THE WALKING DEAD Destroys Expectations During An Incredible Season

THE WALKING DEAD Destroys Expectations During An Incredible Season
If you're a fan of AMC's The Walking Dead, and you saw last Sunday's episode, titled "Days Gone By," then you know where I'm going with this.  If you haven't seen it yet, and have successfully dodged all spoiler articles or missed any article headline that gave too much away, kudos to you. That's a talent.

I'll toss up a warning just before I venture into spoiler, land... but just not yet.

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This fourth season of The Walking Dead, in my opinion, has been the best so far.

Rather than having the group in one location, and having to depend on group dynamics and threats to a central location repeat over and over, the show has taken the survivors of The Governor's attack, splintered them up, and now, we follow them, in their own mini-story arcs. 

Each episode or two focuses on just a few folks, giving those characters and actors, an incredible opportunity to spotlight their stories and the actors themselves.  We've seen sides to the characters I don't think we would have normally seen had the season stuck with the group as a story dynamic.

And I have been surprised how much I've enjoyed this variety.  it's outside the norm for shows about ensembles and they're pulling it off wonderfully.

But as the season progresses, we see that most of our favored characters are headed towards Terminus, what ever that might be.  I have not read the comic, so I don't know anything.  But I presume it's a ray of hope for survivors. Though it could just be another terrible trap.

But last Sunday we followed up on Carol, Tyreese, the baby, Lizzie and Mika.

Oh, and by the way, SPOILERS AHEAD.

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We confirmed in this episode of The Walking Dead the Lizzie was the one feeding the walkers at the prison, that she dissected a rat and pinned it to a prison wall becuase it was fun, and that if you didn't think so then, you became aware of her incurable dementia or how bat shit crazy she was.  And to be honest, we were techcnically all shown this from a scene a few seasons back when Mika had to talk Lizzie down from some event and had her look at a pot of flowers and see them.

Since Andrea left us, I felt that Carol was the new "Andrea," taking matters into her own hands or at least, not giving a shit about reprecussions of things like sending inexperienced teens out into a town full of walkers. I concurred with Rick's decision to banish her.

So she wasn't on my radar as someone to care about.  Though in Sunday's episode, I have come to understand her a bit better as more of a doer, a fixer, a very pragmatic character.  Or that is what she has become.

And Tyreese is managing well.

Between everyone, we watched some quality time with Lizzie and Mika, and came to enjoy them.  And yes, Lizzie had taken the last exit off the highway of sanity, as was evidenced with her persistence in thinking walkers are just fine.  Playing tag with one, as a great example.

And this was by far, not the first hint at her instability.  We've seen Lizzie advocate for walkers on multiple occasions before they left the prison.  But those were fore-shadowing moments that helped define what Lizzie did Sunday night.

And as the episode progressed, I was developing a mild concern for the humans that had to habitate the same space as Lizzie.  I kept wondering what she was going to do to threaten the safety of the humans.

I just didn't expect the threat to be her, herself.

Shit.

When Tyreese and Carol came upon Lizzie, elbow deep in blood, with her sister, Mike, on the ground behind her dead, mine, as well as many fans world's were once again rocked by a shocking event from The Walking Dead.

And Lizzie was proud, saying that she spared her brain so mika could wake up and show them. And how Tyreese and Carol showed up just before she was about to do the baby.

Double wack-a-mo!

Now here's where my own personal reaction diverged from what the characters did.

Carol convinces Lizzie to give her the gun. (Lizzie was holding the adults at gun point, waiting for Mike to wake up.)  Had I been in Carol's shoes, you've already seen so much, I would have turned the gun on her and put her down that instant. Why walk her to the field? There was nothing left to be spared.

But there was more to be had.

We watched Carol confess to Tyreese it was she that killed his infected girlfriend back at the prison.  And he forgave her.  And then later, we watch Carol walk Lizzie out to the field and put her down.

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This episode was a jaw-dropper, and a daring one that the showrunners and AMC took.  And kudos to them for keeping this disaster of a world our heroes live in, and keeping it real, keeping it a tragic place where bad things still happen.  With or without walkers.

With only two episodes left to this fourth season of The Walking Dead, I look forward to what happens to or for everyone.  I'm especially focused on Daryl in next week's episode.  A preview showed him pulling a knife, but I can't imagine he'll use it in a baseless fashion. But he has his new young charge he needs to find.

We'll see.

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