Picture this. Somewhere around a year into the apocalypse, there is a gang of men who have with them a nine-year-old girl. They're not very savory characters, these men. They keep the girl locked up someplace, and each of them can visit her whenever... they feel the need to. I'll let you infer. [[This would be my guess at why she doesn't speak to anyone.]]
Now. Brothers Ennis and Melvin happen upon this group of men. They have a method, one that they use regularly -- Ennis infiltrates the group first, while Melvin stays on the outside in case things go bad. It's just a recon mission. Find out who they are, what they have, and what can be taken from them without anyone missing it.
Ennis notices the odd behavior of the men sneaking off to the barn or wherever they have Charlie held. One night, he follows one of the men -- likely the leader of the group -- to find out what's going on. He walks in as the man is about to take advantage of Charlie. Ennis kills him. [[Hence Ennis saying, "I'm the one who found her."]]
The brothers ultimately see the benefit of having a group, and it's possible the group actually liked Ennis, so they still join and end up taking over, with a new rule against pedophilia.
Now. Obviously Charlie doesn't feel safe with this group of men. In truth, she only truly feels safe with Ennis. So whenever the brothers continue their old methods of having Ennis infiltrate a settlement for recon, Charlie ends up tagging along. He shows her what to look for, teaches her what questions to ask, etc. [[Hence him saying, "I'm the one who taught her how to survive." or whatever he said.]]
I also believe that he taught Charlie at some point that, should anyone ever try to hurt him, she needed to kill that person. Not out of revenge, but to protect herself -- if someone wanted to hurt Ennis, then A) there's a good chance they would come after Charlie next and B) that would mean that Charlie had no more protector and was at the mercy of the world. [[Hence her ultimately killing Nick, probably the only person she's killed, and someone whom she wanted to believe was a nice person.]]
We reach the present, where now Charlie is doing recon on her own. Maybe the Diamond was her first solo assignment -- the first time she's been away from Ennis's side since he saved her. She feels like Madison and the gang are good people, but no matter how much she might like them, she only truly feels safe with Ennis. So she goes back.
Nick somehow finds out that most of the Vultures have abused Charlie. He has no reason to think that this excludes Ennis or Mel. [[Hence his animosity toward Ennis.]]
And now that Ennis is dead, and Nick has been proven to be a bad person in Charlie's eyes, she has a choice -- she either goes back to those who abused her, or stays with the group who murdered her protector in cold blood for seemingly no reason.
I feel like Mel has probably taken advantage of her, too. I just get that vibe. It's possible that Mel held her captive without Ennis knowing at first, and that he eventually found her and took her under his wing. If this were the case, everything else would still play out the same.
I just don't want to believe that Ennis was a bad person. Not because I was particularly attached to him or anything. But the entire episode was focused on this theme that bluebonnets represent "something good still out there" in a world of shit.
And in Charlie's world of Vulture-shit, I think Ennis was her "something good". My reasoning is that Ennis is a city in Texas that is actually known for being the "Official Bluebonnet City" of Texas. In an episode that centered somewhat around both Ennis and bluebonnets, I refuse to believe that this is just coincidence. >.<
Submitted May 03, 2018 at 03:46AM by Lowdridge https://ift.tt/2HP71P1
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