Monday, October 28, 2013

The Walking Dead: Season 4 Episode 3 - Isolation


Welcome back to The Walking Dead fellow survivors!  We had yet another focused episode building emotional stakes as we dive further into the sickness that has become a plague on our prison residents.  And it was very good once again!  Lots of stuff going on in this one, so let's get right to it.
  This episode focused on the sickness that is spreading within the prison from different angles.  There was the mystery of the burned corpses from last week that needed attention, there was a mission set forth to find a cure, and then there was the isolation of the sick and everything that came with that.  

Isolation

Hershel and Dr. S (?) figured out that anyone who resided in Cell Block D was now sick and needed to be quarantined from the rest of the group.   Also, they decided to isolate the children and elderly (i.e. Hershel) from the rest of the crew.   Here are some interesting things worth discussing.
  • We are still leery to trust Carl as he was armed and residing with a bunch of kids and Hershel.  Hershel decided his knowledge and talents were being wasted in isolation and wanted to escape to go find some herbal remedies for the sick.   Carl said he had to go with him.  While they were out there they discussed how much Carl has grown and how much more responsible he is now.  They did stumble upon a couple walkers but they were harmless and Hershel suggested they could be left alone.  Carl wasn't thrilled about it.  I'm struggling to remember what happened with the Dale situation in season 2, but I thought he didn't kill a walker and it ended up killing Dale.  There was more to it though, I think he caused that walker to head towards the farm.  
  • Maggie was not thrilled to learn what her father was doing, and neither was Rick.  But Hershel gave a big speech essentially saying that everything in life is a risk these days and it's up to each person to decide how to risk it.  And he thought that trying to save people was a worthy cause.  And with that, he went into the quarantine masked and the sick doctor ended up coughing blood on him.  Uh oh...Hershel continued to treat the sick with his herbal berry tea or whatever.  I'm getting a bad feeling about Hershel this season.  But, I think I get that every season!  Something tells me that they will find a cure and some people will survive because of it.  But, it will all be credited to Hershel's sacrifice of his life.  Just my gut feeling. 
  • Glenn is among the sick as well which has Maggie all kinds of miserable.  Beth was in the isolation center with Judith (as Daryl still calls her "Little Ass Kicker").  They found a door that they were able to communicate through.  Beth continues to be strong and emotionless about everything.  She sticks to her father's teachings.  They all have jobs to do (Which Hershel could be heard saying in this episode as well).  She tries to keep Maggie strong in her helplessness with Glenn.  But, you can tell that exterior was breaking a bit when she discussed the same thing about their father.  
  • It should be noted that Tyreese's sister Sasha is also among the sick which becomes a catalyst for the other storylines.  
Road Trip: Find the Cure

Hershel, in a council meeting, came up with the great plan of going after meds in a Veterinary College.  All of the hospitals and normal medical facilities were already depleted of supplies, but there are similar antibiotics that could be used in the Vet College.  But, it's a 50 mile trek to the place so there is no time to waste.   
  • Daryl, Michonne and Bob Stookey were gearing up for the trip.  Bob has some kind of medical knowledge, and therefore was needed for the trip since they couldn't afford to bring Hershel on such a daring mission.  Tyreese, which we'll get to, is all kinds of P.O.'d about Karen and is not up to going on this mission.  Daryl did his best to try and convince him to come, but it was talking to his sick sister that inspired him to help.   Sasha realized there was hope in this medicine.
  • The Dodge Charger was all oiled up and they headed out on the mission.  On the way, Daryl was itching for some music and asked for some CDs.  But, when they turned the radio on and turned the dial to 97.1 they heard a voice!  It was tough to make out what was said, but it mentioned something about survivors.  It sounded like some message of hope (which on this show, probably means exactly the opposite).   They didn't have much time to ponder what it meant as they rolled right into, well I dunno 50,000 walkers!!  Daryl tried to reverse them all out of there, but ended up getting stuck on a bunch of walkers.  You don't get stuck in snow or mud these days, just walkers.  
  • They decided to make a break for it on foot.  Darly, Michonne and Bob worked together to get free.  While Ty just stayed in the car, almost giving up and letting himself be taken.  Something inspired him to go all commando on that herd of walkers and somehow he broke free and caught up with the group.  There was no indication of where they were as they now embark on foot, but I would assume they're close to the Vet college.  Of course, finding a vehicle to travel back could be a fun challenge! 
  • So the radio message - I'm sure this is foreshadowing of future plot lines.  I guess, since we don't know what else it could be we could always speculate it's governor related.   We could also consult the comics, which I haven't read, as this supposedly happened there too.   One of the writers was on Talking Dead last night and said that Comic book readers MAY know where that is headed.  As I already stated, whatever it is, can't be anything good! 
  • We also learned why Michonne is the only one looking for the Governor.  We learned that Daryl and Michonne have bonded over the months while tracking ol' Phillip.  So this trip was "just like old times" for them.  But, Daryl mentioned the trail went cold awhile ago, or else he'd be right out there with her trying to find him.  They both have their reasons for wanting to find that dirtbag with the losses of Andrea and Merle.  
And The Killer is....     

Well, we'll get to it in a second.  I will say kudos to us for actually figuring out the killer.  Well, we threw it out there as one of the few possibilities and it turned out to be right!  But, to get to that point we had to see Tyreese all fired up.  
  • He and Rick got into it.  Tyreese was fuming and saying that Mr. Lawman needs to uncover the truth of how Karen and Dave were killed.   Rick tried to calm him down and tried to identify with him as he "went that place" of rage as well.   That's all Ty needed to drop the first punch.  They both got some good shots in, but Rick put Tyreese to the ground and probably could have beaten him to death if it wasn't for Carol and Daryl being there.   They eventually made amends and Rick agreed to figure out who did this.
  • There was also something wrong with the water supply.  Carol and Rick had a discussion about fixing it (off the prison grounds) the next day.
  • Carol was helping with the isolation of the sick.  And it turns out that Lizzie was one of them.  She asked for Carol to come with her and tuck her in and she told her to seek out Glenn in there.  This, of course, broke her heart.  On top of Tyreese coming to her while she's trying to fill buckets with their only clean water.  He asked her to look after Sasha while he was gone trying to help with the cure.  He told her how great of a person she is and that she's always trying to help.  And, well this threw her into a fit and she knocked over their clean water supply.  (If this wasn't a strong clue where the episode was going, well then I don't know what would've been!)
  • Of course, considering she just depleted their supply of water, she decided to go and fix the hose herself.  
  • Meanwhile, Rick was examining the crime scene and found blood on the door by the bodies.  I thought he may have found a hair too.  And then he saw Carol beyond the gates fixing the hose, walkers surrounding her and getting ever more interested.  Rick sprinted for the gates and worked his way out there, yelling at Carol to run.   Naturally, he got there just in time to help her get back.
  • When all was settled, Rick discussed how stupid that was of her.  She pretty much just shrugged her shoulders.  Rick acknowledged how much she does for the group.  He asked if there's anything she wouldn't do for the people here.  She said no.   And at that he asked her if she killed Karen and David.  She said "Yes" and walked away. 
And there you have it folks!  Carol tried to help the group stay alive by killing the 2 sick people.  And after that, more got sick and Hershel determined there might be ANOTHER way to help them.  That couldn't have sat well with her for this whole episode as we saw her do some irrational things.  I'm sure there's a discussion to be had here that in this type of environment her actions are justifiable.  It'll be interesting to see if that discussion is had on the show and interesting to see which side of the fence Rick ends up on.  People are still looking for that leadership.  Rick is still not feeling up to the task, but we'll see if this forces him to take it on anyway.    

One thing not addressed this week was the whole rat/walker feeding intro from last week.  I'm sure we'll get to that soon enough though!  

That's all I have for this week.  Looking forward to our discussion in the comments.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week! 

7 comments:

Leslie said...

I was kinda surprised Rick lost it and was punching out Tyreese so badly. That seemed more like what the “old” Rick would have done. Guess that rage is still close to the surface.

On that walker and Carl in S2, the walker was stuck in the mud and Carl was taunting it thinking he was safe. Then, it got unstuck and grabbed at him, but he got away. The same walker came to the farm just a little while later and killed Dale. It was good that Carl showed some restraint.

After Hershel was coughed on, I think I still would have kept the scarf up to my nose just in case it was helping. Do we know what kind of doctor that guy is? The elderberry tea is actually supposed to reduce fever and shorten the course of the flu. Maybe it will buy them time to get the meds back. I figure we will lose at least one of our main characters this season, and Hershel may be the one because it can’t be Glenn.

Gross when the car got stuck on the walkers! Not sure, but I thought when they saw that mega herd that you could see the vet school behind them. I was kinda surprised the 3 left Tyreese in the car when he hesitated.

Carol sure took her sweet time when she was surrounded by walkers. Almost too confident there. As for killing Karen and the other guy, was there a reason they were debating on Talking Dead if Carol actually killed them or just took them out after they turned? I thought they kinda made it obvious that she killed them, but maybe I’m wrong.

As for Talking Dead, what the hell was Marilyn Manson talking about??? He kept going off on weird tangents and sounded ridiculous!

Leslie said...

Oh yeah - was glad to see Rick in a different shirt this week! lol And, even though Carl showed a moment of restraint, I still think he is itching to kill again. When Rick was telling him to watch out for the kids and telling him not to draw unless he absolutely had to, Carl goes, "Well, you know I'll have to" or something like that. Also, that exchange with Carl and Hershel before they went outside was strange with Carl saying Hershel "couldn't" go out alone.

Mike V. said...

Yeah Rick losing it....I guess we were meant to see he isn't "FULLY" rehabbed. He even told Hershel he fell off the wagon which is part of his reluctance to take a leadership role again.

Thanks for the refresher on S2 Carl. I remember it as clear as day now! Totally agree Carl is still itching to kill. When he said he'd have to use it...I think he was just speaking to the direness of their situation. When he said he had to go with Hershel...I think it's because he couldn't let Hershel go by himself with his bum (non-existent) leg. I don't think it was because he was laying down the law. lol But yeah...I still don't trust the kid!

I think we all would've kept that scarf on....but I think Hershel is kind of accepting his fate at this point. I figured the tea was a "stalling technique" for the meds to get back too. I read somewhere that we lost someone in episode 4 last year (Lori, T-Dog)....so it's a definite possibility we're getting set up for one next week. I agree...Glenn and Maggie are about as untouchable as they come right now. Hershel has outlived his usefulness for a season and a quarter now. We all liked the dude and didn't want to see him offed at the end of season 2. But, it might be getting close to time. Of course, it would be the predictable way to go too! So we'll see.

I know there was a building in the distance that COULD HAVE been the Vet School and it probably is. They just never officially said it in the episode... So, I didn't want to confirm it. :) lol

I think Marilyn Manson definitely was a wildcard in that Talking Dead episode...and screwed up any train of thought they were trying to stick to on the show. I don't think it was meant to be debated about Karen/David being killed by Carol. Even the writer said that. It was Jack Osbourne trying to theorize on more than what was there. Back to Manson....I'm not sure if he was doing that intentionally or is just that weird! I'd lean towards the latter...but you never know what's an act these days. lol

MJ said...

I felt that part of Rick's rage was being forced into killing again by the situation.

ok all you twitter people - PLEASE tweet Talking Dead to never have Marilyn Manson on again. I could barely get thru the show. Osborne wasn't much better.


I don't know - until Talking Bad I wasn't sure if Carol killed 2 people with the flu or if she waited til the flu killed them and then killed them before they could turn.

Mike V. said...

You're probably right with Rick. Of course, being punched by Ty probably didn't help either. :)

I think we all agree Manson was awful. I fast forwarded a lot of the episode..he was awful. I like how you called it Talking Dead in one paragraph and then Talking Bad in the next! lol

I guess that's the problem with Zombie shows...when you say "KILL" what Kill are you talking about? Of course, if they never turn...are you really KILLING them? They're already dead? You're just smushing their brain to make sure they don't come back.

So...when Rick asked Carol "Did you kill Karen and Dave" (referring to them by name) and she said "yes"...I assumed she killed Karen and Dave. Kind of like Carl telling Lizzie that you shouldn't name the walkers...because that's not who they are anymore.

There you go folks....LAWYERED! :-)

MJ said...

I saw the season 5 renewal and look at that - same showrunner for two years straight ! LOL on my accidental talking Bad. Freudian slip - I'm not that clever to have done it on purpose.

LOL on Lawyered.

Mike V. said...

MJ - Yeah, I know you messed up with the Talking Bad slip. lol

And yes, I saw the renewal too. I like what Scott Gimple is doing so far, so I think this is a good thing. I wonder how long they'll let this show run. This seems like a show that AMC will run into the ground and milk it for all that its worth...at least until they can find a suitable replacement that may never come. (I'm already dreading the spinoff!)