We begin this week’s episode of The Walking Dead with plans for Rick and Carol to go on a food and supplies run. Rick is solemnly gassing up the truck, while Carol talks through glass to the girl from the second episode whose father she was forced to kill. It’s obvious that this woman’s hardness all stems from the death of her daughter in season 2, particularly evident in the way she speaks to children – her interactions are basically more cold with them than they are with any adults. “We all change,” Carol says, in another one of this show’s “Can we make the symbolism any more obvious?” moments.
Tyreese, Daryl, Michonne and Bob Stookey are still waylaid in the woods, nowhere closer to the supposed veterinary college and whatever virus-fighting supplies it may hold than ever before. It’s instantly clear that Tyreese is on a grief-stricken pattern of behavior that will probably get somebody killed, and because usually only supporting characters are allowed to die it’s probably going to be poor Bob. Then again, when the group accidentally stumbles on a weed-enshrouded shed full of walkers (due to Ty’s rashness, which looses the shed’s latch) and one bursts through to grab Bob, Michonne efficiently beheads the thing before it can do any damage. Maybe I’m bound to be proven wrong.
Rick and Carol’s drive is thoroughly tense/awkward, to say the least. Carol attempts to justify her actions (you know, murdering Karen and Dave and fricaseeing their corpses) and Rick stares forward, glowering, understanding Carol’s point but clearly not pleased with the way she chose to go about it with no approval from anyone on the prison group’s council. Ironic, given everything Rick did in Season 3 (the Ricktatorship and all that), but this show has never been the most consistent.
In one of the houses Rick/Carol are searching through, they come upon a survivor couple who seems almost entirely too normal to actually be normal. The story this man and woman – who are both type-A Georgia bumpkins – tell about being separated from their group could be bullshit, or we as an audience could just be so thoroughly conditioned to think it is. Rick is extremely suspicious, while Carol seems strangely accepting of them.
The episode efficiently cuts back and forth between Rick/Carol and the Daryl-led group, which keeps it from being too slow even though (aside from a solid action scene with Tyreese and co.) it is largely made up of conversations. A key moment happens between Tyreese and Michonne – they call each other out for their devotion to anger, in a continuation of Michonne slowly but surely transcending her video-game-character origins.
Another one of the conversations is not just interesting, it’s very good, and it allows Larry Gilliard Jr. (who plays Bob) to flex his monologuing muscles to good effect. He calls out his attempt to find a bottle as the reason for attracting the walker attack in the season premiere, but quietly, without dramatic blunder or bombast. Daryl is on the receiving end of this, and simply replies, “That’s bullshit,” trying to keep Bob from brooding. I call Daryl out for being the coolest character on The Walking Dead because he is, but I feel like people don’t credit the actor Norman Reedus enough for making him intriguing in a way no other character on the show truly is anymore.
This segues into one of the episode’s two major payoffs. After collecting medicine at the vet college, Bob is almost killed by practically dropping a bag into a mob of walkers (they’re making an escape out a second floor window and the bag is hanging over a roof awning). It’s presumed that there’s medicine in the bag and that’s why Bob is so desperate, but it turns out to be booze. This serves to spit Daryl’s empathy back in his face, as is this show’s nihilistic wont. The two almost end up in a scrap over the incident, but Tyreese stops this. Basically, Bob isn’t punished – he’s forced to live with what he’s willing to do for his disease – man oh man do you see the symbolism there? Sometimes, I can’t even with this show.
The other key scene comes between Rick and Carol, and it’s one that was bound to happen. After the couple they meet earlier is killed (offscreen, we just see the girl’s severed leg and the out-of-focus ruins of her torso) Rick gives Carol a vehicle and a fair share of supplies, and banishes her from the group. “It wasn’t your decision to make,” he says to her, regarding the people she murdered. Hypocritical for him to say given some of his past actions, but apt. It’s also an interesting fusion of Rick’s ruthless pragmatism and compassion/moralism, which he has in equal measure but usually exhibits only as one or the other. I was honestly thinking he might clip Carol right then and there – just blow her brains out and dead her corpse to be sure. The fact that he didn’t is relatively merciful. That said, considering Carol’s trajectory in the comics (she like goes batshit crazy and does some terrible stuff, I’m not positive because I don’t read the fucking things – they’re even more contrived and ludicrous than the show at its worst), maybe he should have finished her off.
Overall, the show is essentially plateauing at the moment, remaining on an even keel of “OK with sequences of goodness and occasional sprinkles of greatness throughout.” It continues to anger me with its hints of potential that never seem to connect – like a postseason career that doesn’t match up with what a player’s done in the regular season. Textbook example: the brief episode-closing montage, set to a demo version of Sharon Van Etten’s beautiful song “Serpents,” is haunting and arresting, and not just because of the music.
I will say that The Walking Dead is getting better at doing things like bottle episodes. This was essentially that, as it only focused on the two groups on the road and gave them equal time. Hopefully this is indicative of increasing depth. Hopefully. Please.