Monday, February 17, 2014

The Walking Dead: Season 4 Episode 10 - Inmates


Hello fellow walkers and welcome back to The Walking Dead!  We got to see where almost everyone else ended up after the prison invasion this week.  Lots of walker confrontations, lots of tension, a couple answers to cliffhangers led to a pretty decent episode.  Though, I would argue the more intense focus on Rick, Carl and Michonne last week was better than this one.  When you're juggling that many stories in an 8 episode arc, sometimes episodes like this are needed to get to the more interesting stories coming up.  With that said, let's talk about the key points from this episode that we should take away.

Discussion Points
Darryl/Beth
  • Lesson learned: When you split Beth up from the ensemble she gets more lines.  But, that doesn't necessarily make her more interesting!  They gave her a journal that she discovered at the prison and started writing about the hope that she found in the prison of making a new life.  Of course, that life got destroyed.  We see her and Darryl scraping to get by.  It would seem Darryl almost gave up by that campfire.  But, Beth's "motivational powers" gave him the jolt he needed to keep moving and look for some kind of hope that their friends were out there and alive.  The scenes in this episode were out of order chronologically, so we ended up seeing them track where Tyreese and crew were.  They even stumbled upon a walker of a guy that got bit and gave Tyreese information of where to go next.  So, I guess there is hope that Darryl and Beth are following that trail to the train tracks and to "Terminus".
Tyreese and Crew
  • We followed Tyreese, Lizzie and her sister next.  Big answer, and kudos to commenter MJ for correctly guessing that Tyreese was the one that picked up Judith!  Of course, Tyreese would get ALL of the kids.  He had the task of keeping a baby quiet, dealing with potential psychopath Lizzie and the scared sister (who I'm sorry, I keep forgetting her name).  They did pretty well for themselves but there was the awkward moment where Tyreese had to leave the kids to fend for themselves while he went after screams to see if it was their crew.  It wasn't.  It was the dude by the train tracks that Darryl and Beth came across later.  
  • Meanwhile, we learned that Lizzie's method of keeping Judith quiet was to cover her mouth and nose.  She looked pretty intent on suffocating the poor child.  And, of course, my first thought was back to feeding those rats to the walkers.  Kirkman confirmed in an interview that we will get an answer to that in this back half.  Height issue, too obvious or not, Lizzie has to remain a candidate for feeding the walkers after this scene.  
  • Anyway, Tyreese took care of business and what do you know Carol showed up and found the kids!  I'll give myself some kudos on this one as I figured splitting up the cast like this would lead to a scenario where Tyreese would run into Carol before he had the information on what she had done at the prison (and Rick giving her the boot).   We have to take Carol's explanation of where she was as a half truth.  She obviously didn't tell him why she wasn't at the prison for real.  She said she kept looking for more supplies and got to the prison for the END of the invasion.   And that she was trying to keep up with Tyreese afterwards.  Maybe that latter half of the story is true. 
  • The last guy standing that was bit (later killed by Beth) told them he messed up by not sticking to the train tracks.  He said there was a place where they could take the kids.  They should just keep following the tracks.  They found a sign that spoke of a sanctuary.  On the map the destination said "Terminus".  I know it basically means end point and is also a term used for railway endpoints.  But, I thought it may be a term or plot point from the comic as well.  It may be, but I'll have to read the interviews and watch Talking Dead for more intel there!  In any case, I'm sure it leads to more drama!      
Maggie/Sasha/Bob
  • First we'll get Bob's weird smile out of the way before we get into the meat here.  He was grinning as Sasha and said it had nothing to do with still being alive.  We know the dude is an alcoholic, but does he have the hots for Sasha too?  Who knows?  Stay tuned. 
  • Maggie meanwhile is totally depressed.  She lost track of Beth, she lost her dad but she has a lead on her main squeeze Glenn.  She wants to track the bus and see if he made it onto it.  Of course, Sasha and Bob reluctantly go with her.  What followed was the ultimate video game scene where they let one walker at a time off of a bus until they got overloaded with walkers to take out.  Sure, there was lots of crying and drama in anticipation that they might find Glenn.  I'll save us all some words here, he wasn't on the bus!   You would think this would lead Maggie back to the prison to see if he was still there.  But, maybe not.  If she does go there she won't find him!

Glenn/Tara
  • As I mentioned, Glenn never made it on that bus!  He woke up and the prison was filled with walkers and deserted of the living.  He worked his way back to his cell, took some time to gather himself then loaded up on supplies and some armor!  
  • And of course, he stumbled by Tara who looked and felt defeated for helping to allow this disaster to happen.  Anyone who blames themselves for the Governor's actions needs to reassess their thoughts!  Anyway, Glenn demanded that she help him and they were able to flee the prison with some more video gaming action. 
  • Glenn then learned that Hershel was killed, and Tara again blamed herself for the mess.  But, Glenn start speaking about believing and having faith just like Hershel taught him.  Hmm, maybe Glenn is going to take up the humanitarian role in the absence of Dale and Hershel now.  Anyway, they stumbled into a few more walkers and took care of them but then ran into 3 new faces of the living.  They look pretty gung ho and it's probably no surprise to say that they are 3 familiar characters to any of the comic book readers.  But, while I already learned their names I'll hold off until next week to get into the details! 
So, that's pretty much where we're at.  We've caught up with all of our main characters.  I guess Tara's sister Lilly is still MIA.  We last saw her putting the final blow on the Governor so we can assume she's still alive.  And of course, we lose one character and we gain 3 more.  That's the nature of the comics and it's the nature of this show.  It's a pretty good sign that we'll be losing more people before these final 6 episodes are done in season 4.  Looking forward to the rest of the ride!  Until then, we can discuss further in the comments below.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week! 

12 comments:

Mike V. said...

Totally forgot and maybe I didn't totally catch it. But Lizzie totally cut up those bunnies/rabbits! (Talking dead) girl is nuts!

Mike V. said...

Definitely just used "totally" 3 times in that short post! Lol

mj said...

I was right! Tyreese had Judith! I rarely call these things correctly. Soon as someone passed that limb (maggie maybe) - and I thoughtwas fungus on it- and the camera stayed on it I knew wasgonna be important. Little could i guess would be bunny murder! She is named well - like Lizzy Borden. lol. Did they hint she was rat feeder? Otherlittle gir made comment how lizzie doesn't know how to treat walkers right.

Yes - you totally did.
Maggie was alittle out of control - not that I blame her. But thats how you get yrself killed. Daryl withdrawn again. Sigh.

Occurred to me - since we pick on other shows i feel it needs mentioning - rick/carl not far from prison so why did no one ever go to that town for their supply runs? All houses close by should have been cleaned out by now. Just saying.

mj said...

My recollection is that Glenn was on the bus. Maggieput him on then ran off to fight. We justdon't know now how/when he got off- guess it wasn't important.

Was creepy with Tyreese and Carol. Didn't notice Bob and Sasha though.

Ireally did not expect them to focus on each char as much as they did last week . We'd get noting else done with 8 eps only left

I stay away fr book spoilers so don'tknow about terminus but whenthey cast the guy at the end people were very excited hewas coming

Mike V. said...

MJ Glenn mentioned to Tara why he got off the bus. He stayed back to help someone.

Yes the guy introduced is supposedly another fan favorite. Lol and of course you can just tell by the casting they mean business. He's been in lots of stuff most recently Southland. But I'll always remember him from Band of Brothers. Just like Damien Lewis!

Mike V. said...

Sorry, was posting from my phone earlier.

You were totally right about Tyreese and I gave you props in the recap!

They didn't necessarily hint that she was the rat feeder, but she's got a good background for it now. And, I thought the closeup on the log was suspicious too but I forgot about the rabbits at that point. So yeah..I thought it was fungus or something else...not cut up rabbits! lol

Good point on the supply runs...yeah it's definitely a point worth raising! I always find it interesting when they find towns with supplies...but I guess some people aren't as equipped to go into to homes and clear them??? Of course, if that was the case they'd be dead because they wouldn't have had means to survival.

I thought I had read that they'd be focusing on character A LOT in these 8 episodes. But, at the very least Rick and Carl definitely need the focus more than others.

mj said...

I only brought up Glenn and bus cause you said Maggie wanted to see if he made the bus. But she put him on the bus and so she is assuming he was on it, not wondering

Leslie said...

I didn’t realize they were showing us rabbits on that log either! Lizzie is just creepy! When she was holding her hand over Judith’s mouth, I thought I detected a little smile on her face. Tyreese definitely had his hands full with all of the kids. Makes sense though now that they ran into Carol.

Daryl was really looking defeated much like Michonne last week. But, perky little Beth kept him going, but I didn’t catch why she broke out in tears later in the episode? This from the girl who said she doesn’t cry anymore.

Since they had a plan for leaving the prison if something happened, you would think they would have a plan for a meet up place or a way to leave markers or something for the others to find.

Mike V. said...

Wondering if he was "still" on the bus is what I meant. Lol

On my phone again. I'll write more later.

mj said...

Yeah I thought Judith was a goner. Guy on Talk daed brought it up too but it reminded me of the Mash finale. Dating mtself now.

Tv guid.com has article about Abraham - one of the new guy at the end. A little spoilery but very interesting. I did not read the last bit - they warned non book readers to stop so I did. Very interesting

Mike V. said...

@Leslie - The same thing came up on Talking Dead last night. Why didn't they have an escape plan/rendezvous plan in place? As Chris Hardwicke said, it was a final lesson that they can never get TOO comfortable. And never will again.

I thought the same thing about Darryl feeling defeated like Michonne did.

@MJ
You know I've always heard about the MASH finale being one of the highest rated events on television (used to be the highest)....but I've never actually seen it! lol

Yeah, I knew the man guy in the new group is Abraham and he's a fan favorite character. (Same one I was referring to being played by the Southland/Band of Brothers guy) I'll check out the article. Thanks!

Plumbarius said...

@Leslie....I think Beth started crying after seeing the little shoe next to the dead walkers and assuming it was one of the girls who had been killed.