Poll: Episode 504 Ending

It’s apparent they get Carol AFTER the van is driven off the bridge.

Whether or not they actually hit her with the station wagon remains to be seen. Although it’s most likely the case.

I figure; they follow the Dodge Magnum to Atlanta. The cops in the car realize they’ve got a tail. Somewhere, somehow a gunfight occurs. Possibly at the house with the boarded windows with the crosses carved in them; and the shot up maroon Chevy Impala. After the pursuit, and the gunfight, Carol and Daryl are left without transportation and are forced to continue on foot. They enter the downtown areas of Atlanta and continue their pursuit; Daryl attempting to track them through the city. During this time; Daryl and Carol talk, Carol shares what she while she was exiled(short flashback), they find some sad scenes, old abandoned camps on top of parking garages, inside bombed-out buildings, business centers and skybridges. Among these scenes of tragic endings, Daryl finds a young child, long dead and since reanimated, who was trapped, clearly having been left behind by whom ever he once belonged to. This scene gets to Carol, especially after all her terrible experiences with children in the apocalypse. Daryl, being so close to her, picks up on her pain, and suggests they take the time to put the child to rest. They do just that, and then find a white sheet and cover the child in a burial shroud before either burying or burning him. I think they burn him because they’re on a rooftop when it happens. After that they continue their search for the cops who took Beth. Daryl is clearly hot on the trail as he continues to find more and more evidence of the hospital cops. As they get closer to Grady Memorial, they hear some panicked yelling in he distance, accompanied by a long volley of gunfire; coming from several different shooters and different calibers. The commotion last several minutes. Daryl and Carol pick up the pace, heading in the direction of the gunfire when they begin crossing a bridge(behind them is a view of the city skyline that looks very familiar to what Beth saw from her hospital window). As they begin crossing, they notice there is a large herd of walkers behind them, heading their way. Most likely drawn by the noise of the gunfire. They begin to move faster, planning to cross the bridge and slip out of sight of the herd once on the other side. But, as they begin to crest the bridge, they see another crown of undead have gather on the other side, drawn by the gunfire as well. Stuck in the middle, their options are slim. The herds begin to close in, and Carol and Daryl put up what fight they can. Carol exhausting the last of her ammo from her .38, Daryl doing the same with is crossbow and sidearm, and it even comes down to knives for a brief moment, both of them making kills, buying time. There only option, is a white cargo van, teetering precariously on the edge of the bridge, with the front end facing toward the ground. Apparently having been abandoned after crashing through the guardrail, and getting stuck, teetering on the edge. Daryl and Carol reluctantly, but quickly enter the van. It’s then we notice the back windows of the cargo van have white crosses painted on them. Inside the van, they look in the back, finding a soiled, stained, and clearly frequently used mattress on the floor, along with shelves containing evidence of food and medical supplies. Carol and Daryl share loaded, suspicious glances with one another. They also see a Virgin Mary statuette on the dash. They share another worried glance, and then the van begins to rock under the weight and force of the undead. They entered the van to late to successfully hide from the zombies. The van starts to rock violently, and Daryl and Carol reach out to one another, and hold hands on the middle of he dash as the van is pushed past the precipice and begins it’s decent to the solid ground beneath the bridge.

After that, they are both rendered unconscious in the van. Carol awakes first, and is pretty banged up, as it Daryl; who is still unconscious and strapped into the driver’s seat. Both injured and needing help, Carol frees herself from the wreckage, and attempts to go look for help in whatever form she can find it. It is during this time, wounded, injured, disoriented, that she is found by the hospital cops, and being injured, in need of medical attention, and assumed a “weak woman”, she is a prime target. So they hit her with a station wagon and abduct her.

Daryl finally regains consciousness in the van. As he attempts to wriggle free of the wreckage, he feels his injuries. He too is banged up pretty good. He realizes Carol isn’t around and calls out for her. He is then found by Noah, who having literally JUST escaped the hospital(the gunfire Daryl heard), is also injured and in need of help. They can be a help to one another. After some initial tension; Daryl notices the scrubs Noah is wearing and questions him about the cross cars. Noah tells him everything, and when he mentions Beth, Daryl tells him that he is looking for her. Daryl ask Noah is he saw Carol around, and he says no, and explains she was most likely taken as well. Daryl tells Noah all about Rick and the rest of the group, and they make their way back to the church to inform the others and rally the forces for a Carol/Beth rescue mission.

I also think; when Rick and the gang, with new friend Noah, are heading up the road to Atlanta, they will see the church bus wreckage on the road. They continue in the same direction, and later catch up to Abe and the others. This is when they find the fire engine, and use it as transport, and as an assault vehicle against the dead, and to assault the hospital and rescue their people. Should be a good ride to D.C. as well. LOL