“Just look at the flowers Lizzy. Just look at the flowers.” -Carol
"The pond's dead." -Pete
While the natural environment has always had an active if understated role on the show, the symbolism of flowers and nature caught the attention of a wider base of viewers with a heartbreaking season 4 scene set against a garden. As Carol readied herself to kill Lizzie, she told her to “look at the flowers” – a phrase repeated from earlier in the season when Mika was trying to calm her sister.
As I think about this scene, I can think of a couple of interpretations. The first is one I brushed upon in the previous article in this series – plants and flowers are distractions from the tough realities these characters face. But I think the use of flowers in this case can also be linked to a second interpretation, given Lizzie’s attraction to the dead. That is that death, symbolized by flowers on this show, is comforting to Lizzie.
In the first article of this three-part “rewatch” series, I talked about a blending of the lines between the dead and living. In the second article, I looked at plant life and nature, and how there’s a trend of emphasizing them during times when character are in a mood of escapism – periods when the characters believe they’ve found a true sanctuary. In this third piece – set up as a picture article – I’ll focus on the connections between the natural environment and death. Is this a contradiction to the previous assertion – that plantlife is associated with good times? Possibly, although I tend to think of it an extension of the show’s themes rather than a contradiction. And this goes back to a train of thought that I was following in the first article, and that it that this show might on a certain level be about Rick learning to accept death and coming to understand that death is natural.
If you missed the previous two articles, you can find them here:
Part 1 - “Dead Man Walking”
Part 2 - “Fantasty Land”
Flowers
In The Grove, Carol takes Lizzie out for a walk to pick flowers for her sister Mika, whom Lizzie had just killed and turned into a walker. Carol tells Lizzie to look at the flowers before killing her. Flowers are also commonly featured on the show in artwork and wallpaper in the homes the characters visit. In season three, flowers decorated the bedspread thrown over Mr. Coleman as he passed onto death, witnessed by Andrea and Milton. A display of dead flowers was also the first thing Rick focused on as he emerged from his coma in season one.
Water Leaks
As the Governor, or Brian as he was going by at the time, was struggling with resisting the darkness of his nature in the end of the first half of season four, water played a prominent symbolic role and was linked to his darkness and to death. First, we learn that the camper that he and Lilly are staying in has a water leak that needs fixing.
He later picks a pond he's told is dead as the setting for his latest walker garden, after he gives into his darkness and murders Pete, and then leaves him weighted down in the pond as a walker.
Water, combined with dirt, continues to play a role in the Governor's story. Walkers stuck in the mud act as a barrier for the Governor, Lilly, and Meghan, as they attempt to leave their camp. And then a walker, the result of flash floods from the river the Governor leaves Lilly and Meghan by, crawls out from the muddy river bank to kill Meghan in Too Far Gone.
Walkers as the Landscape
While there instances in earlier seasons of walkers appearing to blend with the landscape – one that comes to mind is the walker Shane focused on in 18 Miles Out – this becomes more commonplace in season four.
There's the example of the mud-caked walkers featured in the Governor's story, mentioned above. As Tyreese, Michonne, and Bob try to clear bushes in Indifference, walkers seem to just grow out of the greenery. In Claimed, walkers dressed in fall colors as if to blend with the fields, emerge from corn to attack Abraham and his group. Finally, Glenn and Tara in Us encounter walkers buried in rocks, who appear to almost be part of the cave, as they make their way to Terminus.
This is the final part in this rewatch series. Be sure to check back after the season premiere for episode reviews.
Screencaps from Screencapped.net.
