Sunday's midseason finale begins in recognizable fashion, as walkers munching on a deer carcass are killed by Virginia's rangers while Strand and Dakota ride in comfort towards a safe house.
In their interaction, Dakota urges Strand to move forward with his escape plan, as she doesn't wish to live under her sister's rule any longer -- much to her chagrin, however, Strand insists on biding his time.
Unfortunately for Strand, his casual escort system quickly goes awry when the horse of one of Virginia's rangers (Terry) rejoins their group without its rider -- Strand and Samuels quickly set off together to check for a horde of walkers ahead, but find only an inexplicably fallen tree.
While the pair are away, a deadly conflict ensues -- the remainder of their convoy is brutally slaughtered, and Dakota (Strand's most prized possession) disappears.
After the recent
destruction of Tank Town, Strand fears that Dakota's life (and in turn, his own) may be in jeopardy -- though Alicia spends an entire day ignoring Strand's persistent radio calls, Charlie finally convinces her to hear him out.
Thus, beloved Season 1 survivors reunite as Alicia accepts Strand's assignment of locating Dakota, though she possesses ulterior motives, potentially seeking to recruit the newfound threat to help her end Virginia's rule.
As Alicia and Charlie work their way further into the woods, Alicia is attacked by an augmented walker -- shocked by this horrifying sight, she falls over and is narrowly saved by Charlie (who cannot be responsible for the deaths of both Clark siblings).
Proceeding along their path, Alicia locates a hunting lodge called Buck's Landing, and asks Charlie to be her lookout as she enters to find yet another terrible sight -- a man has strapped a walker to an operating table and appears to be conducting some sort of experiment.
Unfortunately, before Alicia can escape the unnerving scene, this man sneaks up behind her with a needle, injecting her with a foreign substance and knocking her unconscious.
When Alicia awakes, she is bound to a taxidermy table by the newfound threat -- after escaping captivity and wielding nearby antlers as a weapon, however, it is Dakota that enters the room to reassure Alicia that she isn't in danger.
In this sequence, Ed (the taxidermist) introduces himself with the explanation that he feared Alicia may have attacked Dakota's convoy -- evidently, he stumbled across Dakota while hunting and simply uses these eerie, taxidermized walkers to scare away potential threats.
As Ed and Dakota share a game of chess, Ed recounts tales of his family and Dakota reveals that Virginia killed her parents -- though the pair seem to be in agreement that hiding out at Buck's Landing is the safest play, Alicia remains unconvinced.
Under the pretense of fetching a blanket from the end of the hall, Alicia searches for an escape route -- in doing so, she stumbles across Charlie, who informs her that Ed has boarded up the exits.
As Alicia concocts a plan to break free, however, Ed and Dakota intervene -- Alicia tells Dakota that Ed has trapped them inside, and though he (seemingly) feigns the objective of ensuring their safety, agrees to allow them to leave Buck's Landing at dawn.
Seized by sudden inspiration, Alicia radios Virginia with the promise to deliver Dakota safely to her if Alicia and Charlie are released to find a fresh start -- reluctant, but running low on options, Virginia agrees to this proposition.
Unfortunately for the three young women currently stationed inside Buck's Landing, however, Ed has other plans in mind.
Blasting music through outdoor speakers, the taxidermist seeks to bring all of his creations back to surround the hunting lodge, achieving the coveted goal of keeping it safe and sparing himself from loneliness.
Ed explains that his father was a taxidermist who took up the trade to preserve things as they were -- although he lost his family (claiming that Virginia's rangers wiped them out when he was on a supply run), he seeks to gain a new one by trapping Dakota and company inside.
It's a bold strategy, Cotton.
Ed's boldness escalates even further when he pulls a gun on the young women and forces them upstairs -- though Charlie injects him and steals his keys in an inspired rescue attempt, she fails to hit a vein with her injection, and Ed soon awakens to corner Alicia, Dakota, and Charlie with malice in his eyes.
Having learned of Alicia's contact with Virginia, Ed is convinced that they are cohorts -- a skirmish ensues in which Alicia kicks Ed into one of his own creations and a horned spike impales him.
Though Alicia immediately regrets this course of action and seeks to save him, Ed insists that removing the spike will cause him to bleed out -- thus, there is nothing that can be done.
As his augmented walkers threaten to enter the facility, Ed admits that Virginia's rangers did not kill his family -- instead, one of his own creations escaped his realm of control.
Horror-struck, Alicia and Dakota watch helplessly as Ed is killed by his augmented walkers -- in a stunning turn of events, Morgan appears on the scene to finish off these vile creations and reunite with his friends (who presumed him to be dead).
After the dust settles, Alicia admits to Charlie that her plan was to turn Dakota over to Virginia, escaping from her tyrannical rule and returning to clear Season 4's baseball stadium of its walker infestation.
Meanwhile, Morgan has devised a plan of his own, hoping to use Dakota as leverage with Virginia to have their people returned and escape to Isaac's hideout.
Additionally, Morgan reveals that he is responsible for murdering Virginia's convoy, proving that he will resort to drastic measures to protect his "family" -- however, he claims innocence in regards to the disaster at Tank Town.
Nonetheless, when Alicia threatens to leave with Charlie and Dakota, Morgan realizes that enacting his plan is much less important than keeping the gang together -- thus, he welcomes Dakota to their newfound home with open arms.
As the episode draws to a close, Alicia, Charlie, Dakota, and Morgan return to the clearing for a fateful encounter with Strand and Samuels -- this improbable group of four insists that Dakota isn't returning to Lawton, but heading to Morgan's community instead.
Strand, however, is not on board with their plan -- he insists upon returning Dakota safely, urging his long-term friends to be patient.
These differing stances lead to a confrontation as the groups raise their weapons to demonstrate the divisiveness of this issue -- Strand tells Alicia that she is dismantling everything they have worked for, while Alicia insists that she's simply doing what he asked of her.
Having failed his task, Strand returns to Virginia with the news that Dakota has joined Morgan -- she is clearly furious, but upon asking Strand where his loyalties lie, receives confirmation that he remains on her side.
In the episode's final scene, Virginia reveals that she has kept Grace (now visibly pregnant) locked up since Morgan and company requested her help in the Season 5 finale -- the sequence concludes with her ordering Victor to retrieve "every single person we took from that damn gulch".
Needless to say, the second half of Season 6 promises a great deal of intrigue.
Though many of our favorite characters have reunited in recent weeks, we've also seen love and loyalty tested on countless occasions.
Will John be able to overcome his struggle with Virginia's rule to reunite with June?
Will Dwight and Sherry work aside their differences to salvage their marriage?
Will Isabelle ever stray from the CRM and join Al in Morgan's new community?
And where is Daniel Salazar?
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