This week's The Walking Dead never truly mourns Lori or T-Dog's passing. Instead, its characters distract themselves. Rick channels Lizzie Borden during his hatchet happy raging Walker massacre, and Woodbury residents gawk at their Zombie Wrestling Federation games. Asking how grief fits into a world filled with death, the inelegant but effective episode never quite finds its rhythm.
Contrasting the previous episode's grim themes, everything starts with Woodbury's populace celebrating life. Mortality is the last thing on their minds when The Governor invites them to pop bottles and enjoy good times right now. That's forgotten when we see our dear leader brushing his zombified daughter's hair. Okay, maybe that doesn't pop out of nowhere as he told Andrea about his deceased family, but is it mandatory that every pocket of peaceful civilization keep a stash of Walkers around for kicks? F'real though.
Isn't it hard being a parent?
Our imprisoned band of merry men and women also live in the present, though by necessity. Rick's lost his grip on reality and blows off steam murdering Walkers. Andrew Lincoln gives an incredible performance, silently portraying a completely broken Rick. Maggie and Daryl focus on practical matters like finding food for the newest inductee into the Being Alive Club. No one focuses on past events, as there simply isn't time.
Inspector Michionne continues snooping around. Breaking into The Governor's quarters, she discovers his diary prominently featuring the name “Penny”. She also overhears The Governor talking with his head scientist about upcoming experiments. Seeing as Woodbury's leader wouldn't keep his daughter around without reason, they're probably looking for the cure Herschel dreamed of for his family. Investigating other parts of town, Michionne finds caged Walkers and cracks her first ever smile while disposing of them.
Meanwhile Herschel and Glenn have a horribly stilted discussion about how much T-Dog's demise matters. They try making someone on The Walking Dead's fringes into a saint, talking how he saved senior citizens at the zombie outbreak's start. There's a sense of trying to fill in his character's gaps posthumously, and it doesn't really work.
How Woodbury gets its undead pets is revealed when Merle and Smartypants McScientist (does the show ever say his name?) collect Walkers from specially designed trap. While some are culled, other get taken back to town when Manchild Geniusguy sees something in their eyes. Remember that discussion whether Walkers keep aspects of their personality into the afterlife? Bet this isn't related to that at all.
You should've seen the one that got away.
Daryl and Maggie raid a daycare in their epic quest for baby formula. It's a creepy segment, eulogizing a time when childhood didn't involve an impending sense of hopelessness. Especially effective are the decorations adorning the walls bearing kids names. One inscribed “Sofie” evokes Daryl's tireless hunt for Sophia. Speaking of her, anyone else notice how every zombified child on The Walking Dead is a little girl? There's the one in the first episode's first scene, Sophia, and now The Guvnah's daughter. What's up with that?
There's a throwaway scene where Michionne leaves Woodbury because of course, but it won't be the last we see of her. Afterward comes the episodes best moment, as Daryl gets incredibly domestic with Rick's baby and Carl suggests possible names for her. It goes as a litany of the lost: Sophia, Jacqui, Patricia, finally Lori. It seems Carl sees his mother's passing not as a monumental event, but just another unavoidable casualty.
D'awwwww
Then we're back to Woodbury for more good times, as the town watches Merle and some unknown hoodie wearing hunk wrestle in a ring of captive Walkers. Cue Andrea flipping out and The Governor assuring her it's all staged. Countering his theory this helps eliminate the peasants' fears, she proposes maybe being scared of often lethal monsters is kinda sorta a good thing.
In the final moments, Rick discovers his wife's final resting place. Lori's body has been devoured by a Walker, its stomach pregnant with her remains. Brutally parodying last episode's c-section scene, Rick stabs its belly countless times after blowing the biter's brains out. The theme of death becoming meaningless except for those immediately affected sufficiently pounded into viewers' heads, a plot device err... telephone magically starts ringing. Everyone who reads the comics begin freaking out.
Hello? Yes, this is psycopath.
The Walking Dead struggles a bit in this episode. Its always hard finding new direction after a major character dies, and we'll have to wait and see where things go. For now, the show resembles its characters: staying in the present, and dealing with tomorrow when it arrives.
