October 27, 2013

The Plague has started and so the isolation has begun. The isolation being that the group and their newly found Woodbury cohorts have to be separated into groups of infected, non-infected and dead.

Isolation takes place immediately at the conclusion of last week's episode (read a recap of last week's episode 'Infected' to catch up) . A group of non-infected with shovels led by Maggie and Glenn are digging graves for those who have already died from the disease.

Tyreese loses it with Daryl and Rick after finding his girl Karen and David burned to death in last week's conclusion. When Rick tries to calm him, he starts punching Rick's head. Daryl grabs Tyreese from behind and pins his arms to stop his assault, but after being momentarily being stunned by the attack, Rick gets his crazy on and cold cocks Tyreese. He then proceeds to start pummeling him into a pulp uncontrollably. He would have killed him if Daryl hadn't pull him off. Those long months of gardening hasn't quite cured his crazies. I can understand how distraught Tyreese is, though. In a world where zombies far outnumber humans, it's almost impossible to find a girl like Karen to help him make it through just one more night. I'd be twisted too.

Roll intro credits

Hershel patches up Rick's hands and tells him that they've lost twelve more people and the outbreak is imminent. Hershel compares Rick's violent outburst to himself falling of the booze wagon. You see, Rick my boy. I fell off the horse but I got right back up because I have responsibilities to keep others safe. In a normal society, Rick's blood lust wouldn't be tolerated, but here in Zombieville, it's a mere drop in the ocean.

D'Angelo Barksdale, I mean Bob tells Tyreese to get his eye examined, seeing that it's swollen shut from Rick's barrage , but Tyreese isn't about to stop digging his girl's grave. I sort of wrote this sentence only to shamelessly plug Larry Gilliard, Jr. and The Wire. I might as well give a shout out to Chad L. Coleman who played Cutty in seasons three and four.

Unfortunately, Sasha has become sick and she struggles to find Dr. S in the isolation cell block A for help, but she finds the good doctor is sick himself as he says the obvious.

"It's started."

The council meeting has also started (Hershel, Michonne, Carol, Glenn and Daryl) and Hershel goes over the dire situation they are in and his conclusion is that they need antibiotics and fast. There's a veterinarian college about fifty miles away and it's their best chance to find some so Daryl and Michonne volunteer to go.

Glenn looks kind of queasy.

Rick and Carol are trying to get the water from the pump to bring to the sick, but only muddy water is coming out. Carol wants to go outside the fence to fix it, but Rick restrains her from going because they have too much work to do right now. Rick then seesTyreese finishing off the two graves and apologies to him for, well, everything. He's OK with that, but he's on the warpath to get justice for the murder of Karen.

Rick tells Carl to stay isolated with the other kids and to watch their backs. Maggie finds that Glenn's illness has finally blossomed. Daryl and Michonne are going out for the meds and it appeared as if Daryl was kind of hitting on her. Is there a possible romantic connection happening?

Carl patrols the halls and finds Hershel trying to leave the compound. Carl suddenly acts like the grown up again and cautions him about going out of the prison alone. During this virus crisis, Hershel is being made to feel old and unimportant and he's not liking it.

Beth's dispassionate coldness seems to be getting deeper, but I wonder if it's just a defense mechanism. When Maggie tells her that Glenn just got sick through a segregated door, she replies that there's no time for being upset because they all have jobs to do.

Michonne and Daryl will get the meds. You and Carol and Rick will help everyone until they get back. And I'll take care of Judith. Just focus on what you have to do. No matter what happens, we'll deal with it. We have to.

Hershel is picking some berries with Carl outside the camp and he comments that Carl has grown so mature now after being given a time out. Carl agrees, but doesn't want to revisit that again.

Tyreese is staying with Sasha who's getting sicker by the minute and he comforts her by telling her about the med run that's just beginning. He leaves her and joins up with Michonne, Bob and Daryl to try and find antibiotics. He asks Carol to look in on Sasha because she cares so much and she agrees, but when he leaves Carol throws a fit and knocks down a huge barrel of water that she had struggled with Rick to get for those infected.

I now believe Carol is the one who killed David and Karen.

Hershel takes his newly picked berries to help those quarantined since Dr S. can't, but Maggie tries to stop him to save him from getting sick. He argues that they risk death all the time and if he can help save some people then that's a risk worth taking.

This episode belongs to Hershel and his need to try to be useful. He'd rather die then be shoved aside. I know Tyreese has suffered a great loss, but he has zombies to take his rage out on and I doubt he'll be afraid to go out anymore..

Beth talks with Maggie about their father going to help the sick and her 'don't get upset' attitude finally begins to crumbles as she softly weeps.

Carol is out cleaning the water hose outside the camp and her banging noise brings the zombies towards her and away from the diversion she set up. Rick sees this from inside the camp and runs out to help her. She stays with the hose as long as possible and then rears up, fending off walkers while trying to get back to the fence. She splits a zombie head open, but her machete gets stuck in the cracked skull. Just when it looks like curtains Rick jumps in and kills her zombie attackers until they make it back to safety.

"A piece of cake. "

Daryl turns on the radio of the car as Michonne gets some CDs when they hear a faint voice coming from the radio. As Daryl tries to tune it in, he runs into a few walkers and almost loses control of the car, but when he comes to a stop he sees a massive zombie hoard approaching them. He tries to back out over the walkers, but their crushed bodies jam up the back wheels so they have to make a run for it. Michonne and Daryl cut a swath through the zombies, but Tyreese just sits in the car while Bob tries to get free of the swarm. When Tyreese finally decides to get out of the car, he saves Bob, but gets overrun by the walker hoard. The three of them leave as he's smashing walkers while they crush in on him, but he's angry enough to survive.

Hershel is giving Dr. S some water when he spits up blood in his face.

What do you know? Tyreese isn't dead, he's just covered in gore as he makes his way back to Daryl, Michonne and Bob..

Rick tells Carol that going out there to fix the water was a stupid idea and she agrees, but after Rick had taken a look at the scene of Karen's death he had made a connection.

Rick: Is there anything you wouldn't do for the people here?

Carol: No

Rick: Carol, did you kill Karen and David?

Carol: Yes

The end.

*What will Tyreese do if he ever finds out that Carol killed his lover? Carol spent all last week telling the two young girls that they have to be strong so I guess that was a primer for her actions here. Killing two people who hadn't turned is a drastic step to take and in a way she's acting more like Carl did when he killed a human from last season. The build-up was pretty weak for her character though.

Zach over at AV Club makes this observation about Hershel:

And Herschel goes out into the woods for berries, and then risks his life to make elderberry tea to help ease the suffering of the afflicted. It’s a small (and potentially fatal) gesture, but the dignity of it, and Herschel’s refusal to back down when everyone else tells him he’s risking his life, is noteworthy. In a way, it’s the exact opposite of Carol’s choice. To her, the only way to keep anyone safe is to keep cutting off the infected bits, be it sick people or simple human kindness. But to Herschel, who has experienced amputation firsthand (or leg), it’s more important to care for people as best, and as long, as you can. He’s not soft, and he’s not weak, exactly. He just recognizes the value of making a choice that has more dignity in it that simply trying to stay alive as long as possible. It’s a rare moment of humanity from a show that too often views such moments as an invitation to disaster.

This episode's job was to keep the ball rolling on the main storyline of this season which is, you got it...infected, but the idea that Carol was exposed as Karen's killer was handled poorly. It's good to finally gave Tyreese's character a focus since most of his scenes were pretty neutered before. Also the way Hershel explained their new horror, death by the flu was handled admirably, but then Scott Wilson has always been admirable.

I'll give it a C.

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