Slowly but surely Season 4 of The Walking Dead has started to pick up steam. With the infection spreading in the corridors of the prison, the survivors have yet another obstacle to their survival to go along with zombies, and of course, themselves.
The episode begins bleakly with Glenn, Maggie, and others digging graves. A subtle cue to Patrick’s glasses hang on a grave, serving as a reminder that anyone can go at anytime, and it can come out of nowhere. The big cliffhanger from last week’s episode gets a thunderous scene when Tyreese finds the burnt bodies of his new love Karen, as well as David, who we never got to meet, but who the writers try to get us to care about anyway. Tyreese is understandably angry, but he is like a deranged animal, forcing his hand too heavy and physically on Rick and Daryl. Only Tyreese pushes too hard with his physicality, punching Rich, sending Rick into a absolute rage that has been a long time coming. Carol and Daryl try to break it up, but it’s no use. Rick loses it going too far with his beating on Tyreese, though no one can say it wasn’t deserved. Tyreese expected Rick to have the solution right there and then since he used to be a cop. Only now, there really is now law.
While Hershel take care of Rick’s bloodied hand he can tell Rick is demoralized, and tells him “Everything we’ve been working so hard to keep out, its found its way in.” Rick follows with a “No. It’s always there.” Rick thinks he’s the problem with all the chaos that has unfolded, but he’s being too hard on himself, and Hershel knows it.
Meanwhile Tyreese is out digging graves for Karen and David, when Bob comes out concerned for Tyreese’s health. Bob was my guess at the person who burned the bodies, and his quickness of concern to Tyreese made my suspicions seem correct..or so I thought.
Glenn and Hershel discuss about the possibility of the sickness passing if they haven’t already got it, and right on cue a sickened Sasha comes out coughing and ill ridden. She’s got the sickness, and is off to see Dr. S in the grim and frightening sick bay, which basically looks like a zombified version of death row. The symbolism of the prison works far too well here. Unfortunately for Sasha and everyone else, the sickness has gotten to Dr. S. No one is safe.
During the committee meaning we see them talk about what to do with about the infected people, and we can see that poor Glenn has caught the illness. Hershel knows of a college that may have medicine, but is a long 50 miles away. Daryl and Michonne offer to go, as does Hershel, but Daryl kindly tells him that he wouldn’t be able to make it with his leg.
Rick goes to make amends with Tyreese who admits they were both wrong. “I didn’t know David much, did you?” Rick asks Tyreese. No Rick, we didn’t know him at all. Tyreese still has no patience for Rick or anyone else not making attempts to track down who did this, promsing Rick that he will make sure this gets righted. We see Tyreese pass a group going to the sick bay, a cold reminder that Karen was brutally killed that way likely for no reason.
Carl and Rick have a quick chat as the young and old are being sent to isolation to avoid getting sick as they are the most vulnerable. Rick finally gives Carl his gun back. Then we see Maggie try to comfort Glenn, but Glenn tells her to avoid him as he has indeed caught the illness. Uh oh.
Before they leave, Michonne and Daryl have a heart to heart, Daryl making her aware that he knows what Michonne is up to when she’s “running off” (searching for the Governor). With only Bob able to join them, Daryl makes a pitch to Tyreese to join them, as he is doing no good staying back if they can’t get the medicine. Carl catches Hershel trying to sneak out, and won’t let him do it alone, especially now with his gun.
Carol makes sure that all the sick are put into the sick bay. It hits her hard when she has to put young Lizzie in there with them. Maggie and Beth have a heart to heart about how hard everything is, and Beth responds coldly with “We don’t get to be upset. We all got jobs to do.” It’s good to finally see Beth getting some development.
Hershel and Carl go outside as Hershel needs to gather some leaves for a tea that he hopes will help the sick. They encounter a few zombies, but they decide against using any bullets. We once again see the reminder of the prison’s impact during Tyreese and Sasha’s chat through a glass window, proving to be quite an effective boundary.
Tyreese asks Carol if he can keep an eye out on Sasha while he’s gone, and Carol apologizes for what happened to Karen. After he leaves, she has a breakdown, kicking there water supply and breaking down emotionally. Looks like Carol’s blunt coldness has gone to the tipping point as she is clearly the one who killed and burnt Karen and David. Wow.
The best scene of this season came this episode with Maggie and Rick’s plead to Hershel to avoid going into the sick bay to treat the sick. They don’t see the point, but Hershel wants to help. He is sick of not being able to control what we can do, and he knows that this time he can. “Every moment now you don’t have a choice, the only thing you can choose is what you’re risking it for.” Hershel wants to save lifes, “that’s reason enough to risk mine.” he tells them. Damn, that was an Emmy-worthy performance from Scott Wilson, who has quietly been one of the shows true MVP’s. We also see a great performance from Emily Kinney who goes against her previous scene and breaks down after learning about what her father (Hershel) is doing.
Rick investigates the crime scene, and smartly realizes that Carol is the one who killed Karen and David. He goes to confront her about this, but while she’s fixing the water pipe she is almost attacked by zombies, leaving Rick to save the day. Meanwhile, Daryl, Michonne, Bob, and Tyreese are on their way to get the medicine when their car gets stuck on a pile of dead zombies. They leave the car and are on their way out, but Tyreese just sits there in his own world. He finally gets out and tackles a huge swarm of them with a his claw hammer. The gang has to leave him as it looks like he’s a goner, but her miraculously makes it out of their and rejoins the group who run off on foot.
Hershel in the sick bay, tries to take care of Dr. S, who coughs blood all over Hershel’s face. Dr. S warns him that he shouldn’t be in here, but Hershel comforts him by saying “If you weren’t in here already, you’d be in here,” basically saying he would do the same. Hershel then goes to Glenn who notices the irony of the potential of him dying from a sickness after all they’ve been through. Hershel doesn’t want him talking like that, reminding Glenn that “we all have jobs here”, just like Beth said. So many great lines from Hershel this week.
Rick confronts Carol about the killings, and Carol nonchalantly acknowledges it as if it was nothing.
We’ll see what happens next week.
Notes:
Daryl promises to put a bullet in the person who killed Karen – uh oh. How will he react when he finds out it’s Carol.
Scott Wilson is easily the MVP of this episode, and possibly of the season. I don’t know if that’s a good thing though, as we all know what that means when a character is getting this type of attention.
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