Sumith Prasad
AMC’s post-apocalyptic series ‘Tales of the Walking Dead,’ set in the same universe as ‘The Walking Dead,’ revolves around several enthralling tales in the wake of the zombie apocalypse. The first episode of the show, titled ‘Evie/Joe,’ follows Joe, who sets out to find a chatmate he used to text after the apocalypse. He encounters Evie, who holds Joe at gunpoint to use him as her “personal chauffeur.” The episode ends with astounding developments that threaten the duo’s lives and turn the same into a new path. If you wish to dig deeper into the episode’s ending, let us be your ally! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Tales of the Walking Dead Episode 1 Recap
‘Evie/Joe’ begins with Joe trying his best to survive the zombie apocalypse with his dog Gilligan in an underground bunker. Since he has prepared for the worst, Joe has succeeded in storing necessary resources for him but has shut his door to anyone who wanted help to survive the walkers. He believes that a man has to be on his own due to the circumstances and refrains from extending his help to anyone. When a walker kills Gilligan, he stoops to loneliness, only to find comfort in messages he had exchanged with a woman once.
To cope with his loneliness, he sets out to find the woman. Midway, he falls into a trap set by a woman named Evie. She takes him hostage and demands him to drive her to her husband Steven, who had found shelter in a family cabin upon separating from her. Evie wants to know whether Steven has painted her to express his possible hatred towards her as he usually does. Joe and Evie fight walkers together and they both start to trust each other. Evie finds the location of the woman Joe is searching for. But before they manage to reach their destination, Joe’s motorcycle gets stolen, infuriating him.
Joe blames Evie for the same and separates from her. Both of them split and go to their individual destinations. Joe finds the woman, whose name is Sandra. Even though Sandra welcomes him to her mansion, she drugs him. Evie discovers Steven’s cabin empty and arrives at Sandra’s house. Sandra welcomes her and tries to drug her as well but Evie realizes that she is lying. Evie then saves Joe from Sandra, who turns into a walker when Joe kills her with a big knife.
Tales of the Walking Dead Episode 1 Ending: Do Joe and Evie End Up Together?
After getting rescued from Sandra, Joe realizes that he has been living his life wrong. He understands that his decision to break away from his fellow people to be on his own so that he doesn’t need to share his resources isn’t ideal. The decision only pushed him to the depths of loneliness, especially after Gilligan’s death. After meeting Evie, Joe perceives the depths of his loneliness and admits to making a mistake regarding his decision to isolate himself. Evie lets him know that she is a part of his life like many others can be in the future.
The new realizations influence Joe to not lead an isolated life anymore. And Evie’s assurance that she is there for him indicates that Joe and Evie may remain together. Even though both of them do not explicitly express any romantic feelings towards each other, their possible togetherness may lead to a romantic companionship as well. Since Evie accepts that Steven cannot return to her life, she may consider Joe. Together, they may lead a life together, romantic or non-romantic, along with Skipper.
Why Does Sandra Try to Kill Joe?
Like Joe, Sandra also isolated herself from her fellow human beings when the world became the playground of the walkers. After losing her husband, she started to live in her big mansion alone, with ample resources to survive. As Joe does, she refrains from sharing the same and even paranoically thinks that the people around her want her resources, including the big shelter that protects her. By the time Joe finds her, her paranoia has conquered Sandra as she thinks that Joe is there to capture her resources from her. Since her shelter and other resources are essential for her survival, she formed an unhealthy attachment with the same.
The attachment gets threatened whenever a human being arrives at Sandra’s doorstep. She has been thinking that whoever arrives at her mansion wants what she has, including Joe. Due to her paranoia, she fails to see the love that drove Joe to her. Thus, she tries to kill Joe. Sandra most likely had even killed several people before Joe meets her, as indicated by the watch collection she has with her. Several individuals might have arrived at her mansion seeking help or even to check up on her, which she likely had misunderstood as their attempts to steal from her or even threaten her life, possibly leading her to kill them.
Is Steven Dead?
When Joe sets out to find Sandra, Evie goes to Steven’s cabin. She finds the cabin door already opened with no one inside. She returns to Joe, who asks her about Steven. She gives him a vague answer and refrains from giving clarity regarding Steven’s whereabouts. Steven must have most likely died, considering the cabin’s state. With uncountable walkers around, the chances of Steven surviving in an unattended wooden cabin, without any adequate safety measures are indeed low. He must have got killed by a walker or even must have turned to be a walker, which might have led him to leave the cabin.
Regardless of whether Steven is alive or not, Evie finds out that he didn’t paint any horrendous portraits of her to express his apparent hatred towards her. The only painting of hers she finds in the cabin is beautiful and appealing, one that captures Evie’s grace and beauty, which makes it clear that Steven had painted the same with utmost love and admiration towards her and not with hatred, which satisfies what she wants to know.
Read More: Where is Tales of the Walking Dead Filmed?
