This episode explored the notion of not only being alone, but the problems with people. With Bob, we see someone who for a period of time became too alone, and even when he was with his new group, he felt alone because he was still driven by fear. Sasha is now struggling with what Bob went through earlier. She’s too afraid to face the reality of whether Tyreese is still alive, so she prefers to not try for the path that might give her answers. Instead she focuses on something smaller, more controllable – and that is getting through the night by setting up in a safe haven.
Meanwhile, Beth and Daryl are now both alone as well. We don’t know Beth’s status, and whether she’s even still alive, but Daryl is very much alone even though he’s met up with a new group.
What do you think this means for Daryl? Daryl was never a murderer, but in his previous life he was very cut off and had the potential to turn bad if he ended with the wrong group. Before Merle died, Merle had focused a lot on the people he had killed since the apocalypse in a conversation with Michonne. Merle opened up about how he couldn’t go back after the things he’s done, presumably mostly after meeting up with the Governor. In writing about the episode at the time, I made a connection between the different paths Merle and Daryl had taken. Whereas Merle had joined with the Governor and had become a murderer – something he felt he couldn’t come back from – Daryl had joined with Rick and found a family and a purpose.
Now we see Daryl at a crossroads – literally – as he sits in the street and chooses to join with a gang of thugs, who’s leader tells him: “Suicide’s stupid. Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?” Not that Daryl had much of a choice at the time. We’ll have to wait to see what path Daryl ultimately chooses.
Meanwhile Beth appears to be captured in what was a trap. There were reoccurring traps as symbols throughout the episode. First, Beth steps into an animal trap while hunting with Daryl in the woods. Then Daryl sets up a noise trap outside the funeral home to warn them of walkers. The walkers however, make it past the noise trap without setting it off, leaving me to speculate that someone – the owner of the dog – removed the noise makers and lured the walkers to the home, just like they lured in Beth and Daryl with peanut butter and pigs’ feet.
What could this person want with Beth to go through so much trouble? There are clues that the person is not like the usual types we’ve been finding – desperate survivors or murderous thugs. This person has been still taking care of the dead, and seems to have bonded with walkers in a way similar to what saw with Clara – the woman from the premiere who set a trap for Rick so that she could feed him to her walker husband – and the person who fed the rats to the walkers (probably Lizzie). I’m guessing Beth isn’t dead yet, but whatever’s in store for her isn’t good.
Following the Tracks
We had some wonderful character interactions among the group in this episode. The standout scene was Maggie’s appeal to Sasha to come with them, because as she tells Sasha, “… I need your help, because I can’t do it myself. And even if I catch up to Bob, we can’t do it alone. And I thought I can’t ask you to risk your life, but I can. Because I know what you’d be risking it for. And it isn’t just Glenn.”
We also see a lot more of Bob, the mysterious outsider who joined the group after being alone for maybe a little too long, and who has developed a substance abuse problem. We see beautifully filmed scenes of Bob wandering the streets alone, living among walkers and like a walker. When he meets Daryl and Glenn, he tells them it doesn’t matter who they are. For Bob, the world has become divided into just two states – alone or not alone. Now, in the present, for the first time in a while he is not feeling alone, and he can’t stop grinning.
Other Thoughts:
- I thought the show opened with a couple of amazing and unforgettable scenes – the first was Bob’s flashbacks to the period before he met the group. The other featured Bob, Sasha, and Maggie – back-to-back, alone in the fog, fighting walkers and not knowing what was coming at them from minute to minute.- Speaking of the flashback scenes with Bob, the music sounded familiar. Have we heard this same track before in a previous episode? I swear we have but I couldn’t place it.
- The flashback scene for a moment scared the crap out of me. I thought it was the present, and we were going to get flashbacks telling a story of something really bad that had happened to Maggie and Sasha.
- In a nice ironic twist, Bob’s bandage, from getting shot at the prison, saved him from being infected when a walker bit him.
- Daryl lying in a coffin – what you think? Hopefully just metaphorical and not foreshadowing.
- Which scene did you think had the better walker-killing action? Daryl fending off the horde using the funeral home’s tables and tools, or Maggie slashing a walker’s head in half with a “No Parking” sign?
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below.
