TV Review: THE WALKING DEAD – 2014 (S4 Episodes 13 & 14)

Things are winding down in THE WALKING DEAD Season 4 as we draw to a close, and our survivors are still scattered. Last week we met up with Maggie, Sasha & Bob, as they continue their search for Glenn. This one is a romantic episode, to say the least. We’ve got Maggie’s unrelenting need to find Glenn, which temporarily makes her split up from Bob & Sasha when they disagree. While there’s chemistry between Bob & Sasha as well, as he slowly picks at the real reason that she doesn’t want to go to the Sanctuary that all our characters have found thus far, Terminus. After a separation, and some coming to terms for Sasha, the trio reunites and makes their way to Terminus, while the episode ends with Glenn finally making his way there as well.

In the meantime we’ve got Daryl and Beth take refuge in an abandoned funeral home with a stash of food, where they make themselves comfortable… and emotional sparks fly. Daryl seems to be settling down after his emotional breakthrough in the last episode. Taking a shine to Beth and even suggesting that they find a way to make it work at this place they find. Their chemistry is short-lived as Walkers overrun the house and they get separated, only to have Beth kidnapped by some unknown people and Daryl chase after her down the streets. After a while, the same gang of the people that Rick faced in the house earlier, confronts him. The gang is a group of redneck thugs, who seemed to take a shine to Daryl. My only concern if the influence these guys will have on Daryl. He just started softening up and we got to see a side of him that hasn’t been shown, since he was looking for Carol’s daughter in Season 2. But these marauders might just have a negative effect on our resident badass.

he’s so wrecked…

Episode 12 is by far, the most painful THE WALKING DEAD episode ever. Both in terms of content and viewing factor. The entire episode features Tyreese, Carol along with Rick’s infant daughter Judith, and the two sisters Lizzie & Mica. From the very beginning of Season 4, Lizzie has been implied as being creepy and seeing the Zombies as pets. This episode further expands on her fucked up behavior. After taking refuge in an estate on their way to Terminus, the group find themselves with some downtime. But this downtime results in little Lizzie spending a lot of time with Walkers, feeding them and essentially thinking they’re her friends. Her sociopathic behavior is further revealed when she freaks out at Carol for killing a Walker she was playing with. Mm hmm, yep, playing. Tyreese and Carol reconcile that they can make a go of a life in this estate, only to have the most fucked up thing in the history of television ever happen.

Tyreese and Carol come home to discover Lizzie, standing over her sister Mica’s body, with a bloody knife in hand and baby Judith only feet away from her. Lizzie confesses that they just have to wait for Mica to come back, as a Walker, and then they’ll ‘understand’. She basically killed Mica, in hopes of her coming back as a Zombie, and explains that she was going to do the same to baby Judith. After a gut wrenching moment of Carol breaking down, Tyreese and her decide, in not so many words, that Lizzie can’t be around other people. So Carol takes her into the woods, and shoots her… in one of the most excruciatingly painful moments ever on television.

i almost cried…

This, had to be by far, the most fucked up thing anyone has ever witnessed on any form of television. It was emotionally shocking seeing a little girl, smiling after murdering her own sister, in the hopes of her being zombified, and watching the other characters react completely normally for the sake of not allowing the girl to freak out further. Especially given the happy family-like moments that the rest of the episode was full of. Both actors portraying Mica & Lizzie turn in the most beautiful performances, making us that much more appalled when the ending comes around. I’ve been saying last few weeks, that every episode is a deeper pit of horrible shit that the makers will unleash upon us, and this episode was it.