Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 9
What They Say:
After – Rick deals with old wounds; prison residents consider if survival will be enough.
Content:
Though I could certainly understand the issues some had with the slow build of the fourth season of The Walking Dead in the first half, when you view those eight episodes in full and look at what they were doing, it definitely works. The building of suspense, the uncertainty for some events and an amazing couple of episodes that brought the Governor back into play and finally made him into a compelling character made the show a fascinating watch, especially upon a second marathon style viewing. But the show also needed to hit certain marks beyond that and giving us an end to the prison with the Governor and his group running over it and then having a good wave of undead doing the same really made it exciting. Throwing everyone to the wind only added to it and leaving some deaths uncertain raised interest all the more so. But ending it with the image of Rick and Carl walking off, so close to what was in the comic at the time, simply made me giddy.
But now, it’s after.
Though not as far away after as one might expect as it kicks off with Michonne trying to get back to the prison to some degree, slicing a few walkers along the way and seeing what she can find there. It certainly makes sense to not cut and run entirely with all they had there, but there’s also the concern that it has been overrun as much as it has and the level of danger is significant. But there’s also the fact that she knows how to survive this world and it’s almost like it’s back to when we first met her as she gets her two slaves to provide cover for her as she moves about. Going back to the whole armless and mouthless tied up guys is a certain amusement to it. But that’s also quickly quashed as she has to do the hard deed of taking out Hershel. Which we all thought was dead obviously, and he was, but hey, a head can keep on living all by itself. That’s comical sounding but it’s just so sad when you see it that it’s easy to get caught up in it.
One of my more anticipated aspects of this post-prison period though is seeing how everyone ends up, especially Carl and Rick since the two of them had one of my favorite arcs in the comics. While Carl is obviously still young, and there’s a certain invincible nature that comes from the age, he does handle what’s going on pretty well. Largely because you sense he just can’t trust Rick to be capable of handling things in a competent way like he once was able to. Rick was taken down so hard by the Governor before and is showing it and feeling it physically that Carl knows he really has to take charge of things here and has no problem in subtly – or not so subtly – making that clear to his dad. There’s always rebelliousness when it comes to fathers and sons but it has a whole new layer here with survival at stake. Never mind the resentment that Carl has to be feeling towards Rick over the loss of not just Judith but also his mother.
Flashbacks have been far and few between for the series in general and what few we’ve had have been pretty specific. With this episode, we get some interesting time with Michonne as the episode goes on and we see some of her life before the fall as she goes through the nightmare of the situation that her mind is playing out and that also shows us more of what kind of person she was, which is definitely different from who she is now. And we’re getting more of her emotional side as well which is pretty nice to see. But the whole thing is bleak in its own way as we get to touch upon the end of civilization in this haphazard way and to see what she had to go through before she ended up coming across Andrew originally. Everyone has lost something here and we’ve known that she has as well but this just makes it a bit more intense and personal in a way that we hadn’t connected with before.
With Rick pretty much out of it at this point from all his injuries, and nearly comatose because of it after awhile, a lot of living falls down to Carl to make happen. Of course, Rick would prefer if he just sat around and waited for him, but Carl’s not the type to do that and starts investigating some of the house nearby after taking down a couple of walkers, not that he did it all that efficiently. But he’s learned from his time with everyone else and we can see the way that he’s adhering to some of the basic rules and figuring out how to live and survive on his own. There’s just that natural gut feeling that he has to figure it out in order to make it in the world but also because he’s lost so many people and it’s likely only so long until he loses Rick as well. But as good as he has gotten, he still makes a slew of mistakes, especially when it comes to wasting ammunition and not truly securing a place before going into things more. Unfortunately, he’s not really all about the salvage and search for food here but almost has a kind of casualness about him which puts him in some real danger.
As the two stories progress, we do get good things from both of them including Michonne really getting to use her sword for a bit as she’s unable to handle the things her mind is playing in front of her, making her see not only a dead version of herself all around but also those that were close to her back in the real world. It’s one of those good moments in that you just enjoy that she handles the sword so well and in a straightforward way. Playing that, and her getting closer to Rick and Carl, with Carl having to cope with the potential turning of his father brings a lot of emotional weight to things here. Not that Rick really comes across as well here with how he’s handling himself, but at least you can attribute a lot of it to the condition he’s in and all the pain. The three main characters that we get to follow here definitely makes for a good pair of stories that slowly connect together.
In Summary:
While I obviously want to know where so many of the others ended up, who really survived and the fallout from the prison, I’m definitely glad that we got just the time with the three characters in here in two separate storylines that really lets them shine. Rick is kept to the smaller part, which is definitely not a bad thing, and that means Carl has to carry things again as is becoming his lot in life. Chandler Riggs has definitely made this character a lot of fun to watch, much like he grew in the comics, and seeing him trying but screwing up is done in the right way. Getting more of Michonne’s past here is a surprise but that definitely makes her more compelling as well, something that she’s definitely needed since her introduction but had to come at the right time. And this definitely fits that need here now. Everything comes together in a great way here at the end with a kind of emotion that makes you grin stupidly, and that’s because you do care for them.
Grade: A-