We start with flashback, with the site of Zach's old car cruising into the prison, Carl and some future flu victim working the gate. Maggie and Glenn get out, and greet Hershel, who is happy to see everyone home safe. What were they doing? Who knows. Probably wasn't a supply run in a car so small. We see Carol hand a crow bar-looking device to Rick, as she and Tyreese walking silently together back to the prison itself. Hershel wonders if Rick isn't willing to move from war mode (it's been two months since the Battle of the Reluctant Woodburians) to domestic happiness mode.
We cut to Rick, a little shaky but otherwise calm, sitting against the tire of a 4x4. He is covered in blood and seems totally okay with that.
Credits lead to Rick, Carl, and Michonne camping out, delaying their arrival at Terminus on purpose so they can rest and prepare for meeting new people. All are hungry, though well enough to joke about being hungry. After preparing their fire, they then put it out and completely abandon the camp to check Rick's Super Duper Rabbit Trap. Don't you set the trap, wait for the rabbit, and cook it over the fire? Is camping all about reverse psychology?
Rick explains the trap to Carl and Michonne, noting that he's set up a small semi-tunnel, where a passing rabbit will go through, and the twine snare under leaves and twigs will catch the rabbit. He takes one newly caught, and stuffs it in his bag. 'Cause it's not like they just had a campfire or anything. How interesting that there's a scene, early in the show, of how to trap game. You just set up a way for it to go, and the trap is where they don't see. Then you got yourself some dinner.
This is not foreshadowing at all
After watching some pour schlub get surrounded and eaten, they head back to the tracks, with the same pack now trailing them. As they see another, smaller group of zombies in their way along the tracks, Rick and Michonne leap into action-
Today's Cardio Workout
-that we don't get to see. What we do get to see is Hershel waking Rick up. When Rick wants to know what time it is, newly-watchless-Hershel tells him it's always Right Now. Note, how Hershel reminds Rick that Glenn has his pocket watch. The flashback then shows us Beth, silently coming to start au pair duties for the day, taking a hazy 'Lil Asskicker for ... something. I don't know. She probably could have been left in her crib. Hershel tells Rick to come with him, and leave the gun and holster. Rick takes them anyway, but didn't really need them. Hershel shows him the future site of the failed-pig-pen business. He convinces Rick that with the Governor gone, they can go from supply runs to farming. He and Rick remind themselves that Carl still has to regain some sort of moral footing from shooting another kid at the end of Season 3. Hershel thinks this is the way to go.
Well, Carl, you'll have to find yourself without a trip to Europe
As the group wanders along, off the tracks to evade zombies, Carl asks how close they are to Terminus. Rick doesn't really answer his question when Carl wants to know exactly how much they'll tell the people there about themselves. As little as possible, kid. Late at night, Rick and Michonne, together on the road again, are commiserating on how little that rabbit filled their stomachs. Carl is trying to sleep in an abandoned 4x4 truck next to them. Rick and Michonne discuss a little whether Terminus is really a sanctuary. Michonne is doubtful; Rick thinks they would be looking for new people because they're a strong group. They start at a twig snapping behind them, but when nothing appears, and they hear no other footsteps, they sit back down, now complaining that all of their conversations now are about food. Joe and his Claimed Gang put a stop to this, with the confrontation we've been waiting for. Joe silently emerges behind Rick, putting a gun to his head. Eyewitness Tony gets the drop on Michonne, and a NAMBLA member stops Carl from getting out of the truck (note: it never occurs to Carl to lock the doors. Just sayin). Joe is triumphantly comparing getting Rick and his group to New Year's Eve, and starts counting down when Darryl emerges from the other side of the truck, and stupidly tries to talk Joe out of killing Rick. Like Joe hasn't been savoring this for days already. Joe, after good-naturedly hearing Darryl out, tells him he's a damn liar. Joe says he's speaking for the man Rick killed in the bathroom, and tells his gang to "teach him all the way", which is code for- leave him like Len. The free members start beating Darryl, partly hitting him and partly smacking him into the truck.
Sure, Joe, but who's going to speak for all the people you've killed?
Rick tries to argue for everyone else's life, but Joe is just amused as he tells Rick that Darryl will be beaten to death first, then Michonne will be raped, then Carl will be raped (the guy by the truck looks a little too happy at this news), then they'll kill Rick. Oops. Someone just threatened Carl. NAMBLA dude yanks Carl out of the truck, and throws him on the ground. Rick reacts by head butting Joe behind him, and needs a second when Joe's gun goes off right by his ear (trying to remind us of the time that happened in the tank from Season 1?). Rick manages to grab Joe while they fight, but he's still unarmed, and when Joe asks him what exactly he could even do now, Rick goes all zombie on him, biting him in the neck. There's a lot of blood, enough that you know Joe is done. Tony is shocked enough that Michonne grabs his gun, turns it around, and pulls the trigger on Tony. She takes the gun fully, shooting one of the guys beating Darryl, who finishes the other one by stomping on his head.
The only one left, realizing he's not getting Carl's ass after all, tries to use him as a hostage, but Rick just walks right up to the guy, takes Carl back, and slaughters him like a pig. Michonne is holding onto Carl, who watches in horror.
Oh, cool. Legos. But it's not Carl playing with them. Rick is back at the prison, interrupting good ol' Harry Potter, who apparently can't use magic to make a Lego truck. Harry sheepishly admits he's taken a toy that Rick meant for Carl, but proudly states that he's technically too old for them. He's contrasted with Carl, who might be a couple years younger than Harry. Carl isn't playing with toys. He's cleaning a gun, checking the chamber and putting it back together. Rick lets Harry Potter keep playing with Legos as he tells Carl to leave his gun on the table and come with him. Why no gun? "It'll just get in the way." So far, all the flashbacks happen right around some act of violence by Rick, contrasting what he's doing to survive now, with what he tried to do to stay human and sane back then. Like That Was Then, This Is Now, but set in the zombiepocalypse.
Rick and Co. stay at the abandoned 4x4, Joe and the others' dead bodies still around them. Rick lazily sits on the road, leaning back against the tire, just as he did right before the credits, and we realize that we've seen tonight's shocking violence. Darryl appears, offering him a wet rag to clean his face, so Carl doesn't have to see Mr. Hyde. Carl lays in the truck, head on Michonne's lap. Michonne is very often the mother Carl should have had, from the beginning. Carl respects Michonne, more than he ever did his own mother. And Michonne can alternate between guarding Carl, playing with him, and restraining him from bad choices. When Carl has these regressive moments, when his brain just can't process what's just happened, it becomes apparent that the show really treats his character as a small, immature, grown-up, even if he's not.
You can be the best friend that doesn't fuck my wife
Darryl and Rick have a bromance moment, Darryl trying to explain that he knew they were tracking someone, and had planned to ditch the group when they were busy, but that he couldn't leave once he realized they were trailing Rick and Co. When Darryl explains that he got out with Beth, Rick actually expresses some interest in where she is now. "Gone. Just gone," he can only say. Rick just accepts this fate without asking anymore questions. After telling Darryl he shouldn't feel guilty about being with Joe, he then confesses that Darryl is his brother. Not like a brother. Is a brother. Darryl has officially replaced Shane. And Rick has officially replaced Merle. Which means that Darryl has maybe two episodes to go before dying.
The four of them proceed along the tracks to Terminus. They're almost there, happy to be together, alive. They've apparently scavenged the Claimed Gang's supplies and weapons, loaded down with new gear. Rick pulls them off the tracks before it's in sight, wanting a good look at the place before they go in. Like Michonne, he doesn't know if they're legit, and he's done with surprises. They split up to wander up and down the fence, looking for signs of trouble beyond, where they can see the big "Terminus" building, and Carl decides to go with Michonne. Rick's a little hurt, but he can only hope that Michonne can straighten Carl out. Which she does. And we finally learn the rest of the story of Michonne's baby, started in the second episode when she reacted badly to holding Judith. Hell, this story arc started the episode that Andrea asked about Michonne's two porters and she told Andrea, "They had it coming."
Michonne, her boyfriend Terry, their baby Andre, and Terry's best friend at first survived in a soon-to-fail refugee camp. Michonne went out on a supply run and returned to an overrun camp, her child slaughtered, and the father and his friend bitten, and still high from dope. They'd been too high to protect the kid.
Feeling equal parts rage at her boyfriend and guilt over her child's death, she let the two men turn. Cut off their arms and removed their teeth, and chained them to her, to remind her of what she had lost. It was only later that she realized they camouflaged her from the zombies, convincing the zombies she was just one of them. Eventually, Michonne herself was convinced she was one of them. But, Michonne tells Carl, Andrea, Rick, and the others all brought Michonne back from feeling like the monsters she walked among. Carl is still in despair. He doesn't feel as if he's come back at all from where he was at the end of Season 3. He thinks his father wants him to be better, but he can't.
Rick buries a bag of guns courtesy of Joe and the Claimed Gang right outside the fence, just in case they've got to cut and run quick. The four scale the fence opposite the entry side, slipping into a radio room, where a familiar voice is giving information and directions about Terminus. About five people do unseeable tasks around her. Everyone is surprised, but cool, about seeing four armed people appear right in front of them. Gareth comes forward, bitching about someone being a shitty perimeter guard, and has them inspected for weapons. So they know what everyone has. After telling them that they're safe, but that they shouldn't do anything stupid, he leads them to the official welcome station, back to Mary from the last episode. And her giant grill.
Mary's impressed with the newcomers and happily gets them a plate of grilled BBQ. But Rick's noticed a familiar knapsack. Riot gear from the prison. Darryl's poncho. And finally, the fob of Glenn's pocket watch. Oh god. He slaps away the offered food and takes one of Terminus' residents hostage, pulling out the pocket watch that Glenn would never just give away. Darryl's crossbow is up even before that, Carl's pulls his gun and Michonne is ready to decapitate someone.
I said "Medium Rare", not "Charcoal"
Very Brooklyn Modern
The only other door to go through is also marked "A". Which leads them outside, surrounded by buildings on three sides, but there's the fence they can climb over. Or could, if it wasn't lined with guards with rifles. The roof is also lined with gunmen, and Gareth appears. Trapped just like rabbits in a sling made of twine.
Once again, Rick will have to save them from trouble he got them into
Totally in control, he has them all lay down their weapons (again), and directs them, one by one and finally Carl, to a nearby freight car, also marked "A". Each door, each supposedly missed bullet herding them along, has led them to this freight car. Inside, it's dark except for lines of light along the edges of the car. A voice emerges from the darkness at one end. It's Glenn, then Maggie, then Sasha and Bob. Another face emerges, one Rick clearly recognizes from the Governor's attack on the prison. But Glenn's calm face and Maggie's insistence that they're new friends who have saved their lives redirects Rick's anger. Abraham cynically doesn't think they'll all be new friends for long.
Prisonville's new garden is going great. Or, it will, when Carl gets a farmer's hat. Beth is happily watching them hoe up the land that will be their garden, Judith fast asleep in her arms. Hershel is pleased and tells them it can be this way, always. We realize that this flashback is about more than this episode's theme about Rick accepting the brutal part of his nature. The flashbacks, full of characters we won't see until next season (if we see Beth ever again), and Hershel, who we probably won't see again (this show is typically light on flashback), is a way for us to say goodbye to all the characters for the season. Rick, happy but pessimistic as always, says it's enough that things are good now.
Back at the freight car, in the dark, Rick is furious. As each character realizes that Fightin' Crazy Rick is back, we see their faces. Bob and Sasha are a little afraid; Glenn and Maggie are calmly accepting. Michonne and Darryl can't wait to get started. Carl is just hoping his dad has a way out of this. Rick, not so calmly, informs them that Terminus is screwing with the wrong people.
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