The Walking Dead has slowly been picking up the pace. I’ve found this season to have some rewarding moments and some disappointing ones, but things seem to be headed in the right direction. Tonight’s episode, episode 5 of the season, titled “Internment”, is far and away the best episode this season.
Most of the focus of “Internment” is on Hershel , who to me, has been the MVP of the show so far this season. He continues his great run with this episode which he gets to lead. He continues to tend for the all of the sick along with a little help of Glenn and Sasha. He disposes of the bodies hidden from plan view from the sick, to try and raise moral. When Maggie comes asking how Glenn is, Hershel sweetly talks her out of coming to see Glenn. Hershel is trying to keep the moral of the prison together, acting more of a leader inside the prison than Rick.
Rick returns to the prison from his abandonment of Carol and right away, Maggie notices the absence of Carol. When Maggie asks, Rick is straightforward with her and tells her that Carol was the one who killed and burned Karen and David. Rick asks her “Would you have brought her back.” Maggie agrees with Rick’s decision, telling him she wouldn’t have either. But she also questions if she herself could have made the same hard choice. Rick assures her she would have been able to. “You’ve done harder things. Don’t doubt yourself, we don’t get to anymore.”
Rick checks on Carl who continues to urge his dad to move aside from protecting him, and to let him help out. It’s only a matter of time until Carl proves his worth to his dad, as we will see later in the episode.
Hershel and Dr. Caleb have an intense chat in the cells, with Caleb coming to hard terms of his siutation, well aware that his time is running out. “There’s a point where no one gets to come back on. You need to focus on the ones that can make it. If you’re not ready to lose run, you’re gonna lose them all,” Caleb says. Hershel continues to urge him to keep on, but Caleb knows his time is up. He’s made more IV’s for the sick and has gathered some guns and ammunition. A little foreshadowing for what’s to come later in the cell.
After a heavy conversation with Rick about where they will go after they move past all this, Rick brings up what happened with Carol, but we don’t see the conversation. We can guess Hershel agrees with it. Hershel finds Sasha passed out on the ground. Meanwhile a few cell blocks over one of the people has died and turned into a walker. Sasha wakes up and treasures having Hershel around to look out for them, adding some humor along the way. Glenn however is not as lighthearted, as the man he was trying to help dies on him. During the process poor Glenn suffers from a bloody coughing fit that doesn’t spell good for him. Lizzy sees Glenn struggling but also sees the walker that has awoken next to him. Uh oh.
Next thing you know, all hell has broken loose inside the cell with walkers running rampant. Hershel has a close call with one walker, but is saved thanks to two others in the cell, who unfortunately perished trying to help. Lizzy creepily lures the walker “Glenn” away from Glenn, and has a close call with him, until Hershel pulls him off of her. After hearing gunshots, a panicked Maggie comes to try and help, eventually shooting through a glass window to make her way inside.
Meanwhile outside the prison Rick and Carl are trying to stabilize the fence, but the herd of zombies is just too much, and the fence collapses, allowing a swarm of zombies into the exterior gate. This leads to a really great sequence where Rick and Carl team together with machine guns in what is one of my favorite scenes from the show this season. The look on Rick’s face when he realizes that Carl has truly grown into a man was cool to see, but also pretty sad.
The scene went hand in hand with Hershel’s strategic battle against the walkers in the prison. Hershel finally gets to Glenn and realizes that the only way to save him is to get the mask that was on poor Henry. In his attempt to get the mask off of him, Maggie finally breaks in and takes out Henry, who is having an arms length battle with Hershel. Glenn is on the verge of dying, but thankfully they get the mask on him in time. I knew that Glenn wouldn’t die like this, but they had me a bit worried for a little while there. There’s another touching moment between Herschel and Maggie, and another creepy one for Lizzy who plays around with the pool of blood in the cell with her feet. What is her deal?
While Carl and Rick are finishing off any walkers that remain, the car with Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese, and Bob, returns with the medicine, just in time to save Glenn, Sasha, and the others that remain. When he finally gets a moment to himself, Hershel breaks down in tears. Who can blame him? It was tough to see, as his character has given his all to save everyone else. The next day Daryl asks Hershel about Carol but all Hershel can tell him is him to talk to Rick, which bewilders Daryl, understandably. Who knows how Daryl will react to the news next week. I imagine he won’t take it well.
We fade away from the prison and see someone gazing at them from afar. Who else, but our old friend, The Governor. Oh boy…
Notes:
To tell you the truth, not really looking forward to the return of The Governor. Although this season didn’t blow me away at first, it’s made tremendous strides forward, especially with tonight’s great episode. I’m starting to really enjoy it again. We’ll see how they play him back into things.
Many are guessing that Carol’s return will have something to do with the Governor. Could she possibly redeem herself somehow by killing him or capturing him?
Great showing this week from Scott Wilson (Hershel), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Lauren Cohan (Maggie) and Chandler Riggs (Carl). Scott Wilson continues to be the best part of this season.
A great episode for both Herschel and Glenn.
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