The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 4: Killer Within

So much happened in this episode.  It was intense and amazing.  It was The Walking Dead at its best.  There were unexpected zombie attacks, and the death of two main characters.  I feel like I am still processing everything that happened.


Doing some yard work

This episode began in a vary eerie way.  We see someone drag a half eaten deer carcass from the woods into the prison. Then half of the carcass was placed in the yard and the other half was hung in a doorway to the prison.  Then the heart (and I assume a few other organs) were left as a trail from the doorway to a gated area that Rick and the gang had locked to keep zombies out.  We do not see the face of the person doing this but they are wearing a prison uniform.

Out by the grassy knoll Rick, Daryl, T-Dog and Carol are organizing the clean up of dead, rotting walkers.  They have to yell for Glenn and Maggie to leave the little love nest they've created for themselves in a guard tower (Maggie better be careful or she'll end up pregnant soon).  The two surviving prisoners approach the group.  They want to join them.  They can't handle living in that cell block full of the dead bodies of their old friends.  Rick says no.  Then he has a little group meeting to see if anyone opposes the Ricktator.  T-Dog is the only one that seems sympathetic.  No one else trusts them.  Because of their experience with other survivors I understand their hesitancy (add on top of that the fact that they are convicts).  Rick repeats no and locks them up.  He tells them they can either live in their assigned cell block or leave.  If they choose to leave he will give them some food and a car.  T-Dog sees it as sentencing them to death by zombie.  It is not that different to what Rick did to the other convict, Andrew, in an earlier episode.

Back in the prison Lori has found some crutches.  She and Hershel's daughter whose name I can never remember help Hershel to his feet.  Lori wants him to practice a little and then lie back down.  Hershel is not a man to sit around.  He goes out into the yard.  The rest of the gang see him moving about and everyone has a happy moment.  And then the zombies started pouring into the yard like ants to a picnic.

Rick, Daryl, and Glenn were the furthest away.  Glenn went to close the hole in the fence they had been using while Rick, Daryl, and the others ran to help their friends.  Hershel and his daughter got behind a door and closed it.  T-Dog, Carol, Carl, Lori, and Maggie started shooting up the zombies in the yard.   T-Dog noticed the zombies were coming through a gate that had been locked before so he went to close it.  As he was finishing that a zombie came up behind him and bit him on the shoulder.  He and Carol ran into the prison.  They stumble down a hallway shooting all the walkers they encounter.  When they turn the corner they see their only way out is blocked by two walkers.  Carol no longer has any bullets.  T-Dog in his final moments becomes the hero that was always waiting to come out.  He runs at the walkers and yells at Carol to run.  He gets eaten by them and Carol goes out a door.  RIP Theodore Douglas aka T-Dog.  We wish we had gotten to know your character a bit better.  At least you died a hero.

Carl, Lori and Maggie ran back into the prison through another door.  They tried to go back to their cell block but there were zombies everywhere they went.  Carl opened a door and they went down into what looked like a boiler room.  Then Lori started to go into labor.  Maggie wanted to go back to Hershel but Lori knew there was no time.  Maggie was going to have to deliver the baby.  Lori started to push and could feel that something was wrong.  Maggie's hand was covered in blood.  Lori lay down and told Maggie to cut the baby out.  She told her to use Carl's knife and cut along her old C-sections scar.  Lori shared some last words with Carl. 

She was proud of him and he was going to survive this world.  He needed to follow his instincts to choose the right.  If something felt wrong then don't do it.  It seemed as she was warning him to avoid the kind of mistakes she had made.  She told him she loved him and their relationship was repaired.  As Carl cried Maggie cut into Lori.  Lori stopped moving and Maggie and Carl pulled the baby out.  At first it seemed as if the baby was dead.  But Maggie did a little baby CPR and the baby began to cry.  Maggie went to check the hall for walkers and while she did that Carl shot Lori.  He said he needed to be the one to do it.  Lori gave her life for her baby and Carl had to kill her to give her peace.

Rick, Daryl, and Glenn make it to the yard and finish off the zombies there.  Out of nowhere the prison alarm starts blaring.  This attracts walkers from outside the prison.  Rick shoots out the speakers.  He then accuses the prisoners, who followed them up to the yard, of setting off the alarm.  They swear it wasn't them.  They volunteer to show him how to turn off the alarm.  They find the room but a group of zombies follow them.  Daryl and Oscar (the super tall black prisoner) hold the door shut while Rick runs around the room trying to find the alarm and shut it off.  That's when they encounter Andrew.  He had survived being shut out by Rick and had planned a little vengeance to take back the prison.  He and Rick fight.  Rick drops his gun and Oscar picks it up.  Andrew yells at Oscar to shoot Rick.  Oscar shoots Andrew instead.  For a moment there it looks like he is going to shoot Rick.  Daryl comes up behind Oscar with his knife ready to attack.  But before anymore blood is spilled Oscar gives Rick his gun back.  He has chosen whose side he is on.  He wants to be a part of Rick's gang. 

Rick, Daryl, and Oscar make their way back through the prison.  They stumble upon T-Dog's half eaten body and find Carol's scarf lying on the floor by the door.  As they emerge out to the yard they meet up with Glenn, Alex, Hershel, and Beth.  Rick asks Hershel if he has seen Lori and Hershel says no.  From behind him emerge Maggie and Carl.  Maggie is covered in blood, carrying the baby, and shaking due to shock and grief.  Rick doesn't see Lori and asks Maggie.  She simply replies no.  Rick looks at Carl and starts crying and wailing uncontrollably.  He never got to fix his relationship with Lori and now he never will.  He is also partly to blame for the massacre.  Instead of killing Andrew himself he left him for the zombies.  Anger and hatred grew so much in him that he retaliated.  Now Rick is a broken man crying on the floor of a prison yard.


Michonne vs. the Governor

Back in Woodbury Michonne is investigating the military vehicles that the Governor and his posse brought back with them after attempting to "rescue" the helicopter pilot's military buddies.  She notices bullet holes and blood in the vehicles.  The Governor apparates out of nowhere and Michonne starts asking him about what happened.  He has an answer for everything.  It's all a little too neat and tidy.  Michonne is having none of it.  She does not trust the Governor and he can see as much.  So he then tries flattery.  He says that she has skills (yes she does, awesome katana wielding skills) and that she could be very useful.  I think he sees her as a threat because of her skills and questioning.  I'm glad that Michonne sees through his charming politician facade and wants to leave.  However, she is having a hard time convincing Andrea to leave.  Michonne tells Andrea her plan: find an island and live out the rest of their lives in peace.  

Andrea doesn't sound too happy with the plan.  Andrea seems to like Woodbury and the Governor.  She feels safe there.  She also has men there.  She's very flirty with the Governor.  He asks her to stay.  He tells her that his wife died before the zombiepocalypse and he was left with his daughter.  (He uses the present tense when discussing his daughter so I think it is safe to consider she is alive and living in Woodbury).  He tells her his name, Phillip (if you can believe anything he says).  Apparently Andrea has terrible taste in men.  First Shane, then Merle, and now the Governor. Andrea convinces Michonne to stay for one more day.  I think Michonne should ditch Andrea, make herself some new zombie pets, and find herself an island.


Merle vs. the Governor

Andrea gives Merle a map with Hershel's farm marked on it.  They flirt a little (Andrea will flirt with any bad boy that comes her way, it will not end well for her) and Merle mentions that were both left behind by the same people and saved by the Governor.  He then shows the Governor the map and asks for permission to go look for Daryl.  The Governor says no, it is too risky.  But then seeing that Merle is not backing down he says that if Merle can find some evidence that Daryl is alive he will go with Merle.  This is the first time we have seen Merle stand up to the Governor.  Old angry, racist Merle seems to have been tamed by the Governor.  But the mention of Daryl seems to bring back some of the old Merle.  I get the feeling the Governor senses the danger in Merle finding Daryl and will try to stop it by any means necessary.  He relies on Merle and has found it easy to control Merle.  Old Merle could be quite a threat to the Governor.  And we know what the Governor does to people who threaten his power.


Final Thoughts

- Lori made some major mistakes and she was the most irrational female character I have ever seen on television but I was still sad to see her go.  This season began with a very penitent Lori trying to fix her broken family. 
Neither her son nor her husband made it easy on her.  So she turned to helping Hershel. She saved his life and helped him walk.  She also gave her life so her child could live.  She realized the mistakes she made and imparted some last words of wisdom to her son (the son she always worried would be ruined in this new world).

- T-Dog, I wish we could have known you better.  He was an underused character and I always felt bad when an episode passed without a line from T-Dog.  The token black guy in the group is dead.  I guess Oscar will have to take that role now.

- Is Carol dead?  We saw her go out the door but didn't see her die or her dead body.  They only found a scarf.  She could be running down the halls of another section of the prison with walkers on her heel.

- This episode proved that no one is safe.  They just better not kill of Daryl Dixon.  I feel the show should end with Carl and Daryl among the survivors.  The strong, quiet ones.

- Was the purpose of this episode to kill some of the lesser developed and more hated characters?  If so, why didn't they kill Beth?

RIP Lori Grimes

RIP T-Dog

RIP Carol Peletier?