THE WALKING DEAD: INDIFFERENCE This Is Not…
Season 4, Episode 4 “Indifference”
DUSTIN: I’m very sick.
TIMOTHY: I know.
DUSTIN: I just want to take some NyQuil and go to sleep.
TIMOTHY: But your computer lost last weeks recap. Because it is full of hate. We owe the people.
DUSTIN: Yes I know.
TIMOTHY: We’ll be quick.
Ok.
- At the vet hospital, Tyreese and Daryl and Michonne will raid the commissary because they all miss Starbucks. Just. That. Much.
- Rick will want Carol to bemoan her choices, but she will just not be having it.
- We will begin to lose people from quarantine, but not anyone we care about.
- Sophia II will not be important in any way.
- I will barely make it through the episode.
How is that last one a prediction about the show?
Huh?
Right. Ladies and gentlemen, from this point on there are SPOILERS for AMC’s The Walking Dead. There is also a great likelihood of incoherence, as our Mr. Adair is heavily drugged. As always, Miss Anne-Marie is our Studio Audience of One, and the usual admonitions about adult language and themes apply.
((sniffle))
Rick bandages his hand.
Carol tells Sophia II that she and Rick are going on a run together to look for food. Sophia II tells her no one has died yet, but when they do, it will be okay.
Because she’s insane. Little insane girl.
Rick has a flashback to Carol killing Melissa. Come on Rick, that was like, 3 weeks ago; let it go already.
Rick is packing a fabulous murder bag.
All the better to go for a little drive with someone who has just confessed to murder.
Sophia II calls Carol “Mom” and Carol gets all upset and tells her not to. Sophia II tells her that it was an accident. Sophia II says she is not afraid to kill but she is afraid, you know, in general. Carol tells her not to be afraid, and someday it will become her natural state and she will stop being afraid.
Errr. Am I the only one who thinks that Lizzie calling Carol “Mom” is really creepy? ‘Cause it’s really creepy.
Rick has his pensive face on.
Probably something to do with the whole murder thing.
Everyone is resting, Tyreese is cleaning the blood off his… everything and talking about how everyone back at the prison is probably dead.
I just hate your face Tyreese.
He is a cheerful fellow, isn’t he?
Rick and Carol are driving’ I hope they have better luck than anyone else who has ever gotten in a car on this show ever in the history of this show.
They will. They have a talk coming, and they won’t be able to do that if they are fighting all the walkers. Of course, that means that they will have picked the one walker-free road in the whole damn state. In the car the others should have taken instead of the low riding “fast” car. That worked out well.
Carol tells Rick she made it quick when she was murdering my sweet Melissa and that other guy who we never saw or cared about. She says what we all know, that she was trying to stop the virus before it spread. I love you, gurl. Rick is all who knows? Not me.
The matter-of-fact way she says it is just… very effective and really unnerving. And you know she means it. She really did make it quick and as painless as possible, because that’s Carol. Pragmatic and kind. Think I just shuddered there for a second.
Michonne and Daryl and Tyreese and The Medic are walking. Michonne notices that Daryl is leaving himself a trail. They flirt about it a little.
Uh oh Michonne. Not sure you want to be flirting with Daryl… Have you met Carol lately?
Carol and Rick arrive at… Wisteria Lane? They get their packs out of the car and head off to scavenge.
They discover a car that is full of supplies but they don’t take any of it. Medical supplies are what they are after.
Which reeks of foreshadowing. And wouldn’t it be great if it was Wisteria Lane? I’d pay good money to see zombie versions of Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross. That would be hysterical.
Michonne’s party arrives at tree over a car. Daryl tries to hot wire it, but it needs a new battery. Luckily the car is parked right next to an auto supply store. But there are walkers inside.
((sniffle))
The tree has fallen in a way that covers the doors to the auto supply store. They have to hack their way in. Tyreese is all angry pants. He accidentally opens the door and lets out the walkers.
I hate you, Tyreese.
They fight!!
Tyreese? Let go of the walker. Let. Go. Of. The. Walker.
Tyreese has a death wish. He was a bad choice for this mission.
Seriously. Holding the undead things is not a good plan.
In one of the houses, Rick raids the medicine cabinet. There is a walker upstairs, but she falls comically down the stairs and Carol stabs her in the head.
This slapstick moment has been brought to you by the fine folks at the Ginsu Knife Corporation.
You just dated yourself so very badly there, you know that, right? These two teenaged kids come out of a room upstairs. They offer Carol and Rick fruit, but they are so shocked that they don’t take it. Come on Rick, have a peach.
Rick has no time for peaches. His angst will not allow the peach enjoyment.
The kids are actually kind of cute. Carol bandages the boy kid’s arm, and pops his dislocated shoulder back into place while Rick thinks thoughts that are only his own.
They were trapped in the bathroom for about 2 days. The girl has a gimpy leg. They are too adorable; I bet they die just so horribly. Just so, so horribly.
Yep. C’mon… the girl has a bad leg, and they are eager and pleasant and so very much zombie chow.
Daryl enters the auto parts shop to find a battery. He does.
Michonne and Tyreese are clearing off the car, and she tells him that he is a stupid idiot and he is leading with his anger face and he needs to stop it right this damn minute.
Let’s take a moment and consider the irony of Michonne giving anyone advice about anger issues. It’s kind of delicious.
((sniffle))
Tyreese tries to say she is still angry about The Governor, but she says she is not. But she can’t stop looking because she’s a pimp, yo.
She actually says she doesn’t know why she keeps looking. Uh… yes you do. He’s a psychotic nutjob and he killed Andrea. Those would be your reasons. It’s OK, Michonne, you can admit it.
Daryl tells The Medic that the walkers they killed had killed themselves. Daryl doesn’t like it, The Medic thinks it was probably a good idea.
The kids want to go back to the prison, Rick tells them about the flu, the kids want to go and the kids want to help and damn. They are so cute!!
Rick begrudgingly allows them.
Actually, he starts to ask them The Three Questions. We don’t get to hear the answers, and I really want to hear their answers.
He gives them his watch so they can tell time.
The Medic and Daryl have a heart to heart about how The Medic has survived two different groups and how sad it made him. He tells Daryl that he was an alcoholic. And how it’s his fault that the Big Lots debacle happened.
Daryl tells him its bull@#$%.
That would actually be a quote, by the way. Daryl is having none of this.
Oh Daryl.
The car is fixed. Everyone back in road trip mode.
Carol and Rick are looking through the medicine cabinet at a house. Rick asks Carol about the ethics of right and wrong in a world gone mad. Carol is “All modern ethics are an illusion in the situation you find yourself in.” and Rick is all “Yeah, but morals” and Carol is all “Ethics and morals are not mutually exclusive and yet again they do not always go hand in hand.”
But then Rick is all “Yes, but right and wrong?”
And Carol is all “What does that even mean? We do what we have to do to survive. Good and bad are bedtime stories now.”
And Rick is all, “hrm.”
And Carol is all, “Deal with it, jerk.”
That is actually a really good description of that scene, and the best thing about it? They actually did it in about that many words. For a show that just about killed us with its monologuing in earlier seasons, here was a really powerful exchange between two people and it didn’t take half the damn episode. But it does raise the question we have seen asked before, and that is where is the line? Carol is being extremely pragmatic here, and that is rational, but Shane also kinda used a similar argument; yes, yes, taken to the extreme, but where is the line?
((sniffle))
Michonne’s team finally arrive at the Veterinary college.
Which will go incredibly smoothly, I’m sure.
Rick and Carol pick tomatoes and she tells him about her life back in the time before and how stupid she had been for staying with her abusive husband and how weak she thought she was, but she was already strong. They talk about their lost loves and the lost lives that they no longer lead.
It’s all pretty beautiful.
Ok, I’m getting worried here. Dustin and I… we love Carol. We love Melissa McBride. She has done a wonderful job of making Carol possibly the best defined character on this show. Her arc has been fantastic, and if you wanted to see Dustin and I freak the @#$% out, cast your mind back to the bit last season where Carol went missing in the prison and it seemed like she might be dead. And for those of you who might think this almost casual discussion of death Carol is out of character, well, no, she’s not. Consider her interaction with Andrea last season, and her scenes with Merle. And then check out this deleted scene.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnQ4nz_5JSY&w=560&h=315]
Look like anything we’ve seen lately?
And then they turn the corner and discover the cute little girl has been eaten.
We’re all very sad.
You’re giggling. Giggling noises are not appropriate at this time.
Whatever. You laughed, too.
Well, only because they were so obviously dead the moment we met them.
Just like I said. The Medic is telling everyone what to steal. They do not take everything… which is nice… I guess?
They start to make their way out, but are discovered by VET WALKERS!! What should we do? Head into the darkest room ever, I guess.
The door is busted, but they find the stairs.
A walker grabs Tyreese, but they all escape.
Rick and Carol are waiting for the other kid to come back, but it’s been a long time. Rick wants to wait. But Carol lays down the law. They have to go.
Just continue to be the best forever Carol.
She is the best, and I’m getting even more worried.
The vet team is all trapped and stuff. They break out a window but they are a still on the second floor. They climb out on sort of a porch… thing, but The Medic trips and nearly drops his bag. All the walkers on the lower lever grab it, but The Medic refuses to let it go. Daryl helps The Medic pull the bag up only to discover that it is…
Full of booze.
Needless to say, everyone is pretty pissed, but could there possibly be a better place to have this conversation?
Yeah, not sure being surrounded by the undead is the best place. But since Rick and Carol are getting all the great dialogue this episode, I guess that means we get this scene. I do like how Daryl looks like he’s about to pitch Bob over the edge for a second. And how he tells him that if Bob takes a drink before the sick people back at the prison get the meds, he’s going to beat the living crap out of him.
So Rick is now all “Melissa and that one guy might have lived!” and Carol is all “Yeah, okay.” Rick is all pissed and he says he is going to tell everyone that she killed them and he is going to see her turned out of the community. Rick is just making me so pissed right now. He tells her basically that he is leaving her.
Which, sort of, makes sense. Rick isn’t trusting her right now, and he knows that if Tyreese finds out Carol killed Karen, then Tyreese will kill her, but for someone who has spent months being all “I’m not in charge anymore”, he sure picked a great time to start making decisions for everybody. Carol isn’t really arguing with him, and that I find rather odd. But it does kind of make sense. If it was Carl or Judith who were sick, would Carol have made the same choice to protect the group? I mean, that is her argument, right?
Anne-Marie thinks Rick should worry less about Tyreese and more about Daryl. She’s probably right. And she is wondering about the Council, which Rick is not a part of, even thought he’s been invited to be. They might be a little miffed about this. She’s probably right about that as well.
Michonne’s team is trying to find a way back to the Prison (they use MICHONNE’S MAP!!) Michonne tells Daryl she is not going out to look for The Governor anymore.
Oh Map, how we love you. Please appear every episode.
Rick gives Carol a car and some supplies.
She gives him a watch. And she gets in a car and drives away to badass all on her own.
@#$% your face, Rick. Just @#$% your whole @#$%ing face.
((sniffle))
Right. Like I said, I get it, to a point, but exile? Hmmm. We haven’t seen the last of Carol. We’ve better not have seen the last of Carol. For a show that has struggled with consistency with its main female characters, to write out the one who has shown real growth and been wonderful at it, that would be really… dumb. It would be dumb.
So. How ya feeling?
You remember the bleeding eye walkers?
Sure.
Like those. Only worse.
You going to die on me here?
I’m making no promises.
So what did you think? Another solid episode this season, yeah? Not how we wanted things to go with Carol, but still. Well written, great performances, maybe a touch talky, but in this context I’m OK with that.
It was good, and aside from hating Rick and Tyreese right now, I’m really happy with this season so far. I think Rick is picking the wrong time to be all “I’mma making Decisions!”, and no matter how good an actor Chad Coleman is, I can’t stand how they’re writing Tyreese. Can’t. Stand. It. Missing the comic version a LOT. And I want Melissa McBride back. Right now. If they don’t put her in the spinoff some how…
I have a theory about that. I think she’ll be back at the midseason. Either the finale or the second premiere. Back to save Rick from himself. Although, to be fair to Rick, he is acting more like himself this episode. So. Your predictions. You made it through the episode, so there’s one.
Barely. I feel faint.
Mmm hmmm. No commissary Starbucks run, so that’s a no.
It’s getting dark.
You’re squinting your eyes. I’ll give you Rick and Carol. He was trying to get her to show anything other than determination and certainty, and she wasn’t giving him anything else. She felt she was doing the right thing, even if it was an awful thing.
Mom? Is that you?
Your mom is alive. No deaths in quarantine yet, but with Lizzie in there, I’m counting on her to help them along. Evil child, that one.
I’m coming Elizabeth!
Wow. I’m impressed. A Sanford and Son reference. Nice. Lizzie. Hmmmm. She did call Carol “Mom”, and that was a great moment, and she is the creepiest child around, so think you’re going to miss that one too.
I can see a light!
Yes you can. So can I. It’s a lamp, and it’s right next to you. Drama queen.
I’m sick. ((sniffle))
This is true. Feel better. So that’s us this episode folks! We’ll see you next time, when Dustin will say…
Shut up and pass me that box of tissues. ((sniffle))
And there you go.
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