The Walking Dead - S04E02 Infected (2013)

Review

Seems someone has been feeding rodents to the walkers outside the prison fence, no prizes for guessing who that might be. Problem is it's causing the walkers to concentrate on specific areas of the fence threating to breach the prison's first line of defence via sheer numbers. Maggie and the team halt one incursion, but it costs Rick his prize pig stock. Guess vegetarianism is back on the menu, unless Daryl can hunt up some meat outside the prison.

For the moment however walkers overrunning the fences are a secondary concern as there's an infected outbreak within the prison. Seems Patrick, who has died from a flu strain, is back up hunkering for some man flesh which pretty much ensures there's an outbreak in one of the cell blocks as no one is surprisingly expecting danger from within. Rick and team have to battle the suddenly homicidal inmates while protecting those who haven't been bitten yet. Another body without bite marks but with tell-tale blood marks on the face leads the local Doctor to confirm they are facing a viral outbreak that kills the infected within 24 hours, which of course means the possibility of further walker outbreaks. The sick are to be quarantined, but this doesn't work out as expected as Tyreese discovers two burnt bodies, one of which is his love interest!

Guess the season started with Rick hanging up his weapons and getting his farmer on. Whether or not this was a needed respite from the rigours of the past season or Rick honestly believes his group are safe and able to self-govern remains moot. When the whip comes down and the Walkers come knocking Rick is quickly back into Rick mode, leading from the front and dishing out punishment were needed. Daryl immediately got the situation and viewed Rick's bucolic turn as nothing more than time off from the real world, Carl was somewhat less impressed and was more than pleased one feels to get back into the saddle. With Rick having to feed his piglets to the walkers to draw them away from the sagging fence one got the feeling that Andrew Lincoln was really nailing his character who simply resigned himself to having to do the hard yards in order for the Prison to survive. Further character development for mine, Rick is still being forged as a character.

Yes I got the irony of the infection within the prison killing the population

Meanwhile we discover someone is spending their nights feeding rodents to the local walker population beyond the fence, with no doubt diabolical results ahead. No prizes for guessing who was responsible for this piece of lunacy, she has been naming the walkers, and seems more upset by "Nick" being killed then her father succumbing to a bite. Carol might just have taken on more than she expects with Lizzie Samuels showing she isn't the full quid and Mika Samuels simply not being tough enough to survive the new world order. Still we have faith in Carol being able to turn people around, or at the very least giving it a hell of a go.

The big question of course is just who executed and then burnt Tyreese's main squeeze Karen and the random the big fella discovers in the yard. Probably not the best surprise he could have hoped for and it might just see Ty go on something of a rampage. At this stage I've no theories as destroying two of the flu suffers isn't going to stop the contagion raging through the rest of the population when members become exposed to it. Is there another level involved here that we the viewers are as yet unaware of or is it what it appears, a draconian attempt at halting the sickness before it claims more victims?

The episode explores either the past or the development of two integral characters to some extent, enough to suggest that one or both are going to be toast in a coming episode or are being fleshed out to become viewer favourites. For mine Michonne has become somewhat obsessed with finding where the Governor has gone. Naturally the psychotic one is a clear and present danger but talk about your searching for a needle in a haystack. The Governor will no doubt pop up again sometime in the future but I would have thought there were more pressing issues to deal with. We also find Michonne is adverse to babies, Judith not being on her nurture list at the moment, which looks to be due to some passed trauma.

Carl Grimes is moving from obnoxious character no one particular likes to bad arse, prepared to do the hard yards Rick and the others have doubts about. Carl has a decision to make, Carol is training the kids in using weapons, Carl has found out about this, does he tell his dad or not? Probably more pertinent is does anyone tell the parents/guardians and what would be the reaction? May be a new world order but some people are going to stick to the old ways regardless of how demonstratively destructive this could be. Anyone else got a feeling there might be a slight cull coming up. Anyways good to see Carl get his gun and swagger back, give it another couple of seasons and Carl Grimes is going to rock in my humble and not asked for opinion.

Guess Rick and gang are in for one hell of a time in coming episodes, there's this virus raging through the population, it kills quickly, and then you have the undead shake going down. For mine they may need to start locking suffers up till someone can make a dash to the supermarket for some cough syrup and vapour rub. Added danger is the walkers drawn to fix points in the fence, at some stage there's going to be a breach and with everyone going down with the flu there's not going to be a lot of able bodies to feed off an incursion. Anyone who has read the graphic novels knows where this is going, though I guess we can expect another onslaught by the Governor at some stage, hint don't get too attached to Judith.

I'm not entirely sure this season is getting out of the blocks in any sort of style. Each episode is exploring characters, which is a good thing, but currently it seems like an interlude season like season two when everyone decided farming was a good option. Fingers crossed the pacing picks up from here and darn it we get some more action, which is saying something considering the absolute rampages that go down in this franchise, but just saying. Not the best episode I've seen, but still better than 90% of everything else on the small screen.