Carol and Morgan are at a crossroads as Alexandria comes under attack.
But theres more than an undead horde shambling toward town that threatens their idyllic safe zone the wolves.
And theyre striking with a ferocity to which the people of Alexandria arent quite accustomed.
Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Or is it required?
In the relief of whats happening, Carols problems are comically domestic.
And that sense of normalcy trying to mask the darkness around them pervades the rest of town.
Maggie is preparing a garden to plant vegetables while building Deanna back up.
(Father Gabriel asking Carl for weapons training is probably a good indicator of that, too.)
Suddenly, the town is thrown into peril.
Molotovs are being thrown at the wall, lookouts burned alive in the process.
Maggie and Deanna witness the destruction as a squadron of unfamiliar faces finds its way into town.
Carol warns Carl to stay with Judith as she goes to investigate.
And then things start to get really bad.
She takes out a wolf, but there are plenty more to confront before Alexandria is safe.
NEXT: Can Carol and Morgan work together?
The biggest worry of all may be that horn, though.
(Luckily, Maggie and Deanna come by later so worried mother can reunite with worried son.)
Good on his word, Morgan heads into town, where he faces off with a particularly cocky wolf.
Morgan warns him to leave.
He doesnt want to kill this man and believes this whole ordeal can avoid bloodshed.
But hes doing so in Morgan fashion, tying up the wolf instead of killing him.
Fighting off a few of them, Morgan warns them all to leave.
His friends have guns, and they will use them against their bulletless foes.
Morgan shuts the gate behind them, seemingly putting an end to the threat… for now.
Morgan and Carol arent the only Alexandrians on the offensive, though.
Rosita and Aaron are fighting their way through the town and taking down whatever foes they can.
NEXT: Just survive somehow.
Meanwhile, Carl has holed up in his home, letting only Enid in at first.
The episode also starts out with Enids story pre-Alexandria, from which the episodes title is also derived.
Enid, once with a mother and father, is forced to watch her parents eaten by walkers.
She arrives at Alexandria alone, and it seems the permanence of her stay was always in question.
He wants Ron to stay inside with them, but he refuses and runs away.
And so they did for another hour, but not without plenty of bloodshed.
Denise loses her first patient in the infirmary, at first afraid to do anything.
But she dives in to help thanks to some peer pressure from the group.
Jessie faces a horror of another kind, as she and Sam hide inside a closet in their home.
She eventually leaves to investigate, heading downstairs where a wolf waits to attack.
In a flurry of screams and stabbing strikes, she kills the wolf just as Ron comes home.
(For more on Jessies big moment, readDalton Ross interview with actress Alexandra Breckenridge.)
In nearly every corner of Alexandria, the reality of the world has hit home.
For many, it meant the end.
For others, it was a tough lesson in what survival actually requires.
Of course, Morgan wishes the question of life or death could be removed from the equation.
He wants an existence free of these violent wars of man versus man when such a lingering threat looms.
This wolf knows Morgan doesnt want to kill him, though.
He and Carol later pass by wordlessly in the street.
Neither comes to a stop, barely registering each others existence, instead continuing on their own paths.
