Original Airdate: November 3, 2013
Welcome back to another week at the prison, fellow Walkers.
Rick changes the bandage on his hand contemplatively while Carol goes to visit Lizzie. She wanted to tell Lizzie that she’s going on a run with Rick because the other team is taking too long. Lizzie says that “no one has died yet” in quarantine, but at least she gets to come back. Carol tries to point out that coming back as a Walker is not living, but Lizzie insists that she’s not weak, and that’s why she is expressing her opinion. Carol asks where she is hiding her knife, and Lizzie shows her. She slips up and calls Carol “mom,” which Carol reprimands rather harshly. Carol makes sure that Lizzie is ready to fight if the time comes, and Lizzie says she is but it’s clear that she’s really not sure. While this conversation is taking place, Rick has been investigating David and Karen’s deaths. Now that he knows Carol did it, it looks like he’s trying to figure out what to do next.
Daryl, Michonne and the gang are on their way through the woods to find a new ride in the next town. Tyreese seems to be having a mental break and he can’t stop. “It helps to keep moving,” he says. “No, it doesn’t,” Tyreese tells him.
Rick and Carol head down the road. She says Maggie wanted to come with them, but she knows that Rick needed someone he could trust to stay behind. She tells Rick that David and Karen would have drowned in their own blood. She was only trying to save lives by getting rid of their bodies to prevent the spread of the disease. “Maybe,” Rick mutters.
Michonne and Daryl share a joke as he gathers something for one of the prison residents. She asks if he knows everyone back there, and he tells her that if you stay somewhere longer than a few hours, you learn things. She frowns at the obvious dig at her habit of leaving.
Rick and Carol park outside a house. They both wear large backpacks. A minivan has “pardon our dust” written on the dirty windows. It looks like the drivers have been there recently. Rick tells her to start looking for anything useful in the houses, starting with the contents of the medicine cabinets. Carol asks if they are doing this in case Daryl and his team don’t come back. No, he says. “Until they do. That’s what this is.”
Daryl and company find a car under some bushes, but the gas station is covered in vines and filled with Walkers. As they work to clear away the bushes, Tyreese goes crazy with his machete and a bunch of Walkers emerge from the vines. The other three take care of their Walkers, but Tyreese doesn’t let go of his Walker and instead falls on the ground with the Walker on top of him. Paul shoots it, and Michonne demands to know why he didn’t let go of it. Tyreese stays silent.
Rick and Carol raid the houses. Rick cleans out a medicine cabinet and a Walker falls down the stairs. Carol stabs it in the head, but they both stop when they hear a noise upstairs. A man and woman step out of the doorway and offer them fruit. The man insists that they’re ok. Rick keeps his gun leveled at them. Carol bandages up the man’s arm. He fell through the roof of a greenhouse. That’s where the fruit is. These two seem pretty stoned. Sam’s arm is dislocated so Carol set it for him. They explain that they were separated from their group about a week prior, and they found this house but didn’t see the Walker so they dove into the bathroom and hid there for two days. They have a gun but not enough bullets to take care of themselves. It really is a wonder they’ve lasted as long as they have. Sam asks what Rick’s “setup” is like. He starts asking them his three questions.
Inside the gas station, Daryl finds a stash of car batteries. Tyreese and Michonne work to clear the car from the vines that have overtaken it. She asks why he didn’t let go, and he wants to know why it matters to her. Plain and simple, she doesn’t want to see him die. They have to keep going. He wants to know why she keeps going after the Governor when the trail has gone cold. She isn’t sure. She just does. Daryl sees vomit and antifreeze on the ground inside and figures that they people who were stuck inside the gas station took themselves out. He calls them douche bags, which Paul finds offensive. If they chose to go out together, why does that make them douche bags? They might have made it, Daryl replies. They find a fourth Walker buried under a cabinet. Above him are pictures of the foursome in happier times. Paul puts him out of his misery.
Carol suggests that they start moving. Sam asks Rick if they passed his test. He tells them about the prison but warns them that they can’t guarantee their safety with the flu that’s going around. Carol says they have lost children to the disease, and when the girl asks if she’s lost a child, Carol says no (which catches Rick’s attention) but one of her girls has the flu. However, the prospect of a place with walls is too enticing for them. They’re in. Rick tells them to wait while he and Carol finish searching the houses, but the young duo insists on helping. Rick is clearly reluctant to put more people in harm’s way, especially knowing that they can’t take care of themselves, but Carol points out that they can cover more ground that way. Rick is annoyed but isn’t going to argue. He gives their new friends guns and his watch so they can meet up in a few hours.
Daryl and Paul work on the car. Daryl asks about Paul’s past. Paul has been the last one standing in the two groups he has been with, and he almost kept walking when Daryl found him, but he didn’t want to face being alone again. He says he needed to drink to be able to sleep. In fact, at the store that day he went to get a bottle and when he put it back it brought the shelf down and then Zack got killed. “That’s bull shit,” Daryl says. He tells him that he won’t be standing alone anymore. They get the car started and they roll out of the gas station.
Carol finds some expired medicine but Rick says that Hershel might use it. Rick wants to know if bringing the kids with them is the right thing to do. She says it was the humane thing to do. “Rick, I killed two people and you haven’t said a word about it,” Carol says. “You can be a farmer, Rick. You can’t be just a farmer.” He points out that she killed two people, and she reminds him that he killed one. But Shane was going to kill him. So were they, in their own way, she replies. She tells Rick that this is their new reality, and he needs to accept it.
Daryl and Company reach the veterinary college. They start loading up on supplies.
Rick and Carol stop to pick tomatoes. He asks how she learned how to set shoulders. She learned on the internet after her husband dislocated her shoulder multiple times. She tells him that she thought she could be happy with him, even after all the things he did to her. She never thought she could be strong. Rick asks why she never says Sophia’s name. It’s someone else’s slideshow, she says. Rick says he still wakes up thinking Lori will be there. He can still remember the God-awful pancakes she used to make. It wasn’t about the pancakes; it was about being the kind of family that had pancakes on Sunday. They follow a trail of apples to a gate, where they find the girl’s tattooed leg. Carol matter of factly says that they should get back because Sam is probably waiting.
Paul tells everyone what type of medicine to look for. Tyreese and the others were able to grab everything on their list. They make their way down the long dark corridor and find a room full of Walkers. Of course. They go into a room with a door that won’t close. Michonne finds stairs, so once the Walkers are cleared, they move to the next door full of Walkers. They clear them out and keep moving, with more Walkers on their tails.
Sam isn’t back. Rick says they should leave, but Carol waxes poetic about how they really should wait, but it has been too long. “It was a nice watch,” she says finally, rising from the table. She keeps saying these random yet deep things, and Rick isn’t sure what to make of her.
The fierce foursome is being followed by a herd of Walkers. They don’t have an exit so they bust out a window and jump onto the roof. Paul trips and his backpack falls over the side. He gets caught in a tug of war with the Walkers. Tyreese and Daryl pull him back, and Daryl realizes that his backpack is full of booze. “You should have kept walking,” Daryl growls. Daryl goes head to head with Paul and tells him that he’ll beat his ass if he drinks one drop before the medicine gets to the people at the prison. Tyreese sees this and seems to come back to reality.
Rick and Carol load up the car. He tells Carol that Karen and David might have lived. He warns that Tyreese might kill her when he finds out. The others might kill her. He needs to make sure his family will be safe, and he doesn’t think that Carol can be trusted. He doesn’t want her to return to the prison with them. He tells her that he can’t keep her secret. “You’re not that woman who was scared to be alone…you’re gonna survive out here.” He promises that Lizzie and Mika will be cared for.
Paul and Tyreese agree on which road to take. Michonne gets in the driver’s seat and tells Daryl that she knows the Governor’s trail has gone cold. She’s not going out anymore. “Good,” he says.
Rick tells Carol to take the gas can. He has loaded up the other minivan for her. She gives him the watch that her husband gave her on their first anniversary. “I should have given it away years ago,” she says. She gets into the car and drives away.
Meanwhile, the other van carrying Daryl’s team heads down a blessedly empty road.
Rick drives back toward the prison. His eyes are vacant.
I knew that Rick was up to something, but I had no idea that he was going to banish Carol.
What did you think about tonight’s episode? Please leave your comments below!
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