In this episode, Darryl, Sasha, and Tara all take the anti-hope position. Sasha has already given up on her brother, and Glen. Darryl is only looking for others because Beth is stubborn. Tara saw her sister consumed, the prison she hoped to make her home ruined. Beth, Tyrese, Maggie, and Glen take hope to new heights, prompting acts that put themselves and others in danger. Although, Glen has enough sense to at least get out of the prison before he stops making sense.
We start with Beth's voiceover, sweetly listing all the hopes she had for life in the prison to her diary. Each one, a hope cruelly taken from her. Very Flowers in the Attic, but without the incest and sexual assault (also, without the cruel Grandma). The pigs were eaten by zombies; there were never any chickens. The fields are covered in corpses. Lori died giving birth. And the prison turned out to be so not-permanent, as carrion birds circle over her and Darryl. Later, at a campfire, Beth insists that she and Darryl have to advance the plot somehow. Darryl is tired of advancing the plot. And besides, that's Rick's job anyway.
"We need to justify a scene all to ourselves! I'll do something stupid, and you save me!"
Beth forces the issue by stomping off into the zombie-filled darkness, prompting Darryl to follow her and just wait patiently for her to decide hope is dead. She's not stupid, but she's been a nanny for the last year and she stupidly lets zombies approach her from behind. Darryl has one mission for the next 36 hours- keep Beth alive. After finding zombies feasting away by railroad tracks, she and Darryl decide to stop looking for any more survivors. She wanted to be strong, be hopeful, for Daddy. But he's dead. We leave them contentedly by the fire the next night, Beth burning her hopes page by page.
Speaking of nannies. We cut to Lizzie and Mika, tromping along mixing fears of zombies with normal childhood peevishness, then calling out to Tyrese. He turns around and ..... IS PREGNANT! No, just a Daddy. There is Judith, alive and unharmed, and being carried by two hands when he could have just held the baby carrier's handle, or found some old clothes to make a sling with. Nope. He totes her around, even when running, like she's a big, squirming football. To his credit, he really is an amazing babysitter. His only freakout is when Mika physically hurts him, and he only yells at her before Lizzie tries to lecture him. Lizzie wavers between stoic bravery and childhood bossiness.
She and Mika probably do love Judith, but not her crying. Even I'm wondering why a place where the kid could cry safely wasn't Tyrese's first priority. In the meantime, there are diapers to change, grapes to pick, and scared little girls to run after. It seems that none of them, except maybe Judith (my guess is teething), gets any sleep the first night in the woods. Even at his most drained, most demanded on, Tyrese doesn't lose his cool. He actually tells Mika that her instinct to run isn't a bad one, just needs some work. He hears screams, and hoping it's others from the prison, trusts the girls with Judith so he can go help. He reminds Lizzie and Mika of what to do: wait for him to return. Run away from zombies towards him if they have to. Lizzie, who has been complaining about Judith's crying for two days now, hits on the awesome idea of just covering the baby's mouth and nose to muffle the kid. Awesome idea! I wonder why Tyrese didn't think of that! Two approaching zombies force the kids to make a decision, but it seems like Mika's choice is to fire uselessly at them, while Lizzie continues to smother a kid who will be dead in ten seconds anyway.
Tyrese finds himself on the same point of the railroad tracks we see Darryl and Beth found, and we realize we're seeing a prequel, so now we find out how the scene they found actually happened. No prison survivors, just a middle-aged guy with his older son, carbon copies of Allen and Ben from last season, and they both get bitten when they really should have survived. Tyrese also almost gets bitten, but a gun shot makes him turn around to get the last zombie. He gets up to the sound of....
Oh.
A very hesitant-sounding Carol, who is standing behind Lizzie and Mika and holding a very happy, very quiet Judith. I have never seen a man so relieved. Tyrese, not knowing Carol was banished, much less why, gives her the hug of a man saved from insanity and death. Carol, realizing he doesn't know, gives him a very plausible story of following them since the prison. My theory? She went back to the prison to demand Lizzie and Mika from Rick, knowing he wouldn't refuse when the girls demanded to stay with her instead of him. But she found a smoldering ruin instead, and was looking for the girls ever since. About-to-die-Dad tells them why they were out in the open instead of in the woods: there's supposed to be a safe place ahead, just by following the tracks. Having nowhere else to go, they proceed that way themselves, only to find a road sign telling them exactly what Dying-Dad did. Carol thinks they may as well. Lizzie and Mika are all for it. Tyrese feels his hopes were all totally justified. The safe place is called "Terminus". Considering that's Latin for "The End", I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if this has to do with a group from the graphic novel that has, let's just say, rather interesting eating habits. Also, with Rick thinking Judith is dead, will he discover that she's actually been saved by someone he doesn't trust? And how will the custody battle go? "Your honor, Judith isn't even his kid!"
But enough with that plot point, we need to get to Maggie and Sasha and Bob. Bob is just happy to be alive. He didn't lose much, except his go bag and some pride from getting himself shot. Sasha is binding up the wound, which has already stopped bleeding. He tries to give her hope about Tyrese. But Sasha isn't having any of this hope bullshit. She's thinking, let's camp. Maggie is thinking, now that we're all the way out here from the prison, I'm going to go back and look for Glen. Sasha thinks it's a sucky idea, which it is. While she follows Bob and Maggie along the road, she complains that they should be finding food. Bob wants to know what good food is unless you have a reason to survive in the first place. It would be easier to accept Bob's dialogue if he hadn't spent the first half of the season convinced he doesn't deserve to survive. Has a purpose in life, even a temporary one, replaced the bottle?
Sure enough, they find the bus. Still, but not empty. Filled with zombies, a bloody scene follows where they slaughter each one, ending when Maggie puts down a Glen-look-alike. Is that happiness because she realizes Glen wasn't on the bus? How did the bus go so bad? Did someone get shot during the retreat, die on the bus and create havoc?
But that's not important. This scene exists for the sole purpose of winnowing down the cast and giving the main characters reason to abandon the area. What's important, is that Glen wakes up back at the prison, at the end of a causeway that was blown up by Mitch's tank. Zombies below are reaching for him, so Glen nonchalantly goes back inside his cellblock, only to find it devoid of people and zombies. He grabs full riot gear that was literally stuffed under the mattress. Seriously. A helmet under the mattress. No wonder they slept in the guard tower. Speaking of which, Glen sees the pic he took of her sleeping there, and suddenly decides that he'll find her. Grabbing supplies as he goes, he realizes the bottle of booze by the door to the cellblock could come in handy (courtesy of Bob?), and uses the riot gear to cover all but his neck, which he leaves bare, right at mouth height for most of the zombies. Who swarm him, but can't get close because of the riot gear. So Glen fights his way through, emerging but stopping when he sees he's not the only one who needs to escape.
Tara sits alone, quiet, at the gate to a cellblock. The zombies can't get her there, and I guess she figures she'll just die of dehydration. Sounds easier than being eaten. Glen, after discovering she didn't fire a single bullet at them, convinces her to come with him, spinning some bullshit about needing her. That's total bullshit, but it gets her on her feet and reminds her that she's supposed to know how to shoot a gun. With a Molotov cocktail, they are the last living people (I hope) to leave the prison. They dash out the main gate, heading to the highway where they can lose their pursuers...
And they instantly squander their lead by having an intense conversation where we learn that Tara's sister died right after killing Phil; Glen learns that Phil killed Hershel. He's shocked, but he tells Tara that Hershel would want them to help each other now. Glen is pretty forgiving of one of Phil's townies; but if it gets her to cover his back when he's sleeping, he'll do it. Tara is on the edge. Dying on the road is probably better than at the prison; but it's all the same to her at this point. Until they're attacked again, by the zombies that they let catch up to them. Glen is almost down for the count until Tara comes to his rescue, and barely survives her own surprise attack. As her last kill gets its head beaten in, we see a truck not there before in the background. Bad staging, or perfect? Because Tara looks up, breaks the fourth wall, and asks us assholes if we enjoying the show.
But it turns out... she wasn't talking to us. This isn't a post-modern adaptation of The Walking Dead. Instead, three people emerge. Graphic novel fans know who these people are, and what it means. People who can't bother waiting will just have to hope for the best!
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