Walking Dead Recap S4E1: 30 Days Without An Accident
We find the prison a much calmer place. There are flowers, and the walkers are no longer roaming the grounds, they're outside the gates. And even as Rick digs up a gun he doesn't even attempt to use it to off a few of the walkers. Things have changed!
And there are farm animals too! Heck, things have been so calm that they've raised piglets into pigs.
Carol and Daryl have grown closer, and Daryl is getting some respect! The zombies continue to come towards the prison, and though they keep clearing them away, they keep coming. Carol worries about the higher numbers.
Glenn worries about Maggie, he doesn't want her on the search today. She reluctantly agrees.
Tyrese hates killing the zombies on the fence. He asks to go on the run instead. He only did zombie cleaning duty to get to know Kelly. Looks like everyone has found a little love in this brave new Walking Dead world, even Hershel's youngest Beth.
Hershel teaches Rick the fine art of farming. When Michonne comes riding back in. She returns with a few gifts, comics for Carl and a razor for Rick. She doesn't come back with the news the search party is hoping for. Rick is reluctant to join the group, desiring to take a backseat to the action. Rick urges Carl to be a kid. Hershel makes note of Rick's new role as well, and he understands it, but wants Rick to bring a gun when he goes out, to be safe.
Rick goes out to check the traps, and happens across a person. Is he losing his mind again? I'm not sure I can take another season of crazy Rick, it was too heartbreaking to see his breakdown the first time around. She asks for his help, and crazy as she looks, she doesn't appear to be one of the walkers. Rick hands the woman a sandwich. She asks if he has a camp, and if they can come back with him. Rick doesn't say no immediately, but instead wants to interview him first. He searches the woman for a weapon, and he doesn't find anything, but he still doesn't trust her.
The kids pass the time by naming the zombies, and talking to them through the fence. Carl doesn't like that they're being named, tells them that they're not people or pets.
The search party sweeps through a former military camp. Zack tries to get into Daryl head, and figure out who Daryl was before the walkers. He gets one guess a day he explains to Michonne. He guesses a homicide detective, and Michonne and Daryl have a little fun with his very wrong guess. Sasha and Tyrese plan a course of action for their search, but they have no idea of the helicopter wreckage above them.
The woman in the woods tries to explain how and why shes here and with the one shes with. He asks her what she had to do. She talks about the little things, eating rotten fruit and killing animals, and the bigger harder ones too: leaving people behind, and hiding from those who need her help.
Michonne and Glenn are shopping. Glenn looks at cameras and baby stuff. Bob looks at the booze and considers pocketing a bottle. He thinks better of it, and is rewarded by the shelves collapsing on him. The entire search party comes to his rescue, right in time to see it start raining zombies. The ceiling collapses, and bodies fall to the floor, sending people scrambling.
The woman asks Rick if he has to do things like that, he doesn't answer, he's done far worse.
Glenn desperately fights off two zombies, as more come crashing down. Tyrese narrowly escapes a few, as Michonne and Sasha clean house. Daryl does what Daryl does like a boss, noticing what has made the roof unstable. And while they free Bob, Zack goes down and everyone scrambles away.
The woman and Rick finally make it to her camp. And she tries to kill him there. The companion she spoke of was her baby, her zombie baby, who she needed to feed. Failing to kill him, she stabs herself in the stomach, begging Rick to not kill her when she turns. He reveals his questions. How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why? She answers his questions, as she dies. He walks away, leaving them both untouched.
Carol reads to the children, Carl sneaks in, and see what storytime is really about. When the other adult leaves, Carol stops reading and pulls out the knives. Phineas claims illness and asks to be excused. Carl watches shocked, and Carol asks that it be kept from Rick.
Rick finds his way back to camp, and his pig Violet has passed, and this hits Rick hard.
Tyrese comes back to Kelly with a confession, he didn't like it outside much either. Glenn breaks the news to Maggie, tells her that Daryl is breaking the news to Beth. Maggie tells Glenn that she's not pregnant, and he's relieved, but she wants to keep trying, she wants to be pregnant. Daryl tells Beth about Zach, and she takes the news pretty easily. She doesn't cry anymore she tells him, glad she got to know him. Our big softy is taking the news harder, saying that he's tired of losing people. She hugs him, and they both admit that they hare goodbyes.
Michonne finds a new spot to search.
Hershel tries to ease Rick's conscious about the woman. She wondered if you get to come back from the killing, and Hershel tells him that you do.
Bob is having rough time night. Phineas is ill. He tries to take a shower and collapses. Could it be linked to the dead pig? His fall killed him, and he comes back as a walker.
As the first episode of the season this one left much to be desired. The flash forward works, even the new development in leadership and relationships work, but I'll be honest, the little asides to unknown characters were almost too much. The danger means nothing, if we don't really care if they survive it. I felt no intensity with Bob under the rack, or remorse at Zack's death, and not because I'm cried out like Beth. The woman's plight over trying to kill Rick to save her zombie child didn't tug at the heart strings because we don't know her. Had that storyline been used with Maggie I would have been in tears. But the season is long, and looks like its going to be an intense one. What do you guys think? Did the Walking Dead take a misstep with this one? Am I off base? Or does any of that matter, because at least its back?
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