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/