There were those who retained hope and others who lost their sense of purpose. A sign along the road reads “Hitchhikers may be escaped inmates,” which parallels their situation. Our escapees are hitching a ride to anywhere at this point as they have no direction and wonder whether there is any purpose beyond surviving to just to survive.
We start the episode with Beth and Daryl together and a narrative overlay of Beth reading a journal note she wrote when they were getting settled in the prison. In it she talks about how Hershel had told them they should believe in a future. “This morning, Daddy said something. 'If you don’t have hope, what’s the point of living?' … You should write down wishes to make them come true. We can live here. We can live here for the rest of our lives.” This sets up for us viewers the extent of the loss of the survivors and shows how they lost not just their walls, but their hope – because they really had started to believe. It also reminds us that the group has recently lost Hershel, and some are remembering his legacy.
We continue to follow Beth and Daryl through the woods as they’re tracking footprints from people they think may be from their group. Beth retains hope to find others whereas Daryl is pessimistic. When they see footprints, Beth says they’re signs that others are alive. Daryl says they’re signs people were alive four or five hours ago. While Beth is still thinking of Hershel, Daryl we remember was one of the last to give up hope in looking for Sophia – a hope that was crushed when they discovered that Sophia had been a walker all that time, trapped in Hershel’s barn. This hope of Beth lasts until they come across walker-kill by the train tracks. Assuming it’s the people they were tracking, Beth crumbles and burns the journal pages.
After we leave Beth and Daryl in that state we see real signs of hope – Baby Judith is alive! She’s with Tyreese, Lizzie and Mika as they dodge walkers through the woods. Judith may be hope, but she’s also a liability, as she keeps crying and attracting walkers. It soon becomes clear that this group is the one that Beth and Daryl were tracking. We’re also treated to another surprise. Carol joins them and saves Mika, Lizzie and Judith from walkers after Tyreese left to investigate some screams. Apparently Carol had been monitoring the prison and had witnessed the attack, and followed Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika, and Judith into the woods.
When Mika, Lizzie, and Judith are in danger, and it looks like Lizzie is about to smother Judith to stop her from crying, Carol rescues them, saving Judith’s life – an ironic twist since Rick had banished Carol because he didn’t want her near his children. If Judith represents hope on the show, and Judith is a liability, can we take this one step further and say hope is a liability? That seems to be true because their hope lies in trusting people, and people like the Governor, who are too far gone, often betray. What does it say about Lizzie and the children growing up in this world, that her instinct when left with Judith was to smother her? What does it say about Carol’s role in this story because she saved Judith?
The two stories weave in nicely together, with small touches pulling the two narratives together. Examples include Lizzie and Mika picking grapes, and then Beth picking grapes to save for the people they are tracking. Another example is the man who got bit by the train tracks being the walker who attacks Beth and Daryl.
A train to nowhere
A bigger question is what the final destination of these survivors is. There’s a conversation between Bob and Sasha about whether they’re just surviving to survive, or whether everything should mean something. While Sasha tells Bob that not everything has to mean something, Bob tell her, “No, it doesn’t have to but it can, if you make it that way.” While I doubt we’ll get much more than hints of the group’s final destination this season, there seems to be a gradual shift from the survivors just running from things to moving toward something. There’s talk of “answers” that has worked its way into the dialogue at least twice in series so far: first with Rick last season when he was going insane and looking the dead for answers, and then in the previous episode with Michonne. Morgan in the episode Clear seemed to be on the path of uncovering some truth in his insanity. I think at some point we may start to turn the corner from where this series just gets darker and darker to where there is some light. We’re probably not there yet, but there has to be some purpose at the end of this.
Is Glenn the new Hershel?
“Hershel, Maggie’s father, was a great man. And he told me all I had to do is believe, and that’s what I’m going to do.” –Glenn
When Glenn wakes up at the prison, there’s something almost Biblical about the way the scene is filmed, with Glenn reawaking up high while the dead reach up from below. He wakes up alone and has a moment of despair, but he sees the picture of Maggie that he had snapped last season and heads out, pushing his way through a walker pack, and meeting up with Tara, who is lost and not fighting even though she has a gun full of ammo.
When Tara asks why Glenn he would want her help, Glenn responds, “I don’t want it. I need it,” establishing that he has learned the lessons that Hershel taught, and that he knows they all need to work together to survive. He inspires Tara to keep going and help and gives her a sense of purpose, the way Hershel was also giving people jobs to do. Glenn tells Tara that things aren’t over, to which she responds doubtfully, “I want to believe that. I want to.”
Other thoughts:
- We were introduced to three new characters at the end who are from the comic books. We haven’t seen much of them yet, but what did you think of their entrance so far?- We saw Glenn and Tara fight off the walkers near the spot that Maggie, Bob, and Sasha had passed by earlier as they continued down the road to look for the school bus. Do you think we’ll get a Maggie-Glenn reunion soon?
- While those two groups seem to be on one path, the groups with Daryl and Beth and Carol and Tyreese are following the train tracks, so I’m predicting a Daryl-Carol reunion soon as well. Daryl knows that Carol killed Karen and David, so it will interesting to see his reaction. I’m thinking he won’t say anything, and Rick will change his mind later – now that his illusion of being able to restore things to the way they used to be is gone. What are your thoughts? How do you think this will play out?
- I was really scared for Judith in this episode and was certain Lizzie was going to suffocate her. I had doubted she had died at the prison, but when Lizzie put her hand over her face, I couldn't watch. Do you think Lizzie was trying to kill her or just quiet her?
- We had more dialogue between Lizzie and Mika about understanding the walkers. Lizzie: “Don’t yell at her, she doesn’t understand walkers.” Mika: “You’re the one who doesn’t understand them.” Which brings us back to the rats. I’m now on board with the theory that the person who fed the rats to the walkers will be revealed to be either Lizzie or Mika, and there will be more to this theme of coming to understand walkers that will tie into their next destination.
- Apparently Lily's gone. I think Tara says she saw her get swarmed with walkers.
- My favorite scene from this episode was Glenn waking up with the horde of walkers reaching up for him. Wonderful filming angle and effects.
- A nice quote from Tyreese to the girls: “Don’t be sorry. You each do things your own way, but you get them done.”
- Bob also had a nice quote from when Maggie wanted to let out the walkers from the bus. “Fine, but we do it together. Smart.” It mirrored what Glenn was telling Tara.
