The Walking Dead - Season Four: The Grove

This could possibly be the bleakest episode of The Walking Dead to date (or if not, it’s certainly a strong contender). ‘The Grove’ is yet another isolated episode, which is surprising considering that the season finale is rapidly approaching, and yet it is one that has significant plot developments within its isolated confines. Even by the standards of The Walking Dead there is some pretty horrific stuff in this episode.

Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika and baby Judith, continue on their way to ‘Terminus’ but their progress is temporarily halted when they discover an isolated grove with a house at the centre. They decide to rest there for a couple of days, and this shows signs of developing into a more permanent arrangement when suggestions were made that they abandon the trek towards the almost mythical sanctuary, and instead settle down and make this house a home.

This feeling of contentment doesn’t last – of course – as Lizzie’s unstable mental state comes to the forefront. Throughout the season she has been exhibiting unusual attitudes and behaviours concerning Walkers, and this episode brought all of that to fruition. Her naming of the Walkers outside the prison gates (and getting upset when one of her favourites was killed), feeding rats to the Walkers causing their numbers to build up and eventually overwhelm the fences, trying to control one of them when the cells were attacked, etc. This is something that had been building up throughout the season, and the payoff was both surprising and unsettling.

It became apparent that Lizzie’s unstable state was something that pre-dated the outbreak, as Mika used calming techniques on her, after she reacted badly to the death of a Walker. Then it was revealed that from Lizzie’s perspective, the Walkers don’t kill people: they just want people to be like them.

Insert my usual gripe about: ‘how has she survived this long?’ here.

In spite of this Lizzie rescues her sister, and partakes in a mass Walker-shootout when a group of severely burned Walkers emerge from the trees. The burned Walkers was a creative way to make a shooting scene a bit more memorable (and their designs reminded me of the Uruk-Hai). The scene didn’t really make a lot of sense though considering what happened next.

Carol and Tyreese shared a very tense scene, in which Tyreese talked about his nightmares – and how much he misses Karen. The dramatic-irony was very clear throughout this scene (and also beforehand, ever since Carol was reunited with – of all people – Tyreese) and Melissa McBride did some great facial acting as the camera lingered on her throughout Tyreese’s speech. There were several moments during the episode when she looked ready to confess, but she held back.

As the two of them returned to the house they happened upon a very distressing scene: Lizzie standing over the body of her sister, with a bloody knife in her hand, and a strangely positive look on her face. She had murdered her sister, and was convinced that it was okay because she would come back (as a Walker). I really didn’t expect this, particularly since Lizzie had just rescued her sister from being bitten. She then revealed to Carol and Tyreese that she had planned to do the same thing to Judith next.

The Walking Dead is already a very dark show, that challenges and raises questions about the nature of humanity under extreme circumstances, but this episode moved into even darker territory because it placed young children – and mental illness – at the centre.

After such a horrific event, it was clear that Lizzie was not a safe person to keep around, and in a scene reminiscent of the ending to Of Mice and Men it was up to Carol to put her surrogate daughter down, releasing her from her torment.

After this Carol didn’t seem to care what happened to her, she had already lost her own daughter, and now in quick succession she lost both her surrogate daughters as well. She finally confessed to Tyreese that she killed Karen and David, and offered him a gun with which to finish her off. Tyreese has always been an amiable character, who tries to do what’s right, and retain as much of his humanity as possible, but something in his expression during Carol’s confession leads me to believe that he might not be quite the same again after this. He forgave Carol, because he could tell that she was sorry for what she had done, and also because she will have to live with her actions. The pair of them then left the house and continued on their way to ‘Terminus’ except with fewer in their party than before.

I don’t know if the acting from the young girls was of the highest standard, but I can’t really complain about it too much – it is a very big ask for any actor to convincingly pull off such disturbed characters, let alone actors who are so young. Both adult actors did a fine job, playing tortured characters who were encountering wildly unpredictable situations with the two girls.

The reason for this isolated episode occurring so close to the season finale is now clear, as it resolved a number of ongoing plotlines, and also saw the deaths of two characters. I felt particularly bad for Mika, who just seemed too young to cope with this harsh and unforgiving world. It will be hard not to have a heavy heart upon re-watching this episode, particularly considering how excited she was to discover a doll (although I’m not sure that this particular episode will be one I’m likely to re-watch in a hurry).