If it wasn’t obvious, spoilers follow. Watch the episode, then come back. No rush.

The newest episode of The Walking Dead was difficult to watch, it was, simultaneously exciting and disappointing. Not only did it introduce three brand new characters, the possibility of a cure to this “hell on Earth” (as Abrahams said), but it also showed that human decency could be on the brink of extinction (a guy killed his buddy over a bed…), but worst of all (meaning the hardest part to watch) were all the awkward moments and lines that didn’t follow any character’s background.

In this review, I’m going to point out why The Walking Dead‘s “Claimed” (Season 4 Episode 11), was simultaneously the best and worst episode of the season.

Ok, to start, let me describe why this was the best episode yet (of Season 4 at least):

THE GOOD

Fresh faces with a fresh story-arc in the future.

The episode not only introduced three new characters (Abrahams, Rosita, & Dr. Eugene Porter), but made them out to be saviours of the planet… pretty badass.

(Source Zap2It.com)

What kind of scientist sports a mullet?

(Source – both images found on ComicBook.com)

A Possibility For a Cure… Or At Least An Explanation Of How It All Got Started

This whole time, Dr. Eugene Porter (above with the vest & mullet), has been in contact with Washington D.C. and knows exactly “how this mess started” (according to Abrahams), and is on his way to explain what happened, and more than likely try to save the world. The new trio picked up Glen and Tara & decided to take them along for the adventure, until Glen wakes up. Glen refuses to go with them, in order to track down Maggie and be with her. After Abrahams tells Glen “Maggie’s probably dead, there’s no point you dying too” (paraphrasing), Glen and Abrahams get into a fist fight. The fight is interrupted when Dr. Eugene Porter, scientist, mullet owner and trained weapons expert (sarcasm is wonderful isn’t it?) attempts to shoot a single walker with a machine gun, and accidentally shoots the only vehicle they have and gets the attention of even more walkers, which he, again, doesn’t quite shoot. Now, the trio joins Tara and Glen on their search for Maggie, until “they find a vehicle” according to Dr. Eugene. I’m going to trust everything he says, because, as you know, he’s smarter than you, and I guess myself too, by default.

(Source SuperHeroHype.com

Even though it doesn’t seem like it, I like the new characters, and the dynamic they bring to the show. It’s an interesting story-arc that I want to see play out, and I’m glad it’s half-way through this season and not directly at the end.

What I liked about this particular episode was that it had three different storylines occurring at the same time, and pretty cleanly divided screen time for them.

Let’s just call these three sections 1) Glen’s morning 2) Rick’s morning & 3) Carl & Michonne’s morning.

Side note: I called each section (character’s name)’s morning because when Michonne and Carl leave Rick, it’s just about 8:15 am and they planned on returning to the house by noon.

THE BAD

Human Decency – Diminished. Wanting To Nap Is Cause For Murder.

On the other side of town (maybe they’re still in the same town, maybe not – Tara said Glen had been asleep in the back of that truck for 3 hours, then again they started walking back into town, so maybe their close to where) Rick, Carl & Michonne wake up, have cereal, (without soy milk) and start their adventurous day of scavenging.

Rick tries to get some well-deserved shut-eye as Michonne & Carl go out looking for food, and is awoken by the sound of someone (human, not a walker) being murdered on his main floor by men who literally will kill each other for no reason. Well, no good reason. One of these characters killed another one for taking a nap in a bed that was bigger than a child’s bed. Yup, one guy started napping, the other one said I want to nap, and they fought, and one died. It was messed up. Anyways, while Rick hears the men downstairs, he quickly hides under the bed to avoid being killed (obvious choice), because at this point, he has heard one guy die, and moments later another guy is killed directly in front of him.

That scene alone had the most impact, because Rick decided to not let himself be noticed and just lets a man die. Rick officially has no morality for strangers anymore. This distrust for anyone that isn’t “them” (him and his group) began with the two guys he ended up shooting in that episode way back in Season 2 entitled “Nebraska”, but now, just look at Rick’s face above when we see (the soon-to-be dead guy’s perspective and he looks at) Rick who is shown sideways – Rick’s emotions show, for a second a “oh no, I’ve been caught” and then, Rick tilts his head to watch the man die, knowing that as long as he stays quiet, nothing will change, Rick shows content when that man dies.

Just in a quick 10-second scene where Rick is hiding under a bed, actor Andrew Lincoln showed us why we keep coming back to Walking Dead. It’s not about the Walkers, it’s not even about people trying to survive in a world with Walkers, the show has become trying to survive people that will kill anyone, “dead alive” or alive and how a group of good people will turn on each other to survive minutes or even moments longer than people that were their friends moments ago.

Side note: “Dead alive” is another Abraham quote – I’m liking this character…

Rick ends up escaping “the strangers” (temporary nickname) without being noticed and actually ends up killing one of them in the bathroom. Question is, why were his pants up if he was sitting on the toilet? Attention to detail is everything people.

Rick escapes and manages to hide beside the front porch conveniently at the same time that Carl & Michonne come back from their run, and before Michonne and Carl are noticed by the stranger sitting on the front porch, Walkers show up to distract him and the other strangers, conveniently, at the same time Rick was going to attack him. All three of them start running and end up on (conveniently) the same train tracks that Tyreese, Carol, Judith and those two girls decided to start walking on. AND they are all apparently heading to the same “Sanctuary” where “Those who arrive survive”

(Source EdgeCast.com)

Awkward Moments, Acting Out Of Character, etc.

(Source IMPawards.com)

Let’s start with Carl and Michonne’s relationship: they first bonded when Morgan returned to the show (for absolutely no reason, but to be crazy) and Michonne and Carl went on a run to get a baby carriage for young Judith (Carl’s newborn sister), but in reality, Carl wanted to get the last surviving picture of his mother (that he knew of) as a gift to his little sister. Michonne accompanied and ended up helping Carl get the picture even though the bar the picture was in was crowded with Walkers. Long story short, their awkward friendship was formed through this confusing episode that lead up to a disappointing Season 3 finale.

In the latest episode of The Walking Dead, Carl & Michonne go to make a run for basic supplies while Rick stays home to rest (look how that turned out for him…) and they find a house that is occupied by a family that “Opted Out” as Jenner said in Season 1.

While on their supply-run, Michonne and Carl bond through their common loss of a baby that was close to them – Carl (thinks he) just lost younger sister Judith, and Michonne reveals that she lost her (toddler aged) son André “after all this got started” (meaning the outbreak). Here’s where things fall apart.

Michonne, to this point, has been a Katana wielding ninja-like sword-stress/badass with a hood, and has slowly been showing more of an emotional side, but she went too far in yesterday’s episode. Since the mid-series break ended, and Walking Dead Season 4 continued, we saw a nightmare of Michonne’s where she feels remorse of using her brother and lover as Walker-Deterent…

(Source TheExaminer.com)

They looked so happy before they became her Pet Walkers…

Oh Photoshop…

Anyways, her emotional range has been survive, slice & dice, and bargain. And all of a sudden, she’s tasked with being Carl’s new best friend and she becomes like a weird-trying-to-be-cool Aunt with her weird games that involve a question-based reward for making sure each room is clear of Walkers and pillaged of all usable food/supplies.

(Source IGN.com)

Then the most awkward part occurs. Carl & Michonne get to the top floor and Carl starts asking more awkward questions, like “Does my dad know you had a kid, that died because of the Walkers?” (paraphrasing of course), and Michonne of course says no, because who introduces themselves then says my little son got eaten by strange men with blood all over themselves?

Michonne continues to play her awkward game, and says he has to find one item in the hallway that they can use and she’ll answer another question – Carl comes back with a painting that’s covered in bubble wrap with the brilliant line “This is all I could find, will it do?” She doesn’t even check the painting before saying yes…

Amateur move.

Besides the point – the painting is creepy and for some reason covered in blood with scratches all over it, so my question is: why did someone bubble wrap that painting? Also, it was blocking the doorway that lead to a bathroom that lead to a child’s bedroom that lead to another child’s bedroom, where Michone finds five children that mass-suicided themselves and then tells Carl there was a dead dog in the room. WHAT? He lives in the same world as you Michonne… Dead people are literally walking around trying to eat and kill him… what would it matter if he knew some random kids committed suicide together?

The scene was awkward, flawed and just out of character. So was the scene between the two of them directly before this one – where Michonne SprayCheese’s her own mouth, mimics a Walker and then asks him what’s wrong, when it was clear at breakfast he accidentally said he would rather drink Judith’s milk than Soy Milk and then he remembered that she’s dead (as far as he knows).

More awkward lines from Glen & Tara’s Morning:

1) Dr. Eugene Porter has been traveling with Rosita and Abrahams for how long? Just over a year I’m guessing, and the two army buffs never thought to teach the scientist to shoot a gun? He shot everything except for the Walker in front of him, including their truck. Yea, trust him, he’s smarter than you.

(Source Youtube.com)

2) The three new characters are so dedicated to going to Washington, DC, to “literally save the world” that they completely give up the second a complete stranger (Glen) decides not to join them. That seems completely logical.

3) Paraphrasing here, but this scene was unusual – Abrahams: “Your girlfriends probably dead.” Glen “You’re wrong” = fist fight. Yup, that makes total sense.

(Source YouTube.com)

4) When Abrahams and Tara are talking at the back of the group on their way back to where Tara met the three new characters, in hopes to find Maggie, Abrahams says he can tell Tara is a good person because she’s following Glen and that shows allegiance. And then Tara starts to question why Abrahams is helping Dr. Eugene Porter get to Washington, she says (again I’m paraphrasing) “Dr. Porter knows how this started so that’s why he’s going, and Rosita is in love with you, so she’ll do anything you say, but I don’t know why you’re going, it’s not because you’re a good person.” Wait. Hold up. Let’s take a step back.

Even she thinks this played out awkwardly…

(Source Youtube.com)

Was there a deleted scene that we didn’t get to see? How come this line even make it into the final edit? It makes no sense. Rosita hasn’t even said anything yet, and she definitely hasn’t shown her undying love for Abrahams. The best part is, Abrahams doesn’t even react – so he knows. We didn’t know. We were never told, but Abrahams knows, he knows that Rosita loves him and will do anything for him.

Hmm. Maybe it’s just me but perhaps that tidbit of information would’ve better been portrayed through an action of some sort, or a scandal, or anything besides that awkward line.

VERDICT

All-in-all, this, like I said earlier, has been the best and at the same time, worst episode of the season. It had high points – showing

1) Rick’s loss of compassion for stranger (danger)s,
2) his ability to survive, unseen and unnoticed (except for that poor guy on the toilet)
3) introducing new characters that will push a brand-new story arc,
and 4) teasing a sanctuary for survivors of the apocalypse.

But at the same time, the show also had low points – showing

1) Rick’s ability to sneak around like a ninja, climb out of a window and off a roof with a busted up hand that he couldn’t even use to get off the bed with
2) Carl & Michonne’s awkward chemistry over breakfast and the rest of the entire episode, let’s try and keep them separate from now on, they’re weird together, they don’t mix, AND
3) introducing new characters that are dead-set on saving the world, but give up as soon as Glen says he lost his wife.

The episode had more awkward moments than good ones, but it also pushed this season into a brand new story-arc including the possibility of a Sanctuary and even better, the possibility of a cure/explanation for everything.

Did you enjoy the episode? What did you think of my review? Any thoughts on some of the points I made?

Let us know below!

2/24/2014 – 3:15 am

by James