SPOILERS AHEAD, so watch your step, Walkers
Season Four, Episode 10: Inmates
Written by Matt Negrete and Channing Powell; Directed by Tricia Brock
Last weeks episode was focused and character driven. Carl was brattier than ever, Michonne began to deal with her past, and Rick nearly died for the millionth time. This week, however, was scattered, fragmented, and spread pretty thin among the rest of the cast. The final showdown with The Governor sent everyone in different directions, and this week the show played where are they now?
Quick Breakdown
The opening sequence was the best part of the hour. It begins with a voice-over by Beth who is one of the oddest and most inconsistent characters on the show. Shes gone from a suicidal farm girl to a Tom Waits-singing babysitter. In the first half of this season, she seemed to have accepted the bleak zombie world. She showed little emotion at the death of her boyfriend in the season premiere, and her mantra was We all have a job to do.
Her voice-over, however, is rather positive and coming from her diary well before the prison attack. She talks of the idea of safety, of being in her own bed, but also of being afraid to get her hopes up (pretty normal feelings for the zombie apocalypse). The voice-over of her deciding to give the prison a real chance is, of course, spliced with the visual on the screen of her and Daryl running from the prison and fighting off zombies (not safe anymore). She closes her entry with We can live here, we can live here for the rest of our lives. No, Beth, you cant. Cue the opening credits.
Im pleased that Beth has been paired with Daryl for this part of the season. The two havent had tons of screen time together and might give us something new. The positive to this cast shake up is that characters are put into new positions without the people they often rely on for support and survival. This can provide the chance for fresh writing and character development (though we dont get much of either in this episode).
In their first speaking scene, optimistic Beth tries to convince Daryl that they need to go searching for the others and that he should put his tracking skills to use. Daryl, however, is looking a little defeated and not as hopeful — or maybe hes just annoyed that out of everyone he got stuck with Beth.
They head off and come across some footprints. Footprints suddenly seem to be the answer to everything (Michonne found Rick and Carl from footprints last week). Daryl isnt as moved by the footprints and tells Beth they only mean someone was alive a few hours ago (but dont zombies leave footprints too?). Then, as if to bring Beth down a notch, shes attacked by a zombie, and Daryl must come to the rescue. No worries: Beth survives.
Next they find a group of zombies having a feast next to some railroad tracks. (This will come up again.) They kill them, which is enough to break Beth. She tried to be optimistic, and all it got her was a pile of zombies. As she cries, her voice-over from the diary comes back again saying, If this doesnt work, I dont know how I could keep going.
This is the ongoing theme of this half of the season: How do you keep going? The prison gave them all hope for a return to a normal life, but thats all been destroyed. Even Rick said last week they cant have that again.
We leave Beth and Daryl and switch to Tyreese, who has the worst setup ever: Hes saddled with the two young girls (Lizzie and Mika) and baby Judith (still no zombie baby). Judith is crying, Lizzie is being her normal creepy self (though she did save Tyreese in episode eight, so shes useful), and Mika is scared. Tyreese is also bleeding from his arm and clearly isnt the most stable person to be leading around kids. But what choice does he have?
After some wandering around and a few attempts at pacifying Judith by feeding her and changing her diaper, Tyreese hears screams and thinks it might be people from the prison who need help. He leaves the girls with Judith in the woods and goes to check it out. The people being attacked are by the railroad tracks (the zombie feast Beth and Daryl found) and arent from the prison. Tyreese jumps in to help anyway, but it doesnt do much good because everyone gets bitten but Tyreese.
While hes gone, Judith keeps crying and Lizzie holds her hand over the babys mouth to make her stop. (Sounds like a good plan to me.) Lizzie is always a little off, and I thought we were about to witness the killing of Judith and possible baby zombie, but no such luck. It was all a big tease, but is clearly foreshadowing some good stuff for Lizzie. The young characters on the show are becoming the most interesting to watch. Someone begins to approach the girls, but we cut away before we know who or what.
When Tyreeses battle is over, he turns around to see Lizzie, Mika, and Judith standing there with exiled-Carol. I was relieved to see Carol. Her character got a real reboot this season, and she was the best part of the first half of the season before she got kicked out of the prison by Rick. This is also a great pairing because Carol got kicked out for killing Tyreeses friends. He doesnt know this yet, so hes relieved to see her. Shes relieved he doesnt know.
After Carol and Tyreese greet each other, one of the men who was attacked by the zombies tells them (as hes dying) to follow the tracks: Theres a place up the tracks thats safe. This should sound off alarm bells since every safe place has led to trouble, death, destruction, and horrible human beings.
They follow the tracks anyway and eventually come upon a sign for a place called Terminus. The sign reads that its a community for all. Terminus means the end of the line or route and was also the original name for the city of Atlanta. Well have to wait until next week to learn more.
Maggie, Bob, and Sasha are up next. We find them by some water where Sasha is bandaging a shirtless Bob (He was shot in the showdown). Sasha looks quite a bit better health-wise than she was in the previous episode; Bob is being a bit flirty, which seems like bad timing, and Maggie wants to go off to find Glen and the bus. Everyone on this show always wants to just charge off alone like thats a good plan. Of course, Bob and Sasha dont let her go it alone (though Sasha I think would have).
They find the bus pretty quickly, but its full of zombies. This scene was meant to be dramatic, but we knew Glen wasnt going to be in the bus. If they are going to kill off a major character, it isnt going to be off-screen, so the suspense here didnt work. But Maggie has to know if Glen is in there, so they decide to let one zombie off the bus at a time, so they can kill them and not lose control. This, of course, doesnt work, and suddenly they are swarmed with zombies, with Maggie forced into kill mode. Killing these zombies really works as a great way to deal with anger and grief.
Once all the zombies are dead, Maggie heads into the bus to survey the situation and confirm that Glen isnt there. Theres a zombie trapped under some bodies and she helps it get out. They dont show the zombies face, but he has dark hair like Glens. All we see is Maggie killing it and breaking down. We are supposed to wonder was it Glen? But, again, the writing here didnt really work. We know its not Glen.
We leave the bus to catch up with the real Glen. Hes still at the prison. What? Exactly, the writers did some cheating here. Last time we saw him, he was still really weak from being sick and was on the bus, but now we are being told he got off the bus to look for Maggie. Also, hes suddenly not so weak. I really dont like these tricks.
Glen is given a bit of an advantage here. He goes through the prison and collects food and supplies and some of his old gear. As he exits, he spots Tara and decides he needs her help to survive. Shes in a bit of a daze after the craziness with The Governor. Glen discovers that she didnt even fire a single shot (Her gun is fully loaded). Im glad to see Tara because I think she has potential to be a good character, and its nice that the show has introduced a gay character.
Tara and Glen make it out of the prison yard and begin to deal with the awkwardness of the situation. Tara feels guilty for being involved and knows that The Governor was wrong about the people in the prison. Glen needs Tara, so he doesnt have much choice in the matter. He also learns from her that Hershel is dead.
In the closing scene, Tara and Glen fight off some zombies. Glen gets knocked down (and out?). Tara kills the remaining ones and discovers theres a vehicle right there in front of her watching. The episode ends with the introduction of Abraham, which fans of the comic books have been waiting for. Viewers didnt get much information just yet, but from the previews for next week we will.
Rating
C
This weeks episode was the definition of average. It had some cheap tricks, but it helped move the plot along. We caught up with a lot of characters in a very short time span — we are in the rebuilding stage of the show. They have to establish a new path and storyline for everyone, which takes some work. It is often in these episodes that the weaknesses of the show are revealed. Theres a lot of potential here, and maybe if we are lucky, we’ll be rewarded with some better writing next week.
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
Why do writers think putting a baby on a show is a good idea?
I havent minded the lack of gay characters on the show because Ive always assumed the gay people in this world are smart enough not to hang out with this group.
Weve had two episodes with no major death. Someones getting it soon.
THE WALKING DRUNK: If you took a shot every time someone said hope, believe, or faith in this episode, you’d be wasted.
