The Review (Spoiler Alert):
1. Excitement at the jail – The show’s creators can’t keep going back to this well (zombie chases through a darkened prison), but this show has great talent for these scenes. The people behind the camera know how to shoot/light/frame/edit these scenes and the on-screen talent is really good at physical challenges. Granted, there were cracks in the formula showing this week, like when Carl couldn’t get the door closed to the room where he, Lori & Maggie hid, and the zombies shuffled aimlessly past like Scooby-Doo villains… And then with all the screaming, bleeding, slicing and shooting that followed, the zombies never returned? So, why bother with the non-closing door in the first place? Still, when the group was split up and racing for their lives, it was really tense and exciting. There isn’t another show on TV that manages this combination of fear and excitement so well.
2. Quiet danger at the prison – Meanwhile, over at the Woodbury Driving Range, things are more sedate, ominous, and slow. The show is smartly blending the slow-burn of Woodbury with the adrenaline of The Prison. Last week, the Woodbury-centric episode was plodding, but this week it wasn’t so noticeable. That’s really the way to do it. The action at the prison can’t keep going at this breakneck pace, but it’s carried the torch long enough to allow the fuse to be lit in Woodbury. And what the Woodbury intrigue lacks in quality, it makes up for it in volume. In no particular order: Merle wanting to find his brother, Andrea feeling as if she got left behind, Andrea bonding with Merle and the Governor, Michonne knowing that something isn’t quite right and the question of what happens when we run out of golf balls! There is a lot of simmering tension.
Still, it’s not that good. The BIG dramatic conflict will occur whenever Woodbury and the Prison come into contact. That will be explosive. There will be fights, debates about whether Rick is really any nicer than the Governor… I can hardly wait for the Darryl-Merle reunion. But, in the meantime, all this other Woodbury stuff is small potatoes and I just don’t see a lot of potential for surprises. Michonne and Andrea will argue, but that doesn’t matter because they’ve only had ~15 minutes on screen together so far; they don’t feel like best friends. Andrea will continue to be attracted to men with terrible, fake southern accents (Shane and the Governor) as opposed to men with real accents like Merle. Michael Rooker will continue to blow every actor he’s paired with off the screen.
Let’s hope the rapid pacing of the Prison comes to Woodbury. Make it move faster and the flaws aren’t so noticeable!
3. One death we’ve waited for – Hurrah! She’s gone! Lori’s death scene was amazing on multiple levels. On one hand, it was incredibly gory and hard to watch. Yeesh! Her own kid had to watch as his Mom got sliced up and killed! Maggie was great! She both didn’t want to do it, but once she committed, she turned into a woman of action and competence. I LOVE Maggie. Horrible scene to watch. It also pounds home how accelerated the storytelling is on the TV show, as they could have dragged out Lori’s pregnancy/death for another 6 episodes.
But, it was also a great example of why Lori had to go. The scene of her saying goodbye to Carl should have been touching and poignant, but instead I felt like the part where she talked lasted ~30 seconds too long. And, at one point, she told Carl about how he had to kill her afterward she turned–she said something like, “For the good of us all, you have to kill me.” How fucking meta is that? My frustration with this scene is embodied on my iPad notes from the episode: “Lori needs a C-section. For all of us,please kill her. Lori giving Carl a pep talk. God. Just cut her. Get on with it. Do it Crl. Be our hero!”
And, I don’t think people really die from Cesarians quite that quickly.
4. One death that is kinda overshadowed – Poor T-Dogg. For one thing, he got killed in a show where he finally got some good dialogue. For another, he’s not even the death that people are going to be talking about. Kudos to the show’s creators because they could have saved T-Dogg’s death for next week.
This is one of those things where it seems like a big deal, but it really isn’t. If you keep a character like T-Dogg around for long enough, he’ll start to grow on you as long as you don’t make him annoying. Then, you have a character you can kill and it feels like a big deal even if it isn’t. I mean, who really cares that T-Dogg is dead? This show would be well served to always keep a few characters like T-Dogg in the background for this purpose.
5. Don’t trust off-screen deaths… – Will we get a Lori zombie? Is Carol really dead? What were those screams from the escaping prisoner a few weeks ago? Did anyone shoot T-Dogg? This show has taught us that if you don’t see the body with a hole in its head, it ain’t dead. Let’s just hope that we don’t get a Lori Zombie complete with Rick crying and Carl admitting that he “just couldn’t shoot her” (as Darryl finishes her off). But I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a Lori zombie wander past in a couple seasons as an easter egg type of thing. And Carol’s fine; we’ll find her in a week or so, hiding in a storage locker where she’ll have been sulking because she didn’t get to do the Cesarian.
Probably the biggest off-screen “death” that came back was the skinny little prisoner-dude. There was so much else going on in this episode that it hardly seems important, but the fact that Rampage Jackson (doesn’t that prisoner look like Rampage?) shot him and not Rick will be a big moment.
6. A BIG chemistry problem has been solved. – It is SO nice to have Lori removed from this show. She was the weakest link. I don’t think Andrew Lincoln is going to start winning Emmy’s now, but he’s a much better actor when he doesn’t have to interact with Lori. Ditto for little Carl. Lori was a character who made every scene she was in worse and more annoying. I’m not sure if that means the actress is terrible or if she’s sneaky awesome. Anyway, I’m glad she is gone and expect to enjoy the show a LOT more without her.
Conclusion: An event-packed episode. There are still a lot of little flaws on this show, but when the pacing is rapid enough, you don’t really see them. Best episode of the season with only the Woodbury scenes keeping it from a perfect score (those scenes were disturbingly average).
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion