Last night, we got another episode where more questions were asked then explained, but it wasn’t all mystery and no excitement. There was also more than enough heart-pounding, anxiety-inducing scenes. A lot of stuff happened, which means its time for another installment of our weekly Walking Dead recap! At Max Level Geek, we try to distill that down to the major plot developments and ask the questions on your mind. Let’s take a look at what we’ve learned this week.
Careful, season 4 spoilers ahead!
This episode focused on just a few members of the group that once had a cushy life at the prison (plagues and mysterious murders notwithstanding). First, we get to see the domestic life of Rick, Carl, and Michonne come to an end. An interesting group, in that all three have killed both living and nonliving people, this trio is particularly close. Rick is still on the mend from his brutal beating by the Governor. Michonne and Carl begin to confide in each other. On the other end, we have Glenn and Tara who have just run into a group of very strange, very well-armed people who may have some important information about what is going on in the larger world.
But enough summary, let’s get to it:
Michonne can be called many things: deadly, loyal, dependable, really deadly, but something she’s never been is “open.” That begins to change as Carl gets her to let her guard down. She reveals to him what we the audience learned about in the last episode: Michonne had a child. A three-year-old to be exact. Its fate remains unclear, but Michonne seems to believe – or at least pretends to believe – that her baby is gone. She doesn’t say what happened, only that she lost him after the zombie outbreak. Given that this is The Walking Dead, there are better than even odds that little Andre will come up again. In the meantime, Michonne isn’t spilling the beans.
In one of this season’s most stressful scenes, Rick wakes up to discover that the house he has been sleeping in is now occupied by a group of men. It takes about three seconds for him to realize that these guys aren’t the friendly type – even to each other.
By hiding under the bed, then making a quick escape, Rick avoids having to make a full-on stand against the intruders. His only victim? An unlucky guy who just wanted to use the bathroom at the very time Rick was trying to make his escape. The poor guy died like he lived: full of shit. (I don’t know that for a fact, but I wanted to say it.) After several other close calls, Rick manages to flee the house, picking up Michonne and Carl on the way. So much for the life of domestic simplicity. It’s The Walking Dead’s way of reminding its characters that this isn’t Kansas any more. You can’t make things go back to the way they were before the outbreak, no matter how hard you try.
Glenn is always waking up at places. This season, his primary job is to pass out and wake up. Hopefully, as he gets stronger that changes. In the meantime, he is stuck with Tara in the back of a truck that is driving him hundreds of miles away from his wife, Maggie. The people doing the driving are a strange trio. In the leadership role, we have an army veteran. The slightly unhinged-yet-still-jovial man named Sgt. Abraham Ford. His two companions are a tough-as-nails woman named Rosita, who is dressed like she is late to a bachelor party and the mulleted Dr. Eugene Porter who looks like he has never been to a bachelor party. Dr. Porter is the most cryptic of the group. He claims to have knowledge about why there was a zombie outbreak. The group is on the road to Washington, D.C. having been in communication with the government. They seem to be under the impression that Dr. Porter can help save the world, an opinion that the quiet doctor makes no attempt to deny. Who he is and what his goals are remain unclear. These are the type of mysteries that The Walking Dead loves to throw at us.
Dr. Porter is really weird, guys. If you go back and rewatch this episode, pay attention to him even when he is in the background of scenes. Weird, right? While the rest of the group gets into a scuffle over which way to go (Glenn wants to head back towards Maggie, Sgt. Ford wants Glenn to join him in D.C.), Dr. Porter tries to shoot a few zombies and ends up shooting the group’s truck nearly a dozen times. Even that doesn’t seem to bother the man, who approaches every problem like he has been mainlining Xanax. In an aboutface, Dr. Porter decides that they should follow Glenn back the way they came until they can find a new vehicle. Sgt. Ford reluctantly agrees and the group of five start heading back.
Having escaped the death house by a hair, the group makes its way down the railroad tracks. The very same tracks that we last saw Carol and Tyreese on. Just like them, the group finds a sign that promises safety if they make it to “sanctuary.” Whether it’s an oasis or a mirage is still unclear. Either way, the group decides to take their chances on it. It appears that many of the survivors of the prison are all heading towards the same destination. Just what it is, they don’t know.
