By Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com
This was another place-holding episode that sets up a confrontation between Rick's crew and the Grady crew next week for the mid-season winter finale. Not a heck of a lot happened relatively speaking.
The survivors were splintered into four groups. Here's a quick summary of what each was up to:
The fire truck sextet (Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, Tara, Glenn, Maggie): We are back a few moments after the big revelation two episodes ago that Eugene was a faker and Abraham had punched the daylights out of him. Abraham is almost catatonic on his knees for much of the hour until near the end, when Maggie breaks him out of it. Inexplicably, Maggie let Rosita and Tara go with Glenn to get water. (Huh? Why would they voluntarily separate like that?) We learn a bit more about Rosita's background and how she met up with Abraham in Dallas and bought into his purpose to save the world. But she isn't nearly as upset about Eugene's revelation. She admired him for using his smarts to stay alive, even if it meant the D.C. journey is over. Glenn welcomes Rosita into the group since she shows some good survival smarts. For instance, she learned water filtering skills from Eugene. They also came up with an ingenious way to capture fish. Eugene eventually comes to and in a sense, so does Abraham, who will have to forgive Eugene for them to move forward.
QUOTE
"Sit down or I'll put you down." - Maggie to Abraham.
Later, she asks if he wanted to shoot her. "At first, I did. But then I didn't."
The church quartet (Gabriel, Michonne, Carl, Judith): Carl tries to get Gabriel to pick a weapon and learn how to use it. He grabs a machete. But he doesn't plan to use it for defense. He uses it to take a few boards out of his room and escapes - for what? He appears to be too wimpy to just kill himself - or to survive long on his own. He doesn't even take the machete with him and he steps on a nail to add insult to injury. So he wanders out limping and gets attacked by a lone walker who almost gets him. He manages to life the walker up and render her immobile. He's about to kill her for good with a big rock but he sees the woman has a cross. So he leaves her alone, which is hardly humane. Earlier, Michonne tries to empathize with Gabriel. But he seems scared and blank-faced. This guy is destined to die soon enough. But how and when?
QUOTE
"You're lucky your church has lasted this long. You can't stay in one place anymore Not for too long. Once you're out there, you're going to find trouble you can't hide from. You're going to have to learn how to fight." - Carl, giving sage advice to Gabriel.
The hospital (Carol, Beth): You'd think after Beth was captured that she'd be rudely punished by Dawn. But instead, Dawn says she respects her and says she's stronger than Dawn had thought. While Dawn argues with another cop that Carol is not in good shape and probably not worth keeping around, Carol suggests they not waste electricity on his DVDs. So Dawn decides to pull the plug on Carol and see if she recovers on her own. Surprisingly, Dawn wants Carol to live so she give Beth the key to the drugs so she could help save Carol. So she gives meds to Carol. Dawn has no idea what's about to happen.
QUOTE
"You don't know how fragile this thing is." - Dawn to Beth, noting her decisive decision-making, whether it's wise or not.
The rescuers (Rick, Daryl, Tyreese, Sasha, Noah) They all leave the church to save Beth and Carol, with guidance from Noah, who they sense is trustworthy. Noah shoots in the sky to draw a couple of Dawn's minions. Noah is "arrested" but then Rick and the crew surround the two cops, who relent quickly, realizing they've been duped. Then a third cop (the skeezy one that hit on Beth) comes by and tries to take down Daryl. He gets close, sticking Daryl's head close to a near dead walker whose choppers are still going. But Daryl grabs another near-dead walker, using his eye sockets for leverage and bangs the skeezy cop's head with it. Rick points a gun at the cop and they are able to corral all three into their custody. Rick decides to use them for leverage in hopes of a peaceful exchange for Beth and Carol. One of the cops (Bob Lamsen) promises to help them, says he knows Dawn really well. Sasha keeps him around while Rick, Tyreese and Daryl go to negotiate, with just his hands handcuffed. Otherwise, he's mobile. Bob spins some tale about seeing someone he knew outside and Sasha volunteers to shoot him. While she isn't looking, he bangs her into the window, knocks her out and runs. (Earlier, Tyreese tries to help her come to terms with the death of her Bob, equating it to losing his own girlfriend.)
QUOTE
"We all owe Carol." - Michonne to Rick.
"I owe her more." - Rick
And Chad Coleman, who plays Tyreese, just started following me on Twitter. Sweet!
TALKING DEAD
Sonequa Martin-Green is a guest. She is now eight months pregnant. Hmmm... does that mean she going to last the season?
She said Sasha felt shame by not killing her Bob but Tyreese said she did honor him by allowing him to help her. And when she heard the cop's name was Bob, she was in a more open mood and accepted his story at face value, making her vulnerable.
Deaths: telephone polls walkers, melting walkers, poke your eyes out walker, which was especially creative.
Why were there melting walkers? Atlanta was napalmed at one point. Shane and Lori saw the airstrikes from afar season two, episode 5.
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