Alexandria's brainiest grabbed survival by the balls in the latest 'Walking Dead'

Eugene Porter -- Alexandria's awkward, mullet-adorned bowl of country gravy -- just earned a lot of respect on The Walking Dead ... and all he had to do was bite some dude in the gonads. 

Via Giphy

If that sounds incredible, that's because it was. 

The moment came toward the end of an episode that questioned whether Alexandria's Team Brains -- particularly Eugene and Denise -- had the courage and skills to offer any contributions to Team Brave (i.e.: the gun-toting group who've been dealing with Negan and Co. the last few weeks).  

Eugene had spent much of the episode out on an excursion with Abraham. They'd gone to a facility where Eugene believed had the equipment they'd need to manufacture bullets. With the group's ammo supply running low, this was a big development and Abraham was more than pleased by Eugene's "damn fine, genu-wine outside-of-the-box thinking." 

They had a tiff, however, when Eugene was confronted by a lead-head walker and insisted on taking him on alone, which Abraham allowed -- until it was clear his friend was in over his head. 

Eugene didn't love being undermined and our soft little hushpuppy turned tough, telling Abraham that he was capable and not to second guess his abilities. 

Abraham ended up leaving Eugene to find his own way back to camp, which was a terrible idea because he ended up being kidnapped by Dwight (the dude from the woods who stole Daryl's crossbow several episodes ago).

Meanwhile, Denise, Daryl and Rosita had gone on a medicine run. The latter had no desire to drag Denise with them, but she insisted. 

It was through this plot line that we learned a little bit more about Denise -- like that she once had a twin brother named Denise and that she was slowly accepting the tough rules of survival, which of course meant she would soon die. 

When you think about it, a good portion of the second half of this season has been about what people are willing to do to survive in this increasingly perilous new world. Will you rise up and defend your community against a zombie horde? Will you storm the compound of an unknown group to feed your people? Will you kill? 

In this episode, Eugene answered the question, "Will you bite a man in the twig 'n' berries to save your group and your community?" with a resounding yes. And Denise didn't get a chance to answer any questions because she was shot mid-monologue through the eyeball with an arrow. 

Via Giphy

1) It's not a good season for eyeballs on this show. 2) R.I.P. Denise. 3) No, I'm not happy about it, either. 4) Sigh. 

The silver lining here is that the rest of the group did make it back relatively safe -- Eugene had been grazed by a bullet and probably needed to borrow Michonne's mints. Also, Abraham and Eugene made up, which is all that really matters. 

The episode ended with another character asking an important question of themselves: Am I happy with who I've become?

The problem here was that Carol knows she's willing to kill for those she loves, but isn't able to live with doing so anymore. 

Her answer? Run away. 

We've seen Carol struggling in these last few episodes, but I never thought it'd come to this. There's an absence of logic that's hard to swallow, too. If you love someone, don't you stick around to fight at all costs? Your "feelings" be damned? Maybe that's a too-simple way of looking at things. 

Either way, Carol asked in her letter that her friends not come looking for her. We'll see how Daryl reacts to that...

Spare parts:

• Watching Carol and Tobin kiss so domestically was weird.
  

• Daryl not being able to drive stick properly was hilarious.

• "Spill the pintos" is my new favorite phrase. 

• Am I the only one who kind of wishes Denise had died right after saying: "I threw up on my glasses"? It would have been the best final words of all time. 

• WHY did Daryl and Co. let Dwight and his possum pack get away? 

• How cute was that ending with Abraham and Sasha?

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