THE WALKING DEAD: The INMATES Are Running The Asylum
Season 4, Episode 10 “Inmates”
DUSTIN: So I just found that a friend of ours, a local actor here in Kansas City, has never seen YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.
TIMOTHY: Or HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART 1. He doesn’t even know who Madeline Kahn is.
DUSTIN: HE. DOESN’T. EVEN. KNOW!!!
TIMOTHY: How… how does he live in the world, Dustin?
DUSTIN: Better question, how did we keep Anne-Marie from murdering him?
ANNE-MARIE: (muttermuttermutter).
DUSTIN: What was that?
ANNE-MARIE: I SAID IT WOULD BE A MERCY KILLING!
TIMOTHY: Wine. We gave her wine.
We might need some more.
So… are you going to try to predict anything for this episode?
Yeah… I guess….
….
….
Tim: And are you going to do it say… now?
Oh, right. PREDICTIONS!!
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Daughter Fodder will look super tan coming off of her North American music tour.
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Daryl will have added a new tricep workout to his cross fit.
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Walkers will organize and form a union demanding brains.
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Someone will never have cried as much as Daughter Fodder.
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And… I’m gonna say… No Rick.
Really. And what, exactly, does “Someone will never have cried” mean?
Don’t question my ways, Tim.
… I don’t know why I ever do.
Thanks.
This would be the point where I tell everyone that the following contains SPOILERS and, like the show we are discussing, AMC’s The Walking Dead, much that is adult in theme and nature. Reader Discretion Is Advised. As always, Mr. Adair will be providing something resembling a recap of the show, while I will be providing commentary. Miss Anne-Marie who, by the way, was only slightly serious about putting an end to our friend Mr. Martin, he of the woefully inadequate comedy education, will be live-Tweeting the show.
RECAP!!
Daughter Fodder is narrating. Duh. She is recapping all the stuff that happened basically since the beginning of the series as she runs through the forest with Daryl. Oh, and the walkers.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead here’s my wish, Daughter Fodder, to remember your character’s name.
Walkers ya’ll.
Oh, she out of bullets.
Always a bad thing.
Daryl is almost out of arrows.
Daughter Fodder’s whole narration is all happy and whatever while her actions are very scary. This is actually a little heartbreaking.
I don’t know; have we heard this diary before? I can’t remember, but it’s a really effective way to show what they’ve lost.
The writing has become so good I might actually begin to call Daughter Fodder Beth.
This season, yeah.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead @TheNightDusto informs me her name is Beth. Poor Beth.
He only remembers their names when he thinks they’re toast.
Beth and Daryl fall in a field as buzzards circle overhead. It’s kind of a beautiful moment.
And hopefully not foreshadowing. Well. It kinda is no matter what, isn’t it? But hopefully not quite yet for our characters.
Later, Daryl and Beth are sitting around the camp fire. I bet they just finished telling each other some super scary stories. Beth says they should do something to try and find the other survivors. Daryl is not having it. All this hope and whatever.
Oh Daryl, he is so defeated. Come on, Daryl listen to Daughter Fodder!! She is on her way to… well… walker chow, but you know what I mean.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead Daryl’s “daddy gene” is not strong.
Daryl is pretty shattered. He finds a place to belong but loses his brother. He finds a… something in Carol, and then she’s gone, and then the prison…
Buzzards.
Daryl and Beth wander through the forest looking for a trail. He finds footprints. Beth wants to follow them. They walk down the trail, Beth in the lead. Daryl is basically humoring her at this point.
Oh, Daryl, your arms. Why are they so…. Just why?
Beth is all “Hey, lets pick all these grapes so everyone can eat grapes when we find them!!” She says she has faith they will find them. Daryl says faith didn’t do anything for Hershel and immediately regrets it because Beth is all sadface.
It looks like he’s about to say he’s sorry, and then he doesn’t, and that just really works.
Everyone is just so sad.
They find some dead walkers. They still have their heads so we know they aren’t tracking Michonne.
A noise!! Beth draws her knife but she is too slow and is grabbed by a walker; it is directed not to bite her by the director, and she and Daryl dispatch it.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead so the stealth zombies are back. Yay.
Sigh. Stealth Walkers again? Can we please just put an end to those? And yeah, Beth really should be dead here.
They find some train tracks where some people are being consumed by walkers.
But not apparently anyone whose name is in the credits. Are you starting to get the feeling that all the Woodbury Survivors contracts were up?
Beth cries. Daryl just keeps walking. But he’s totally sad, you can tell.
In the most heavy-handed metaphor ever, Beth uses the pages of her journal to start the fire.
Clearly you haven’t been watching Intelligence, but yeah, subtle it isn’t.
Hey!! Look!! It’s Puppy and Sophia II! Hi, girls, how you doing!
Dammit. The Demon Spawn lived.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead. We all want Carol psycho kid’s little sister!
OH MY CRAP!! They are with Tyrese and HE HAS BABY JUDITH!!
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead Judith! Yay. Hope I don’t have to watch her get eaten.
And that was the best reveal before a commercial break this show has ever done. No big linger, just Tyrese turning around and hello Judith and bam we’re in commercial. Welcome back kiddo, now why was your baby carrier covered in blood?
Sophia II is doing something weird with her knife when Lil Ass Kicker starts crying. It’s the same log Beth and Daryl passed earlier… later… something.
She’s killing bunnies. There were dead bunnies in the log when Daryl and Beth passed the same clearing earlier. Sophia II killed the bunnies. She has… problems.
Well, duh.
She’s a little psycho, that one.
Now it’s day. Puppy and Sophia II eat some of the grapes that Beth will pick for them later. Poor Judith, she is NOT having a good day. She is crying and being basically the worst walker survivor ever.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead eaten by the psycho kid, obvs
Buck up, Lil Ass Kicker.
Babies are not designed for Zombie Apocolypses.
There is a sound. Tyrese leaves Judith with Sophia II and Puppy to go check it out. It’s just a bird, but when it takes off, it scares poor Puppy. She runs off into the woods. Tyrese, Sophia II and Lil Ass Kicker give chase.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead. PUPPY! COME BACK!
They finally catch up with Puppy and Tyrese tells her she did the right thing by running. The best thing to do when you come across a walker is to run. I think I saw Sophia II give him the side-eye, but I can’t be sure. I think I might give him the side-eye too.
I think he’s right. Sophia II and Puppy need to just run. Faaaaaaaaarrrrr away. The rest of what’s left of Team Zombie will live longer.
Puppy and Sophia II are having a discussion about the nature of empathy when they hear someone screaming. Tyrese leaves the girls while he goes to look for the screaming people.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead Puppy’s insight will be needed this episode.
Wait. You just left a baby with two small girls in the Zombie Infested Woods? Tyrese, dude. You are the worst babysitter.
Puppy is not having a good time either. It must suck to be a child left in the woods while the only adult in their life goes to check out some noises and leaves you with your possibly mentally ill sister and an infant.
Possibly?
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead Psycho’s practical outlook on life makes me think she’s the soulmate for Carl’s Hat.
Down at the railroad tracks that Beth and Daryl were at earlier… or will be at later… or whatever, a couple of guys are being attacked by walkers. Tyrese jumps into the fray to help them, and of course both of them are killed.
Names not in the credits.
Back in the woods, Lil Ass Kicker is crying up a storm, so Sophia II covers her lil’ mouth with her lil’ hand. It’s pretty obvious Sophia II likes the struggling suffocating baby.
Demon. Spawn.
Walkers arrive and Puppy tries to warn Sophia II but the older girl is too focused on smothering a baby.
Well, when you find something you like to do…
Tyrese fights walkers. Puppy shoots the gun, but Tyrese can’t get away.
About the time that he is able to get away and head back to the girls, Tyrese turns around and discovers Puppy and Sophia II have come to the rail road tracks WITH CAROL!! OMG!!! You guys!! Carol!!
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead well this could get awkward. #Carol #girlfriends #flamable
A) WELCOME BACK CAROL! We’ve missed you.
B) Yeah, could be a little awkward.
C) Surely Carol noticed the little girl suffocating the infant?
They are told by the guy who has been bitten by a walker but is not yet dead, to stick to the rail road tracks they will find a safe place. The place is called ‘Terminus.’
Um. Terminus? That’s not at all an ominous name. Although… Terminus was the original name for Atlanta, so if we’re circling back around…
Elsewhere… or elsewhen… or something, Maggie is sharpening her knife on a rock. She is with Shovel and The Medic, and they seem like they are all okay… well… you know… for this show.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead the gang’s back!
I don’t think OK is the right word.
The Medic tells Shovel he’s sure Tyrese made it out of the prison, but Shovel is all sad and weird. So is Maggie. Everyone is sad and weird. I wonder if that’s the name of this episode? ‘Sad and Weird’? Yeah, I’ve decided.
“Inmates”. It’s at the top of the page.
“Sad and Weird”. I have decided.
Whatever.
Shovel tries to convince Maggie and The Medic to camp on the river bank for the night, but Maggie wants to go search for Glenn. Shovel tells them that should stay together, so that ends up meaning they are ALL going to look for the bus.
OK. Wait. Sasha (Shovel’s real name) says this place is pretty safe and easily defended, because they have their back to a river. But the camera pulls back and the river isn’t that deep and the land side is like wide open and what kind of definition of safe and easily defended are you using here?
Shovel is pissed.
Shovel and The Medic have the existential conversation about the difference between living and surviving as they look for the bus.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead take the happy-to-be-alive-glee down a notch. #tacky
“Always Look On The Bright Side of Life…”
When they find it, Maggie runs to the bus, but it is empty. Well… emptyish. There are obviously walkers on it… because having more than, like 6 people from the prison survive the massacre would be silly.
Names. Credits. Besides, we never really got to know any of those people anyway, so screw ’em. Apparently.
They decide to see if Glenn is one of the walkers on the bus. So they let them out and kill they asses one by one until they can’t let them out individually anymore and they all come pouring out.
Maggie kind of loses it. She goes all medieval.
Maggie has some pent-up feelings, ’tis true.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead well, if you’re going to be pithed on a road in Georgia you may as well get pithed by Maggie.
None of the dead walkers is Glenn though. Where you is, Glenn? Maggie climbs up onto the bus to look for him. There is all sorts of grossness, but no Glenn.
Bright side, now they have a bus!
Which they won’t use, for reasons of some sort. Question, though. How did the bus get overrun with walkers, exactly? The emergency door in the back opens outward, the side door is a bus door and those are really hard to open… why are these people dead?
Oh, there’s Glenn. On top of a thing… back at the @#$%ing prison. How the hell did this happen?
He seems very popular with the new residents of the prison.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead like being the last chocolate in the box, Glenn.
Oh, he’s on Lori’s ghost bridge. So he’s pretty will @#$%ed.
Only if Lori shows up.
He heads back into the prison. Poor Glenn. He closes the door to the outside, cutting off the light from the outside.
This makes us all go “what?” and he heads into the prison.
Why would you do this? Why would you do this? Glenn, that’s a light source and you are walking into a dark building that could be filled with hordes of the undead. Leave the damn door open.
It’s a sad state of affairs you guys. There is no one there. But Glenn gets his riot gear. And gets ready to bug the @#$% out.
But first a nap. Which raises a kind of important question.
You mean why, since there are clearly no walkers in this wing of the prison…
Why did Team Zombie leave the prison at all? The walls are still intact, it’s just another cleanup operation, bigger, sure, but still. The prison is still usable!
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead my cohorts are looking for logic in all the wrong places. @TheNightDusto @timothyharvey
Logic, right, that’s where we went wrong.
Sigh. Fine. Glenn is so sad, you guys.
Then he sees Maggie’s picture. And is filled with the hopes, but also the despairs. Stop crying and get on with life, Glenn.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead now is not the time to find your diary, Glenn.
Glenn grabs Hershel’s watch and a couple of more mementos. He also gets food, water, weapons and all sorts of other things before putting on the riot gear and heading out to face the walkers.
All the things our folks outside in the Zombie Infested Woods wished they had right now.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead is this the premise of the Death Wish series?
He actually makes it through the walkers pretty easily, but then he sees Tara (remember her? The lesbian Cop wanna-be who was accidentally one of The Brian’s soldiers, but who didn’t actually want to attack the prison, but was caught up with the momentum of the situation and had no choice? Yeah, her!) being all sad in a locked fenced in area.
Pretty strong for a really sick guy, but then he’s on a Quest to Find His Love, so.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead Glenn needs a visor upgrade.
Glenn goes in to the fenced in area and talks to Tara. She tells him that she wants to just stay there and die, because everyone she loved is now dead. Glenn tells her that is not an option, because he needs her to escape the prison. He finally convinces her to come with him, and they use a Molotov cocktail to set a car on fire, which draws the attentions of the walkers. Which is not… something I’ve seen walkers do before, but whatever…
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead zombies are drawn to flame? That seems…. more counter intuitive than normal.
Right. OK. No. Zombies are not moths, drawn to the light, zombies are not attracted to fire, well, if you’re on fire, then maybe, because hey, who doesn’t like barbecue? But no, this makes exactly zero sense, and is one of those horrible “hand of the writer” moments.
Hey, do you think they’ll take one of those conveniently placed trucks to escape? Nah. Don’t be silly.
Nobody else has, and why do something sensible like that?
On the road, Tara tells Glenn all about what happened while he was sick inside. How she and the others were manipulated by The Brian and how he killed Hershel while she watched. Glenn is pretty much devastated. She turns to leave and he tells her he needs her to find Maggie. He tells Tara that he knows Maggie survived, and they will eventually find each other. Tara agrees to help him find her.
Anne-Marie Zarrelli @anniemariney #TheWalkingDead boy I hope we get a running down the road reunion for Glenn & Maggie.
Annnd here come the walkers. They fight the walkers together, but Glenn is still sick and he falls over and leaves Tara to finish off the walkers herself.
Just as she finishes, an Army truck pulls up.
Pulls up? More like just appears, because… um… oh wait. This is a show with Stealth Walkers, so why not Stealth Trucks?
Hey! It’s those guys!
And “those guys” would be Abraham, Eugene and Rosita, reproducing the first image of them from the comic, and that’s pretty cool. The team dynamic is about to change a lot.
Folks, Dustin wrote something down and held it up to show me earlier in the evening, and I nodded back to him, and I think this is the point where we bring up the giant problem in what was otherwise a pretty good episode. Yeah, we had some criticisms, but we liked it, right?
I did. I’ve been liking this season a lot.
Yeah, it was good.
But.
But…
Why didn’t they have a plan for this? Why is everyone wandering around with no idea where they’re going?
Why don’t they have an arranged place for everyone to meet up? There a towns and farms and other places they could all be heading too instead of just flailing around in the woods.
They shouldn’t have left the prison, they should have just retreated to the safe cell block, regrouped and took back the rest of the place. And those bus people would still be alive.
How are they all on the same basic paths here, without catching up with each other?
All excellent questions, and we know the answers, don’t we? It was time to leave the prison and move on to the next place where bad things will happen to them. Oh writers. Anyway. We have predictions to review!
Do we? Did I make predictions this week? I don’t remember doing that.
You did. I’m a witness.
And to think I gave you wine.
Anne-Marie is smiling innocently, for all you kids at home. So let’s see… Beth’s tan. That’s a no. Still a pale thing.
She must have toured in the northern states.
Mmm hmmm. Daryl and his workout plan. No real evidence for that I’m afraid.
No evidence against it either. I mean, those arms…
Half a point?
Sure. The Georgia Zombie Workers Union? Not so much.
Give it time. It’ll happen. You’ll see.
Uh huh. Then there’s that whole “Someone will never have cried” thing, which I still don’t understand, but that would be a no.
My ways are mysterious.
Your “ways” huh? They’re… something. You did get no Rick though, so there’s that.
Success!
Right. And there you have it folks. We’ll see you next week, when you’ll hear Anne-Marie say:
“I don’t know where the body is. Honest.”
