The fourth season of The Walking Dead has now officially
begun, and sets events in motion with a few calm-before-the-storm scenes, in
order to establish what has been taking place within the narrative since the
third season ended. Rick Grimes’ group of survivors has now expanded to its
largest ever size thanks to the acquisition of the majority of Woodbury’s
community. They are still living at the prison, and have now begun farming
(where the pigs and horses came from was never revealed) and growing their own
crops in order to make life in the post-apocalyptic world a lot more
sustainable. The episode does a decent job of establishing the new status quo,
before shattering it (this is the start to a new season after all, and people
want to see life-or-death struggles, not the 30 accident-free days).
One of the first images that was revealed from this season –
several months ago – showed Rick in a wooded area, with the blurry image of a
female walker in the background. Or so it seemed! It turned out that it wasn’t
a walker at all, but a severely emaciated woman who had been driven mad by her
experiences in this world. In many ways I was relieved that this was the case,
as I was worried for a split second that the series was going to introduce ‘smart-Walkers’
when she first spoke. She lead Rick to her husband Eddie (once again there was
a glimmer of “oh no, don’t go down that road” when it looked as though she were
talking to nobody) who had long since turned into a Walker, and was now
supposedly little more than a head in a bag. She lunged at Rick with a knife,
but he avoided the attack, and she ended up taking her own life so that she
could be together with Eddie as a Walker. This storyline did pose a very
interesting question, “can you come back from what you’ve done?” which has
validity that will likely resonate throughout the entire series.
The big action scene for this episode occurred during a supply
run gone badly wrong. A crashed helicopter had severely weakened the roof of
the supermarket, and after a short scene in which newcomer Bob ‘(D’Angelo
Barksdale)’ Stookey confronted his alcoholism, a collapsing shelf drew the
unwanted attention of a group of Walkers who proceeded to tumble through the
collapsing roof.
I made predictions that the Woodbury survivors would mainly
serve as expendable characters, whose only real purpose is to get killed off so
that we don’t have to lose anyone we really care about. So far that prediction
has come true, as we were introduced to Zach who didn’t even make it to the end
of the season premiere! To his credit he was at least given some character
development, but it was hard to become too invested in him or his death (Beth
and Daryl certainly didn’t – although the no crying policy might be rescinded later
in the season if a more significant character is lost). If there is ever a
scene in which a horde of Walkers attack, and there are no expendable
characters around, it could be an indicator that some serious shit is about to
go down!
Another new character who was introduced, only to meet his
demise within the same episode was Patrick, a well-meaning teenager who looked
a little bit like a very young Woody Allen. His death was less conventional,
and sets off the ‘new threat’ of this season. Despite the fact that he was not
attacked, or bitten, and appeared to be perfectly healthy, he suddenly found
himself feeling unwell and later on he collapsed in the shower and died. The episode
ended with his eyes opening with his reanimation. This new form of infection
had been foreshadowed during the episode when Rick noticed a particular Walker
with bleeding eyes. There was also the sudden illness and death of Violet the
pig. At this stage there is room for speculation concerning this new threat;
could the infection simply be evolving rapidly; is the food supply contaminated;
or is there more to Patrick’s handshake with Daryl than there first appeared?
Whatever the cause, next week’s episode is sure to get off to a more urgent
start. The prison may be secure when it comes to keeping Walkers out, but not
when someone turns inside its walls.
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