Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 15
All paths continue to lead towards Terminus, but the challenges are definitely growing a bit.
What They Say:
Us – Survivors rely on brutality and faith.
Content:
THe Walking Dead obviously went for a very rough episode for many last week, but it did it in a great way that really hits all the sweet spots for what a lot of people, myself included, want from the show. The character side is always interesting to see unfold and working through the changes in a character like Carol, one of the few left from the first season, gives us a lot of deal with in seeing how she’s grown, adapted and changed because of it all. And because of the others that they’ve come across. And while we spent most of our time with just that small group as it dealt with the familiar problem of kids coping in this brave new world, it worked since it wasn’t distracted with other things to deal with. All of it is serving towards the various splinter groups coming back together as they move down the tracks at different speeds and times towards Terminus.
The cold open for this week does some nice stuff as we get Glenn and his group making their way down the tracks, but it’s focused on Abraham getting a bit of information out of Tara to get a feel for her since she has a lot of options with why she could be doing all of this. Abraham is the type that definitely wants to know what’s going on and what’s motivating people, though he’s good in admitting he doesn’t always get it right. There’s some nice moments to it and that definitely helps to flesh both of them out a bit, especially as a contrast to the already annoying character that Eugene is. Which, sadly, does fit in with who he was in the books. Like a lot of the groups, there’s conflict of a sort to be had and some minor tensions, but seeing Glenn come to life when they hit the part of the tracks where Maggie and the others left their message for him is just fantastic to see.
Similarly, it’s really fun to see the way that Rick’s little group is operating as we see how Carl and Michonne are getting along, which while a bit surprising for Rick to see, really does make him feel good. Rick’s been on his slow crawl back to life, which is understandable considering what he’s been through overall since just prior to the prison falling to the Governor. Carl and Michonne have been a lot of fun to watch since they bonded back at the street they were searching through as just a few revelations from each of them has helped them to feel a little more comfortable around each other. To balance this kind of optimism and lightness, something that the show definitely needed after the last episode, we get some time with Daryl and the group he’s fallen in with which have some rules of their own with how they operate, which definitely grinds against him but he knows he needs to stick with it for the moment in order to get closer to finding Beth.
With a lot of little stories here, it’s pretty fun to see the threads slowly drawn together as we get different groups and their various stages of progress, including a bit of overlap along the way here and there. The show does go for some tense material as well that’s good, such as when Glenn and Tara end up heading into the dark train tunnel to make the progress they need, even hearing the walkers in there. It’s no surprise that this is where Abraham and his group head off on their own rather than go through there, but I do like that we continue to see how Tara is trying to make amends for the events that went down at the prison, and finally admitting it in her own way to Glenn. It may not be the best place to do so, but it’s also the right place since there’s only so much time ahead. The two have certainly had an interesting relationship as the season has gone on and it’s worked well to bring a little something different out of each of them.
Of course, while the tunnel offers some creepy walker material at the start, it also gives us a lot of it as well, which was a little surprising but quite welcome. The whole section of the trail towards Terminus has had its areas of struggle, but this one is definitely different with what it brings to the table, especially since you also have Glenn worried that Maggie and the others may be in this mix in some way. It’s easy to get a bit frustrated with Glenn at this point with the way that he’s so focused on getting through the tunnel even though taking the time to go around wouldn’t truly set them back in the amount of time to get to the destination. It’s a risk that I can understand Glenn taking, but he takes it too far and at the wrong time and place, which puts Tara in a hell of a lot of trouble. Considering the way he’s taken care of others for so long, it’s hard to believe that he’d act like this since he knows that Maggie is alive. Glenn’s always been a favorite of mine for a variety of reasons, and obviously this makes you cringe a bit with him, but it also gives us that bit of complexity that helps to make him fallible in a fairly believable way.
Admittedly, it all does make for a fairly dramatic reunion overall that hits all the right spots as we get a brief but nice action spectacle and a solid bit of emotion that has been building for awhile. It helps to make their relationship feel even more real when we finally see Glenn and Maggie kiss after everything that they’ve been through. There’s some good stuff between the pair that comes out a bit and a kind of bond that really is made clear. But we also get the potential for some real change here as when the rest find out about Eugene, they’re almost all interested in joining up with them to head towards Washington. Thankfully, they also want to see what Terminus might offer first, so the group gets to stay larger for awhile, which is generally a good thing when it comes to safety in numbers.
In Summary:
With some interesting material with Daryl and his group that has a lot of familiar overtones to it as we see how this particular group of men are surviving and how Daryl would have been ideal for it about a year ago, the majority of the show works through the Glenn group and the way that unfolds as they get closer and closer. We get some good stuff with a lot of different characters at points, but the main focus is with them. And it definitely flows well, even with the awkwardness of him pushing through the tunnel with Tara. I definitely liked the relationship that formed between the two and that she comes clean about it with him, which helps to cement things more and really makes them friends in a way that one might not have expected based on her initial introduction, both to the show and then to the core group. With them all arriving at Terminus now, at different stages of course, we’re getting our first glimpse there and like everything else in the show, there are going to be a lot more questions than answers.
Grade: B+