Plot[edit]
The sixth season begins with the escape of a large herd of walkers that had gathered in a quarry. Rick used the impending threat to take control of Alexandria's work force and crush dissent, dominating the residents who are shocked by deadly violence and walkers within their community and who Rick feels are unprepared to survive and thereby expendable. Rick's plan to lure the walkers away in a "parade" fails when the rear half of the herd are drawn to the noise of a Wolf invasion of Alexandria, where Carol leads a deadly counterattack while Morgan struggles to save lives on both sides. Michonne and Heath try to lead others back to Alexandria with heartbreaking sacrifices. Rick returns just ahead of the herd which surrounds Alexandria's walls, trapping them.
Glenn, who had covered for Nicholas' wrongdoings and tried to help him redeem himself, is swarmed by the herd when Nicholas commits suicide. Maggie and Aaron try to sneak out of Alexandria to search for Glenn but find it too risky with Maggie being pregnant. Carl wants to search for Enid, who fled following the Wolves' attack, but Ron dissuades him and informs Rick. Called to answer for letting Wolves escape, Morgan provokes Rick to question his conscience having earlier experienced a period of self-examination while Michonne criticizes Rick for not including the Alexandrians in his plans. Deanna, who had been in a depression since her husband's death, is pushed by Maggie to look toward the future again. Glenn narrowly survives the herd and is found by Enid; they return to Alexandria to find it besieged by the herd.
Daryl, Abraham and Sasha finish luring the front half of the walker parade away when they are shot at by armed men in vehicles. Daryl is briefly captured by Dwight who is trying to escape these same men, and considers recruiting Dwight but is turned upon. Meanwhile, Abraham, who had been traumatized by Rick's execution of Pete and volunteered to accompany Sasha because of her PTSD, learns to find his calm. Daryl rejoins them in one of the fuel trucks Dwight had been seeking, but they are stopped by a motorcycle gang of Saviors; Daryl blows them up with a rocket-propelled grenade.
A sudden structural collapse opens Alexandria to the herd. Several residents shelter in Jessie's house where Ron has a breakdown and fights with Carl. The house soon becomes overrun, forcing them to leave disguised in walker guts, while a bitten Deanna makes a last stand. Morgan helps Carol into his house but she attacks him to get to the injured Wolf he had secretly been holding prisoner and attempting to reform. Morgan overpowers Carol but the Wolf knocks him out and takes Denise hostage. Carol later shoots the Wolf, realizing afterwards that he'd changed and was saving Denise's life. A coddled Sam panics amongst the walkers setting off a chain-reaction that results in his family being killed and Carl losing an eye. Rick makes a desperate stand joined by many Alexandrians; they are nearly overwhelmed when the walkers are diverted by burning fuel brought by Daryl, Sasha and Abraham. Rick admits he was wrong about the Alexandrians, now seeing that they have what it takes to live.
Two months following this brutal 3-day period that left thirty Alexandrians dead, the community is facing a food shortage. Rick and Daryl meet Jesus and, moving past adversarial reactions, accept his invitation to trade for food at The Hilltop. Learning the Hilltop is being extorted, they make a deal to kill Negan and take-out the Saviors for half of the Hilltop's supplies. Rick and more than a dozen of his best people make a well-executed attack on the Saviors compound, wiping it out, and while Carol and Maggie are taken hostage the two women are able to kill their captors. Having killed nearly twice the largest number of Saviors seen by Hilltop residents, including one who claimed to be Negan, Rick's group feel they have eliminated them as a threat and Alexandria relaxes into easy routines. Rick and Michonne become a couple, while Abraham leaves Rosita for Sasha; Rosita rebounds with Spencer, while Tara has begun a relationship with Denise and Carol with Tobin.
Denise is praising Daryl and Rosita on the way back from a supply run when she is killed by a scarred Dwight who is leading a group of Saviors. Holding Eugene hostage, Dwight demands that Daryl and Rosita take him back to Alexandria, but Eugene distracts them enabling Abraham, Daryl and Rosita to fight back, and Dwight withdraws with the surviving Saviors. With plenty of supplies Rick puts Alexandria on lockdown but Daryl goes out to avenge Denise and is pursued by Glenn, Michonne and Rosita, all four becoming captured by Dwight. Meanwhile, Carol suffers a crisis of conscience and flees; she is confronted by a group of Saviors and guns them down. Rick and Morgan leave Alexandria to look for Carol, find her car and the dead Saviors, and follow a bloody trail they hope will lead to her. The lone surviving Savior also follows the trail. Morgan eventually convinces Rick to return to Alexandria when they disagree over killing people. Morgan finds Carol, kills the Savior following her, and encounters a group of armored survivors willing to give Carol medical assistance.
When Maggie suffers complications from her pregnancy, a small group led by Rick head to the Hilltop to give her medical assistance. However, the Saviors block every route leading there, taunting and psychologically manipulating them with each encounter, until they are cornered and surrounded by the gang. Rick's group and the survivors captured by Dwight are lined up as the Saviors' leader known as Negan introduces himself and asserts his demands for Rick, although he says he has to kill one of them as punishment for killing his men. Negan randomly chooses one member of the group and beats the person with his baseball bat as the group is watching in horror.