Spend (The Walking Dead)

"Spend" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 15, 2015. It was written by Matthew Negrete and directed by Jennifer Lynch. It marked Tyler James Williams' final appearance as supporting character Noah and Daniel Bonjour's final appearance as Aiden Monroe.

Plot
Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), torn over his loss of faith, tears up a Bible. As Rick (Andrew Lincoln) makes his rounds, he passes Jessie's (Alexandra Breckenridge) house and notices her working on one of her sculptures, which has been vandalized. Rick offers to find the culprit, but she brushes him off. Rick is later approached by Jessie's husband Pete (Corey Brill), who tries to cultivate a friendship with him. Elsewhere, Noah asks to meet with Reg (Steve Coulter) to become his student so he'll know what to do to keep the walls up.

Parts are needed from a nearby warehouse to repair the solar power system. Eugene (Josh McDermitt) is reluctant to go, but is the only one that can identify the required parts; he is joined by Glenn (Steven Yeun), Noah (Tyler James Williams), Tara (Alanna Masterson), Aiden (Daniel Bonjour), and Nicholas (Michael Traynor). Although the group is initially cautious, Aiden's poor shooting skills (as he shot a grenade) leads to him being impaled and Tara suffering a severe head injury. As the group readies Tara, they are shocked to learn Aiden is still alive but has been impaled to a wall. After Eugene promises to protect Tara, the others try to free Aiden. Realizing it is impossible, they leave Aiden to be attacked. Nicholas, panicking at the onslaught of walkers, tries to flee through revolving doors in the front of the warehouse. Glenn and Noah try to follow to stop him but all three end up surrounded by walkers and stuck in the door. Eugene is able to overcome his cowardice to evacuate Tara to their van which he uses to lure the walkers away from outside the building. However, Nicholas fails to listen to Glenn's advice and causes the door to open far enough for the walkers to grab and drag Noah out, where he is consumed; a horrified Glenn watches but can do nothing. Nicholas catches up to Eugene in the van and threatens to leave him behind. Glenn, having made it out of the door, knocks Nicholas out. Though they have collected the parts, the ride back to Alexandria is somber and they hold Nicholas under gunpoint.

Meanwhile, Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) helps a crew to extend Alexandria's walls. When the crew is ambushed by walkers, trapping their lookout Francine (Dahlia Legault), the foreman Tobin (Jason Douglas) sees no way to save her and orders them to abandon her. Abraham instead races in to help rescue her, later assisted by other members of the crew. With the walkers dispatched, Abraham takes leadership of the group. Tobin later resigns his position to Deanna (Tovah Feldshuh), Reg, and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) admitting that Abraham is a better leader. Deanna agrees, but expresses her concern to Maggie that Rick's group is quickly filling in positions of leadership in the community. Father Gabriel later speaks to Deanna, expressing his doubts on the sincerity of Rick's group and not to trust them, unaware that Maggie has overheard them.

Carol (Melissa McBride) is visited several times by Jessie's son, Sam (Major Dodson), who keeps asking for cookies. To get rid of him, Carol tells him she will only make them if he steals two bars of chocolate from the town's food storage. Sam returns with the chocolate. While waiting for the cookies to bake, he admits to breaking Jessie's statue, then asks for one of her guns. When Carol asks him why, he runs off. She goes to the Anderson home to try and talk to Sam or Jessie, but is coldly turned away by Pete, arousing her suspicion. When Rick returns home, Carol tells him that Pete is abusing Jessie and maybe Sam, and the only way to stop it is to kill Pete.

Ratings


Upon airing, the episode was watched by 13.781 million American viewers with an 18-49 rating of 7.0, a decrease in viewership from the previous episode which had 14.534 million viewers, and a slight decrease in 18-49 ratings from the previous episode's 7.3. The Australian broadcast was watched by 67,000 viewers, making it the third most-watched telecast on pay television that day.

Critical reception
The episode received critical acclaim. Matt Fowler of IGN gave it a 9.2 out of 10 saying "'Spend' was a damn solid episode that, in just one week, flipped me around on the whole 'Rick taking over Alexandria' situation. Full of huge, tense moments and surprising deaths, this chapter now has me back on Team Ricktatorship."