The Walking Dead continues to be startlingly well-written.

At the beginning of the latest episode, Carol is dressed like a housewife and making a casserole — disguised as the person she used to be.

At the end of the episode, Carol ends up “disguised” to deceive a nihilistic group of dead-enders into believing that she is one of them, but her disguise in this case is truly her actual self.

Such a good show. So deft in its symbolism, and so true to its characters.

Here’s how Carol ends up in the last and truly excellent lead-out scene of the episode.

Lonely gunslinger going from the chaos to the unknown. The iconography couldn’t be more clear though you don’t really see that until the very moment it’s needed and where it truly works, as it’s all done so very well in the context of the episode.

Also in the last few scenes of the episode the casserole Carol had started 55 minutes before is done and gets taken out of the oven.

It had been baking while she killed roughly a dozen people who had been trying (and succeeding in) invading the community and murdering many of her friends.

The episode would’ve been amazing sans casserole. But with the casserole, it’s just pure genius.