The show begins with a flashlight, and a poor, adorable mouse/rat thing being fed through the fence to the Walkers by some Mystery Individual. This is tonight's first instance of animal cruelty, unfortunately. But really, the point is - oh no! There's a psycho in the prison! Because this is clearly a dumb thing to do, and the Individual knows it. They would not otherwise be cloaked by the dark of night.
We begin with Tyrese spooning up with a lady friend, who I think is the girl from Season 3 who survived the Governor's slaughter. I am immediately annoyed by her, because dammit - she tried to kill everyone in this prison! Shouldn't that detract from her personality? Who would love her? I must assume that she was only made the love interest simple because we can kind of recognize her, because this is otherwise a completely logic-defying choice. Anyway, judging by the somber tone of their conversation, I won't have to worry about their relationship for very long.
I get my hopes up when fresh Walker Patrick vaguely stalks her into Cell Block D. This sequence is shot in a very classic horror movie style, and succeeds in making me nervous.
Surprise: Carl wants his gun back. Surprise: Rick unreasonably refuses, seeking to divert his son's youthful energies away from murder and into agriculture. I mean, I guess Carl did shoot Lori last season, so they're bound to have some issues around this point, but - couldn't the writers have... written this better? I mean, yes, we get it: Rick is traumatized and trying to shield his son from a terrible world, etc. etc. I suppose it is somewhat realistic that the characters tip-toe around the real issue at stake here (Lori, Carl's future as a human being) rather than directly address it... but the last time I checked, I didn't expect much realism from TWD.
Pow pow pow! Block D is going to hell. Michonne trips and sprains her ankle, I guess, and is now out of the action. Seems like a ruse just to keep the character around, as opposed to the equestrian adventures she'd been pursuing of late. Cue the action sequence, involving the rest of the cast.
Surprisingly, Carol is given the spotlight for much of the episode, and it starts here. She and the gang bust into D and start a zombie-slayin'; but we are taken aside to observe Carol's interactions with Some Guy who is a Goner. He's been chomped and so they are waiting for him to die (awkward), and she provides comfort in the form of promising to look after his girls. For whatever reason, the most important part of this scene to me is the fact that Carol's hair just won't grow. Hasn't it been about a year? It's still so short!
I also feel a rumble of dread when Carol accepts the stewardship: Ugh, more new characters. Double ugh - they're going to be child actors. Having read the comics, I can respect that the two little girls are somewhat true to the original storyline... but I'm already hoping that, as in the comics, their stay will be brief and end in an off-screen decapitation (spoiler!). Because most child actors are lame, and I was hoping that Carol's new-found kickassery would not get sidelined by any kind of "Let's make her whole by making her a mom again!" nonsense. But as usual, I'm expecting too much of TWD writers and their capacity to flesh out a female lead character.
Back in Cell Block D, the team deduces what we already know - it's a killer flu! A new doctorish character explains this, while that New Guy /Clearly a Recovering Alcoholic from Episode One stands in the background and looks deeply concerned about everything. "Pigs and birds" seems to be the conclusion drawn, regarding the genesis of this evil flu. I find myself thinking, Geez, it could really be anything; is the answer that simple?
We next encounter an uncomfortable scene in which Carol urges her new found daughters to stab their dad in the head. Yeah. It does not go over well with either child. Again, we're seeing the New Carol at work - she's a tough cookie these days, folks!
Cut back to Carol and the Council (Hershel, Darryl... and maybe some other people, I don't recall). They decide that a quarantine of the ill is in order. My favorite moment - just as they make this call, Carol looks deeply thoughtful. Then hears someone cough in the hallway, and looks genuinely horrified. I felt very empathetic.
More Carol! A confusing scene in which she demonstrates tough love to the girls, telling them they can't be weak in the face of a zombie, etc. Can she teach them the skills she couldn't offer her own daughter, RIP Sofia? The older one (Lizzie?) blubbers; her sister (Mika?) sort of defends her sister, telling Carol "She's not weak. She's messed up." Which genuinely puzzles me. Does she mean the gravity of the entire situation has 'messed up' her sister? Does she mean her sister has an underlying case of some mental illness, exacerbated by a lack of access to medication and care? Probably the former, but who knows. Later in the show, Lizzie returns and... takes Carol's knife, oh so gently, in what I guess is a demonstration that she's back on board. She'd be okay stabbing her dad in the head now, if the situation required. Hurray?
Shit, that fence! It's collapsing! They didn't fortify it before? No matter. Sasha sees the aforementioned rats and puts two and two together. The team tries to stem the tide by using their nifty old-man-cane-turned-Walker-pokers, but it's no use. Rick steps up.
Which brings about the grossest scene in the show's history. Now, I've put up with a lot of violence in this show, mostly because it's never really been the main focus. Sure, sometimes it's gratuitous, but usually for the sake of a shock effect or some very dark humor, or to remind us of the brutal environment. I've sensed a shift this season, in that the close-up shots of violence/grossness are somewhat lovingly prolonged and less purposeful - let's just show that Zombie's eye popping out as he's pressed to the fence because we can.
But the pigs? Too, too real.
Rick sacrifices his farmer lifestyle by leading away the Walkers with his porcine friends. But first he slices the poor things, and we as an audience have to watch this as a CLOSE UP. And they SQUEAL A LOT (in terror?). And blood sprays and it's shown not once, but three times! Like we didn't get the point the fucking first time?
Is this a clever punch in the gut to the audience? After all, this brutality is probably the most upsetting thing I've seen on this show... because it is real. This is where you bacon comes from, America. This is your Christmas dinner! Poor, poor, sweet little actor piggy (not harmed in the course of filming, of course). The zombie violence never bothers me because it is so un-real, and impossible. Surely the show's creators are aware of this, so one must wonder if they're simply being Sick Bastards, or trying to sensitize us to our current state of desensitization. Either way, gross.
This is followed by another disappointing scene. A hobbled Michonne is forced to spend time with Maggie's sister (Becky?) and Baby Judy. I laughed aloud at the look on Michonne's face when Judy began crying, because I apparently superimposed my own sense of distaste and irritation when I heard a baby cry. And because Michonne is cool, I was delighted to find that we shared common ground.
But in the end, it turns out that Michonne has some kind of repressed desire to be a mom, obviously because she must have lost a child at some point. She weeps as she is forced to hold the baby - another moment that makes me laugh because she appears so uncomfortable, but then you realize - oh god, she's crying. She's serious. This is awkward. Why does Michonne's back story have to lurch towards the disappointingly conventional and domestic? Why must it be developed at all? She's doing just fine, kicking ass and being surly! Methinks the patriarchal ideology is at work here, insisting that her gender-neutrality be erased and replaced with something more recognizably feminine. I do not want to see a Michonne who is cuddly and loves babies.
Rick sets his pig pen afire, having accepted the assertion that his pigs must have produced killer flu. Carl gets his gun back. This hopefully signals that Rick will quit being so angsty.
And we end where we began. Tyreese visits his quarantined lady love, and - looks like I was right! Tyrese follows a pool of blood from her cell to the courtyard and gives a very nice performance of looking very upset while hovering over the camera. The perspective switches - we see what he sees, which is a hot mess. Ha! The quarantined folks' bodies have been burned. My question is, before or after they became Flu Zombies?
We'll see what rolls in next week!
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