Walking Dead Recap S4E14: The Grove

In a quiet house, a tea kettle breaks the silence. A child runs around outside, and a walker lurks nearby as the child runs about like its all a game.

Lizzy can’t sleep, but Carol tells her that she can. Lizzy is worried about trouble coming, and if there will be kids in the city they’re headed to. Lizzy tells her that she kept Tyrese safe, that some people were trying to kill him, and she shot them. She asks Carol if she had kids, and she tells her that she did, that she misses her. Lizzy asks if she’ll miss her when she’s gone, but Carol tells her that she isn’t going to have to, that she’s not going anywhere. Tyrese tries to gets sleep, but is plagued by nightmares.

Lizzy finds some sap, and Carol uses it to cover Tyrese’s wound. He wonders how many days out they are. He remarks how tough Lizzy is, and Carol tells him that she doesn’t see the walkers in the right light, she just thinks they’re different, but she thinks Mika is worst off, because she doesn’t see bad in anyone. The girls are happy to have Carol back with them. They smell a fire, and Carol wants to stop to look for water. She has Mika help her, while Lizzy, Tyrese and Judith rest. Tyrese spots something on the tracks and leaves the baby with Lizzy, trusted hammer in hand he goes to take out the walker, but something gets it before he does. It’s trapped on the tracks. Lizzy stops him from killing the walker.

Carol took Mika with her to toughen her up she says. Mika tells her she doesn’t have to be tough because she can run, but Carol knows that’s not enough. Sophia ran, and she died. Mika tells her that she can kill walkers but she cannot kill people. Lizzy is the one that killed Karen and David, and she isn’t messed up like her sister. She tells her that killing people is wrong. Carol tells her that she needs to change the way she thinks. Carol and Mika find a house, which looks just right. Good luck Goldielocks, nothing is perfect for long.

Carol, Lizzy, Mika, Tyrese and Judith head to the house. Lizzy makes sure that they’re still heading towards Terminus. Carol just wants to rest at the house for a little while. Carol and Tyrese prepare to check the house while the girls wait outside. Mika tells Lizzy that they’re going tot be ok, but Lizzy is focused on the grave. Mika tells Lizzy that the walkers aren’t people that they’re dead, when one comes after the girls. With Judith in her hands Lizzy can only watch in horror as it comes for her. Mika kills it, and Lizzy is upset.

Later she tells Carol that she’s trying to understand. Mika found a doll and is estatic. Tyrese finds that there is lots of water, and if they can hunt down a deer, there will be plenty of food. Mika tells Tyrese that they should stay, and live there, and the proclamation scares him just a bit.

Carol starts up the tea kettle, she sees Lizzy running out back with a walker. Carol springs into action, killing the walker with her knife. Lizzy thought the walker was playing with her, and she yells at Carol for killing her. She tells her that she doesn’t understand, that she didn’t have to kill her, that she wasn’t trying to hurt her. Lizzy thought the little girl walker was her friend. Tyrese watches from a window as Lizzy screams at Carol.

Mika and Carol go hunting. The fire is still burning in the distance. Carol tells Mika that she’s smarter than the animal, and she tells her to take aim at the doe, but Mika can’t kill her. But hey, there’s peaches back at the house.

Tyrese is thinking that maybe Terminus isn’t the answer, that maybe Mika is right. Tyrese is happy with their little group, he tells Carol that he trusts her.

Mika goes looking for Lizzy, who is up to her old tricks again. She’s feeding a mouse to the walker on the tracks. Mika tells Lizzy that walkers are bad, that theres no pretending anymore. Lizzy thinks that they walkers just want to change her into one of them, and that it may not be such a bad thing. A group of burned walkers chase after the girls, and Carol and Tyrese come running at the sounds of their screams. Mika gets caught in the fence, and Lizzy struggles to save her. Carol and Tyrese make it in time to kill off the closest walker, and the quartet kill the threat.  

Carol talks to Lizzy. Lizzy thinks that she now knows what they have to do, it’s the world they live in. Mika doesn’t want to be mean, but Lizzy tells her that they have to be mean sometimes. Carol goes a little cooking with the girls.

Carol and Tyrese patrol. Carol starts to think that they could stay, they could build up the defenses, find food. Tyrese admits that he’s not ready to be around more people, he confesses that he sees Karen sometimes, that he forgets that she’s dead. Carol listens on, as he talks about the horror of someone killing her, that it hurts all over again. But they have to keep on living, the whole world is haunted now, but they have to keep on going until they’re dead. Carol has a confession to make, but she doesn’t She tells him that they’re loved ones aren’t haunting them, but maybe reminding them what they need to do. Tyrese hugs her, and Carol feels even worse.

The two go hunting for the deer, and Carol tells him that her husband use to hunt deer and tell bad jokes every deer season. Tyrese urges her on, and she tells one of his jokes. “What’s the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts? Beer nuts are about $1.79 and deer nuts are just under a buck.” They laugh at the cheesy joke, but the happiness is quickly shattered.

They find Lizzy covered in blood. She killed Mika, but tells them not to worry, that she’ll come back because she didn’t hurt her brain. Carol moves to take the knife from Lizzy, but she grabs the gun. She wants them to wait, so that she can see that its all okay. That she’ll change but she won’t be a danger to them. She hands over the gun when Carol tells her that she won’t do anything but watch. Lizzy was about to help Judith change too, but Carol tells her that Judith can’t even walk yet. Carol talks Lizzy into going with Tyrese to get some lunch, while she cleans up and ties up Mika. Carol knew there was something wrong with Lizzy and did nothing, this is as much her fault as it is Lizzy’s. What the hell do they do with Lizzy now?

Tyrese fed her, and put Lizzy in her room after he checked her room. Tyrese tells Carol about the shoebox full of mice, Lizzy admitted that she fed the walkers at the prison, that she dissected the rats. Tyrese thought that maybe she killed Karen and Dave too, and Carol tells him that it was her. Carol offers to take Lizzy and leave, so that he and Judith would be safe. Carol thinks she should have seen this coming, that this is just the way that Lizzy is, that if Carol leaves Tyrese and Judith won’t likely make it. Worse of all, Carol concludes that Lizzy can’t be around other people.

Carol takes Lizzy out to pick some flowers for Mika. Lizzy thinks that Carol is mad at her for pulling out the gun. She starts crying, she tells her that she just needed her to wait. Carol tells her that she loves her. Lizzy begs her to not be mad at her. Carol tells her to just look at the flowers, as she does the hardest thing she’s ever done, and shoots the child. Tyrese watches from the window. Carol staggers back towards the house, and sees the doe, but can’t bring herself to even aim at it.

Carol digs graves for both of the girls, and Tyrese brings the bodies.

The house is quiet, Carol slides the gun towards Tyrese. She finally confesses that she killed Karen and David, that she had to keep the virus from spreading. It wasn’t Lizzy or a stranger, but her who killed the woman he loved. She tells him to do what he has to do, but he doesn’t raise the gun against her. Karen will still be dead. He asks if it was quick, and Carol says yes as he grips the gun. Head down, she accepts her fate, but he lets go of the gun, and forgives her. He forgives, but he will never forget. He tells her that they don’t need to stay, that they can’t stay. And just like that the perfect house is abandoned, the could have beens gone, and Carol, Tyrese and Judith head back out. There’s no looking back.