Kettle boils on a range while music plays. Out the window can be seen a little girl playing with a zombie. What the what?! Nighttime on the tracks. Carol and Lizzie are awake. Carol tells Lizzie to sleep. Lizzie says if there is trouble she can help with Judith. She asks Carol if there will be kids in Terminus. She says she saved Tyreese by shooting two people. Carol says she had to and saved Tyreese. Lizzie says maybe kids in Terminus will be there because they kept their parents safe. Lizzie asks Carol if she had kids. Carol says Sophia was sweet and didn't have a mean bone in her body. Lizzie asks if that is why her daughter died. Carol says she misses Sophia everyday. Lizzie asks if she will miss her. Carol says she won't have to miss her and then tells her to go to sleep with Tyreese and Mika. Tyreese mumbles in his nightmare. He wakes up and looks at Carol.
The next morning Lizzie finds resin in a tree that they use to cover Tyreese's cut. He asks Carol how long she thinks it will be until they get to Terminus. He says Lizzie is tough. Carol says Lizzie is tough with people. She misunderstands the walkers. Carol says Mika is worse because she doesn't have a mean bone in her body (therefore she will die like Sophia). Mika asks Carol to tell them the end of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. At first Mika says she is like Huck Finn but Lizzie says she is more like Tom. Mika agrees. She mentions that Lizzie isn't afraid of dead rabbits! Did she kill the rats at the prison?
Carol and Tyreese smell smoke. Carol takes Mika with her to get water. Tyreese and Lizzie play I spy. Tyreese sees someone walking down the tracks. It looks like a zombie. He gives Judith to Lizzie and grabs his hammer. He walks down the tracks and the zombie collapses. He goes to bash its head in. Lizzie stops him. She says sometimes they don't have to kill them. Carol brought Mika with her to talk to her about toughening up. Mika says that she can run. Carol says her daughter ran and it wasn't enough. Mika says she is not messed up like Lizzie. She knows what walkers are but can't kill people. She couldn't pull the trigger at the prison. She doesn't even wish she could kill someone trying to kill her. She feels sorry for them because that means those people changed. They weren't like that before. They stumble upon a clearing with houses ahead. She mentions her mom used to say everything turns out the way it's supposed to.
Tyreese and Lizzie join Mika and Carol. Carol says they should stay there for a while. There are pecans around and there are fences. Lizzie points out a giant billow of smoke. They walk up to a house and knock. Tyreese and Carol are going to clear the house. The girls are not to come in until they adults come out to get them. Lizzie holds Judith and stares at some graves in the yard. Lizzie says they are going to find a zombie in the house. Mika tells her zombies are not people. A zombie comes out and makes its way toward them. Mika fires several shots before she kills it. Carol tells her she saved them. She asks Lizzie why she is crying and she replies she doesn't want to say (read: she is sad they killed the zombie). Mika apologizes for yelling at her. She tells her to look at the flowers in the yard and count to three. Later in the night Lizzie and Carol crack nuts. Mika comes down with a doll that she found. Tyreese announces they have plenty of water and now they just need to find a deer. He is not used to being in a living room in a house. Mika tells him to relax. He sits in an arm chair and grabs a magazine to read. Mika says they should live there. Carol smiles.
The next morning Carol fills the tea kettle that we saw at the beginning of the episode and sets it to boil. She sees Lizzie playing with a zombie outside. Carol runs outside and kills the zombie. Lizzie screams at her no. Lizzie tells her the zombie wanted to be friends. She yells at Carol for killing her (the zombie). She yells at Carol that Carol doesn't understand. "She was my friend and you killed her!" She slumps to the ground crying. If you didn't already think that Lizzie was crazy this should dispel all doubts.
Mika and Carol are walking towards the woods. Mika is carrying a rifle. Mika says that if the smoke were white the fire wouldn't be burning anymore. She knows this because she was good at science. Carol tells her she is stronger than Lizzie and understands that zombie are zombies. She has Mika point the rifle at a deer. She can't kill it. Carol and Tyreese are by the well pump. He says maybe they don't need to go to Terminus. Mika was right. They should stay and live there. He tells Carol he trusts her. Mika calls for Lizzie. Lizzie is out by the tracks. She is feeding the zombie with a mouse. I think we now officially know that she was the zombie feeder and rat vivisector. She tells the zombie she will get it more mice. Mika finds her and tells her, "When we were giving them names, we were just pretending things weren't bad. Things are bad." Zombies are bad and they can't pretend anymore. Lizzie says she is not pretending. She can hear them. They want her to change and feel like them. She reaches her hand out to it. Burnt zombies come out of the woods. The girls run back to the house with the zombies following them. Mika trips and a zombie grabs her by the leg. Carol and Tyreese arrive and start shooting the zombies. Eventually Lizzie and Mika join in and start shooting the zombies.They get them all. Carol hugs Lizzie and tells her, "You did it."
Later that night Lizzie sits at the table. She says she had to help. She says she knows what she has to do now. Carol says that the cost of surviving is that it changes you. Mika says she doesn't want to be mean. Lizzie tells her she has to be mean sometimes. Carol teaches the girls how to roast pecans in the oven. The next morning Carol mentions to Tyreese that the girls like it there. If he doesn't want to go to Terminus they can stay. He says they may go someday. But he says he is not ready to be around other people yet. He tells her he dreams about Karen. He sees her every night and forgets she is dead. Carol looks uncomfortable and guilty as he talks about his dreams. On bad nights he sees someone kill Karen, some stranger. He says the living are haunted by the dead. "The whole world is haunted now." Carol looks like she is going to confess but then says that maybe the dead aren't haunting them but teaching them so they can live with what they have to do. He tells her to never be ashamed of who she is. She did right by those girls and everyone. He hugs her. They walk through the woods looking for a deer. She mentions that her husband used to hunt and tell the same stupid joke every year. "What's the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts? Beer nuts cost around $1.79 but deer nuts are just under a buck."
Lizzie is outside with Judith holding a bloody knife. She has killed Mika!!! She says, "Don't worry she'll come back I didn't kill her brain." Carol goes to grab the knife and Lizzie pulls a gun on her. She says they have to wait and then they will understand. Carol says they will wait as long as Lizzie gives her the gun. Lizzie gives her the gun. She tells Lizzie to go with Tyreese and take Judith back to the house. Lizzie says she was about to do the same thing to Judith. Carol calmly tells her that Judith can't walk yet. They will go back to the house and eat lunch and Carol will stay with Mika and tie her up with her shoe laces so she won't wander off. Carol cries once they leave. She grabs her knife and probably goes to finish Mika off. Lizzie is insane. She killed Mika and would have killed Judith if she hadn't been interrupted.
Carol and Tyreese are inside the kitchen talking. He tells her he took food to Lizzie and made sure she didn't have any knives. He found a box full of mice and asked if she had been feeding the walkers ate the prison. She said yes. She also said she was the one that vivisected the rabbit. She said she was just having fun. He thinks maybe she killed Karen and David but Carol says that she would have let them turn. Carol says she could go with Lizzie somewhere. She says they can't help her. This is how she is and it was already there. Tyreese says he and Judith should go. Carol says Lizzie can't be around other people. They both cry.
Lizzie and Carol walk through the fields. Carol says they should pick some wildflowers for Mika. Carol starts to cry. Lizzie asks if Carol is mad at her. She apologizes for pointing the gun at her. She says Carol is mad at her. Carol says she loves her. Everything works out the way it's supposed to. Lizzie keeps apologizing, but still doesn't realize why Carol is upset. Carol tells her to look at the flowers (what Mika told her earlier in the episode). Carol pulls out her gun and points it at Lizzie and fires. Tyreese looks on from the window. Carol walks shaking and crying towards the house. She sees a deer but keeps on walking.
They dig graves for the girls right by the graves that already existed. That night Tyreese and Carol sit at the table. A puzzles spread out on the table in front of them. She hands the gun to Tyreese and tells him she killed Karen and David to stop the spread of the disease. He says nothing just cries. She tells him to do what he has to do. He asked if Karen knew what was happening. Was she scared? No. Was it quick? Yes. He grabs the gun. Carol tells him to do what he has to do. He lets go of the gun. He looks at Carol and says, "I forgive you. I'm never going to forget. It happened. You did it. You feel it. I know you do. It is a part of you now. Me too. But I forgive you." She says thank you. He says they don't need to stay. They can't stay. The next morning, the house is abandoned. Everything left behind. Voice over: "I'm not afraid to kill. I'm just afraid." says Lizzie. "You fight it. You don't give up and then one day you just change. We all change." says Carol. Tyreese and Carol walk away from the house and head back onto the tracks towards Terminus.
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| RIP Mika. You were too good for this world. |
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| RIP Lizzie. May you find the peace and sanity you lost in this world. |
So many thoughts
- The dichotomy between these two sisters is that Mika can't kill the living and Lizzie can't kill the dead.
- Both this episode and last week's episode talked a lot about good people in the zombiepocalypse. Beth mentioned how there must still be good people around. She evoked faith and hope. This week the good people, those without a mean bone in their bodies, were seen as weak and sentenced to an early death in the zombiepocalypse. Sophia and Mika were compared in this episode but you can also add Dale and Hershel to this group. Good people don't last very long because they don't want to kill or hurt anyone. They can't do what needs to be done to survive so they don't.
- This episode highlights the different ways the youth of the zombiepocalypse have reacted to a change in their world. Mika kept her old self and died. Lizzie lost her mind becoming too hard and trying too hard to understand and sympathize with the zombies. Carl has adapted the best. He knows what needs to be done to survive but still has his bratty teenage moments. He has found a way to balance his old life with his new life. That balance is the key to surviving and still keeping your humanity.
- The puzzle on the table at the last scene is of Sophia. Melissa McBride mentioned this fact on The Talking Dead and an interview with Entertainment Weekly. It was just another way of having Sophia in this episode.
- For Carol this episode was not just about Mika and Lizzie but also about Sophia. Mika is similar in temperament to Sophia. In essence, she loses Sophia all over again. First, in the death of Mika and then in shooting Lizzie in the head except this time she shoots her daughter and not Rick.
- I think Tyreese was able to forgive Carol for killing Karen only after the deaths of Mika and Lizzie. I don't think he would have been as forgiving if he had found out at the prison. He literally needed to lose everyone and everything to get to that place of forgiveness.
- It's been speculated that the smoke seen in this episode is from the moonshine shack that Beth and Daryl set alight a couple of episodes back.
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