The people of Alexandria have it pretty lucky now that Rick and company have come to town, but that doesn’t mean that things will go smoothly going forward.  “Forget” had our characters adjusting to their roles in the Alexandria Safe Zone, but others still searching for theirs.  Also, when Carol tells you to keep a secret, you better damn well keep it.

The episode begins with Sasha making questionable use of bullets.  As she receives a gun from the armory, Olivia, played by Ann Mahoney- who we briefly saw last time- asks if Sasha can bring her a boar’s leg if she comes across one.  You know, because boars are plentiful at this time of year.

Instead, Sasha sets up some family photos she’d seen in her new home and uses them for target practice.  You know, she could have just thrown them.  She rests and, as if daring life to throw something her way, simply says “Come and get me.”

Rick, Carol, and Daryl meet at the abandoned home where Rick buried the gun.  They’re discussing a plan to break into the armory to snag a few guns, but they’ll need to enter when the armory is empty.  Before that, though, they’ll need a way to break in.  Whatever the case, they need to do so sooner rather than later since, as they acknowledge, the people of Alexandria aren’t worried about these newcomers.

They’re lucky, but even luckier since Rick and pals showed up.  To be fair, they are right.  This plan also needs to stay between the three of them, as everyone else is trying to make Alexandria work.  Carol shoots a nearby walker not due to force of habit, but because it’d look suspicious if she returned from outside the walls and had a full clip.  Very smart, this Carol.

Before leaving, though, Daryl notices a walker with a W carved onto its forehead.  Not the first time we’ve seen this.

Michonne’s trying on her constable uniform as Rick walks in.  They’re still skeptical.  After all, they’re newcomers.  Why hand over power and authority to strangers?  Could this all be a play?  After all, with these uniforms, Rick and Michonne will become recognizable to everyone in the community, which could be exactly what Deanna wants.

Daryl goes about his loner business when he picks up on Aaron nearby.  Aaron, however, isn’t following him- he’s just hunting wabbits.  He soon ends up following Daryl.

Deanna speaks with Rick, Michonne, and Maggie about their roles.  Rick and Michonne will serve, watch the wall, and solve any problems they encounter.  An officer who lived there once had some jackets, so now they belong to Rick and Michonne.

Deanna has a bright vision for the future.  She sees a government being here someday, which is why she’s roped in Maggie to help her.  Deanna easily reads the skepticism on everyone’s faces, but they’re willing to give it a shot.  Rick’s suggestion is to do a detailed search on the wall for any damage or signs that anyone could have scaled over.  Deanna still refuses to arm everyone, but if things go according to plan, she may not have to.

Sasha arrives and volunteers herself to be the permanent lookout in the watchtower, as there currently isn’t one.  The others all believe someone should be stationed there 24/7.  The current watch is Spencer, but Deanna will consider giving Sasha a chance.  She then invites everyone to her place tonight for a welcome party.

Carol, Agent Suzie Homemaker that she is, talks up food with some women in the community when Rick comes by.  She’s also been told about the party, so the two plan to make their move for the armory tonight.

Aaron and Daryl spot a horse that Aaron has been trying to rope in for months.  The horse’s name is Buttons and always gets spooked whenever someone approaches.  Daryl takes the rope and gingerly approaches Buttons when some walkers attack.  The two dispatch of them, but Buttons rushes off.

As Olivia and Carol talk cookies, two men come in to make a withdrawal.  Carol, meanwhile, surveys the room all while telling the big, strong men about what she knows on guns.  Luckily, they offer to show her a few moves.  Meanwhile, the window latch is now unlocked…

So Aaron tries making small talk with Daryl, who preferred to ride bikes instead of horses.  Aaron gets Daryl- he feels like an outsider.  It’s a feeling that Aaron and Eric are all too familiar with, as even they haven’t been fully accepted by everyone yet.  That’s people.  The more afraid they are, the more stupid they become.  They fear the types like Daryl and Aaron.  Aaron, though, thinks that Daryl should let people get to know him, but Daryl has nothing to prove.

Dinner party time!  Our ragtag killers slowly fill in, with Abraham and Rosita noting that this party at least has beer.  That’s important.  Rick meets Deanna’s husband, Reg, played by Steve Coulter, who knows all about Rick through videotapes.  He may have helped build the wall, but that’s just what it is: a wall.

Aaron and Daryl happen upon the horse, but some walkers slow them down.  The two save each other’s backs, but they’re too late, as Buttons is soon devoured by walkers.  Damn.  When Aaron and Daryl finish off the walkers, Aaron delivers the shot that puts the horse out of its misery.  It always ran but, as Daryl adds, at least Aaron tried to help it.

Back at the party, Noah sticks to himself and considers bailing out until Glenn and Maggie remind him that he is part of their group now.  I mean, he didn’t really get the best of introductions to the group, but okay, he’s in.

Outside, Daryl watches the festivities from afar and passes by Aaron’s place.  Aaron himself didn’t join the party because he wants to monitor Eric’s ankle.  If Daryl’s not in the party mood, however, Aaron offers him a spot at their table.

Rick and Carol see Olivia join the party, meaning the armory is open.  Time to put the plan into action.  As Carol slips out, Rick receives a proper introduction to Jessie’s husband, Pete, played by Corey Brill, who wants to look at Rick sometime next week…he’s a doctor.  As Pete heads off into the party, Rick and Jessie talk and you can already tell there’s a spark between the two.  As Rick looks at the partygoers, he sees normalcy.

Jessie says that it’s better being within the walls, but that doesn’t mean that everyone outside of Rick’s group hasn’t lost something or someone.  They’ve had their fair share of tragedy and been through a lot of bullshit, but a lot of it just disappeared.  Despite being from different places, these people are now in each other’s lives.  It’s not much and their previous lives may be lost, but at least they got something out of it.  It may not be enough, but it’s something.

And then enters Sam, played by Major Dodson, who wants a cookie.  Luckily, Rick knows the cookie maker, so he’ll go get in touch with them.  Not before Rick receives his stamp, though.  Rick apparently knows the cookie maker.

Sasha finally joins the festivities and has a brief chat with Deanna’s son, Spencer, played by Austin Nichols.

Over at Aaron’s, Daryl wolfs down some spaghetti.  Eric reminds Aaron of something that he was supposed to ask Daryl, so Aaron takes him further into their home.

Daryl enters a workshop full of spare parts.  Aaron figures that Daryl would know best how to assemble a bike, if need be.  We also learn the reason why Deanna hadn’t assigned Daryl a job: Aaron asked her not to.  Why?

Aaron wants Daryl to be the other recruiter.  Not just because Aaron doesn’t want Eric to risk his life, but Daryl knows what it’s like to be on his own.  More than that, he knows the difference between good and bad people.  Daryl eventually says that he’s got nothing else to do.  That would be a yes.

An inebriated Abraham speaks with Michonne on the porch.  He says that she should get used to not having to use her sword anymore, and pray she never has to anymore.  He’s realized that things have finally worked out well for him.  For Michonne, though, she’s still figuring that out.  At the very least, she put on the dress.

Carol slips into the armory to retrieve some firearms, and she does, but not before Sam spots her.  Apparently he got tired of waiting for Rick and decided to find the cookie maker himself.  But, in reality, he just followed her.  And now Melissa McBride gives one of her best performances as she commands Sam to keep quiet about her being there.  He can never tell anyone, even though he tells his mother everything.  But why shouldn’t Sam tell?

Well, if he does, he may wake up, but he won’t be in his bed.  He’ll be outside the walls, tied to a tree.  He’ll try to scream for help, but no one will hear him.  Well, the living won’t hear him.  The dead, though, they’ll come for him, and he won’t be able to run away.  And after the dead are done with him, no one would ever know what happened to poor Sam.  Or he can keep his mouth shut and earn himself some cookies later on.

You know, Carol, most adults would just threaten kids with a spanking, but you’re more hardcore than that.

Rick and Jessie mingle a bit before she has to head off, though not before receiving a quick kiss from Rick.

Deanna brings Sasha to speak with some other women at the party, all of whom are just talking about their lives without a care in the world.  The normalcy becomes too much for Sasha, who snaps and lashes out at the women for being concerned over something as minute as preparing the wrong dish.  I also wager that Sasha wasn’t popular at dinner parties.

Next day, Sasha shows up at the gate to take her post.  She says that Alexandria isn’t real, but Deanna calls her bullshit on that.  Sasha takes her ammunition and gets to work.

On the other side, Carol disperses the guns she snatched, though Daryl isn’t so sure anymore whether they need the guns.  After all, they want to try and make this place work, right?  Carol responds that they may need the arms later, but Daryl is still on the fence.

Meanwhile, Michonne hangs up her sword.

As the three return, Rick heads to the wall and puts his head next to it while a walker bangs against it on the other side.

If “Remember” was about the group trying to grasp the idea of a normal life amidst so much carnage, “Forget” was about them being reminded that, right now, they live in a different world than the people of Alexandria.  One example would be Olivia asking Carol if she could bring back a boar’s leg, as if these people have no concept whatsoever of what is beyond these walls.

Much like how Rick and Carol are putting on acts for the sake of keeping up appearances, they wonder whether Alexandria itself is all just a façade.  The people there don’t seem to have a care in the world about the threat of walkers and act as if most, not all, of their troubles are gone.

They don’t seem to be ignorant about roamers, but they do act as if living in the Alexandria Safe Zone suddenly means that their lives going forward will be no problem.  I mean, asking for a boar’s leg?  Olivia would be surprised to find what’s really out there.

Part of me wonders whether Rick and company take pity on the people of Alexandria for being so carefree.  We’ve been with these people for five seasons and watched them travel from place to place.  The reality of the walker outbreak has hardened them, but also trained them on how to deal with walkers.  To the point, all they’ve known what to do is survive.  By contrast, the people in Alexandria have known loss, but also learned to relax and lower their defenses.

This is what makes Carol’s chilling warning to Sam all the more powerful.  She’s not just doing this to scare or warn him- she’s being completely honest about what she knows will happen to Sam if he doesn’t listen to her.

The main group has always been content with moving from place to place, but what if they didn’t need to?  What if, for a second, they could just stop?  That’s challenging for them when they can’t ignore the world around them.

To Alexandria’s credit, not everyone is completely ignorant about the imminent dangers of roamers.  Jessie’s line to Rick speaks to that.  Everyone who has arrived in Alexandria has lost something or someone close to them.

Much like Rick’s group, they come from different backgrounds and have various histories, but they’ve managed to band together as a family.  Even though they’re relatively safe, some of them are trying to move on.  Others, like Jessie and Deanna, at least know what’s out there, but they are damn lucky to have a hardened group of people like Rick’s group showed up.

The problem for Rick’s group is that the people in Alexandria seem a bit too idealistic instead of realistic.  Deanna talks with optimism about setting up a government and a return to civilization, but she knows that Rick is skeptical for having a pie in the sky dream.

Not in a world this bleak.  But that doesn’t mean that Deanna can’t hope for a better world.  After all, Rick once thought he and the Governor could put their differences aside and live together at the prison.  We know how that turned out.

What separates the two groups is that Rick and company know what it’s like to suffer on a regular basis.  Alexandria’s residents seem to be putting on an act, as if they’d prefer to ignore what’s beyond their walls.  Now we have Rick’s group putting on their own act so they can blend in.

This episode dealt a lot with the main characters trying to define themselves in this new community.  Sasha’s outburst during the dinner party and shooting the pictures showed just how detached she is from Alexandria.  It’s why she’d prefer to hole herself up in the lookout where she wouldn’t have to interact with many people, but at the same time, she’d make herself essential since she’s one of the best shots the group has.

She calls Alexandria bullshit because the people there don’t have any troubles, when all they have to do is step beyond the walls to encounter danger.  The incredulous look on her face showed how she couldn’t believe how carefree and naïve these people are.  Sasha has lost both Bob and Tyreese in a short amount of time.  She knows what this world can do to the people she loves and won’t let herself be softened by the idea of a normal life.

I never got the vibe that Sasha was a better shot than anyone else in the group, but she seems to have taken on Andrea’s role as the sniper, since that’s the role Andrea played at this point in the comic book.  But, of course, since Andrea isn’t around on the show anymore, that trait has fallen to Sasha.  I’m fine with it, but since we’ve seen most of the group function as competent shooters, it seems like most of them could have taken this role.  At the very least, it gives Sasha something to do.

In fact, Sasha seems to be a blend of both Andrea and Michonne due to her being standoffish, as it was originally Michonne who had the outburst in the comic book about the normalcy in Alexandria.  Though, given how much Michonne wants Alexandria to work and because of who Sasha has lost, it makes sense for her to flip out.

Not Daryl, though.  He gets a significant amount of time to spend with Aaron in order for Aaron to feel him out.  The two come from similar worlds.  I wish that Aaron hadn’t spelled it out as blatantly as he did, but this is Aaron’s approach: he approaches people like human beings and doesn’t try to hide who he is.  Daryl doesn’t feel a need to hide who he is, either, but he’s not as open as Aaron.

However, Aaron knows that Daryl may be a brute, but he has good intentions and knows the difference between good and bad people.  He’s a good judge of character, which would make him a perfect recruiter.  He wouldn’t have to change anything about himself or get close with the people of Alexandria.

I enjoyed seeing these two work together.  They saved each other’s backs and though they were unable to save Buttons, Daryl did acknowledge that Aaron at least tried to help it.  Poor Buttons, though.  That horse was just a few episodes away from retirement.

But damn it if Melissa McBride didn’t steal this episode with one of her most chilling performances.  Carol has probably the easiest time assimilating to Alexandria because she can make everyone think that she’s Suzie Homemaker, but she’s a Suzie Homemaker that knows quite a bit about firearms.  She’s so unassuming that no one would suspect she put the fear of death in Sam, who will probably never ask for cookies again.

Once again, I don’t think Carol did this to intentionally scare the shit out of Sam- she knows what this world is like.  We’ve already seen her make difficult decisions.  These choices have made her into the warrior that she is today.  Sam, however, has presumably grown up not dealing with walkers to the extent that Carol has.

Kids like him and possibly even Judith may grow up in a world much better than the one they’re in now, but for the moment, Carol has seen and done more terrible things than they have.  It’s safe to say that Sam may not be looking for the cookie maker anymore.

Rick and Jessie.  If I didn’t already know where this may be headed because of the comics, I’d say Rick and Jessie could have a promising future, but you still have Pete, who we know little about.  Who knows?  Rick may try and claim Jessie for himself.

“Forget” shows the group still trying to find its place in Alexandria.  It added to Sasha and Daryl’s storylines, showed what makes Carol the badass that she is, and gave us more mysteries to consider, such as the return of walkers with “W” carved into their heads.

Plus, with Rick and Carol feeling the need to arm themselves, Sasha searching for her place, Daryl now wanting to give Alexandria a chance, and everyone else trying to fit in, there could be some group conflict as our ragtag group of walker killers consider their futures in the Alexandria Safe Zone.