The Walking Dead: Season 4 Episode 4 - Indifference

Hello everyone and welcome back to another discussion of The Walking Dead!  This season continues to delve deeper into these characters and their motivations while keeping the intensity high.  And while we did not have any major deaths as many predicted, there was a pretty powerful ousting to discuss!  Let's dive in and see what's worth discussing.

Discussion Points

Okay, so I'm going to skip the recap section this week.  Sometimes I think to myself, "everyone probably watched the episode if they're reading this, so why am I restating what happened?!"   If it's to point out little intricacies in the plot worth discussing (like with LOST), that's one thing.  But, if I'm just restating what happened in the episode, well that's kind of silly!    The ironic part is that in my bullets below I'll probably end up recapping anyway, and there's a chance I'll do it again in the future!  But for right now, just go with it! 

• So Carol has been kicked out by the hypocrite former leader Rick.  He's looking out for his family and doesn't trust her recent actions.  It started with her trying to turn Carl against him, or at least for him to lie to his father.  It peaked with handling Karen and Dave and then he solidified his decision with her decisions on their journey for supplies this week.  It definitely is debatable whether this is the right course of action.  And Carol brought up a good point with Rick killing Shane.  But, I do agree with Shane that it was a little different.  Shane had the right mentality for the Zombie apocalypse but it was poisoned by his love for Lori and Carl.  And, if I recall, wasn't he going to kill Rick?  So, Rick just took care of things first.  The debate is that Karen and Dave would turn and then kill them also.   But, they had the situation contained and was not Carol's call to make.    
• What this did do was avoid a major conflict in the prison.  With Carol coming back and Rick ratting her out to Ty, things would have gotten messy.  But, who says it won't get messy anyway?  Rick has to explain why Carol isn't with her.  If he tells the truth, there will be a division in the group on if he was right or not.  If he says she died, well what if Carol runs into these guys again?  Considering Daryl and Carol have some unfinished story to attend to (we assume), I'm thinking there's a good chance we'll see Carol again.  If he says she died, and then we find out he lied, well that's just going to make things worse.  So, it was a tough call for Rick to make.  And it was an interesting call since he's being reluctant on being the leader.  Of course, he said he did it for him, not the group so I guess that's his justification.  
• They did focus on Carol a lot in this episode and about her transformation into the "No Emotion, Do What has to be done" mentality that she has.  She spoke of her former life with the abusive husband and Sofia as if it's someone else's life.  She wouldn't even refer to her daughter by name when discussing it with Rick.  If you want to stay alive, I guess it's the right mentality to have and considering she has no family to worry about (like Rick), it's probably easier to have that mentality.  But, she COULD have family.  She distances herself from Mica and Lizzy.  Lizzy accidentally called her Mom and Carol drove home the point for her to never do it again.  She spoke to Lizzy how you keep fighting the fear and eventually it goes away.  Of course, the funny thing about ignoring her past is that she did use her skills of fixing a dislocated shoulder from her abusive past.  
• We met Sam and Ava (?) in this episode.  I have no idea if either of them are comic book characters or not.  But, Ava didn't last very long.  Not really sure what was wrong with her bum leg, but it was removed from the rest of her zombie eaten self in the end.  Sam was nowhere to be found and missed his rendezvous with Rick and Carol.  I guess there's a chance that Carol will run into him and team up.  But, there's also a chance that he'll be the Russian in the Pine Barrens from the classic Sopranos episode.  (If that doesn't make any sense, just Google it or better yet watch The Sopranos!)
• So, then there was the other road trip gone awry that we caught up with.  Tyreese is still in a bad state.  With the walker run-in on the road, they lost their car and lost a day in the hopes of curing the prison's plague.  He assumes his sister is dead along with everyone else.  He almost lets the walker at the gas station take him.  But, his support system made sure that didn't happen.  
• Kudos to Chris Jericho on Talking Dead for making 200% more sense than Mr. Manson last week.  He figured out the theme of this episode was "Letting Go" and then went on to dissect how each character was having trouble with it.  Ty wouldn't let go of the walker, Michonne wouldn't let go of the hunt for The Governor even though the trail went cold, Bob won't let go of his bag full of alcohol, etc....  Very astute observation Mr. Jericho! 
• Bob had his big moment with Daryl confessing to causing the death of Zach in the season premiere at The Big Spot.  Daryl explained to him how it wasn't his fault, but then lived to regret those words when Bob found another bottle at the Veterinary School and ONLY put that in his bag instead of medical supplies.  Ironically, it was Tyreese who stopped Daryl from doing something drastic to Bob.  I believe he even may have told him to let it go.   Bob already felt shamed enough.  But, that didn't stop him from keeping the bottle after it almost got them all killed by a hoard of walkers.  
• So yeah, we debated last week if they were even close to their destination.  It turns out that they weren't as most of the episode took place at a gas station where we watched (Much to the lady viewers' pleasure) manly Daryl fix up a car so they could take it for the rest of their journey.  And it doesn't get much more manly than Daryl in a mini-van does it!?  Maybe it was or wasn't intentional, but it's pretty funny that Michonne was all of a sudden the driver when they had to carry on in the van!  
• So Daryl was getting on Michonne's case all episode about giving up the Governor hunt.  Or just being with the group.  Daryl was picking up stones for some random guy back at the prison, which shocked Michonne.  By the end of the episode, Michonne had come around and implied she was going to stick around.  She said she doesn't need to run anymore.  She also talked about how she didn't know what was fueling her desire to keep hunting for the Gov.  She WAS angry, but she just kept doing it even past that point.  I guess it was her inability to LET GO!   Having said that, she will kill him if she sees him because that would "make things right".  
• So, in the end, the group has the meds and are heading back to the prison.  Rick has kicked Carol to the curb and is heading back.  There's still an anonymous rat provider to the walkers residing in the prison and plenty more conflict to come.  And just because we didn't see our sick people this week doesn't mean they didn't get worse.  Glenn, Hershel, Sasha, and Dr. S. are on watch!   Out of those 4, I'd say Glenn has the best chance of staying with us.  Of course, then there's the isolated kids who they keep foreshadowing will have to fight.  That can only lead to something disturbing! 

Okay, how did I do?  No recap, but hit a bunch of talking points.  I'm sure there's more to discuss and that's why we have a comments section!  I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!