It's Official, I Hate Rick - Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 4

He let fucking Merle back in. Fucking Merle, who beat the crap out of Glenn and sicked a walker on Glenn while Glenn was tied to a chair.  And Rick let Merle back.  Merle was a violent druggie to the bitter end, but Rick still let him back.   Carl literally killed another kid for not giving over the gun fast enough.  And Rick just puts Carl on gun restriction, which is quickly undone once everyone gets sick with the flu.  But kill two people who were definitely going to die anyway quickly, so they don’t suffer Patrick’s fate and infect everyone else?  Well, then Carol has to go.  No warning, either.  Just a backpack and a car they were lucky enough to find. You know what?  Carol’s better off. Will Daryl shrug this off, as he does every single other Rick decision? Or will he decide that Rick went too far?

It’s clear that Carol’s actions shock Rick, as he relives them before he and Carol set out for a nearby suburb for any drugs and food they can scavenge.  While it’s great that they go for supplies, Rick’s trickery is only revealed after she’s helped him scavenge the neighborhood.  Thanks for the help, now get lost.  First, Carol takes down a zombie they see in one of the houses.  Then she treats one of the two survivors she and Rick find hiding upstairs.  Sam and Ana are not bright, but are still optimistic that Rick’s diseased prison is better than anything else they've seen.  Rick wants them to take it easy and lay low in the house while he and Carol finish, but Carol overrules Rick at every try.  Rick is obviously frustrated, but complies.  Did we just see the real reason he kicked her to the curb?  They later find Ana, cut off leg first, being eaten by zombies.  Sam is nowhere to be found.  They go back to the rendezvous point, but no Sam and no expensive watch Rick’s been carrying around.  Carol is obviously more bummed about the watch than about the people they just lost.  Maybe that’s what finally decided Rick, even though most of Rick and Carol’s scenes are her trying to justify her actions to an unconvinced Rick.  But I think this was always Rick’s plan, and why he wanted Sam and Ana to wait for someone to come back for them.  Better to ditch Carol somewhere, and circle back to them, than to kick Carol to the curb in front of strangers.  Note: where is Sam?  If he’s alive, he’ll probably be pissed that Carol has his car.

Daryl’s team is barely making it through their mission.  They need a new vehicle, and they find one that needs a new battery.  But the shed is covered with vines growing over the door, and zombies lurk beyond the vines.  Tyrese is still incensed at the world and its injustices.  I guess taking stupid risks is the way to deal with it.  Michonne calls him out for such stupid behavior.  In return, Tyrese makes her admit that she’s not angry at the Governor anymore, she just sees him as a loose end to tie up.  Don’t worry Michonne, that’s what the show’s writers are for.  Bob confesses to Daryl just why he feels so bad about Zach, with Daryl trying to buck Bob up and tell him to get his shit together and keep his head in the game.  Note to Daryl:  with two groups that sheltered Bob already gone, isn’t he bad luck at this point?  They discover that the zombies at the garage drank anti-freeze, which resulted in their transformation.  Bob notices a young blond man who looks a lot like Sam in one of the many pictures of happy people in a world worth living in.  Once at the vet college, they dodge zombies made by the recent flu, indicating that people had indeed already thought of raiding the vet college.  They literally fight their way through a pack that was chained behind an exit door, then must break a window high enough to successfully get away.  Bob is the last through, and he trips and almost falls off, dangling his bag over a portico where zombies furiously grab it and try to tug him down.  Despite everyone else’s warnings, Bob won’t let go and they must pry both Bob and bag up.  Turns out, the bag only contains a bottle of booze, which infuriates Daryl.  When Bob goes for his gun to literally save a bottle of booze, Daryl comes close to killing Bob himself. But with Doctor S about to die, and Hershel not really a doctor, Bob is the best chance they have to treat the sick.  And now Tyrese is the peacekeeper urging calm.  They all drive home in silence, probably without incident, Daryl playing with a piece of jasper he picked up for someone else, Michonne driving, Bob wondering what will become of him once the last patient is treated. 

At least Daryl’s anger is understandable.  After enduring Tyrese’s shitty mood, zombies at the entrance to the garage he jacks for a car battery, a horrific veterinary school filled with fresh flu zombies, and Bob almost getting killed over a bottle of hooch, Daryl finally loses it.  We haven’t seen this much rage since he met Rick.  While Rick has completely lost any faith in Carol, Daryl has lost his in Bob. 

We end with Carol driving off, shocked and resigned and now without the last little bit that reminded her of her old life.  She’s cut off from her old friends, but she is also free. Free of Ed, free of the old Carol.  Rick constantly checks his rearview mirror, just to make sure Carol isn’t trying to follow him back.  Rick, Carol is stronger than you.  You should actually be wondering just how the fuck you’re going to explain this to Daryl.