Hide and Seek - Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 11

This episode chooses to follow only two sub-groups, neither of which is likely to meet up any time soon, instead of the four sub-groups from last week all within hours and a couple miles of each other.  Glenn is in the middle of nowhere, actually heading back to the prison, while Rick, Michonne and Carl have made no attempt to even try to round up the others.  Since the groups have nothing to do with each other, and are going in different directions anyway, the episode seems like filler, even though a ton happens and new characters reveal quite a bit about their plans.

We start with Glenn and Tara in the back of the Army truck, passing zombies who think they can eat a balloon, if only they could reach it.  Totes adorbs. Tara is recording every turn they make, including the sight of a bus for good measure.  Whether it was smart to get in the truck with strangers when all she had to to do was guard Glenn until he woke up is debatable.  But at least they can find their way back to the prison if they have to.  Tara and Mr. Big Mouth Tank Top dicker a bit over killing zombies, and Tara wonders over the fact that he enjoys it.  I, personally, never begrudge anyone who likes their work.

Carl refuses to praise Michonne's spiffy new white shirt.  Let me state for the record that white shirts and a life of bloody zombie slicing do not mix.   Michonne and Carl then film a cereal commercial- er- I mean - have breakfast while wishing for milk. They debate the merits of soymilk, with Carl making gagging motions.  He catches himself as he's comparing it to his dead baby sister's formula, and it will take about half an episode before Michonne can work him out the funk he gets into.  Michonne wanders to the kitchen, where Rick is still literally wearing the same useless, torn up mess over his upper body he had on while comatose.  After Rick thanks her for getting Carl to talk like a human again, he and Michonne discuss whether there's a plan.  There isn't, so Michonne decides today will be gathering-supplies day, and that Rick will be staying home.  That's wife-talk for get a fucking shirt on, honey.

Does this look like the kind of guy who has a plan?????  Would you even follow it if he had one???????

Glenn finally wakes up in the back of Mr. Tough Guy's truck, with Tara explaining that she did the best she can, and they can walk back if he wants to.  Which he does.  Notice how nice-guy Glenn, who looked like a kid in Season 1, wantonly cracks the back of someone else's truck window with a rifle, then storms off once the truck stops.  Mr. Tough Guy gets out, and ditches the angry routine when he realizes Glenn is leaving and doesn't give a shit about someone else's window anyway.  He introduces himself, Sgt. Abraham Ford, and his "companions" Rosita Espinosa (who's fucking him), and Dr. Eugene Porter, who is even worse than Milton from last Season.  Abraham needs Glenn and Tara to stick to him like wet on water, to complete a mission:  get Dr. Porter to Washington, D.C., so Porter can help the government "save the world".

Here, let me just twist that knife a little more.... that's it...

Apparently, Dr. Porter knows how/why the plague began, and can stop it.  Oh, and it's "classified", so nobody even gets to know why Porter is so fucking important. Glenn MUST know Porter is full of shit.  Glenn KNOWS that the CDC couldn't even identify what kind of microbe the disease is, much less stop it.  He tells Abraham only that he's going to find his wife.  Abraham has already lost his ex-wife and kids, and tells Glenn that his wife is gone, Glenn would be killed finding her on his own.  Glenn rebuts this by hitting Abraham, and a fracas ensues that Tara and Rosita are trying to break up when Porter notices zombies coming out the fields like Children of the Corn.  Porter takes an automatic rifle from the truck and attempts to fire on them, wasting bullets and hitting the truck.  At least it gets Abraham and Glenn to stop fighting, and aim their weapons at zombies.  The five of them quickly eliminate all undead.  

Rick FINALLY changes his shirt, pushes the couch back to the door, and settles in with a paperback in the master bedroom.  He wakes up, a couple hours later, to the sound of violence and mayhem, and someone being killed downstairs for being a coward.  You locked the back door, right Rick?  At least he has the good sense to grab his watch and water bottle before sneaking under the bed.  Normally, scenes of someone hiding under a bed are with a woman and child.  Think about that.  Instead, the next few Rick scenes will be him, under a bed, watching feet pass by, and hoping his guests are stupid enough to never check under the bed.  Rick has loaned Carl his gun, has no weapon, is definitely terrified, and his fear gives the episode an intensity it otherwise would have lacked.

Well, at least he's got water and knows what time it is.

Porter's only casualty was the truck, which Abraham wonders at.  Hey, at least he hit something, Abraham.  Glenn starts off for the prison bus, with Tara going with, as she has the directions.  Rosita is the first to follow them, telling Abraham they have to find a vehicle somewhere anyway.  Porter points out that the way back is known to be clear, and outright reminds Abraham that he's the brains.  Oh, he is.  Just not the way Abraham thinks.

The "classified" zombie secrets are stored in his mullet.

Does Abraham really believe Porter's bullshit?  It's hard to say.  While they walk back, Tara is in the rear with Abraham, and he tries blowing some smoke up Tara's ass, telling her she should be helping Abraham because she's a good person.  Tara, still guilty over helping to ruin Glenn's life, shuts that talk down right away, and tells Abraham he's probably not a good person either.  Is Abraham willfully blind to Porter's trick?  Does he just want a mission, any mission?  Or is he really convinced he, Rosita, and Porter can save the world?

Meanwhile, Rick is still under the bed, with Goldilocks sleeping in it right over him.  But not for long.  Another guest saunters upstairs, and with Rick still underneath and undetected, challenges a comrade for the adult-sized bed.  (The episode's title comes from Goldilocks telling his buddy that the bed is "claimed")  They literally fight over a big bed, with Goldilocks being thrown to the floor, and seeing Rick just as he gets choked to death.  Rick quietly freaks out at being spotted, but I would have just waved.  Goldilocks dies right in front of Rick.  Can't tell whether he's put down to prevent turning.  Mr. Bed Bug takes Goldilock's place on the bed, with Rick face to face with someone who could turn any minute.  

Carl and Michonne do some bonding, with Michonne at first trying to draw out Carl.  When that doesn't work, she drops a bomb on Carl, which does get his attention:  she had a child, a toddler.  They spend a bit cleaning out a home, while Carl asks her a question after every room.  Their friendship is rooted in two things: they both have a sense of humor, and Michonne can walk the line between treating Carl like a grown-up and a child.  She spends the morning firmly in charge, making sure Carl doesn't cut corners, but he obviously feels like a grown-up when they're talking about her dead child and offers to keep it a secret for her.  This transitions to a scene where Michonne must "clear" the kids' playroom and bedroom.  There's nothing to clear, and the dead body display is one of the creepiest ever.  The kids were lovingly laid into their beds to die, somehow without turning.  Their mother, obviously self-shot in the head, sits in a rocking chair right next to them.  Not afraid, but not wanting to be in there another second, she closes the door behind her as she talks Carl into not going in.  Two seasons ago, Carl mocked Carol for thinking Sophia was in heaven.  Here, today, he tells Michonne that Judith and her toddler, Andre, are there together.  He doesn't mention Sophia, maybe because she wasn't a baby.  Or maybe he's forgotten her already.  Odd, because they were buddies before she died.

Rick is FINALLY out from under bed, and proceeds to play musical-doors-to-hide-behind with his unwanted guests, while they make a ruckus over finding a woman's shirt, laundered for when she returns, and debate who gets to rape her first.  We see the guests as flashes of boots, pants, and the occasional gun, just so everyone knows these guys are dangerous.  We never really see their faces, unless they're about to die, like Goldilocks.  Or the man Rick finds in the bathroom.  They instantly fight, with Rick eventually choking Toilet Guy to death.  Clever for a change, he leaves the bathroom door open a skosh, not enough to see the dead body, but enough that Toilet Guy can get out once he turns.  Rick then escapes through the bathroom window, creeping around to the front porch just in time to hide from Mr. Bouncy Ball enjoying some canned good.  Michonne and Carl have just come into Rick's field of vision, and he has just decided to deal with Mr. Ball when the walker surprise he left them takes all their attention away, and Rick can dash out, warn the others, and they can escape without anyone knowing.

We end with railroad tracks.  Just when you think the final scene will get back to Tyrese and Carol, we see Rick, Michonne and Carl wandering down the tracks.  Despite losing tonight's shelter, they're in a good mood, with Carl playing with spray cheese.  They find an interesting sign attached to an abandoned train car, and keep heading down the tracks, intrigued by the same message Tyrese and Carol saw, albeit in a different location.  So these two parties will meet.  In about two episodes.  We should also get a glimpse of Terminus, the Sanctuary, by season's end.  I hope.