by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×05:  “Internment”

There was a moment of sheer terror as I watched Hershel, Glenn and Sasha help yet another heretofore unidentified virus-stricken person stay alive for a few more hours, and I thought to myself, “… is this going to be a bottle episode?”  It was starting to feel like the kind of episode that would rely heavily on introspection as we faced even more (boring) realities of fighting a virus and not much action.  For those not blessed enough to have lived significant parts of their lives watching Community, a bottle episode is an episode designed to be produced cheaply, relying on sets already built, main characters, and as little preparation and outside work as possible.  But holy sh*t, this was not a bottle episode.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×04:  “Indifference”

Mirroring its title, “Indifference” is a boring, downer of an episode.  It’s also an important one.

I’ve always maintained that if I were caught in some sort of post-apocalyptic world with clear and present dangers, where everything is worse, and there’s no chance of going back to the way things were, that I would give up pretty quickly.  What’s the point of survival if surviving is so bad, in continuing in a world where the living would envy the (non-walking) dead?  Right now, that seems to be the point where most of our characters are.  They’ve gotten past the point of base survival in the relative security of the prison, they’ve overcome the great human threat that was (and still is) the Governor, and now they’re facing down the fact that this life will probably just keep getting worse.  If it’s not the virus, it’ll just be something else.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×03:  “Isolation”

Carol has quietly become one of my favourite characters in The Walking Dead.  Starting as a put-upon housewife, she’s one of the few characters who’s grown stronger and steadier over the course of the series in spite of having lost her husband and daughter (plus zombies being everywhere).  This is in sharp contrast to her comic book counterpart who gradually goes nuts and kills herself, leaving her daughter behind (and yes, in the comics, Sophia is still alive and well and doing nothing of consequence).  She even temporarily hooked up with Tyreese.  Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen on the show.

“Isolation” deals with the aftermath of the virus’s discovery as it quickly engulfs the prison and even lays claim to an important character:  Glenn.  Having discovered the remains of Karen and David last episode, Tyreese goes nuts on Rick and Daryl, swearing that Rick needs to find who killed them.  A plan is hatched by the council to raid a veterinary clinic 50 miles away for its antibiotics to treat the growing quarantine population.  And that’s the setup.

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