Season 4 has been a roller coaster ride so far. There were fears early on that Season 4 could end up like Season 2, with most of the action taking place at the Prison just as Season 2 was spent at Hershel’s farm. I think the producers realized that this would not work and so they kept the action moving by using the Prison as a character in itself.
The Prison’s population has grown since Season 3, when the good-hearted residents of Woodbury fled their safe haven for the presumably safer walls of the Prison. The Grimes Gang took them in and together they created a safe community. The prison yards have been converted to gardens, and Daryl brings back fresh meat to be cooked. A Council has formed to govern the little town, so that instead of a dictatorship (or a Ricktatorship) there is a governing body calling the shots. The Council is made up of Hershel, Carol, Sasha, Glen and Daryl. Absent from this little group is Rick, who has decided to focus on farming and land management.
Farmer Rick has been through quite enough the past few months. His son is growing into a man and his daughter is just an infant, so he is taking a much-needed break from leadership. Carl doesn’t understand why his father isn’t making decisions anymore, and you can tell that it really frustrates the boy.
Hershel seems to be at ease in his new role. He has a prosthetic foot to help him get around, which makes life easier for him. His daughter Beth is primarily in charge of watching out for baby Judith.
Maggie and Glen are going strong, sneaking away for “watch tower duty” so that they can make out.
Daryl is the go-to guy when you need something outside of the prison walls. He makes runs into nearby towns for supplies, and he brings in some game on occasion as well.
Michonne has been going back and forth between the prison and trying to find the Governor’s trail. When we see her at the beginning of the season, she’s decided to stay put for a while. The Governor’s trail has gone cold.
Carol is the bedrock of the prison, cooking food and caring for the children as a teacher. She has also been giving the kids secret Walker-killing lessons. Carl finds this to be in violation of his father’s rules, and though Carol begs Carl not to rat her out to Farmer Rick, he eventually does. To Carl’s shock, Rick does nothing about it.
The Walkers are kept at bay by the fences, but they have a new trick—they congregate in one area and weaken the fences. If they aren’t stopped soon enough, they have the potential to bring the fence down. And someone has been planting dead mice at the fences to attract them to weak spots. We don’t know who this person is yet.
Everything seems idyllic at the Prison until one day a virus hit the community. One of the kids dies overnight, and since everyone is infected with the Walker virus, he immediately turns into a Walker and starts attacking the sleeping people. Chaos reigns and the healthy citizens are quarantined away from the sick. Tyreese’s girlfriend is sick, and at some point she and another sick guy are hauled off in the middle of the night and burned alive. This sets everyone off. There is a killer loose inside the prison while the highly infectious disease is killing off the rest of them. Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese and a medic from Woodbury go off in search of supplies from the nearby veterinary college. Meanwhile, Rick conducts an investigation. Hershel can’t stand by and watch any longer so he enters the sick ward to help the infirm. Maggie and Beth are beside themselves, but Beth reminds her sister that they have jobs to do. Beth has become very mature. Two young girls lose their father to the illness and before he dies (the first time) he begs Carol to watch out for his girls. Then knowing that he will return to life as a Walker, Carol tells the girls they must stick a blade in his head to keep him from turning. The girls are stoic until the last minute. It’s truly disturbing to watch Carol act so coldly, but it’s worse watching her try to teach these girls what they have to do to survive.
During their away mission, Daryl’s team becomes overrun with a massive horde of Walkers. There must be thousands of them marching together down the road. They have to run for it, and eventually they make it to their destination.
Back at the prison, people are dying faster than they can be saved. Rick’s investigation into the murders yield’s shocking results. It was Carol. When he confronts her in one of the most shocking moments of the season, he asks if she killed Karen and David. “Yes,” she says, and she walks away. Rick knows that Tyreese is going to go bat-shit crazy when he finds out that Carol was behind it, especially given that sister Sasha is very sick. With Daryl’s team delayed, Rick invites Carol to go with him on a run to a local neighborhood in hopes of finding supplies. When they get far enough away, Rick leaves Carol with a car, supplies, and enough gas to get to the next town. She doesn’t argue. She takes the gas and leaves.
By the time Daryl and the gang return, they are able to use the supplies to save quite a few of the sick citizens. Glen was about to die but Maggie saved him at the last minute. In spite of everything they’ve been through, the people at the prison survived.
Meanwhile, someone has been watching them from afar. It’s the Governor. After massacring his people at the end of Season 3, the Governor and Martinez camp out. Then the Governor awakens to find that Martinez has fled as well. He is alone. As he wanders, the Governor sees buildings painted with the names of people who have been lost. He comes upon an apartment building and discovers two sisters living there with their father and one woman’s daughter. He tells them his name is Brian Heriot (one of the names he saw scrawled on a building). Tara is a badass police academy recruit and Lily is a nurse. Their father asks for a chessboard from upstairs, and the Brian goes to get it. He’s oddly helpful to them, and it’s clear that he’s feeling protective of the little girl, Meghan. Then the old man’s oxygen runs low, and so he ventures to the nearby retirement home. The old man doesn’t last long, and then Brian has to put him down before he turns into a Walker. The women have never seen this before, but now they know. They have to toughen up.
Together they hit the road in an RV. Then the RV won’t start so they set out on foot and find themselves chased by Walkers. Meghan is terrified, but Brian vows to protect her. He kills the Walkers, and then they fall into a pit. That’s when Martinez looks down into the pit and sees his old leader. Martinez doesn’t give the Governor away, but he does assert that he’s in charge. He’s running a little camp in the woods and he has a nice little setup. But Brian doesn’t want to stop there. He knows that it’s kill or be killed, and so the men set out on a trip to scout for supplies. After their recon trip, the guys share beers with the women. Brian hits golf balls with Martinez and then kills him. The Governor is never far behind. Martinez’ men are ex-army, and they vie for control. Brian manipulates the situation so that the camp thinks that they aren’t safe, and he proposes that taking the Prison is the only way to survive. And they have a tank now. The raiding party prepares to leave, but Brian insists that Lily and Meghan stay behind. He assures them that this is necessary so that they can all survive. What Brian doesn’t know is that after he leaves, a Biter that had been buried under the sand attacks Meghan and she dies.
So now the stage is set and there is about to be a showdown between Brian’s army and the weakened Prison. To buy some bargaining power, Brian manages to kidnap Michonne and Hershel. As they face off at the fences, Brian makes sure everyone is watching when he hacks off Hershel’s head. Now the battle is on. The Prison had a contingency plan in place to evacuate. The kids are loaded onto the bus but Carol’s girls decide to take up arms the way Carol showed them. If not for them, Tyreese would have died. Rick and Carl have to take out a courtyard full of Walkers, and father and son emerge triumphant. Brian’s crew starts to realize that their new leader is insane. Some flee, but the rest stay behind and fight. When Lily shows up with Meghan’s body, the Governor shoots the girl in the head and marches on. Rick and the Governor fight it out, but it’s Michonne who delivers the death blow. The Governor is left to die in the field when Meghan’s mother Lily approaches and shoots him in the head. She has lost her daughter at the hands of her insane boyfriend.
The prison has been emptied out. Rick and Carl find Judith’s bloody car carrier. She’s nowhere to be found. The Prison Gang has been separated for now…what will happen next?
Stay tuned for the midseason premiere on Sunday, February 9!
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