The Walking Dead returned from its winter break with “After,” written by Robert Kirkman and directed by Greg Nicotera. This powerhouse team combined with amazing performances by Chandler Riggs (Carl), Danai Gurira (Michonne), and Andrew Lincoln (Rick) delivered a truly great layered and complex episode – everything we’ve come to expect from this show.
After the fall finale, it would have been impossible to top that action-packed episode, so this much more introspective and subtly constructed episode packed even more of a punch. I hope those who were disappointed in not seeing their favorite character in this episode will be able to look past that and see this as the terrific episode it is. It had been hinted that an episode would closely mirror the comic this season, and this is likely that episode.
The episode picks up almost immediately from where we left our characters. I suspect that the next one or two episodes will begin with the same crane shot of the burning tank – though that shot and the shot of the dead horse really echo Rick’s entry into Atlanta in the first episode and a new beginning here. Just as in that first episode, our characters are scattered and need to re-group. So, the next episodes will begin with that shot and move out to follow different groups. Following Michonne and Rick and Carl was not a random choice as their stories add texture to each other.
Danai Gurira was simply outstanding in this episode. Her sword work as always resonates with a balletic grace, but we finally get to see the layers pulled back on Michonne’s carefully guarded control and get a flashback to her past. She begins the episode by creating two more of the armless, jawless shield walkers that we first saw her with. When she finds Hershel’s (Scott Wilson) zombified head, she coolly puts him out of his misery and then leaves the prison. Hershel’s zombie head was an amazing feat by this effects team who are still able to impress and top themselves. Michonne is now resigned to being alone again. Yet, she’s become part of the unit; she’s learned to care about others and enjoy their company. It began slowly with Andrea, but she became a vital member of the group and had just promised Daryl (Norman Reedus) that she wouldn’t go out hunting alone anymore.
Michonne reverts to survival mode, both physically and emotionally. We see her come across Rick and Carl’s footprints in the mud and decide not to follow them. Pushing her feelings down results in her feelings coming out in a dream about her past. We learn that she was in a relationship with Mike (Aldis Hodge) though perhaps not married as their friend (Brandon Fobbs) refers to her as Mike’s lover not wife.
They are talking about what sounds like an art exhibit, but their dialogue is fraught with irony. She says she wouldn’t call it “art” that she thought it was “pedestrian.” Comics and horror shows are often criticized as low culture – not art, and a pedestrian is someone who WALKS! We see that they attended art exhibits and were financially well off. Michonne also had a son – which really resonates with her connection to Carl. The dream then morphs to after the outbreak and they are discussing what to do. Mike refuses to go out to a camp, preferring to hide in their apartment by themselves. But Mike had given up, seeing no life for them. Mike got hung up on why this had happened. It was horrifically funny when Michonne asks ‘who is going to open the wine’ and the two men no longer have arms – were they her original two walkers? Certainly, that was intimated before.
Michonne wakes up screaming from her dream, but continues on her solitary path. Clearly, this is better than the pain of losing those you love, or is it? As Michonne navigates a herd of walkers, she sees a woman who clearly reminds her of herself. Suddenly, Michonne realizes that this solitary existence is not living, she’s as dead without others as the walkers surrounding her. Gurira’s performance as Michonne suddenly awakens to this realization is terrific. She loses it and puts the entire herd of walkers out of their misery, finally grieving and angry and taking back her life. Killing her two shield walkers is her rejection of returning to that life. She goes back to Carl and Rick’s footprints and follows them. I loved Gurira’s subtle smile and Michonne’s quiet determination when the footprints are still visible.
She tracks them to Joe’s where she really finally breaks down. She confesses that she misses Mike, but she missed him even when she was with him because of what he’d become after the outbreak – he’d ceased to live. She says, “Back at the camp, it wasn’t you who did it. You were wrong because I’m still here, and you could be too and he could be too. I know the answer. I know why.” While this isn’t further explained, it seems clear that Mike may have killed both himself and his son to avoid having to live or become infected. But Michonne has truly learned to fight. Their friend says in her dream that she’s become so skilled with the sword and that’s really valuable now. What is really valuable is the willingness and the skill to keep fighting. So she returns to the father and son who are willing to fight. Michonne hardly dared to hope they were still alive and she breaks down a little before nodding to herself that she’s made the right choice in choosing to be with others. I loved the shot of her letting her sword slide back into its scabbard as she embraces a different kind of life.
Carl also undergoes a journey in this episode that is more emotional than physical. Riggs is so good playing him that it’s easy to forget that Carl is still a child – he isn’t a tiny adult – that’s just a game he plays. Games and childhood figure strongly in Carl’s storyline. Carl is afraid of being alone just as much as Michonne is, but isn’t it worse for a child who expects to be part of a family unit and protected within that unit?
When we first see Carl and Rick, Carl is pretty clearly sulking and having a bit of a tantrum as he walks ahead of Rick, forcing an injured Rick to keep asking Carl to slow down – just as he’d like to slow down Carl’s growing up. He says to Carl “We’re gonna be...” But he can’t finish the sentence with “ok” because Rick knows he can’t promise that. He tries to take the lead and protect Carl when they get to Joe, and Joe Jr’s, but Carl won’t allow him, reminding him that he’s done this before, and in the end, Carl has to save Rick when Rick is too weak to take down the walker. Carl finds a note that asks “Please do what I couldn’t” that is signed by Joe Jr. Carl is clearly disgusted that these people couldn’t kill their family members when they turned – as he did for Laurie. It’s also another example of notes survivors leave for each other. This is a direct parallel to the later scene in which Carl finally can’t kill Rick, even though he’s convinced he’s turned.
Carl acts out again when Rick suggests they squat in a house. When Rick tries to get Carl to listen to him, Carl starts swearing and pounding the wall. Typically, when Rick says “Watch your mouth,” we’d expect he was concerned about the swearing, but it’s clear he’s more concerned about Carl’s reckless baiting of walkers.
When Rick and Carl compare their haul at Joe & Joe Jr’s, Carl finds more food and declares, “I win.” He is making his very survival a game. While clearing the house, Carl looks in one of the bedrooms and Riggs does a wonderful job showing Carl’s typical teenager awe at the stash of books and video games that finds. But there is no way for Carl to enjoy this type of game and he sweeps the DVDs and games out of the way so that he can rip the cord from the tv to secure the front door. Carl leads the walkers away from the door like some perverted form of tag and tells the walkers that he wins after they almost kill him. And in another note left for survivors, Carl writes “Walker inside got my shoe, didn’t get me.” He writes it in chalk that he finds amidst spilled crayons – my children’s toys and games – and tells everyone that he won.
Carl uses the television chord to tie the front door shut. Carl is proud of his knot tying – like a good Boy Scout might be. He lashes out at Rick for telling him what to do and implying that Carl can’t look after himself, by rubbing it in Rick’s face that Shane taught him to tie the know. He then cruelly asks Rick if he remembers Shane. Shane was one of the first people that Carl was close to and he blames Rick for his death. I have to say, I think Rick was a pretty patient father in this episode.
Carl finally opens up to Rick and lets his anger out when Rick has apparently slipped into a coma. He tells Rick that he saved him from the walkers at the door, and that he didn’t forget how to survive while Rick was busy “playing farmer.” Carl asserts his independence, telling Rich that he doesn’t need him to survive – just as Michonne feels she doesn’t need anyone to survive. Carl then solidly lays the blame on Rick for all those they’ve lost. He even blames Laurie’s death on Rick. Carl says he doesn’t think Rick can protect him because Rick couldn’t protect any of them. Finally, Carl declares, “Now, you’re nothing. I’d be fine if you died.”
Carl’s raid for food ends with him sitting on the roof eating the entire giant can of chocolate pudding – something a regular teenager wouldn’t think twice about. However, in the background the walker’s arm is grasping for him out of the partially open window. The horror of his life is never far away. The shot really reminded me of the shot of the Governor on the dock – it looks idyllic until you look more closely.
Carl, like Michonne, works through the shock of what happened and the anger over the loss and ends with grief before being able to move on. In the end, he can’t kill his own father. He’d rather be turned himself. Riggs is amazing in this scene. Carl admits that he was wrong, that he won’t be fine without his father, and he confesses that he’s scared. Just as you would expect anyone to be, but especially a child. Scared of dying and scared of being alone. The same realization that Michonne comes to. It’s seeing the note at Joe & Joe Jr’s that also underscores for Michonne that all they have left is each other.
Rick apologizes to Carl, and tells him that he only clung to trying to get things back to the way they were for him. Rick tells Carl that he’s a man – and that he’s sorry. What he wanted to protect Carl from, as we’ve seen repeatedly, is having to grow up too quickly. Carl is finally at peace though and tells Rick he doesn’t have to be sorry. The final scene when Michonne knocks and Rick laughs and says to Carl, “It’s for you” was perfect. Here is proof that Rick didn’t get them all killed and that he’s a leader worth following. He also realizes that Michonne and Carl share a special bond – though likely not why – but Rick is a good leader because at the end of the day, the thing that made him a good sheriff is that he fundamentally understands people.
All in all, just a terrific episode paralleling Michonne and Carl’s journeys. Fun fact: Did you know that Greg Nicotera has appeared three times on the series as a walker? Finally, what did you think of the episode? Are you anxious for the rest of the group to re-unite? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
