The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 14 – “The Grove”

Who would have thought when this show started that Carol would turn out to be the strongest character?  She was this meek, mild scared woman when we first saw her and now she knows what needs to be done and makes the hard decisions that others can’t.

I had thought all along that Lizzie was the one feeding the rats to the walkers.  I had also (maybe not in print but definitely in my head) said that she needed to die.  A person like that, child or adult, that has no concept of the difference between a walker and a human, is dangerous to everyone around them.  If she’d been an adult, the choice would have been obvious.  I never in a million years thought the show would go there with a child.  I thought that her obsession with walkers would get her bitten and she would die that way.

Did they make the right decision?  Hard to say.  Could Lizzie be rehabilitated after killing her sister?  Put that together with the fact that she was pretty obviously mentally disturbed to start with.  I could see how a child could be confused about walkers but if they have any bit of sanity, they should be able to understand when it’s explained to them over and over again.  Not to mention the fact that she’s watched them kill people she knows.  Judith could never be safe with Lizzie around.  Without tying her up at night, no one could ever sleep soundly around her.

Having Carol tell Tyreese about Karen and having him forgive her was unexpected.  I don’t think he could have forgiven her so easily if she had confessed before everything went down with Lizzie.  I don’t think Tyreese could have killed Lizzie.  Even though he thought it was the right decision, I don’t think he had the stomach for it.  Seeing Carol be able to do what needs to be done, no matter how hard or how it affects her, I think helped him see why she killed Karen.

Photo Credit:  tvtag.com and AMC

The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 13 – “Alone”

I almost didn’t get this posted this week but I have a couple of questions/predictions I wanted to get up before the next episode.

Why they got to keep taking stuff away from my Daryl?  It’s like, because he’s a fan favorite, let’s see how miserable we can make him.

The scene where Daryl was escaping from the mortuary was awesome.  I thought for sure that Daryl was a goner or Beth was going to come back and save him.

I knew we’d see “Joe” again.  Like I said, you don’t bring Jeff Kober in for an episode and not give him anything to do.  I know the show has cast fairly well known actors (Aldis Hodge, Michael Raymond-James) for one episode but they had big parts in those episodes.  I already don’t like Joe’s group.

I still can’t get a handle on Bob.  I understand that he’s glad not to be alone again, but he’s too damn happy.  Also, he was so adamant about going after Maggie so she wouldn’t be alone but he was perfectly willing to leave Sasha alone.  Did he think his kiss was so good that she’d tag along eventually?

So a couple of questions/predictions:

• I don’t think a bad person took Beth.  I think someone rolled up in the car and told her to get in but she tried to go back for Daryl and they just forced her in to save her.  That would explain her dropped bag.  Keeping my fingers crossed.
• I figure Joe’s group is the one who killed the people in that camp earlier in the season.  Why hasn’t anyone run across them before?
• I think Daryl will go with Joe’s group initially because a) he wants to live and b) he suspects they took Beth.  I also think he’ll take the first chance he gets to escape.
• How did a one-eyed dog survive this long?
• How far away is Terminus?

Photo Credit:  tvtag.com and AMC

The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 12 – “Still”

Wow!  The actors on this show are knocking it out of the park this season.  This was Norman Reedus’ best episode since “This Sorrowful Life.”  I actually think he was better in this episode.

We finally got to see Daryl and Beth deal with their grief over what just happened.  As I said before, Daryl was shutting down.  Better not to care than to have feelings.  It never occurred to me that he blamed himself for Hershel’s death and the loss of the prison.  If he’d kept looking for The Governor though, and something happened while he was away, he would have blamed himself for that too.

Beth’s feelings, on the other hand, manifested themselves in her needing to do something she’d never done before.  I think she’s decided that she’s going to die and she wants to make sure she experiences everything before she does.  She’s always been Daddy’s good little girl, rebelling against that is a way for her not to feel the grief of his death.

I read in another review that Daryl is a mean drunk.  I don’t think that’s true at all.  First, I doubt he would have been drunk off of few sips of moonshine.  Second, I think all of the feelings he’d been tamping down just came to a head when he thought Beth thought he was a loser before the walkers came along.  Daryl seems to have a pretty low opinion of himself and it always seems to surprise him when anyone else values him.  Playing that game just brought back all those feelings and bad memories. Beth led a sheltered, happy life before so I think there’s a bit of jealousy there as well.

Setting fire to the shack didn’t make much sense from a safety standpoint but I see why the characters did it.  They had both come to terms with the past and are moving forward from it.  I just don’t understand why they couldn’t have waited until morning.

Photo Credit:  tvtag.com and AMC

Related:

http://piecesofdarkness.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/tidbits-of-the-dead-still/