Michonne and Glenn's group suffer attrition as Annie twists her ankle, and in a fight with walkers, David is bitten in the shoulder, whilst Sturgess panics and shoots Scott in the leg before running off.

Barely keeping it together, Nicholas leads them through familiar territory to shelter in a pet store, finding Sturgess' dead body being devoured by a group of walkers along the way.

Glenn devises a plan to light one of the buildings on fire to distract the undead, and Nicholas offers to lead him to a feed store.

Newlywed David, knowing he is going to die, writes a farewell note to his wife Betsy, but Michonne refuses to carry it for him and assures him that he can make it home for a final goodbye.

Nicholas tries to lead them away but they find themselves surrounded and trapped in a dead end, where they desperately climb a dumpster to avoid the clutches of the walkers.

It features guest appearances from Corey Hawkins as Heath, Michael Traynor as Nicholas, Kenric Green as Scott, Beth Keener as Annie and Justin Miles as Barnes.

Despite being credited, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Alanna Masterson, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Alexandra Breckenridge, Austin Nichols and Tovah Feldshuh do not appear in the episode.

It earned a 97% rating with an average score of 8.5 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus reads: "'Thank You' is an example of what The Walking Dead does best, combining gripping action with troubling existential questions in a heart-wrenching plot twist.

"[3] Steve Wright for SciFi Now assessed that the sixth season is a "step in quality" from the previous one and "one thing it has been missing is an 'Oh my god, I can't believe that just happened!'

"[4] Jeremy Egner for The New York Times praised Michael Slovis and said: "The scene on the Dumpster was a stunner, the various components - performance, makeup, sound, direction - coalescing into a woozy, terrifying sequence that ranks with the series's best".