The Walking Dead - S04E01 30 Days Without An Accident (2013)

Review

It's been several months since the final encounter with the Governor and the Prison population has expanded significantly. Along with the refugees from Woodbury a number of people have been found in the surrounding countryside that are only too happy to seek sanctuary behind the prison walls. Other changes include Rick going farmer Joe on us and seemingly now refusing to pick up a firearm, much to the distaste of Carl. Carol is teaching the expanding children contingent how to handle knifes on the sly, as she seeks to make the group stronger.

With Rick not yet fulfilling the prison food requirements Daryl leads a band in search of supplies, which ends badly with a death and a salient warning about the dangers outside. Rick finds his own warning as he runs across a survivor while checking his traps, fortunately this chance encounter ends a lot better than it could have given the survivor has few Roos loose in the top paddock. Meanwhile Carl discovers Carol's little kindergarten school and a group of kids who are naming the zombies at the fences, in a strange turn up.

It's thirty days since the last death at the prison, Beth Greene is keeping count, and a sort of false summer has descended over the ravaged land. Rick has gone rural on us and seemingly has taken a decision to put down his weapons and live a pastoral life; it would appear he no longer considers walkers to be an immediate danger. Still with crops and pigs he might just provide the means for the prison to support itself without having to scavenge supplies. Meanwhile Carol is concerned that the zombies are concentrating on a few areas of the fence and are not as spread out as they were previously, she ominously warns this could be a dangerous development. Daryl is finding he has new found celebrity status and he isn't best able to cope with it. And finally Carl has a weird encounter with Lizzie and Mika Samuels. Carl is shocked by the kids naming zombies, though Mika helpfully points out one of them had a name tag, and points out the walking dead are no longer human. Lizzie retorts with "No, they're not. They're just different", anyone else have a feeling that this line is going to come back to haunt Carl and others at the prison? Clearly The Walking Dead never has throw away scenes so I'm expecting Lizzie to do something real stupid in coming episodes, like opening the prison gates for example.

False summer is here, but naturally there's a storm brewing

There were two scenes in this episode that particularly impressed me and which perhaps point to this season being a lot higher on gore than previous seasons, if that's possible. Firstly Rick's encounter with the survivor Clara, who both the audience and Rick first think is a zombie. Strip away society and they are we, and we are them etc. Even after Clara goes all nasty Rick refuses to dish out summary punishment, does the dude even know the environment he is operating in? But hey head in basket, suicide, in a grunge setting, I've got a feeling season 4 isn't going to be taking many prisoners when it comes to the red stuff. Now okay the major point of this scene is the continued battle for Rick's tortured soul. He seems to have gone off full metal impact as a way forward post apocalypse, but as Carol or indeed Carl are apt to tell him, no one survives with that attitude. Yet another period of Rick Grimes introspection coming up, or are the basic themes of how much can you endure and what actions will you be forced to do while retaining your humanity getting another airing. One of the strengths of this franchise for mine is the continued exploration of humanity in a totally hostile environment.

The second scene I was impressed with was Daryl's team entering the supermarket and the subsequent "It's raining zombies, Hallelujah" attack. New character Bob, who has a drinking problem, notes some debris outside the front door including the rotting remains of a lower body, the camera pans up to show the top half of the body on the roof along with a whole possie of actual walking dead. A helicopter, are those ever omens of bad news in The Walking Dead universe, has crashed into the roof weakening the structure. Bob naturally finds the liquor aisle, takes a bottle, thinks about, puts it back which leads to all sorts of shenanigans as the aisle simply falls apart attracting our roof dwelling zombies that are soon falling through the weakened structure. See even when you do the right thing it ends in zombies folks, or the moral of the story I guess is keep that bottle once picked up. Anyways Bob's action leads directly to the death of one of Daryl's team. The live action here is handled perfectly and for sure is adrenaline inducing stuff, plus we get zombie action! Beth, who seems to have a thing for the deceased, goes Taylor Swift and shakes it off with zero emotion. Is it just me or is Beth Greene getting more screen time just recently? Quite possibly not a good sign for the longevity of the Actress' contract, since Beth isn't core her longevity is now in question.

Guess one of the issues that had been bugging me over the past three seasons is answered in this episode, empathically for mine. If we all carry the virus and don't need to be bitten to turn then surely we need to keep an eye on those suffering from whatever ailment as there is at best going to be limited medical advice available. Without giving too much away one of the crew fall sick, high fever, nausea, etc. and are left to their own devices. Naturally as day follows night there's a new menace on the horizon for the prison population, and that would be an internal menace. Clearly Rick and the new council are going to be blindsided by this one, but you would figure it would be someone's role to keep an eye on the sick. I had this issue right back in season two when Carl was shot by Otis, Rick knew Carl would turn if he died yet he made no effort to prepare for that eventuality. Anyways guess the team are about to find out negligence in the new world can bite you on the bum, in some cases literally.

Speaking of Patrick, which we weren't - but shutup, were they serious with this character? He came off as a sort of post-apocalyptic Harry Potter except without the magic or a last bastion at Hogwarts. While the character wanting to shake hands with Daryl had some sort of authenticity, hey venison rocks if cooked correctly with herbs and wine, his parting dialogue with Carl at the fence simply took me out of the episode. While I know the character is simply a plot device, who doesn't think there's going to be zombies in that there prison really soon now, there's a tad too much focus and attempt at making him an individual, which didn't work, and left me not feeling comfortable with the focus.

Talking about your plot foreshadowing Michonne has been out riding the range seeing if she can locate the Governor's where abouts. Clearly a long shot, even in a zombie depopulated world there's a lot of ground to be covered, but for mine an indication that we may not be finished with the dude, which is just as well as the clash between the prison and Woodbury was a bust for mine, so fingers crossed in that direction. Prediction, season four will finish with a major confrontation between the Governor and the Prison, how that comes about remains to be seen. I only hope The Walking Dead isn't going to descend into having a major protagonist each season, there's dangers aplenty without going down that hoary old path.

So I had plenty of fun with the opening salvo for season four. There are some deft touches that amused me, Beth setting her days without injury board back to zero for example, but also there are the odd clunky moments, we need to talk about Patrick. But overall the episode did what it had to do, get us up to speed with the primary characters and how they are faring, introduced some fresh blood, and lay the seeds for the dangers ahead. While I'm finding each episode of The Walking Dead is worth dialling in for, with a few exceptions, the overall season plot arcs are failing to score big time. Fingers crossed season four kicks a few goals, oh and you really should watch this episode.