and Rick flee to catch up with two of the officers, Daryl is jumped by another one who tries to kill him with a walker - or “rotter” as the Grady bunch call them, but Daryl gets the upperhand before being saved by Rick. He almost shoots the officer but Daryl persuades him that “three is better than two.” Back at the warehouse, the officers try to talk themselves out of being held captive with the male officer promising that he wants a “peaceful resolution” and offering to help them take down Dawn and the hospital.
Michonne knocks on Father Gabriel's door to see if he's feeling better but he seems a little stand-offish. When he closes the door, we see that he's using the machete to knock through the floorboards. He eventually hacks his way through and climbs outside of the church, only to step on a nail which he has to pull out of his foot. He then limps through the woods where he comes across a walker whom he manages to fend off sending her crashing to the ground. He's almost ready to smash her head in with a huge rock but stops himself when he sees she is wearing a cross around her neck, obviously a religious person before turning. Still, it's a step in the right direction of progress for Gabriel.
At the hospital, Beth is hatching her plan to grab the medicines for Carol with the help of another patient who pretends to choke to distract the guards, allowing Beth to sneak into Carol's room and administer the medicine. “I just wanted to let you know that I was here,” Beth whispers to her unconscious friend.
Taking pity on him, Maggie offers Abraham some water and when she asks if he wanted her to shoot him earlier, he replies: ‘;I thought I did.” They suddenly hear grunting from behind the fire engine - Eugene has woken up!
In another attempt to get through to his grieving sister, Tyreese tells Sasha that she should hold on to the fact that she was able to say goodbye to Bob, although she's cut up that she wasn't able to put a knife through his head herself. After overhearing that his name is also Bob, Sasha has a one-to-one chat with Grady officer Lamson who spins her a story about recognising one of the walkers outside. He manages to persuade Sasha to put his old friend “Tyler” out of his misery so they head over to a quieter side of the warehouse so she can take a shot at the walker. It was all a ruse though so he could escape as, just as she is about to fire, Lamson pushes Sasha, smashing her head into the window and knocking her unconscious to the floor.
Great move, Sasha! Did the Governor and Terminus teach you nothing about trust?! With the whole plan now in jeopardy, we predict it's going to be an absolute riot when the survivors reach Grady next week!
