FTWD 511 "You're Still Here" Summary

[This is a condensed summary based off of the full summary Robb Black posts on the TSDF forum.]

Strand has joined Alicia on her hunt to find the person who has been painting the trees. Strand is now her protector because Alicia is still unable/unwilling to kill walkers. While out on the road searching for the tree painter, they hear a call over the radio for help. It is Wes and he recognizes Alicia's voice but thinks Strand is Mitch. He tells them that they owe him a ride. They go to pick him up and load his bike into the back of their truck. He explains that he ran into Logan's group and they were the ones who shot up his bike. He needs to get back home to his brother so they get in the truck and take Wes home. During the ride, Wes recognizes the map Alicia is using to track the painted trees. They have a conversation about why she is looking for the person and what she expects to happen when she finds them. She just wants to know how and why this person is doing this.

Wes' home is apparently a police station in a small town. He gets out and goes inside. While Alicia and Strand close the gate and start the unload the bike, they hear people yelling inside and then gunshots. A guy with a gunshot wound to his stomach runs out carrying a bag, jumps in the truck and takes off, knocking over the fence surrounding the station in the process. Wes comes out after the guy and tries to shoot out the truck's tires but fails. The guy drives off, and now with the fencing down, walkers start to converge on their location. The only gear they have to defend themselves with is non-lethal riot control weapons. Wes manages to take out one walker that way, but Strand ends up shooting a walker with a tear gas canister. The detonated canister embeds in a walker's body and as the walker ambles around it spreads the tear gas. Strand gets hit hard by the gas, while Alicia and Wes make it inside. Strand follows them in and they are trapped inside now by the walkers surrounding the doorways. Strand is also partially blind now from the tear gas. Alicia contacts Al and Morgan to explain the situation and asks that they try to find the guy in the truck before he dies since they are now trapped.

Wes explains the guy obviously wasn't his brother. His brother has been dead since the beginning of the apocalypse. It was someone who stole something from him. Wes is desperately searching the police station for what the guy stole, but apparently the guy took it with him. Alicia tries to engage Wes about the situation, and the fact that he is trying to kill this guy. Wes hasn't killed anyone before and she doesn't want him to have this on his conscience. Wes rebuffs her and says this is how people are now. Alicia is determined to get out of the police station so they can find the guy who took off in the truck before that guy dies. With Strand still partially blinded from the tear gas, Alicia prepares herself to take out the walkers on her own. Strand tries to talk her out of it, but she sees no other way. Wes then approaches them and says he'll do it. Wes goes outside with the bag of guns and ammo Alicia loaded up from the police station armory and takes out the walkers. They take one of the police cars and chase after the guy in the truck. They find the truck run off the side of the road, and they see the guy further down the road walking with a shuffle. They were too late. Wes runs after the guy and as he gets close he calls out. The guy turns around and he is still alive. He isn't a walker yet. He throws the bag at Wes and then jumps on top of him and starts to choke Wes. Wes reaches out for a knife that has fallen out of the bag. He manages it to grab a hold of it before he is choked out and plunges it the knife into the guy's side. The guy rolls over. Wes demands to know where his manuscript is. The guy is surprised. "You wrote that?" He tells Wes it is in the bag. Wes retrieves the manuscript. As the guy is dying he says he just wanted to finish reading it because it was so good. After he is dead, Wes stabs the guy in the head, tosses the manuscript at the guy's feet and starts to walk off. Alicia calls out after him. She can't believe Wes killed a guy over a book. She wants to know why Wes is just leaving the manuscript behind after all of this. Wes tells her, the guy died for it so it is his now. Wes then walks off.

Morgan and Al have been at a bank that Al found out about through an interview she did with the manager of the bank. They take out the few walkers in the office and then Al opens the vault door with the combination she got from the manager. She can think of no better place to store her tapes so they can be preserved and stay safe in case anything happens to the group. She wants her interviews and stories to live on -- not to mention they need copies of their story because Logan is taking out all their truckstops. Morgan has joined her, but Al doesn't know why. This is a one person job, but Morgan isn't forthcoming about his reasons other than Al shouldn't be alone out here. Al doesn't buy it, but before she can follow up they hear Alicia's call for assistance on the radio. Morgan and Al finish up at the bank and take off in search of the guy in the truck. Unfortunately, Logan has overhead the conversation with Alicia on the radio. He and his crew have set up a roadblock between the bank and the road where the guy in the truck is located. Al and Morgan are trapped. If they backtrack, it will take them too long so Morgan tries to negotiate with Logan. All Logan wants is the location to the oil fields, he would even be willing to accept looking through Clayton's journals as well. Morgan wants to know why Logan wants this oil so badly. Logan tells Morgan that this is bigger than all of them. Logan says they are trying to help people as well, but Morgan and his group just don't understand the scope of what Logan is involved in. Morgan refuses to share the location because they need that oil/gas to help people and if Logan gets it then that means people will suffer. Eventually Morgan and Al give up and decide to drive the long way around the road block. But as they walk away, Logan taunts Morgan about how helping people now isn't going to make Morgan feel any better about his not being able to help his wife or son. Morgan goes off and pins Logan up against the truck with his staff aimed at Logan's neck. Logan tells him if Morgan doesn't want everyone to know about his life, then maybe he shouldn't be broadcasting it all over the televisions. Al and Morgan get back into their car and take the long way around the road block. During the drive they have a long conversation about not letting their past define who they are now.

Morgan and Al eventually catch up with Strand and Alicia on the road where the truck and the dead guy are. Morgan and Al bury the dead guy while Alicia flips through the manuscript Wes left behind. She thinks Wes wrote the manuscript for his brother, and that is why it was so important to Wes. Alicia gets to the last page of the manuscript and the final two lines are "If you are reading this, it means you are still here." Wes has been the one painting the trees. Alicia opens the hatch of the side car of Wes' bike. Inside is paint cans and paint brushes. Alicia comes to a realization and she tells Strand that she can't get what she needs from anyone else. She then starts to paint one of the nearby trees. She paints it with a blue background, with fire at the base of the tree. Above the fire there is a white silhouette of a bird. Alicia is interrupted by a walker while she is painting, and even though Strand is there to protect her, she takes it out with a knife. She resumes painting the tree and finishes it by painting the words "No one's gone until they're gone."


The truth is out there

 

If this manuscript was that good, then Wes should write the episodes for Fear.


The truth is out there