Roof
Thunder is rumbling. Merle is on the roof hallucinating.
"That's right. You heard me, bitch. You got a problem? Bring it on if you're man enough, Or take it up the chain if you're a pussy. You heard me, you pussy-ass noncom bitch. You ain't deaf. Take it up the damn chain of command or you can kiss my lily-white ass. That's right. That's what I said. You heard me. And then this idiot, he takes a swing, You know, and well..." He laughs hysterically.
"Oh, you should've seen the look on his face when I punched out his front teeth. Yeah, five of 'em. Pow! Pow! Just like that. Huh. Oh my god. 16 months in the stockade... Oh, that's what them teeth cost me. That was... That was hard time, but by god, it was worth every minute of it Just to see that prick spit his teeth out on the ground. Yes sir, worth every minute." Merle continues to try and pull himself off of the pipe, but he is unable to get loose.
"Oh no. No no! No no! No no! God! God! No no! God! Jesus! No no, merciful Christ! No no. No no. God, help me! God! God! Jesus, please! Jesus, please. Help me! Come on now!" Merle sees Walkers trying to get through the door. They are unable to break it because of the chain that T-Dog put on it.
"Help me. No no. Oh, no no. Oh my god. Shh shh shh shh shh." Merle starts crying.
"No, Jesus. Jesus. No no no no no no. Please. I didn't behave, I know. I know I'm being punished. I know. I... Oh, I deserve it. I deserve it. I've been bad. Help me now. Show me the way. Go on, tell me what to do. Tell me. Tell me. God!" Merle rolls under the pipe and uses his belt to try. He gets the saw that is lying close to him.
"That's okay. Never you mind, silly Christ boy. I ain't begged you before. I ain't gonna start begging now. I ain't gonna beg you now! Don't you worry about me! Begging you ever! I'll never beg you! I ain't gonna beg you! I never begged you before. Oh sh*t. No!" He continues to try and get the saw while the Walkers try to break through the door.
Truck
"Best not to dwell on it. Merle got left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back... Except maybe Daryl."
"Daryl?" Rick questions confused.
"His brother." Behind them, the group hears Glenn in his car.
"Whoo-hoo!" Glenn speeds past them and continues to holler about how much fun he's having.
"At least somebody's having a good day."
Camp
Jim hangs some cans around the perimeter so they can hear Walkers.
"Give it back." A girl was complaining.
"Stop it." The boy tells the girl as they fight over a toy. "No!" The girl tells her brother as they fight. "I found it."
"No!"
"Give it." The mom walks over to the siblings. "Mijo, leave your sister alone." The mom told her son. "Why?"
"Come on." Lori is giving Carl a haircut. "Baby, the more you fidget, the longer it takes. So don't, okay?" Lori tells Carl. "I'm trying."
"Well, try harder."
"If you think this is bad, wait till you start shaving. That stings. That day comes, you'll be wishing for one of your mama's haircuts."
"I'll believe that when I see it." Shane chuckles. "I'll tell you what... you just get through this with some manly dignity and tomorrow I'll teach you something special. I will teach you to catch frogs."
"I've caught a frog before."
"I said frogs... plural. And it is an art, my friend. It is not to be taken lightly. There are ways and means. Few people know about it. I'm willing to share my secrets." Carl looks at Lori unsure of what to say. "Oh, I'm a girl. You talk to him."
"it's a one-time offer, bud... not to be repeated."
"Why do we need frogs, plural?"
"You ever eat frog legs?"
"Eww!" Carl Sadi and he made a face.
"No, yum!" Shane said as he fixed his gun.
"No, he's right. Eww." Lori said as she cut Carl's hair. "When you get down to that last can of beans, you're gonna be loving those frog legs, lady. I can see it now... "Shane, do you think I could have a second helping, please? Please? Just one?"
"Yeah, I doubt that." Shane chuckles. "Don't listen to her, man. You and me, we'll be heroes. We'll feed these folks cajun-style Kermit legs."
"I would rather eat miss piggy. Yes, that came out wrong." Shane laughs.
"Heroes, son, spoken of in song and legend. You and me, Shane and Carl." Carl and Shane laugh. "Hey, sweetheart, do you want your haircut next?" Lori asks Kylie who is sat by Amy.
"No! I'm good!" She said not even looking at her mother.
"She'll come around..." The conversation is interrupted with the beeping of Glenn's car alarm.
"Hey, Dale, can you see what that is?"
"Talk to me, Dale!" Shane says as he walks over to the R.V. "I can't tell yet."
"Is it them? Are they back?" Amy questions Dale. "I'll be damned."
"What is it?"
"A stolen car is my guess." Glenn pulls in and says hello.
"Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale yelled to Korean guy from the top of the R.V.
"I don't know how!"
"Pop the hood, please. Pop the damn hood, please." Shane repeated as Glenn also had Amy yelling in his ear.
"My sister Andrea..."
"Pop the damn hood!" Shane repeatedly yelled at Glenn. "What? Okay okay. Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah yeah!"
"Is she okay? Is she all right?" He pops the hood so Shane can disconnect the battery to turn the alarm off. "She's okay! She's okay!"
"Is she coming back?"
"Yes!" He said annoyed at everyone yelling at him at once. "Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?"
"Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much."
"Are you crazy, driving this wailing b*st*rd up here? Are you trying to draw every Walker for miles?"
"I think we're okay. Shane: You call being stupid okay?"
"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt youto think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?"
"Sorry. Got a cool car." The group sees the truck arrive.
Truck
"Come meet everybody." Morales says to Rick as he gets out of the car to see his family.
Survival Camp
Andrea gets out of the truck and she spots Amy as she gets out.
"Amy." She says with a sigh of relief, she was just glad that she was okay. "Andrea!" Andrea runs up to Amy and the two sisters hug.
"Oh!"
"Oh my god! You scared the sh*t out of me." Morales gets out of the truck and his wife and children runs up to him.
"Papi!" The little yells.
"Daddy!"
"Hey. Come here, sweetie. Hey. I told you I'd be back, didn't I?" Carl is still sad and we can see that he wishes that Rick would come back when the groups return. Kylie starts talking to him as she tries to explain everything to him. Shane looks at them.
"You are a welcome sight." Dale and Morales hug. Both laugh.
"I thought we had lost you folks for sure."
"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane's questions the rest of the group.
"New guy... he got us out." Glenn said from his new car.
"New guy?"
"Yeah, crazy Vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello." Rick gets out of the truck.
"The guy's a cop like you." Rick walks up and Shane is the first to see him. Carl, Kylie and Lori then turn over and he sees Rick. Rick also sees Carl, Kylie and Lori.
"oh my god." Carl and Lori run up to Rick.
"Dad! Dad!" Rick takes Carl in his arms, crying.
"Carl. Oh!" He kisses Carl on the cheek and approaches Lori. He hugs them both. Shane is surprised to see Rick, but isn't as happy as he should be. He feigns a smile as Lori looks at him. Rick smiles at him and Shane smiles back.
Kylie was standing there staring at her dad not knowing what to do. Rick looks up to see her and he lets go of Carl and Lori.
"Kylie?" The rest of the group looked at her, waiting to see what was going to happen.
"You're alive?" She couldn't believe her dad was standing in-front of her. "Is this real?" Rick nods at her.
"This is real sweetheart, it's all real. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." Rick tells and she smiles at him.
"Dad!" She then runs up to him and jumps into his arms and he catches her and he starts to kiss her repeatedly on the side of the head. Kylie was crying into his shoulder. She was just so glad that he was home.
Survival Camp Later that night
Rick is sitting down with the group around a fire camp.
"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion... all those things but... Disoriented comes closest."
"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short."
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."
"Mom said you died."
"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it."
"I'm just glad you're back." Kylie said as she sat in-front of Rick.
"I'm glad to be back." Rick kisses the top of Kylie's head.
"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened."
"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell."
"Yeah."
"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."
"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shame says as Rick nods.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it."
"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Nearby, Ed puts another log on his fire.
"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?"
"It's cold, man."
"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"
"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Shane gets up and walks over to Ed's fire.
"Hey, Ed... Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?"
"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" Carol, his wife, pulls the log out of the fire. Their daughter, Sophia, watches as Carol pulls the log out.
"Christ." Shane stomps the flames out. "Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"
"Fine. We're just fine."
"Okay."
"I'm sorry about the fire."
"No no no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"
"Thank you."
"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane rejoins the other group.
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."
"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me."
"I cuffed him. That makes it mine."
"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."
"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him."
"We could lie."
"Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."
"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise... We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."
"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog said as he looked at the fire.
"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?"
"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that... Not that chain, not that padlock. My point... Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."
Tent
"I found you, didn't I?" Rick said as he talked to Carl.
"I love you, dad." Carl says to his dad.
"I love you, Carl." Rick kisses Carl goodnight and then goes over to Kylie.
"I missed you sweetheart." He said as he sat next to her and she looks up to him.
"I missed you too, daddy." She then goes and reaches for something. "I kept this hoping one day you would find your way back to us." She shows him a picture of the two them that they had taken after one of her softball games.
"I'm sorry that you had to go through this. You didn't deserve that. You've had to be so strong and I'm proud of you for that." He says to her and she was on the break of crying.
"I love you, daddy." She says as she hugs him.
"I love you, too, sweetheart." He says as he hugs her back. He then goes and joins Lori on the other side of the tent. Rick kneels down and passionately kisses Lori. Rick then lies next to Lori.
"I found all three of you." He said to Lori as the lay down next to each other.
"Yeah." She gave a small smile.
"I knew I would." Rick tells her.
"You're getting cocky now, a little bit."
"No. No, I knew. Walking into our home, finding an empty house, all three of you gone."
"I'm so sorry." Lori apologizes.
"I knew you were alive." Lori looked up at her husband confused.
"How?"
"The photos were gone, all our family albums." Lori chuckles and grabs one of them.
"I told you so."
"Now you're getting cocky, huh? A lot." They look at some photos from Carl's last birthday. Rick hands her the photo from his squad car.
"It belongs in here."
"Baby, I really thought I would never see you again. I'm so sorry... For everything. I feel like... When you were in the hospital, I just... I wanted to take it all back... The anger and the bad times. But the mistakes..." Rick kisses her.
"Maybe we got a second chance. Not many people get that." Rick and Lori continue to kiss. Rick notices his wedding ring on Lori's necklace
"I wondered where that went.
"Do you want it back?"
"Of course." Lori takes it off and puts it back on Rick's ring finger. Rick and Lori start to get passionate and Lori turns out the lantern. Rick looks over at Carl and Kylie sleeping.
"They won't wake up." The two proceed to make love.
Outside
Up on the RV, Shane is sitting alone and watches the Grimes' tent. He puts his hat on and seems very upset. Thunder is still rumbling.