Original Airdate: November 10, 2013
At the end of last week’s episode, I was thinking about two things: One, I couldn’t believe Rick would take it upon himself to deliver judgment upon Carol, and two, Rick needs his old sheriff’s uniform back.
Rick drives back to the prison, his bandaged hand gripping the steering wheel while Carol’s watch sits on the empty seat beside him. A Walker is on the side of the road being consumed by wild dogs. Rick’s eyes remain vacant.
At the prison, Hershel, Glen and Sasha try to intubate a man who is choking on his own blood. Once he’s stable, Hershel convenes a meeting of the abbreviated Council. He rules that there should be spaghetti nights on Tuesday and Wednesdays, once they find some spaghetti. Glen and Sasha are very sick. The man they saved will only remain alive so long as they manually fill his lungs with air. As Hershel and Glen make rounds, they find a dead man in a cell and Glen starts to kill him (again) but Hershel tells him that they need to get him away from the others. They load him onto a gurney. Lizzie sees them and asks what they’re doing. Hershel tells her to get his copy of Tom Sawyer and read it by the end of the night. When she leaves, Mr. Jacobs starts to come back to life and so Glen stabs him. It was the first time Hershel had to witness someone being killed preemptively.
Later on, Hershel meets Maggie at the window. He says that Glen is resting after spending the day helping out. He asks about Beth and tells his daughter to stay positive. Glen is beyond the door, and he thanks Hershel for keeping Maggie from freaking out. They need her to stay strong and take care of things on the outside.
Maggie is at the fence killing off the Walkers when Rick gets back. She’s wearing a cool suit of body armor. He asks about Carl and Judith, and then he asks about Hershel and Glen and Sasha, and then he asks about the search party. Maggie wants to know where Carol is, and eventually he tells her that Carol admitted to killing Karen and David. She says he did the right thing, and she doubts that she’d be able to do the same. He disagrees. She says that they need to figure out what to do with the new herd of Walkers. Boy, wait til she sees the group that the search party ran into.
Rick goes inside and gives the bag of goods to Carl. Carl doesn’t know that Carol is gone yet. He assures his father that he didn’t need to use his gun, and he says that Beth is with Judith. Carl points out that he was with Rick before the illness broke out, and he was with Patrick the day he died. He isn’t sick, so he should be out helping. Rick tells him that he needs to stay where he is and help that group. Carl agrees.
Hershel hops up the stairs and finds Glen helping Henry to breathe. He thanks Glen and then goes to check on Dr. S. Dr. S says that not everyone gets to live, and he’s in the end stage so Hershel should focus on the ones that have a chance. He says that they need to use IVs and keep the other people from dying, one after another. He shows Hershel his stash of death row medicines, but Hershel doesn’t think they’re at that point. Dr. S insists that the doors are all locked at night. When Dr. S starts coughing, Hershel insists on taking a look at him. Dr. S relents…and Hershel sees that the man’s eyes are bleeding.
Hershel tucks everyone into their cells, shutting the doors securely. A man bursts from his cell and convulses on the ground before dying in the middle of the cell block. Hershel tells everyone to get back into their cells, but they don’t. Not at first. Sasha comes forward and helps Hershel get the man onto a gurney. The exertion is almost too much for her. He asks if she can make it to her cell, and she nods. He pushes the gurney into the hallway, and then he stops, removing his knife. After a lot of hesitation, he plunges the knife into the man’s head. Once the job is done, Rick appears out of the shadows. Hershel says they have lost three people; they are taking them outside and burning the bodies. He’d seen the man the day before. He didn’t want people to see what was going to happen next. Rick points out that it’s more important for them to see Hershel moving forward. Hershel says that it was good that Rick got the break he needed and deserved, and he still thinks that there is a higher purpose to all of this. “Life was always a test, Rick.” Rick says that they need to talk about Carol.
It would seem that Hershel reacted badly to Rick’s news. He staggers, dazed, through the cell block, securing the doors. He finds a dead body in one cell but spots Sasha on the ground in the next cell so he rushes to take care of her, telling her that she knows how to fight. Unfortunately, he forgets to kill the Walker next door.
Maggie and Rick try to keep the fences up as the herds of Walkers push against them. He tells her that her father looked good. She wonders if he’d be out there if Carl was sick. As she wonders, a Walker grabs Rick’s ankle. Maggie chops her arm off. Rick says he’s glad she’s out there with him.
Hershel is at Sasha’s bedside when she wakes up. She had been dehydrated. She thought he was foolish going into to the isolation ward. She doesn’t believe in magic or luck, preferring the math. She doesn’t think she’d be there if she was in his position. He decides to take it as a compliment.
Down the hall, Glen realizes that Henry has stopped breathing. He starts CPR, but the chest compressions take a lot out of him and he can’t even call for help. He starts coughing violently, collapsing on the floor. Hershel is still closing cell doors when a Walker comes out. Lizzie finds Walker Henry and leads him down the hall like he’s a lost puppy. The Walker takes a bite out of the man Hershel had just said goodnight to, and the man fires his gun. In saving Hershel, the man lost his life. Outside, Maggie and Rick hear the gunshot but know that they have to keep working to keep the walls secure. Rick tells her that he’s got it, and sends her inside.
Rick rushes inside to check on Carl. Carl heard the gun, too. Rick says he needs his son’s help.
Lizzie trips and Walker Henry lunges at her. She screams, and Hershel pulls him off and tosses him over the side. He locks the kids into a cell and goes to find Glen. Glen is bleeding from his eyes and mouth but is still alive. Maggie reaches the isolation ward but the door is locked and she can’t get in. Hershel goes to Dr. S’s cell for medicine, but Dr. S is gone. With only a moment’s hesitation, Hershel stabs the doctor in the head.
Rick and Carl are at the fences. Rick watches his son proudly as the boy grabs a log and helps wedge it against the teetering fence. There are too many Walkers, though, and one of the logs snaps in half, sending a horde of Walkers into the prison yard. They make it to the door and get inside the prison yard. Rick suggests backing the bus against the fence. Carl asks if it will hold. It’s the only chance they have. He gives Carl a rifle and gives him a brief introduction as to how to use it. Father and son stand together as the fence crashes down and the yard fills with Walkers. They shoot as many as they can.
Inside, Hershel checks on the kids before going to tend to Glen. He manages to take out the Walkers in the cellblock as Maggie breaks a window and gets inside. When she finds her father, he’s wrestling with Walker Henry over the breathing tube in his mouth. Crack Shot Maggie takes out Henry and helps her father put the breathing tube into Glen. It’s touch and go, but eventually Glen starts breathing easier. When it’s over, he tells his daughter that he didn’t want her in there, but she had to do it. Lizzie comes in and asks if it’s over. “I hope so, honey,” Maggie says.
Carl stabs a Walker in the head as he and Rick make sure they have killed all of the Walkers in the yard. Carl sees the light coming from Daryl’s car and Carl says it’s going to be ok. Tyreese jumps out and hurries to Sasha’s bedside. Paul helps to make the medicine they need. Maggie tells her father to go rest. Hershel goes to Dr. S’s room and sits on the bed, the doctor’s body still on the floor. He picks up a Bible and opens it, and then he puts it down and sobs.
The next day Rick goes outside and finds Michonne clearing away the bodies. He asks if she needs help but she tells him to do his thing. Carl catches up to Rick, wondering why he let him sleep in. Rick needs to talk to Daryl. Hershel walks out and finds Tyreese and Daryl. Tyreese asks about Glen, and Daryl says he’s a “tough sumbitch.” He suggests that Daryl find Rick so he can tell him about Carol. He says she’s okay but they need to talk. Hershel sees Michonne getting ready to dump the bodies, and she asks if he wants to come. “Hell, yeah,” Hershel replies.
Rick and Carl stand together out in their fields. They share a father-son moment.
Outside, someone is watching the prison. He turns his head enough so that we can see the eye patch. Holy shit, the Governor is back!
I don’t know about you, but this season has been a whirlwind. It started out slowly, and then all hell broke loose, and as soon as everything calmed down the Governor returns. This show makes me feel exhausted at the end of it.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Leave your comments below!
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