The Walking Dead 4-3: Never Stop Digging

“We don’t get to get upset.” That’s the kind of gloomy-ass motto The Walking Dead characters have to live by. A motto like that might help keep their emotions in check in that sick sad world, but it puts them at risk of becoming unrecognizable robots- and “Isolation” takes the group one step closer to this outcome.

But first, let’s check in with Dale to see how things are at the RV. Dale?

Check it out, Action Chick- it’s my new hot dog slicer! And it’s shaped like a dog! Hooot dog!

I can’t BELIEVE I’ve been eating regular, unsliced hot dogs for so long. Well, with my RV still under repairs and me campin’ out under the stars eating hot dogs all day every day, you can bet your bootyshorts that I’m gonna get a lot of mileage outta that slicer. You know, they say a man can’t eat hot dogs for thirty days. Well, Action Chick, I’m gonna prove “they” wrong.

Thanks, Dale! Now onward, to the recap!

The sickness is spreading quickly the prison, now affecting everyone who was in cell block D. Rick’s Rebels dig grave after grave, one of which is for Tyreese’s murdered girlfriend, Karen. The discovery of Karen’s body sent Tyreese on a spiraling pathway of revenge, blind to everything else. While Rick looks into who started the impromptu bonfire last week, Rick’s Rebels end up spread out. The young children and old (aka Hershel) get isolated from everyone since they are more susceptible to getting sick, the actually-sick people get quarantined together in a coughing, wheezy prison block from hell, and the few remaining people are left to roam free and try to keep the prison going.

So far, it’s mostly been D-listers getting sick, but when Sasha and Glenn both get down with the sickness, the badasses of Rick’s Rebels – Daryl, Michonne, and Tyreese- head to a school fifty miles away in the hopes of finding antibiotics, and they take Bob with them. During their drive they hear what they think might be someone talking over the radio, but end up face-to-face-to-an infinite sea of faces when there’s a horde of countless zombies blocking everything from the road to the horizon, forcing the foursome out of their car and into the woods.

Hershel’s still rocking the title of “most humane old guy” left to him by Dale, and he leaves the quarantine zone to gather some herbs that could help the sick, then walks into the quarantined area. Maggie and Rick try to stop him, but he counters with a hell of an impassioned speech, letting us know he’s probably the only one left who hasn’t become numb to human suffering in favor of his own survival. He pays the price for his kindness, though, when someone coughs a thick spatter of blood right in his friggin’ eyes. Sick! Ever heard of putting your hand over your mouth when you cough!?!

Carol is the one person I’m really worried about after this episode. She’s been kind of going off her rocker since week when she called a little girl weak for not being able to kill her father had only been dead for a few seconds. Now, we learn that she is the one who killed Tyreese’s ladyfriend and her sickly cohort before torching their bodies, all in the hopes of stopping the infection. That seems a bit premature and didn’t remotely work, to boot. Right now Rick’s the only one who knows, and he’ll probably try to protect her all he cans, but if Coach Tyreese Cutty finds out, nothing will stop him from getting his revenge/justice.

A third of Rick’s Rebels are sick, another third isolated so that they don’t get sick, and the remaining third are running around in a zombie-infested forest. This is the bleakest The Walking Dead has looked in a long while.

Likes:

• Hershel and Carl find a horrible-looking zombie who’d been pinned next to a tree, under a log, for so long that he’d grown moss. Sick! I love it. And I love his zombie galpal, who looks like a grown-up version of the Ring Girl with a bear trap stuck to her leg.
• Hershel’s speech about risking his life to save others. Learn from Dale’s mistakes, my friend, and know when to check altruism at the door.
• The sea of zombies blocking the road.
• Michonne and Daryl fighting their way to the woods.

Dislikes:

• Glenn and Sasha getting sick.
• This episode seemed to lack the punch of the previous episodes; it didn’t quite deliver the character development or action that they did.

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!