Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Welcome back to another review of “The Walking Dead.” This week’s episode answered many of our questions that were left after the midseason finale. While last week’s episode only focused on the fate of Rick, Carl, and Michonne, this week we learned what happened to the remaining members of the prison group. After tonight’s episode, it feels safe to move forward with the plot and wash away the memories of the prison. With that, let’s briefly recap what happened tonight.
The Walking Dead S4 E11 Sneak Preview “Claimed”
We begin with Daryl and Beth running in the woods away from the prison and walkers. They work together to fend walkers off as they search for clues about the other members of their group. They find footprints in the mud and Beth is hopeful they are the footprints of one of their friends and that they are alive; Daryl is less optimistic.
The following day, they find smashed grapes on the ground and Daryl assumes something bad happened near this finding. As they continue to search, Beth gets attacked by a walker from behind and Daryl fights it off only to have the walker land on him. Beth stabs the walker in the head. After this attack, they come across some railroad tracks with walkers feasting on some newly killed humans. Daryl kills the walkers and Beth stands over the dead bodies and cries. As these scenes progress, Beth’s journal entries narrate the scenes. She tries to be hopeful that members of their group are still alive. Her positivity counteracts Daryl’s pessimism, but as they continue to fight to survive, Daryl seems to sympathize more with Beth and the two of them appear to make a good team.
“The Walking Dead” Season 4 Episode 9 Review: “After”
The next group of survivors we find are Lizzie, Mika, Tyrese, and (surprise!) baby Judith. Like many viewers suspected, Judith was saved by the two young girls and was not murdered at the prison. Tyrese struggles as he tries his best to keep Judith from crying and to calm the other two girls down. Fortunately, Lizzie brought baby supplies, but Judith continues to cry and draws attention from walkers. Tyrese hears a nearby scream and he tells the girls he has to go help. He has the girls stand back-to-back with Judith so they can see walkers from all angles and assures them he will be back soon. Mika cries as he leaves but Lizzie calms her down.
Tyrese arrives at the railroad tracks and finds humans at the train tracks fighting off walkers. Tyrese goes and helps the people, but back in the woods Judith continues to cry and Lizzie uses her hand to cover the baby’s mouth. Mika hears walkers approaching and Lizzie ignores Mika’s cries as she seems consumed by her ability to quiet the baby. Tyrese hears a gunshot and contemplates running back to the girls when another human gets attacked by a walker. Once he realizes he cannot help this group anymore, he turns around to find Carol with the three girls. Tyrese is shocked to find Carol but is relieved to have her there. After their reunion, they approach the dying man as if to put him out of his misery, but before they kill him he tells them to stay on the train tracks because they lead to a safe place to stay. They leave the man behind and follow the tracks. Tyrese begins to ask questions about the fall of the prison and it becomes clear that he does not know Carol was exiled. Carol explains she was not at the prison when it fell but she arrived right at the end. She saw Tyrese and the girls run for the woods and she has been searching for them since.
After these two huge revelations, we turn to find Maggie with Sasha and Bob. Sasha cleans Bob’s bullet wound as Maggie is clearly upset and in a state of shock. She tells them she is going to go look for the bus because Glenn was on the bus. Sasha tells Maggie they cannot split up, and they insist they go with Maggie. They find the bus on the side of the road and when they approach it they find walkers trapped inside. Maggie wants to see if Glenn is one of the walkers, and Bob suggests they let the walkers out one at a time to avoid chaos. They start to let the walkers out one by one and kill them as they come out. After a few successful tries they become overwhelmed and cannot keep the bus door closed. The walkers spill out of the bus and the three humans fight them all off. When Maggie realizes Glenn was not one of these walkers, she goes inside the bus to see if he is in there. She finds one walker inside and it is not Glenn. Maggie sits on the bus completely distraught.
While Maggie is courageously searching for Glenn, we find Glenn still at the prison and fortunately alive. He had passed out and wakes up on the remains of a bridge. As he looks around at what remains of the prison, he calls out for Maggie and only attracts more walkers toward him. Glenn goes inside the prison and finds his cell. He packs as many supplies as he can and puts on riot gear. As he leaves the cell block and fights off walkers, he sees Tara, one of the women from the Governor’s group, alone and trapped. He contemplates leaving her to die, but changes his mind and approaches Tara. Tara does not want to be saved and says she helped cause this destruction. Glenn tells Tara he needs her help, and she seems to respond to his demands. He makes a Molotov cocktail and throws it at a car to distract the walkers away from them. They successfully run out of the prison together, killing any walkers they find in their way.
As they find a road, Tara begins to recall her experience with the Governor and explains that the Governor told them all the people at the prison were bad people; Tara realizes he was lying. She also refers to the Governor killing Hershel, and we learn Glenn was not aware that Hershel was murdered. Tara is disgusted with herself and does not understand why Glenn would want her help anymore. Glenn explains he doesn’t want her help but he needs her to help him find Maggie. He tells Tara that Maggie was Hershel’s daughter and she can begin to redeem herself by helping Glenn. Tara seems to agree and, as they walk, some walkers approach. Glenn kills the walkers but he passes out from exhaustion, clearly not fully recovered from the flu he had in the first part of the season. Tara goes to help Glenn and a walker attacks her from behind. She tries to fight off the walker when a truck arrives and three people emerge and kill the walker for her.
And as the episode ends, another huge reveal is given to us. Who is this new group and how will they affect the story? Will Tara and Glenn be forced to join them, or will the new group give them the option to join them? Apparently, these new characters were an important part of the comic books and fans have been waiting for them to come onto the TV show, so hopefully it will deliver. I just hope this group is not another Woodbury scenario.
In addition to this big plot twist, the other revelations answered many questions but posed all new questions. How will Carol and Tyrese keep baby Judith alive? They surely will run out of milk, and her crying is definitely a liability. What will Rick do when he finds Carol has rejoined the group? And what will Daryl do when he finds Carol again? Hopefully, she will be embraced with open arms as her exile was completely unjustified. And lastly, something that has been troubling me since last week; Why does this group not have a rendezvous point for emergencies? They knew the Governor wanted the prison and that he was still alive and out there somewhere, so why did they not build a contingency plan should the Governor attack? This just seems pretty idiotic in my opinion, but then again, this is “The Walking Dead” and if everything was so easy we would not have a show. Nevertheless, I think it would make us viewers care a bit more about the characters if they showed a little more intelligence. Next week’s episode will surely be exciting as it looks like some of the members of our group will be reunited and we will learn about these new characters.
[signoff2]
