Original Airdate: October 27, 2013
by Sarabeth Pollock:
The Walking Dead producers promised a wild ride this week, and they didn’t disappoint.
Glen is out digging graves. Patrick’s glasses hang from his wooden cross. Across the way, Maggie digs a grave, too. There are four people in the field digging graves. Hershel and Dr. S are examining a patient. Dr. S shakes his head and pulls out a switchblade, preparing for the inevitable. Outside, Tyreese shows Carol, Daryl and Rick the charred remains of David and his beloved Karen. As Daryl and Rick try to calm Tyreese down, reminding him that they have all lost loved ones, Tyreese flies into a rage and attacks Rick, then Daryl. Rick snaps and attacks Tyreese, beating him into a bloody pulp. Daryl pulls Rick away as Carol looks on in horror. Rick stares at his bloody fist.
Hershel cleans Rick’s hand, saying that it’s sprained but doesn’t need stitches. Good thing he doesn’t need to type in the next few days. “It hurts,” Rick mutters, but he’s not talking about his hand. Hershel agrees that they have been through a lot, losing twelve of their own. The Council is meeting the next day and they need him. Hershel tells Rick that he has fallen off the wagon before, but it’s important to get back on and keep working to help everyone else.
Outside, Tyreese digs a grave. Paul comes up and offers to help him get cleaned up, but Tyreese won’t stop until Karen and David are in the ground.
Glen wants to know if they are still at risk now that Karen and David are out of the picture. Hershel says that it would be one thing if it’s all Walkers, but with people it’s another story. Sasha comes up, hacking up her lungs. She tells the pair that she’s going to be okay because she’s going to see Dr. S. She goes inside Cell Block A and finds that there are Walkers in the cells. Dr. S staggers out of the darkness and tells her that it’s starting, that the outbreak is spreading.
The Council convenes. Without Sasha, it’s Carol, Daryl, Hershel and Glen. They know that Cell Block A is already in isolation but it’s still a risk. Glen looks a little green. Is he sick? Michonne ducks her head inside and asks if it’s a done deal once you get sick. Hershel says that the disease has to run its course, but they could get medicine to help people once they show symptoms. He suggests raiding a nearby veterinary clinic for supplies. Daryl volunteers to lead a group, and Michonne says she’ll tag along. Hershel warns that she might get sick after being in a car with Daryl, but she points out that he already gave her fleas. Hershel offers to draw a map for them, and he also suggests separating the most vulnerable people—the young people—in the administration building. Glen wants to know what will happen with the old people.
Carol and Rick try to jump start the water pump. It isn’t working, but they need to fix it. Five more people are sick. Carol asks if Carl is upset about being forced into isolation. He is, but it’s for the best. Carol sees Tyreese and suggests that Rick go apologize. Rick doesn’t hesitate, offering an apology. Tyreese says that it’s on both of them, and he just wants justice. Rick asks if anyone was upset with Karen or David, and when Tyreese sees where Rick is going, he stops him. Rick is only wondering if they were attacked and killed because they had been the only ones who were sick. Tyreese points out that now more people are sick, so all he sees is the investigation stalling. Is murder now acceptable in their community? Rick insists that the priority right now is helping the living, and keeping them alive, so Tyreese says he will work to do the right thing and exact justice.
More people are getting sick by the hour. Tyreese watches as one young man coughs up blood.
Carl grabs the picture of his mom and dad as he packs to go to isolation. Rick tells him that he needs to keep Judith safe, and he wants Carl to let him know if someone gets sick. Carl has his gun, and he reminds his dad that he actually might need to use his gun.
Maggie walks into their cell to find Glen hunched over the toilet. He has the sickness.
Daryl checks one of the cars to make sure it’s ready for their trip. The car is low on oil. He tells Michonne that he’s glad she’s there. She says that she’s not running off. At the moment, the plan is for them to go alone, just like the old days, but they feel like they need another person. There aren’t many choices given how many people are sick. Daryl seeks out Tyreese for the trip. Though he is hesitant to leave the sickroom where his sister is, he considers leaving to get the medicine she needs to get better.
Hershel contemplates something at his desk. It looks like he might have fallen off the bandwagon. Carl finds him while he’s patrolling the hallways and sees that he’s about to leave. He says he needs to go out to the woods, and he doesn’t need Carl telling him what he can or can’t do. Carl decides that if Hershel is going to leave, then Carl needs to go with him. What is it with this kid’s logic? I don’t get it.
Carol is at the entrance to Cell Block A shepherding the sick through the doors. One woman insists that she’s suffering from allergies, but she has no choice but to go in with the other sick people. She is almost done when Lizzie’s sister comes up and says that she’s sick, too. Carol hugs her and sends her inside, but the girl is terrified and asks Carol to tuck her in. Carol can’t go inside, so she tells the young girl to find Glen. He’ll help her.
Beth and Maggie converse through a glass door. Beth is holding Judith. Maggie is having a hard time dealing with everything, but Beth tells her that they don’t have time to get upset. They will deal with whatever comes at them, but they have jobs to do. She is so wise for her years.
Hershel asks Carl when he got his gun back as he gathers the leaves from some plants. Carl tells him that he got it back the day before. He also put his hat back on. Hershel thinks that the time away from everything was probably helpful for him. Their peaceful moment is interrupted when Carl finds a decaying Walker who is covered in moss and is growing in the side of a tree. Another Walker staggers up with her leg in a bear trap. Carl aims his gun but Hershel points out that he doesn’t need to shoot either one of them. They don’t pose a threat.
Tyreese talks to his sister through the observation glass. Sasha doesn’t look good at all. He tells her that there is a team going out to get medicine, but she knows that the vet college is far away. If they had the medicine the next day, though, they just might make it.
Daryl is finished getting Zack’s car ready for the trip. Paul is going to join them—he can read medical speak, which Daryl finds useful. Tyreese asks if there is still room on the trip. There is. But before they leave, Tyreese finds Carol and asks her to check in on Sasha. He knows that she cares for people and he’d appreciate it. Carol says she’s sorry for what happened to Karen, but as soon as he walks away, she kicks over the water barrel and weeps. She weeps like someone who has a very guilty conscience.
Maggie finds Hershel walking around outside of the quarantine. He says that he can be more of a help to the people who are sick. Rick walks up and tries to reason with him. Hershel points out that everything around them comes with risk. Drinking water, going outside the fences, being with sick people, it all has risk. He has a remedy for fever that can help until the medicine arrives. He needs to be inside with the people who are sick. Maggie begrudgingly opens the door for him to go inside. Maggie returns to the door to talk to her sister. Beth knows that their father went in with the sick people. It’s clear that Beth is about to crack, but she insists that “we don’t get to get upset.”
Rick is outside surveying the area where Karen and David were burned up. He’s the most qualified person to conduct an investigation of a murder scene, and you can see his training come back to him. He sees blood on the door leading outside, suggesting that they weren’t taken without force. Carol is outside pumping water, and Rick goes out in time to see that Carol has gone outside the fence to unplug the pump, but she doesn’t realize that she’s surrounded by Walkers. She makes it back inside, and Rick angrily reminds her that they were going to fix the pump tomorrow. She doesn’t know that there will be a tomorrow.
Daryl is driving (a new model car) down the road. He tells Michonne that he knows that she wasn’t running away, and that he would be out there with her if he knew that the trail hadn’t gone cold. I can only think that they’re talking about finding the Governor. As they drive, Daryl fiddles with the radio. They hear a voice. It’s faint, but it’s a voice. Someone is talking. While his attention is on the radio, he doesn’t see the Walkers in the road. He hits a few of them before stopping the car. Up ahead is a group of thousands of Walkers. They surround the car, and Daryl must back up through them. Of course, the car gets stuck in a clump of Walkers and so they have to abandon the car. Paul, Michonne and Daryl jump out, but Tyreese stays inside. When he finally gets out of the car, Tyreese is quickly surrounded by Walkers. He’s fighting them off, but there’s no telling how long he can keep it up. He yells for the rest of them to go. Daryl says they have to leave him.
The trio runs through the woods. When they get to a clearing, they stop to see two Walkers emerge from the woods. Tyreese is behind them. They grab him and run off as more Walkers come after them.
Hershel gives his tea to Dr. S, who is getting sicker. Suddenly Dr. S starts coughing, and he coughs up blood all over Hershel’s face. Hershel slowly takes his mask off and tells Dr. S to hang in there. Next Hershel visits Glen, who can’t believe that they could be killed by a cold after all they have been through. But Hershel tells him to hold on. He has a job to do.
Rick watches Carol bring water to fill the barrels. He tells her she did a stupid thing earlier by going out alone. He acknowledges the hard work she does on a daily basis. He wonders if there isn’t anything she would do to save everyone. “Did you kill Karen and David?” he asks. “Yes,” she replies, and she walks away to finish her chores.
Holy crap. Carol killed Karen and David. Tyreese asked her to care for Sasha. What will happen when he finds out what she did? How many more people will die before they get a handle on the disease moving through the prison? Will Hershel and Glen survive? What is going to happen with the mission to secure antibiotics?
There’s a lot up in the air at this point. It seems like we’re back in the second season with the farm, given that we haven’t left the prison, but this time there are at least a dozen storylines going to keep things interesting. What do you think about tonight’s episode? Leave your comments below!
Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for Dark Media. She covers The Walking Dead, True Blood, Doctor Who, Dracula and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy. She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from True Blood to Doctor Who to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness. Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com
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