I still don't see the ambiguity here,
1) Deanna KNEW Pete was beating Jessie, and ignored it because it was convenient and because she was unwilling to do without Pete's services. In no uncertain terms she decided that Jessie being beaten progressively worse, and their kids living in fear was an acceptable price to pay for said medical services.
2) Deanna has an axe to grind because of Aidan. Whatever she may say in politician-speak, she holds Team Rick responsible for Aidan's death, and even if everything inside her is telling her Nicholas's account of events is 100% bullshit, she WANTS to believe Nicholas, because it suits her agenda.
3) Alexandria itself is having a corrosive effect on Team Rick. Forced to endure an inherently flawed system set up to support cowards who want other people to do the dirty work, while said cowards retain the right to sit in judgment of those doing said dirty work. The very fact Michonne turned on Rick in support of these people when Deanna had as much as stated Rick was being outed tells you just how much the very place is tearing at the bonds that have allowed their group to survive.
4) This goes back to Point 2. If Deanna was interested in keeping the peace and resolving the situation fairly, she wouldn't immediately have depicted Rick as the one who was the problem. Basic questions in need of answers before someone seeking to be fair go something like this: "Jessie, how did this fight start and why?" "Rick, why did this conflict end up in a bloody brawl in the street?" "Pete, same question as Rick." Deanna had no interest in seeing the situation resolved appropriately. To her it was nothing more than the opportune cassus belli to go after Rick. What Deanna wants is Rick gone, but select elements of Team Rick (elements she's certain will be more malleable and fall in with her way of doing things) to stay and continue providing the free lunch the Alexandrians want and feel entitled to.
The sad thing is this: There's no long-term future for most members of Team Rick in Alexandria. Glenn is right behind Rick on Deanna's shit list because of Aidan. Maggie and Glenn are a pair, so if Glenn is pushed out Maggie follows. Carl and Judith are Rick's kids, and even though I might be able to envision a remote possibility of Rick being willing to leave them behind to keep them safe, there's no damned way Carl would allow it unless their going to keep him imprisoned. If Carl's out they certainly aren't leaving Judith behind...and Carol has an attachment to the kids, plus her own unique relationship with Rick that I believe is strong enough she'd leave Alexandria with Rick. Sasha is in so much pain she doesn't care where she is/where she's going. Abraham and therefore Rosita are something of a question mark, but long-term I don't see Abraham accepting the cut and run at the first sign of trouble modus operandi of the Alexandrians.
So all that Alexandria could accomplish would be to effect the disintegration of Team Rick. I'm really, REALLY interested to see how the other members of the group react when Deanna make it clear in no uncertain terms that she's angling for Rick's banishment. I find it difficult to believe that if faced with the choice Stay Without Rick or Leave With Rick and nothing in between that, with the exception of Michonne and possibly Abraham/Rosita/Eugene that any of the others would choose to stay.
Of course there's an absolutely idiotic way I could see this going down The entire idea is asinine and ultimately unworkable for the reasons listed above, but I could see the writers having Rick do something so stupidly self-sacrificing.
I have a really REALLY bad feeling about the Finale. I just don't see the inevitable cliffhanger ending on any hopeful or group-sticking-together note. There's going to be another separation of group members, and likely one that persists for some time into next season. This is the first season finale where I feel like there's no hope for plot development that will be immediately interesting when the new season picks up.
Glenn's got this semi-irrational commitment to make the group's integration into Alexandria a success because Noah believed in the place, and he feels doing otherwise means Noah died for nothing.
I just don't get why it's so hard for any of them to see that this is what Deanna has wanted for some time. Pete was (so far as the witnesses saw) just as much to blame as Rick, and Jessie did say she wanted his help and I feel her sense of being responsible for what happened would cause her to speak up to the effect that a) Pete began the violence when SHE asked him to leave, and b) Pete attacked Rick, who took a lot in the interests of de-escalating the situation. Even if she stays silent you don't see Deanna calling a meeting to say "We need to talk about Pete."
And btw, how much bullshit is it that SHE maneuvers Rick and Michonne into becoming town law enforcement and then, the VERY FIRST TIME that there's a major law-enforcement decision to be made that a) Deanna damned well knows Rick is in the right, and damned well knows her "If it gets worse beyond X-point I'll banish him (Pete) is disingenuous bullshit, because if the current level of violent escalation isn't enough to reach the banishment threshold then the only significant tier of escalation left is for Pete to beat Jessie to death. And you KNOW if THAT happened, Deanna's logic would be "We can't change what's already happened, so why should we lose the surgeon who can save lives?" And b) Her primary reason for wanting rid of Rick is her completely unfounded hope/belief that without his influence the other members of the group will give her the best of both worlds. Providing her with their expertise to do the heavy lifting, but taking their lead from her and accepting her as the authority they answer to.
If you can't tell I'm fairly embittered at how this last episode went, and how the finale seems to be shaping up based on the previews. Always before I felt invested as a viewer in the plot-apex the finale represents plays out. This time though, the ONLY WAY I see anything worth watching is if Team Rick (or at least 80-90% of it) either leaves immediately with Rick when he's forced out, or they bail on Alexandria immediately (like within 15-20 minutes of real time).
The writers have played the Group Gets Fragmented And Takes Quite Some Time to Reunite AND Meanwhile There's Lots of Ping-Ponging Between the Disparate Group Fragments card once too often. Every Season seems to go that way with the exception of what, the one season where it started with Farmer Rick? And even then you had the plague plotline soon after which accomplished the same thing. And no, this isn't a matter of limited Tropes common to the genre.
Breaking the group up and Ponging between the separate elements has been so thoroughly done to death that truthfully the show would need to run for say, 8-10 more seasons before they could justifiably use it again. Doing it every single Season is TIRED. C'mon, tell me you don't all agree?
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Originally Posted by MinionZombie
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