Here we are, creeping closer to the end of Walking Dead’s fourth season. The first half gave viewers nervous ticks, keeping them on the edge of their seat until the mid-season finale. In stark contrast, the second half has so far lulled fans, calmed down the non-stop action from previous seasons. No doubt in preparation to drop a world of angst on their heads next week in the finale. Or so we hope. Things have picked up a little, but still haven’t brought the tension to the levels seen before the hiatus. What action we’ve seen that progresses the plot has only left a lot of question marks rattling around our heads. There’s loose threads waving around everywhere. We’ll have to wait and see what gets tied up in the finale and what’s left to hang until season five.
Beware, for the path you will take will lead you to certain spoilers!
After Rick, Michonne, and Carl ditched their invaded safe house, we haven’t seen them since the end of episode 411. In that time, apparently all they’ve done is walk and drink nearly all their water supply. Strange, since Michonne is the most capable killer on the show. Rick is the main character. And Carl has grown and matured the most in four seasons of TWD. A good chunk of what makes the show compelling lays with those three. We see them for maybe two minutes in this episode—just long enough to watch them walking and laughing. Sure, it shows Rick’s hope returning, along with Carl and Michonne’s building friendship, but after three episodes without, a quick peak isn’t enough to bring these three back into the story for the finale.
Finding trust in Mullet Man . . . I mean Eugene, is really difficult. There’s so many little things he does throughout his scenes that brings into question the truth behind his babbling. Boy, does he talk a lot. For the most part, when a character talks non-stop, we start to wonder what they’re hiding behind all the mindless chatter. Eugene dominates every conversation with what seems like inane chatter—ranging from how to build batteries ala MacGuyver, to the possibility of zombie dinosaurs. (A distant cousin to zombie bunnies? I’m not cleaning up after them.) Since joining forces, Eugene fought Sgt. Ford’s orders to follow Glenn and Tara in their search for Maggie. Could he be a closet romantic? Doubt it. Something about his interest in the others doesn’t feel right. Here’s a guy who supposedly knows what’s really going on with the zombies, yet he’s more than willing to delay their mission for days, possibly weeks, to help complete strangers in what was very much a doomed mission from the get-go. He signed his escorts on for a mission to hunt a needle in a haystack. Doesn’t make sense when he may be capable of putting an end to their primary problem—the creatures trying to eat them. Or can he fix this at all?
Glenn and Tara do a lot of rehashing about what happened during the prison attack in the episode. Honestly, most of it wasn’t needed. If they’d stuck to showing Tara’s guilt over what happened and wrapped it up with a truncated version of their conversation in the tunnel, Glenn’s acceptance of her would’ve had a larger impact. Instead, it kinda came across like woe-is-me whining. Tara needs to find her backbone again. After the prison, she lost everything that made her an interesting character and became a stereotypical angst-ridden, confused woman with no substance. When they finally tried to give her substance, it was something we’d heard so often it meant nothing, until Glenn reunited with Maggie and when he introduced Tara, he didn’t out her as one of the Governor’s lackeys.
Yes, Glenn and Maggie are together again, against all odds and reason. Once more, they’re using the pair to give a shaft of hope before chaos hits the fan. The reunion was telegraphed, killing some of the excitement.
At last we get to see more about Joe and his crew, who’ve decided to keep Daryl around—they’re reasoning being no one can survive alone. Something suggests they have ulterior motives. Those guys, not telling the full story? Never. [/sarcasmfont] Joe’s group isn’t completely lawless. Which is probably a good thing. They don’t seem to be stellar pillars of the community, Len being a primary example of what could happen if Joe allowed his guys off the leash. Len picked a fight with Daryl, and through no action on Daryl’s part, ended up vulture bait. Through subtle manipulation, giving his guys the illusion that they have control through the “claim” system, Joe keeps his wild dogs under control. Or should they be called alley cats? When he caught Daryl skulking around, his head wrapped up in Beth’s whereabouts Joe told him, “Ain’t nothin’ sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks he’s an indoor cat.” He knows their place. Fully understands that his crew is comprised of the dredges of humanity. Yet Joe embraces it and continues to adopt strays, similar to what Daryl did once they’d settled into the prison. With Joe’s influence, we’re seeing the rougher Daryl reemerge. Beth gave him someone to care for. None of the guys he’s traveling with now need that much, if any, help. Daryl has no responsibilities. He can sink back into the mind frame he had when chasing after Merle, wreaking havoc wherever their bikes took them. What’ll happen if they find Beth again? Can the alley cat learn to behave indoors?
Next week is the season four finale. We caught a glimpse of Terminus when Glenn and gang rolled in. So far it seems . . . pleasant. Then again, so did Woodbury. The preview suggests we have some yelling in store. About time.
What do you think, is Terminus a legitimate safe haven where the survivors can finally let their guard down? Let us know what you think is in store for everyone in the comments below.
Completely Unhinged Review of “The Walking Dead” 414 – “The Grove”
Have you recovered yet? We sure as heck haven’t. This week “The Walking Dead” pulled no emotional punches. They went there and didn’t bat an eyelash. Unfortunately “there” may have been a little too far for some of the younger actors involved. A lot was asked of them and it didn’t quiet . . . work. Some of the intensely emotional scenes failed to fully grab the audience and jerk them into the moment. Melissa McBride delivered a stellar performance in this episode. One of her best in the series. She succeeded where others couldn’t handle it and pulled the audience deeper into the heart-wrenching events of the episode. One woman cannot make a show, though. Certainly not a show built on a solid ensemble cast during the early seasons. The longer the show sticks to intimate cast sizes per episode, the more drawn out and god-awfully slow it feels. Not good for TWD fans who came to the party expecting copious amounts of brain-bashing action.
What are we going to do this week, Brain? Same thing we do every week, Pinky. Post TWD spoilers.
It is no secret that Lizzie is completely unglued. Her grasp on her own mortality and the real danger the walkers pose to her safety was never solid. In this episode, it becomes painfully clear that she’s always been slightly off. Little Mika has obviously spent ample time learning how to distract her sister from whatever isn’t right in her head. We have no name for what’s wrong with Lizzie. She’s convinced the walkers are simply an evolved version of ourselves. They speak to her. Demand she take care of them and provide food. Somewhere along the way, being undead became an appealing prospect. Was this a way to cope with the losses her family faced since the walkers started shuffling around? Hard to tell now that we know she wasn’t all there to begin with.
Dealing with mental illness after the healthcare system has fallen to the wayside along with the government, sewer maintenance, water stations, etc., can’t be easy. Many suffering from mental health problems rely on medicine to recalibrate the chemicals in their brains. Others need the calming effects of a regulated schedule, which often includes regular visits with a mental health professional of some sort. None of the methods used to treat problems like Lizzie’s are available to her. Mika does her best, calming her sister while providing insight to the adults who’ve taken care of them since their father’s death. Did daddy dearest know how far gone his eldest daughter was before the flu claimed him? We didn’t see much, if anything, about the girls until his passing. Would Lizzie have snapped so completely if their father had been the one to take them from the prison instead of Tyreese and Carol?
Carol has tried so hard to become cold, calculating, and pragmatic since losing Sophia. She killed Karen and David, only showing remorse when it came time to confess to Rick and then, in this episode, Tyreese. The remorse came because Carol knew she’d betrayed their trust. She fully believed killing Karen and David would prevent the spread of a disease the prison population had no hope of fighting off on their own without medicine and a team of doctors. They were necessary deaths. Something she did for the better of everyone. Carol knows there’s people surviving in their new world who are only making it because of others. Sophia, as Carol put it, “Didn’t have a mean bone in her body.” Killing to survive was well beyond her comfort levels. Mika is the same way, despite Carol’s attempts to toughen her up.
Too bad her lessons didn’t stick.
Lizzie’s madness cost her sister her life. Is anyone to blame? No. Nevertheless, Carol’s guilt nearly cripples her, makes her hesitate to do the necessary thing. Is death ever necessary? In our world, no. Murder is senseless. Unnatural to the teachings of the numerous world religions which are the cornerstone of our morals. But in a world where every day is a fight to take just one more breath, one must weigh the good of the many against the individual. Carol and Tyreese were faced with that decision—try to save Lizzie, despite the depth of her mental illness or ensure Judith’s safety, as well as their own. In the end, Carol’s ruthless practicality stepped in and allowed her to make the hard decision. Lizzie had to die. No matter how they arranged it, someone would end up alone with her and Lizzie’s inclination to turn everyone into a walker would get the best of her, and them. What if Lizzie ran off and some do-gooder brought her into their camp? Nothing good could’ve come from her continuing to live unmedicated and unchecked by her sister’s kind soul.
In order for the show to catch their audience again, they need to pick up the pace. There’s only two episodes left in season four and the entire second half of the season has been spent backtracking. Why? They brought too many characters in too quickly during the prison days. None of the new survivors who walked away from the prison attack got much screen time, giving viewers a group of strangers to follow who they had no connection to. While yes, it’s good to get to know a character, it’s too little too late this long after the characters have been introduced. All the character development slowed down the pace of the show. It’s become “The Lord of the Rings,” with every single character’s progress no more than walking a few miles. Are they growing emotionally? Yes. Has anything really happened since the prison fight? Can’t say it has. We’ve got a budding fan-service relationship, two dead kids, and a lot of people walking on train tracks after six episodes. Not to mention two new groups of survivors who will likely get the same lack-of-development treatment as the others. The entire first season was only six episodes and look what they accomplished there.
Will everyone meet at Terminus by the end of season four? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
This was a hectic week in the ZSC Command Center, with a good number of our commanders off in Sacramento, CA for Wizard World Comic Con. Perhaps it was the insanity of our week transferring, but somehow this week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” felt just as discombobulated. Disconnected. Schizophrenic. The scenes jumped around a lot. Possibly to force the show’s pace to pick up again after last week’s slow-down to focus on Daryl and Beth? Whatever the reason, the latest episode fell somewhat flat. The energy was forced, when in reality not much actually happened to progress the plot until the end of the hour. With that in mind, let’s see what some of the characters were up to this week.
You know the drill. There’s spoilers below this text. Read ahead at your own risk.
The episode kicked off with an unexpected flashback showing Bob’s life in the week or so before Glenn and Daryl found him and brought him to the prison. He’d been completely alone, drinking cough syrup because there’s no liquor stores when wandering in the wilderness, and hardly doing anything that’d be considered truly living. There hasn’t been a flashback on the show—a true flashback, unlike Michonne’s weird dreams and hallucinations—in quite some time. Some viewers may have been confused, wondering where Sasha and Maggie were if Bob was alone and looking like he hadn’t shaved or seen bath water in over a month. While the flashback drove home the suck-fest that is surviving alone in the zombie apocalypse, it wasn’t necessary. Bob’s argument with Sasha later, the ragged emotion in his voice when he tells her about how awful the isolation was as he wandered aimlessly without anyone to watch his back so he could get even a couple hours of sleep, told the truth of the loneliness far better than a confusing flashback. Which only added to the disjointed feeling of the episode.
Strangely, instead of touching base with the show’s lead character, Rick, we caught up with Beth and Daryl again. Who we saw for an hour last week. Show runners are really driving that pair home in the minds of fans. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. We get it. There’s something brewing between these two. Short of renting an airplane and writing it in the sky, there’s not much more the writers can do to inform us this unspoken something between Daryl and Beth will be romantic. Though honestly it wasn’t until Daryl, the man who had been a nomad long before stumbling across his first walker, suggested settling down that the idea of a relationship between the two fully clicked. This is an instance where subtly was thrown out the window… which isn’t fair to fans. Watching something brew between two characters organically, like what happened with Glenn and Maggie, is part of the thrill. Daryl and Beth feels like fan service. Would it happen eventually without them forcing it? Probably.
As far as the characters know, they’re the only survivors from the prison. Everyone they knew is gone and for the most part, whenever they encounter new survivors, the newbies try to kill them. Take Beth’s random abduction, for example. Who has gas left over a year into the apocalypse? Even the group at the prison had to start rationing gas. Michonne took to riding a horse or walking on her numerous trips out to track the governor.
But they’ve introduced yet another group of survivors, led by a guy named Joe.
Right off the bat, it’s obvious they won’t take any guff from Daryl. But are they friend or foe? So far, they’ve only threatened violence if Daryl does something rash and stupid. Will they help him find Beth? Who knows? Joe and gang weren’t on screen long enough to do more than tease their existence.
When will we catch up with the other survivors? What do you think is happening with Glenn, Rick, Michonne, Carol, and the others? Let us know in the comments below.
Sunday night posed a viewing quandary for many folks. When time came. Of course the ZSC Command Center TV was turned to AMC for the newest episode of “The Walking Dead.” Unlike any other episode in the series, this week’s featured only two of the main cast for the duration. Kudos to Norman Reedus and Emily Kinney for their performances. It couldn’t have been easy to carry an episode on their own—with a little help from not-so-friendly neighborhood walkers.
Wait a minute . . . . Have you watched the episode? There’s spoilers below.
The overall theme for season four seems to be acceptance. Not necessarily of others, as we saw in this episode, but of the circumstances life’s thrown their way and the deaths they’ve witnessed along the way. Everyone in this world had to step back and look at their lives objectively. What good would it do to be pissed at the world? Would anger put food on the table? Could it bring back their loved ones? Anger certainly can come in handy when it comes to killing walkers, as we saw with Daryl’s hole-in-one tee-off in the locker room during the middle of the episode.
But anger can also make one sloppy, careless. Beth has been working through the stages of grief since her father’s murder and the attack on the prison. The anger stage set her off on a mission—she wanted booze. It wasn’t an end to their problems she desired, just a drink to take the edge off everything she’s avoided confronting emotionally.
“All I wanted to do today was lay down and cry, but we don’t get to do that.”
Beth’s ignored her feelings since early on at the prison. After they lost the farm, she switched her focus from what she needed to what others needed. It gave her a somewhat healthy distraction, but also didn’t allow her time to mourn her losses properly. Until now when it’s just her and a growly redneck traipsing through the woods. Now she’s got all the time in the world. There’s no kids to take care of. No food to cook. No home to clean. No one to talk to—let’s face it, Daryl is not Chatty Cathy. She’s stuck mourning all her losses at the same time, most notably losing the home she thought they’d remain in until someone somewhere came up for a solution for the undead problem.
Her mission for a “real” drink took them to a country club. Right off the bat, the place feels hinky. As they clear the building, picking up needed items along the way, it becomes apparent something horrible happened inside the club’s main building. Something not done at the hands of walkers. Even when death knocked at their door, the class structures inherent in a place like a country club—where the wealthy are given free rein to lord over the employees—were still in play. Through the dead Beth and Daryl found, we start to weave together a story told through the ages. The wealthy, when caught unprepared for disaster, were obliterated by those who felt their money made them less than human. How could anyone who never had to beg and scrape to pay the bills have any feelings? The reasoning isn’t sound. Frankly, it’s insane. The stress of survival does bad things to people. We’ve seen it time and time again in four seasons of the show.
Daryl doesn’t often show typical signs of stress. He’s like a duck in water, letting everything roll off his back. Sadly, it’s always been this way for him. This week we finally learned what exactly Daryl did before the walkers came—not a dang thing, apparently. He tooled around with his brother Merle, causing mischief and doing nothing productive with his life. Daryl didn’t call the shots. He acted as a lackey for his drug-addled, loud-mouthed older brother. Possibly the most shocking part of the episode wasn’t any of the walker kills, or even Daryl’s borderline abusive attempt to teach Beth how to use a cross bow. Daryl talked about Merle and his father. He never talks about his family, and hasn’t mentioned his brother since Merle was turned walker and Daryl killed him. Dwelling on the past is not his favorite pastime.
Escaping the past isn’t so easy, though. The prison attack, all those needless deaths, it’s eating away at Daryl. He finally made something out of his life, finally stepped out free from his brother’s long shadow to fashion himself into an apocalyptic hero of sorts. Only to lose the majority of the people he’d agreed to protect. Beth told him, “I know you look at me and see another dead girl.” Because that’s all they’ve left in their wake from Atlanta to the farm to the prison, dead girls who couldn’t hack it. He saw this and tried like hell to save them. And failed. Listening to Beth’s resigned statements about her final fate, how he’ll be the only one of their group to survive, hurts Daryl on a level he’s not comfortable showing her. He doesn’t want to be alone. He doesn’t want to fail the family he’s chosen and fought for. Failing his blood family was bad enough.
Daryl and Beth vented, fought, drank, and finally came to understand what makes each other tick. This is vital to their continued survival. Beth won’t throw a fit and wander off to nearly be eaten. Daryl won’t try to take on too many walkers and end up at the wrong end of all those rotting teeth. They’ve got each other, now. No one else. They need to make it work or die trying to find a new place to call home.
What did you think about having an episode with only two cast members? Let us know in the comments below.
The second half of Walking Dead’s forth season should, by all rights, be slow-paced. Right? There’s no way with the huge cast cut down to manageable chunks to manage huge, tension-filled scenes chalk full of blood, guts, and grief.
Wrong.
So far the second half of the season moves smoothly, with a few hiccups mostly to cut out unneeded moments best covered in dialog later. This episode focused on the new folks—Sgt. Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa, and Eugene Porter—along with Tara and Glenn, and Rick, Carl, and Michonne’s plan to get their bearings before moving on from their little slice of normality.
Last week, we were introduced to Sgt. Abraham Ford and his companions, but didn’t get much further than, “Hey, who the heck are these people?” In episode 411, there’s a lot more time spent with Ford, in particular. Right out of the gate, it’s disturbing how much he enjoys a fight. Tara called him on it when she noticed his smile during a walker (biter) attack. Ford is a formidable fighter—mean and silent until he’s sure he’s got the upper hand. He wastes little energy on showmanship. And boy does he enjoy T.C.o.B. – Taking Care of Business when it comes to the walkers. What drives him? A personal vendetta against the undead? Or is he more like Lizzie, someone who kills because they enjoy it? Unlike the show’s pint-sized sociopath, Ford at least appears to care what happens to the people he’s taken under his wing. Not to mention, being totally gung-ho to deliver Eugene to whatever semblance of government survived this far past the original walker swarm. Yet Ford somehow fails to acknowledge Rosita’s emotional attachment. He’s isolated himself, drew everything in until he’s a laser, focused on the mission at hand.
For his part, Eugene doesn’t seem as concerned with reaching Washington as Ford. He’s smart. Smart enough to know they can’t travel alone and hope to survive. Does he really have the answers Rick and his crew struggled to find back in season one when their last-ditch effort landed them at the doors of the CDC? This far in, there’s no way to know what’s going on in Eugene’s head. Or on his head. What is up with the mullet? It makes me not want to trust this guy at all.
Glenn doesn’t seem to trust them, either. He’s still weak from the flu, liable to pass out again at any moment. But when it comes to finding Maggie, he’ll walk straight into Mordor and knock on Sauron’s front door. Which he very well could be doing. There are no guarantees he’ll find his wife again. The hope instilled in Glenn from his time with Hershel shines through like the sun through storm clouds. How far can he walk fueled by hope alone? Three hours by truck is a far way to backtrack on foot. By then, Maggie could be anywhere. She’s not going to sit idle, hoping he’ll come across the bus. Glenn is ruled by his emotions, blindly walking toward whatever future rises over the horizon. The only way they’re going to have hope of finding each other is if one stops and makes a plan. Obviously, Glenn isn’t the one thinking about tomorrow. Only today.
Better to live in the moment instead of haunted by the past. Michonne’s existence since the day she was introduced on the show has been dogged by what happened to her at the onset of the undead outbreak. Never once has she opened up about how she became the hardened fighter she is now. Not even to Andrea, with whom she spent months traveling and killing to survive. “I’m done taking breaks,” she told Rick. Michonne is finally ready to stop running from her past and embrace the future. A future she sees alongside Carl and Rick, apparently. For the first time ever, she reached out to someone else and vocalized her internal pain. Carl, for all his bravado, is actually a good shoulder to lean on. He’s eager to learn anything about his friend, to the point of badgering her. But he also knows she needs to do this. She needs to touch someone on an emotional level in order to ground herself against the tidal waves of pain the past sends her way. While in the process of bleeding the rot from her soul, Michonne doesn’t forget who she’s dealing with. She turns her soul cleansing into a game for Carl. In return for her mental growth, he learned how to better forage for essential supplies. Seems like a fair deal.
Unfortunately Rick doesn’t get a chance to witness the bonding between Michonne and Carl. He’s supposed to rest and heal after his beating from the Governor. Instead, he’s forced into flight-or-fight mode by a group of piggish intruders. These guys are bad news and we never really see them. The camera work during the moments when Rick dodges from room to room trying to avoid detection is well done, but slightly disorienting which detracts from the tension. Still, a very well done moment. It proved Rick isn’t ready to be put down like an old dog. He’s still in the fight, limping but committed to making it to tomorrow.
Several of the smaller survivor groups are headed in the same direction now. Dare we hope the crew will be whole once again? True fans of the show know better. Hope was decapitated long ago.
Why do you think Michonne lied to Carl about what she found in the pink room? Let us know in the comments below.
Talk about some tense moments. Pretty sure there’s holes in the Command Center’s couch after the newest episode of “The Walking Dead.” Well, holes not put there by scavenging zombie bunnies. They’ll eat anything, much like the walkers in this episode. Note to dead guys: flames are not food. Fire bad, bleeding corpse pretty. Okay?
You shall not pass . . . if you wish to avoid show spoilers.
This week, viewers caught up with the remainder of the main characters, starting with Daryl and Beth. During their stay at the prison, Beth fell back in the habit of journaling and covered their journey to make a home in the apocalypse—something we never saw, but once her entries were read in the episode, they struck a nerve. Listening to Beth’s strained hope after they found the prison in contrast with her and Daryl’s mad dash through zombie-infested woodlands twisted the knife still firmly implanted in viewer’s hearts after the mid-season finale. Beth’s hope stemmed from her father. From the idea that normalcy was once again obtainable after so long on the run once the farm fell to the undead. From the simple idea of having a bed to call her own. The prison is gone, a smoldering graveyard. Her bed left to provide rats and bugs with homes. And Hershel . . . there’s no hope left in his unseeing eyes.
Daryl isn’t packing much hope, either. He’s got the stare of a man waiting for the split second he isn’t good enough to make it in the wild. For him, that may be weeks out. Daryl also understands, without him, Beth and her journal of hopes and dreams would be chow, much like the pile of dead walkers and human chunks they found near the train tracks. In a way, she’s become his motivation. Before Daryl had Merle, then little a** kicker, and later when everything looked good he opened his home and heart to any stray people he encountered who needed help. Regret is a powerful drug. As is guilt. How many deaths does Daryl hold over his head? He personally rescued a good portion of the prison’s inhabitants, put them directly in the line of the Governor’s tank fire.
Luckily for Daryl, and Carl and Rick, Judith is alive. Tyreese is the kiddo pied piper. Not only did he rescue Judith from becoming a yummy snack, but he’s also toting around Lizzie and Mika. Much to his delight. Tyreese is all heart. There’s limits to it when faced with a screaming infant, eternally frightened Mika, and the picture of sociopath behavior Lizzie. Any saint would turn to Satan for help dealing. Tyreese doesn’t. He convinces himself he’ll see the three girls to safety, even if it means relying on the darkness in Lizzie to be his backup. That’s a dog that’ll come back to bite everyone. Lizzie is too unstable. Too unpredictable. The type of person who’d murder anyone and everyone to see to her own survival. Does that extend to her sister? For now. It certainly doesn’t extend to Judith. The only reason the baby survived the episode is because someone else stepped in.
Carol is back. Actually, according to her she never left. Which everyone should’ve expected. As far off the reservation as Carol went in the days before Rick told her to never return to the prison, she always acted in a way she thought would protect others. The good of the many outweigh the perils of the few. Since Sophia passed, Carol hardened her will. Forced herself to tap into the internal strength she’d built enduring her abusive husband’s verbal and physical attacks. Unfortunately, her extreme survivor’s point of view clashed with how Rick operated. Will Carol’s strength come in handy? Can she work with Tyreese to keep the girls alive? Most importantly, is there any way she can pull Lizzie back from the abyss?
Glenn and Maggie fans have it the roughest right now. They’re separated. Maggie faced a gauntlet of walkers to make sure her husband didn’t die when walkers overwhelmed the escape bus from the prison. Not alone, she’s supported by Sasha and Bob. They’re help, but not the succor she needs. Maggie won’t be whole or sane until she’s reunited with Glenn. Speaking of, the man has a well-intentioned death wish. Out of everyone who should’ve left the prison in the dust, he’s still there. Weakened from his bout with the super flu. And completely alone, or so he thinks. Glenn isn’t a helpless lamb. He’s learned how to toughen up since they abandoned the quarry. He’s also the only one of the main survivor group, aside from Carol, possessing any supplies not shoved in their pockets when they bolted. Supplies he’s now agreed to share with Tara because he knows his limits. He isn’t like Shane or Daryl. Glenn’s strength is in his heart and mind. Both of which he’ll se to find Maggie, no doubt.
There’s some new faces coming to the show. How they’ll mesh with the survivors is completely unknown.
Were all your questions from the mid-season finale answered? Tell us in the comments below.
These Walking Dead mid-season breaks seem to take longer and longer to pass. But here we are, back in the saddle . . . or rather, clinging to the couch cushions alongside 15.8 million viewers and partaking in the intimate, tense mid-season premiere.
Spoiler Warning! There, you’ve been warned. Proceed at your own risk.
Like the first half of season four, the second half is taking a step back from the grand full-cast episodes to focus on a handful of characters, delve deeper into what keeps them moving despite the fact that they’re at rock bottom. Starting from scratch after the prison battle won’t be easy, especially for those who relied on the council and Rick to keep them safe. This episode focused on Rick, Carl, and Michonne.
For the first time since her introduction at the end of season two, Michonne gets a little depth of soul. We’ve seen glimpses, primarily with Andrea and again after her friend’s death when Michonne reluctantly held baby Judith. Her dream/nightmare said more in three minutes about the south’s deadliest woman with a sword than a season and a half, filled primarily with her seemingly mindless zombie slaughter. It wasn’t until now that we know for sure she had a child, a lover, a friend she felt comfortable and joked around with. Most importantly, Michonne knew how to smile. How to love. A facet of the woman we’ve yet to see clearly. Even when she came around with gifts for Carl, they were found on hunts for the Governor. When she stayed with Andrea to keep the seriously ill woman safe before they went to Woodbury the first time, it was part kindness, part selfishness—she didn’t want to be alone any more.
Michonne came close to losing herself. And why not? She’d watched the people she came to trust and care for under attack from artillery and walkers. Some of those people died. Some survived. But she has no way to know who walked away from the mass grave that was once their home. Andrea left her. Michonne put a sword through Hershel’s decapitated head. Every single person she opened up to deserted her. Even though they didn’t do it by choice, after so much loss a person begins to wonder if there is something inherently wrong with them, they’re the catalyst to their own pain. Somehow pushing their loved ones away to deaden themselves to the horrors around them. Michonne is a pro at this. Until now. She fell into her old routine. Made a new pair of walker friends to lead her safely through a herd of undead. All it took was a glimmer of hope, a muddy boot print, to shake her mind loose of the numb blanket she’d wrapped it in after saying her final goodbye to Hershel. Her moment of clarity didn’t come with a light bulb. It came in a blood bath where she slaughtered twenty-three walkers to keep herself from physically joining them. She’d already joined them mentally.
On the flip side, Carl left the prison slaughter ready to live, to kill anything and everyone posing a threat to him. And his father. Not that he’d admit it. Carl’s sullen teenager act hit a high during the episode. He had good reason—his father’s near-death at the hands of the Governor, friends scattered to the winds, Judith most likely a walker hors d’œuvre, and the loss of the only home he’d known since the day Shane and Lori dragged him out of his childhood home in King County, Georgia. Necessity put Carl in the role of protector, provider. Using the skills he gleaned from Shane and Daryl, he embraced the sociopathy his idols exhibited to secure not only a house, but an entire neighborhood. Throwing it in his father’s face, using Shane to yet again grind in the salt Rick’s deceased best friend poured in his emotional wounds, wasn’t exactly Carl’s shining moment. Everyone has a breaking point. Michonne’s came when she saw herself as a walker. Carl’s came when he thought he’d be forced to live alone. Watching Chandler grow into the large shoes Carl will wear on the show often leaves fans stunned. He digs into a pit of emotion most kids his age can’t access and leaves it all there for us on the screen. Major kudos to Chandler on his work in this episode. It is above and beyond his best, with better things to come, for sure.
We didn’t see much from Rick in the episode. His injuries were too bad. He needed time to recover and fell into something mirroring the coma he’d been in when the series began. Which is fine. Rick has been the show’s punching bag from the get-go. He physically could not be the top dog this time around. Couldn’t even bring down a walker when armed with an ax. Falling short in sight of his impressionable and rebellious son ate at Rick. What could he do? Nothing. For once, the right thing for Rick involved a couch and an extremely long nap. Arguing with Carl would’ve been a waste of words. The kid was in his own zone—a stubborn refusal to listen he ironically inherited from his father.
Next week, it looks like we’ll catch up with Beth, Daryl, Glenn, and Maggie. Get used to the small cast episodes. Robert Kirkman has said they’re playing with the show’s format, keeping the focus on a few characters at a time so fans aren’t cheated out of what makes them tick.
Who else do you think survived the prison attack that we haven’t seen yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Looks like our tenacious Commander-in-Chief, Juliette Terzieff, went on another recruiting spree. Welcome James Allen McCune to the Zombie Survival Crew.
No stranger to dealing with the undead, James Allen McCune is best known for his role as Jimmy, Beth’s boyfriend in the second season of AMC’s hit drama “The Walking Dead.” We plan to utilize the skills he picked up while filming the show to help us. And won’t hold it against him if he has a flashback to his final days on the TWD set.
James is currently filming season four of Showtime’s “Shameless” . . . when he isn’t eating nachos and playing video games in his trailer, and hopefully practicing his skills with a sword.
Goodness, the mid-season finale for “The Walking Dead” proved to be a difficult episode to watch. No surprise in the nail-biting, worrying, and yelling at the TV—TWD always provides plenty of that for its finales. The surprises came in the bloodshed witnessed by 12.1 million viewers Sunday night. Some of it may have been expected, the writers are known for dropping clues throughout the season before a major event. The rest left fans wailing and venting their frustrations on Twitter and Facebook. We can totally see the fan angst delighting the show’s writers and producers. After all, they live to make viewers suffer—as Robert Kirkman disclosed on “Talking Dead” after the mid-season finale—by making each major loss on the show unbelievably graphic, fitting the amount of violence to a character’s importance in the show. Talk about a harsh way to show you love someone.
Warning: There’s spoilers a plenty below. Do not venture further until you’ve watched the mid-season finale.
It is no secret that Phillip—a.k.a. The Governor, a.k.a. Brian—is a master manipulator. In the scene before the main credits, he manages to simultaneously scare the pee out of the people in his new camp and turn them into a ragtag militia team willing to do whatever necessary in order to take over the prison. When he arrived, when the camp was still working under Martinez, the group were timid, barely keeping one step ahead of the walkers. It took Phillip no time at all to corrupt them. He knew exactly what to say, what buttons to push and lies to feed them. Well, the lies weren’t so much lies as exaggerations of the truth. Yes, Rick’s people murder and steal, but only when backed into a corner and forced to. Yes, Michonne mutilated Phillip and killed Penny, his daughter . . . in self-defense. He uses the truth to frighten his new army. Only Lilly sees through the manipulation. She calls Phillip out, asking if he’s one of the bad people he’s rallying the others to kill. Unfortunately, Lilly doesn’t have the backbone to stop him, to stop any of them before they charge into the prison with Hershel and Michonne as prisoners. If she did, the episode would’ve had a much kinder ending.
Hershel always finds a way to make peace. It’s the way he’s lived since day one on the show, back when he couldn’t bring himself to kill the walkers because he saw them as sick humans who just need to stick it out until someone finds a miracle cure. Hershel’s faith taught him to find the kinder, gentler path. He’s no push-over, stand up for what he thinks is right no matter what. But Hershel is a man of words, not action. He tries so hard to talk sense into Rick throughout his time with the group, and uses the same tactics with Phillip when taken prisoner.
“You say you want to take this prison as peacefully as possible, that means you’d be willing to hurt people to get it. My daughters would be there. That’s who you’d be hurtin’. If you understand what it’s like to have a daughter, then how can you threaten to kill someone else’s?”
“Because they aren’t mine.”
Phillip makes it clear that Hershel’s attempt to find the humanity buried deep in his mind won’t work. He killed that portion of himself and buried it alongside Penny after the Woodbury attack. It gives Hershel nothing to work with. He’s left to rely on the good he’s found in Rick since the first prison attack to safe his bacon. It doesn’t work.
The prison attack echoes the first attempt made by the Governor to capture the coveted safe haven, with one large exception: this time Phillip rolls in with a tank. He also has a serious advantage in the number of soldiers at his disposal. After the walker attack inside cellblock D and the flu which wiped out a good number of the prison population, there’s a handful of people able to fire a gun without falling over from the recoil. Glenn and Sasha are barely mobile, therefore virtually useless in a fight. It came down to the council, plus a couple spare people, in order to hold the line against a tank and well-armed, motivated insurgents. The prison group was doomed from the start. And further doomed by the emotional blow dealt by Phillip moments before he called on his army to charge the fences.
Hershel’s death is a brilliant tactic for Phillip’s campaign. He knew Hershel was the steel rod holding the prison group upright. All it took was one conversation with the man to figure it out. Rick’s eagerness to agree with Hershel during the ultimately ill-fated parlay before the shooting begins sealed the deal. Take out the peacemaker and the morale of the group falls to ruin. Phillip makes no effort to hide his true self in that moment. He has no more time for games to manipulate his people into action. The price of his ego is the death of a beloved character. We’ll truly miss Scott Wilson’s portrayal of Hershel Greene. He went out in style, with a smile on his face.
Too bad for Phillip, Hershel’s death didn’t automatically translate to Phillip’s victory.
The Governor’s demise was written perfectly. He didn’t go down easily. It took three people, three of the people hurt the most by his actions throughout his time on the show, to bring about his final death. Rick laid into him in the fist fight fans have been waiting for since the original prison attack against the Woodbury militia. There was ample amounts of cheering in the ZSC command center when the first punches were thrown. Rick nearly didn’t survive the encounter. In the end, Michonne dealt the blow to seal Phillip’s fate. Her sword—the same sword used to decapitate Hershel—cut through Phillip’s chest like butter and saves Rick’s bacon. But Lilly is the one to make sure Phillip didn’t come back as a walker to further destroy lives. As is fitting since his behavior cost her the focus she needed to keep her daughter, Meghan, alive. Phillip was never going to die at the hands of just one person. The horrors he wrought on the prison population needed to be avenged somehow. An eye for an eye, so to speak. As much as we loathed Phillip as a character, we’ll miss the brilliance of David Morrissey’s performance. He brought a depth to the character few actors could’ve achieved. There’s a fine line to walk with a character as reprehensible as The Governor. It’s far too easy to make him a mustache-twirling bad guy. Morrissey didn’t. He made Phillip into a character with so many layers, sometimes it was hard to hate the guy. It takes talent to make fans feel sympathy for the villain.
We lost two main characters in the season four mid-season finale, with the fates of many others hanging in the balance. The prison population is scattered to the winds, with little to no supplies, without shelter. They’ve lost their home, their loved ones, and the support of the community they’d built inside the prison. How long can any of them hope to survive? We’ll find out on Sunday, February 9th, 2014 at 9:00 PM.
Have some theories about what lies ahead for the survivors of the prison attack? Let us hear them in the comments below.
Review of “The Walking Dead” 407 – “Dead Weight” By RC Murphy
Having a double helping of something good isn’t always a pleasure. After five episodes without the Governor, watching two episodes focused solely on him chokes the pacing of “The Walking Dead” halfway through season four. The energy viewers get from characters like Daryl and Michonne is impossible to duplicate for the parallel story line following Phillip as he finds himself again after setting Woodbury ablaze. Unfortunately, what seemed like something viewers would enjoy, isn’t paying out as expected. While there are some stand-up-and-yell-at-the-TV moments, they’re too few and far between to keep the momentum rolling into the mid-season climax on December 1st.
Don’t go into the light! It’s the vast brightness of the many spoilers lurking below.
A couple times during the episode, it became painfully apparent that Phillip had forgotten who, exactly, he’s dealing with as his “family.” The way he looks at Meghan is a look reserved for someone who’s watched a child learn and grow since the day they were born. He’s only known the Chamblers for a couple of weeks, a month maximum. There’s no way his connection to Meghan is that rock solid. Toward the middle of the episode, Phillip tells Lilly that he can’t lose them again. Only, he’s never lost them. He lost his wife and Penny—the walker he kept captive in hopes of finding a way to fix her short of putting a bullet in her head. Phillip’s attachment to the Chamblers, namely Lilly and Meghan, is disturbing. He’s out of sync with reality, leaning on two people he hardly knows to keep his humanity in check. It didn’t work.
Martinez’s days were numbered. There’s no use lying to ourselves. Once he made it crystal clear that he was in charge of the camp, things were already set in motion. When he asked Phillip to help him, work for him, there was only ever going to be one outcome. The Governor fully returned to power. He’s so desperate to keep Lilly and Meghan safe, he’ll jump back into the darkness he used to keep Woodbury going during the last weeks of its existence. Even though he repeatedly says, “I don’t want it.” Doesn’t want what, the responsibility of leadership or the blood on his hands from securing his place at the top of the food chain? Does it cost Phillip anything to kill anymore? Anytime we see Rick pull the trigger, you see a piece of his soul wither. With Phillip, who knows? He’s a hard read, a violent man with sociopathic tendencies. However, he makes this impossible connection with a woman and her child that goes against everything known about sociopathic behavior. Is it an act? But to whose benefit? Surely he can’t be trying to fool himself after all this time.
How difficult is it to form a functioning society when everyday Joes are forced to become murderers? Since day one we’ve seen survivors struggle to regain some semblance of normality by coming together to form little neighborhoods. Places where they should feel safe enough to relax, let their kids play. But they don’t in most of these camps. Everyone ends up on edge, watching the one or two people who enjoy the death and destruction around them a little too much. The apocalypse is the maniac’s playground, guns their toys of choice. And since they’re so willing to kill, inevitably, they’re the ones to gain power, become the person to look up to. It corrupts the people in the camp eventually. Look at Woodbury, at how many of the soldiers willingly followed the Governor into battle against Rick and the prison crew. And it is happening all over again next week. Why? Because Phillip knows how to work people. He told Mitch, “You’ll never have to worry if you’re doing the right thing or the wrong thing. We will do the only thing.” That was exactly what the other man needed to hear. He needed a way to absolve the guilt he felt for first, not securing the supplies for the camp, then killing the injured old man, and lastly not killing Phillip after he murdered his brother, Pete. Fighting for the safety of the camp gives Mitch his Get Out of Jail Free card.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown . . . covered in the blood of his predecessors. Can Phillip succeed this time? Will this new group of survivors secure the golden egg—the prison? Tell us what you think in the comments.
After Rick, Michonne, and Carl ditched their invaded safe house, we haven’t seen them since the end of episode 411. In that time, apparently all they’ve done is walk and drink nearly all their water supply. Strange, since Michonne is the most capable killer on the show. Rick is the main character. And Carl has grown and matured the most in four seasons of TWD. A good chunk of what makes the show compelling lays with those three. We see them for maybe two minutes in this episode—just long enough to watch them walking and laughing. Sure, it shows Rick’s hope returning, along with Carl and Michonne’s building friendship, but after three episodes without, a quick peak isn’t enough to bring these three back into the story for the finale.
At last we get to see more about Joe and his crew, who’ve decided to keep Daryl around—they’re reasoning being no one can survive alone. Something suggests they have ulterior motives. Those guys, not telling the full story? Never. [/sarcasmfont] Joe’s group isn’t completely lawless. Which is probably a good thing. They don’t seem to be stellar pillars of the community, Len being a primary example of what could happen if Joe allowed his guys off the leash. Len picked a fight with Daryl, and through no action on Daryl’s part, ended up vulture bait. Through subtle manipulation, giving his guys the illusion that they have control through the “claim” system, Joe keeps his wild dogs under control. Or should they be called alley cats? When he caught Daryl skulking around, his head wrapped up in Beth’s whereabouts Joe told him, “Ain’t nothin’ sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks he’s an indoor cat.” He knows their place. Fully understands that his crew is comprised of the dredges of humanity. Yet Joe embraces it and continues to adopt strays, similar to what Daryl did once they’d settled into the prison. With Joe’s influence, we’re seeing the rougher Daryl reemerge. Beth gave him someone to care for. None of the guys he’s traveling with now need that much, if any, help. Daryl has no responsibilities. He can sink back into the mind frame he had when chasing after Merle, wreaking havoc wherever their bikes took them. What’ll happen if they find Beth again? Can the alley cat learn to behave indoors?
It is no secret that Lizzie is completely unglued. Her grasp on her own mortality and the real danger the walkers pose to her safety was never solid. In this episode, it becomes painfully clear that she’s always been slightly off. Little Mika has obviously spent ample time learning how to distract her sister from whatever isn’t right in her head. We have no name for what’s wrong with Lizzie. She’s convinced the walkers are simply an evolved version of ourselves. They speak to her. Demand she take care of them and provide food. Somewhere along the way, being undead became an appealing prospect. Was this a way to cope with the losses her family faced since the walkers started shuffling around? Hard to tell now that we know she wasn’t all there to begin with.
Lizzie’s madness cost her sister her life. Is anyone to blame? No. Nevertheless, Carol’s guilt nearly cripples her, makes her hesitate to do the necessary thing. Is death ever necessary? In our world, no. Murder is senseless. Unnatural to the teachings of the numerous world religions which are the cornerstone of our morals. But in a world where every day is a fight to take just one more breath, one must weigh the good of the many against the individual. Carol and Tyreese were faced with that decision—try to save Lizzie, despite the depth of her mental illness or ensure Judith’s safety, as well as their own. In the end, Carol’s ruthless practicality stepped in and allowed her to make the hard decision. Lizzie had to die. No matter how they arranged it, someone would end up alone with her and Lizzie’s inclination to turn everyone into a walker would get the best of her, and them. What if Lizzie ran off and some do-gooder brought her into their camp? Nothing good could’ve come from her continuing to live unmedicated and unchecked by her sister’s kind soul.
Goodness, the mid-season finale for “The Walking Dead” proved to be a difficult episode to watch. No surprise in the nail-biting, worrying, and yelling at the TV—TWD always provides plenty of that for its finales. The surprises came in the bloodshed witnessed by 
Martinez’s days were numbered. There’s no use lying to ourselves. Once he made it crystal clear that he was in charge of the camp, things were already set in motion. When he asked Phillip to help him, work for him, there was only ever going to be one outcome. The Governor fully returned to power. He’s so desperate to keep Lilly and Meghan safe, he’ll jump back into the darkness he used to keep Woodbury going during the last weeks of its existence. Even though he repeatedly says, “I don’t want it.” Doesn’t want what, the responsibility of leadership or the blood on his hands from securing his place at the top of the food chain? Does it cost Phillip anything to kill anymore? Anytime we see Rick pull the trigger, you see a piece of his soul wither. With Phillip, who knows? He’s a hard read, a violent man with sociopathic tendencies. However, he makes this impossible connection with a woman and her child that goes against everything known about sociopathic behavior. Is it an act? But to whose benefit? Surely he can’t be trying to fool himself after all this time.