The Walking Dead Recap: Adventures in Babysitting

The Walking Dead

Inmates

Season 4 Episode 10

Editor’s Rating 4 stars ****

Photo: Gene Page/AMC/AMC Networks 2014

Just when it seemed like the show was slowing down, we get last night’s wild romp through the woods, full of tears, reunions, and one borderline case of infanticide. Now we know where most of the gang ended up after the Guv’s raid — often not where, or with whom, we expected. (The resulting chaos led to some super-awkward team-ups. Hello, Tyreese and Carol!) There was also some nifty twisting of the time line, as the episode begins with Daryl and Beth, then flashes backward, as seemingly insignificant details take on new meaning. Here’s what we learned as the survivors deal with life on the road.

Everyone is alive.
Well, Tara’s sister didn’t make it, but everyone else — including Judith and Carol, neither to much surprise — is still breathing. Poor Tyreese ended up in the worst posse by far, with Carol’s surrogate daughters and Rick’s baby in tow. Then he’s reunited with the woman who killed his girlfriend. Notice Carol’s careful explanation for where she’s been: Just out lookin’ for stuff, Tyreese. Definitely was not banished for preemptively murdering the chick you were hooking up with. Carol had better hope he’s not holding that hammer when he finds out the truth. But more on that later.

Everyone is really close to finding each other.
Not exactly sure where the Grimes-Michonne crew is in relation to everyone else, but the rest of them are right on each other’s heels. The episode starts with Daryl and Beth, who don’t really accomplish much. We later learn they’re right behind Tyreese, as they find the grapes that Lizzie and Mika stepped on, the walkers Carol killed to save the girls, and the father-son duo who die by the train tracks. They also pass by a log that Lizzie was sitting on, which is significant because …

Lizzie is Dexter, without the moral code.
Lizzie has always been a little off, but now she’s a full-blown psychopath. The twisted look on her face as she commits bunny murder suggests she has deep problems. That hunch is confirmed when she proves to be the worst babysitter ever. Yes, Judith is basically a chubby little zombie-magnet when she cries. I felt antsy watching her wail away from the safety of my couch, so I get it — she’s a liability. But Lizzie’s solution for keeping her quiet ranks among the series’ most disturbing moments. She was so determined to shut Judith up that she didn’t even turn to help her little sister fend off some walkers. Lizzie also makes a grim remark about Sasha, prompting a look from Tyreese that suggests “this child is mental.” Now it seems Lizzie was the one who left walker bait near the prison fence. The big question is this — is Lizzie, not Carol, the real killer?

“Terminus” is a thing.
Tyreese can’t save the father and his son, but his kindness is rewarded by the dying dad, who gives him a heads-up about a place where they’ll be safe. Up the road is a sign for their next stop, Terminus: “Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive survive.” Sounds a little too Woodbury-esque for comfort, but at this point, anything beats trudging through the woods with a baby and two kids. Is this the origin of that radio signal Michonne heard in the car, back in episode three?

The school bus escape plan was an epic fail.
When Maggie, Sasha, and Bob Barksdale find the bus, it’s full of undead — as far as I could tell, no one we really knew or cared about from the prison crew. As a commenter pointed out last week, why didn’t anyone establish a rendezvous point in case they needed to ditch their cell-block home? Perhaps simply for the sake of episodic television; otherwise, they’d all be together by now, and what fun would that be?

Glenn has a future in the post-apocalyptic NFL.
We knew Zombie Glenn wasn’t on that school bus when Maggie searched it (or we were pretty sure, at least). What we didn’t know was that Glenn wasn’t on the bus at all — he was passed out back at the prison, apparently still exhausted from his bout with zombie flu. Glenn has become one tough sonofabitch, taking just a moment to collect a few supplies, Maggie’s photo and himself before suiting up and making like Marshawn Lynch through a thick crowd of walkers. But maybe he’s a bit too badass — why does he take on those zombies by the roadside when he and Tara could have simply walked away from them?

Glenn calls Maggie his wife.
Awwwwwwww.

Glenn handles the news of Hershel’s death remarkably well.
Tara confirms that she didn’t fire a single shot during the siege. But when she accidentally drops the bombshell of Glenn’s father-in-law’s demise, he shows impressive restraint by not sending her off to fend for herself. For now, their partnership is one of necessity only. In Glenn’s mind, if Tara can help him find Maggie, then she’ll have atoned for backing the wrong dictator.

There’s a large gun-totin’, mustachioed ginger in them thar woods.
As if our heads weren’t already spinning from all of these plot lines swirling around, the episode ends with a few new faces — three well-armed survivalist types roll up on Tara and an unconscious Glenn is an armored truck. In Tara’s typical charming fashion, she calls them assholes. “You got a damn mouth on you, you know that?” says the leader, who gives off an ex-military air and rocks a fine Fu Manchu. “What else you got?” That doesn’t sound like a friendly question. Is this trio from Terminus? Where’d they get the sweet ride? And what “what else” are they looking for?