Another week, another episode of The Walking Dead, as they seemingly bait all reviewers out there with the title of this week’s episode, “Indifference”. Did this episode keep the pace with the so far very solid fourth season, or are things going dark faster than Carol’s disposition? Let’s examine tonight’s episode with five thoughts about it.
Naturally, spoilers are discussed if you have not yet seen the episode or not read the comics. Additional note, these reviews are five thought generated chronologically during the viewing experience. Which will be obvious this week.
1. Now that was a cold open
Let’s start from the beginning: the cold opens this season have been fan-freaking-tastic. This week’s finds Carol, the grim reaper that all sickly folks in the prison have nightmares about, and Rick’s current states cross-cutting over each other, as Carol assures Lizzie about the changes she has to go through in this world while they show her calmly killing (putting out of their misery) those suffering from the infection that has taken over their world. Rick watches as she does just that, and clearly, he is disturbed yet…understanding of what she is up to. Relentlessly cold, decidedly sociopathic, but completely engaging. A nice start which underlines that somehow – somehow – Melissa McBride’s Carol has become the most interesting character in the show.
2. Tyreese’s descent into madness
In the comics, Tyreese was one of the most interesting characters in its history. He was the 1b to Rick’s 1a, and when he died in the comic, his absence was felt for a long time in ways that others didn’t. So far this season, he’s basically been portrayed as a complete loon after the unsolved (to him) murder of Karen, his girlfriend. Chad Coleman is a good actor, but we’ve had enough insanity in this show. I’m really hoping the writing room has better plans for his character than to make him a perpetual danger to himself and those around him. If not, it’s just hugely wasteful of a great foundation and actor.
3. Bob Stookey: The Pariah of “The Walking Dead”
In this episode, we get a little bit of Bob Stookey’s back story, and we find out that he’s effectively the show’s version of Pariah from Crisis on Infinite Earths: he’s destined to always see the end of groups. Two groups, two times they were wiped out in front of him. He reveals that he drank to make everything go away, and Daryl gives him a talking to about how he’s part of the team now, and yay, all is happy.
My theory? Bob Stookey is the guy who is feeding the rats to the walkers outside the fences, and he’s actually a plant for the Governor working on weakening the prison and its denizens. Could he be the person behind the infection? Maybe. It might be an outlandish theory, but it is in fact my theory. Thoughts?
4. Rick and Carol Share a Moment
You know, one of the things that makes this season differ so greatly from others is conversations like the one Rick and Carol have about two thirds of the way through. While picking fruit, Rick challenges Carol to talk about Sophia – a daughter she didn’t acknowledge earlier when asked about by two new characters – they have a very frank and heartfelt conversation about the people they’ve lost. While the first three seasons were about forced drama and circular conversations, this season really has felt about survival, and no conversation or characters showed what they’re fighting for more than these two right then. They want the little thing just a little longer, as Rick continues to protect Carl and Judith and Carol takes Lizzie and her sister under her wing, and they want to keep it going as long as they can. It’s a fantastic scene, and a little moment that felt as organic as those tomatoes they were picking.
That it was followed up with a quiet, bloody discovery made it all the better, as we see how they’ve matured and hardened in this new world. The new girl character, sans a leg and serving as dinner? Neither of them bat an eyelash, instead insisting that they need to get back to Sam, her soon to be sad boyfriend. Fantastic.
Continued below5. Goodbye Carol
On one hand, I totally understand why Rick would kick Carol out. She’s clearly at least a little unhinged – you could actually make a pretty good argument that she’s the only one who is responding to the crisis and this world in a logical way, but still – and for the sake of the greater whole, he has to make hard decisions as well. His decision to kick her off makes logical sense, but damn if it isn’t bothersome. Most of this review touched on how great she’s been this episode and this season, and to lose Melissa McBride from this cast takes a huge part out of the show that it will dearly miss. Her calculating, cool nature is a huge change-up from everyone else in the cast being pure emotion, and it’s such a tremendous bummer to lose her. I understand why she needs to leave logically, I really do.
But the show is that much weaker for losing her.
