Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 13
What They Say:
Alone – One group finds a shelter; a group has a realization about protection.
Content:
The Walking Dead definitely worked well for me last week with the smaller and more personal Beth and Daryl episode, but I’ve also really enjoyed the post-prison season a lot in general. The way everyone is spread apart is certainly problematic but we also get to do some solid character material as the dynamics are changed up. Who would have imagined such a strong episode between two characters as we got last time around? Add in the solid things we’ve had for Carl along the way, the reveals about Michonne’s past as well as the introduction of Abraham and his group and you’ve got a lot of balls in the air that are being played out. But we’re also seeing a good bit of desolation in some of the characters, and that’s made clear with Bob during the cold open of this episode as he’s off on his own, straggling along in his own way, no longer a part of something which has left him with a rather hopeless demeanor. That this is from the time before the prison adventure makes it rather interesting though, to see just how far gone he was at that point before Daryl and Glenn found him.
Of course, his time with the group was pretty conflicted in a lot of ways, but he hadn’t truly gotten the screen time he needed to be developed. And he’s struggling a bit in the post-prison environment as he hasn’t had a lot since he’s been with Maggie and Sasha as they’re intent on finding Glenn since Maggie is pretty much driving point on their goal. They’ve been facing some difficult odds along the way and some of just how bad it’s gotten leaves you with a difficult feeling about it. There’s a kind of silly crazy going on between the three of them with what they’re surviving. Their progress does have some rough areas, but what they stumble across points them towards Terminus, which we’ve seen with others already. Piece by piece, we’re moving towards that and there’s a good sense that this season will end with a good reveal about that location as everyone finally gets back together.
Not surprisingly though, there’s some division among the trio as to how to proceed as Sasha just wants to find some high ground, camp and try and figure out a new plan rather than just following this pipe dream of finding Glenn. Maggie’s pretty aware of it and separates herself from them in the middle of the night as she’s focused solely on finding Glenn and doesn’t want them sacrificing themselves for her goal. Bob’s pretty much the glue here though as he just wants to keep everyone together, which makes him be the one to keep positive and to try and convince Sasha that they need to follow. Bob’s had a rough time in the past with the two groups he was with and lost and he’s determined to hold onto something here, breaking that streak of loss.
Interestingly, in following what’s going on with Beth and Daryl since their long time together, we see that she’s really stepping up to the plate as Daryl is teaching her how to track and hunt. This is part of Beth’s curve to become a major player, made clearer by the actress getting a slot as a regular for this season, something she didn’t have for the second and third seasons. There’s a lot to like with the pairing we’re getting here, even if she does take a bad hit along the way. Their progress takes them to a pretty sprawling mansion with a pretty good sized cemetery outside and that brings up all sorts of imagery, made more intriguing by the way their relationship is changing. Though not the same, the funeral home has a feeling that reminds me a lot of the farm in a way, though a bit more elegant and refined of course.
There’s a good bit going on here as we see how they find a place that’s been well taken care of and has some supplies to it, and it even gets comfortable enough for a brief time where you see Daryl making it clear that they could make a stay of it here, because he’s falling for her in a pretty straightforward way. And she even realizes it as well, which is nice that they don’t play it so that she doesn’t realize it. Naturally, it has to go to hell pretty quickly with the house getting overrun with walkers and that just puts Daryl in more of a panic since the two get separated amid the overrun. Where that goes should send a chill up fans of the comics as we see Beth has been abducted by a group in a car with cross imagery on the back. Bad things ahead.
The show does some good stuff with Darryl as we see him trying to catch up to Beth and doing the best he can, but realizing that he can’t make it on his feet simply because the distance is too great and his legs can carry him only so far. The despondent look about him is interesting to see unfold, but also the life that comes from him when the group that took Beth appear before him, looking to get something out of him. It’s not an unsurprising standoff, but we see another of the paths that the show will take opening before us. Similarly, we get the way that Bob moves on by himself to go after Maggie after trying to convince Sash that she should stay with him, only to have them all separate for a bit until they all finally come back together. It’s not given a huge amount of depth or detail, but both Sasha and Maggie feel like they come out for the better with all of this, which is important since they had to kind of catch up to the grounded way that Bob was handling everything.
In Summary:
The Walking Dead covers a lot of ground here, literally and figuratively, as we get one group that’s fully on the move towards Terminus but is finding themselves split for a few different reasons. I’m definitely glad that they didn’t just ignore the Daryl and Beth storyline and carried it forward, though I had a real sense of dread once we saw the cemetery. There was a whole lot to like in seeing how this pairing is playing out and this episode definitely gives us a lot to chew on in thinking where it can go and what it can do. And it gave us one of the more frightening closed space fights we’ve had in awhile. The storyline with the trio moving towards Terminus is definitely interesting and it is admittedly a bit Sasha episode, but I like what we got out of it for Bob as well as the kind of overall bond that’s being strengthened by the end for it. They definitely work some good stuff into this episode overall and there’s a lot of good little bits that can make a lot of people happy to see some aspects of what’s going to come down.
Grade: A-