Episode Recap: Been Away

After dropping of his passengers in Denver, and blissfully unaware of the hell in
which he left them, Axel is on his own for the first time since the apocalypse began.
He makes a beeline for the meeting place he and Scarlett agreed upon: his
hometown.

It’s a place that holds a lot of memories for the former Marine, including the painful
one of the day his sister went missing on his watch when they were kids. Axel
doesn’t have a lot of time to reminisce, however, because the first morning after he
arrives, there’s an attack by Daywalkers, and a group of survivors barely escape
alive. Axel comes in for the assist, naturally, and upon returning with them to their
base of operations comes to know a few of their membership, including Lorne, his
former boss at the local feed store; Kelly, a young woman looking for someone to
ride out the apocalypse with; and another young woman who has a lot of secrets
and even more baggage.

Axel offers to help the group finish the supply run that got interrupted by the
Daywalkers in exchange for some food and the group sets off once again. But this
mission, despite how well it has been planned, is also quite ill-fated. Lorne, in a fit of
dementia, runs into the fray guns blazing, resulting in the death of Kelly. The other
woman, meanwhile, freezes when faced with both Lorne’s aggression and the
concept of heading down to the basement to loot the supplies.

Back at home base, Axel makes a grim discovery. Not only is the mysterious and
surly young woman his little sister, Polly, but she is not long for this world. One of
Lorne’s bullets grazed her side in the attack and it is just enough to kill her, but not
before a tearful reunion with her brother, a confession that it was Lorne who
kidnapped her all those years ago, and a plea to Axel not to let his hate and anger
consume him.

Axel doesn’t quite take his sister’s words to heart, though. Furious over what has
been taken from him — not once, but twice — after Polly dies, Axel finds Lorne, beats him, and finally shoots him dead. They say you can’t go home again.

Elsewhere, Sam is still on the hunt for Mohamad, but when he returns to the
Johnson’s camp where he left him, he discovers his friend is nowhere to be found.
With no other leads, Sam hunts down the family, cornering one of the patriarchs in
the woods. Their encounter turns to the subject of love and faith and forgiveness,
where Sam is adamant that while he does feel love it is the greatest torture that can
be bestowed on a person. His victim, meanwhile, believes that love is the only thing
that matters. Of course, Sam’s point of view is proved right, at least in the moment
when he kills the man in front of his husband, taking love away. Axel may agree with
Sam this week.

Sam, however, still needs to remove his own love and Mohamad is the only one who
can help him do that. The Oracle, in all her wisdom, informs him that Mohamad is
with Vanessa, who has returned to the crypt to raise the Dark One. The stage for the
final battle may have been set.