The Walking Dead - S04E03 Isolation (2013)

Review

The virus is spreading within the prison thinning the ranks of able bodies. Herschel determines they need medicine, which might not have been plundered yet from a veterinary college. Daryl, Michonne, Bob, and Tyreese head on out to cover the 50 odd miles to the college, though naturally they run into zombie problems on the way, they also discover a couple of truths about members of the party. Meanwhile back at the prison the growing number of flu victims are being segregated and treated by Herschel and Doctor S. Rick tasks Carl to look after the kids and younger folk who have also been segregated as they are the next most likely victims, Carl reluctantly agrees which works to Herschel's benefit when he goes over the walls to try to find a natural remedy.

Meanwhile Sasha and Glenn have both come down with the flu adding some spice and urgency to finding a cure. Tyreese is suffering from the loss of Karen and wants Rick to find out who killed her and David. The Big Fella loses it completely which leads to Rick pounding on him and only stopping when Daryl intervenes. Not surprisingly Rick discovers who committed the crime and is left with a dilemma about what to do. Things are never going to be easy in the new world order and Rick is starting to discover that it never stops, give it a couple more episodes and I think we might be in for more Rick power and less citizen council decisions, the dude is decisive when the chips are down. A lot happening in this episode, lets break it down and spin it around.

There's a lot going down in this episode, I haven't even touched on a few minor plot arc developments, but hold onto your linen zombie fans it is remarkably another character orientated episode, which isn't to say the walking dead don't lumber into view. Firstly Rick simply loses it when Tyreese has a swing at him. Remember way back at the end of season two when Rick declare they were no longer living in a democracy, think we're headed that way again. The lawman has gone through his vacation as a farmer, ended disastrously, is now back in the saddle and is noting things aren't exactly to his liking. Herschel and the council might be seen to be doing stuff, but Rick is getting it done when it's needed. As he notes, the dangers are always there, both internally to the prison and externally. All it took to convey the return of the King was a glance at his gun belt while talking to the ever wise Herschel.

Any number of possible showdowns being built up, it could all end in chaos kids

Okay back to the walking dead, and remember in this universe the characters have never heard of a zombie, we get our money's worth in the episode. Daryl and team are tooling down a backwards black top when they are distracted by voices on the radio, seems someone is still broadcasting in the ashes of the world. Unfortunately this coincides with the team plowing right into a herd of zombies; we are talking a lot of rotting flesh. As Daryl noted earlier it always ends up with them running. On the bright side the confrontation appears to knock Tyreese out of his funk as he goes hammer time on the undead hordes. You can't touch this yo! For their part Daryl and Michonne are cool as cucumbers as they cut a swath through the nasties, while Bob isn't backward in dispatching a few himself as they make a break for the woods.

Speaking of Tyreese has anyone else gone from liking the character, season three, to finding him a little irritating this season? The character is much better written in the graphic novels, call out to Robert Kirkman, but I don't know, seems a little bit over the top in the television series this season. Perhaps, and it's a big perhaps, the script writers aren't up to the character's plot arc or the Actor simply can't emote in a believable fashion. Your guess is as good as mine, but got to say if a meteorite landed on Tyreese next episode I wouldn't be upset, there's simply something not working with this aspect of the show.

Back at prison central Rick is investigate the death of Karen and determines that the pyromaniac culprit is female, smaller handprint than his own and needed more strength than say Carl to move the bodies. Suspicions point in one direction and it just so happens that Carol is outside the fence in the zombie infested no go zone fixing a blocked water hose. Rick later confronts Carol and she admits to doing the heinous dead, which puts our boy between a rock and a hard place. He can't hand her over to Tyreese, the dude is going to go ballistic, as Carol is Carol and there's also the Daryl factor. But equally Rick can't let it slide, Carol acted well out of line, even though to this dude it seemed like she was taking brutal action at the time to put a halt to the flu spreading amongst the prison populace. Rick is going to have to make a hard call and I'm not quite sure which way he is going to go though it does indicate Rick resuming authority.

With Glenn coming down with the flu, along with Sasha and Lizzie Samuels, some tension is being pushed into the current run of episodes beginning with the letter "I". Daryl is certainly not finding it as easy to get the drugs as he might have supposed, even given the walking dead issue, which could see a major character not surviving the next few episodes. Given this franchise has less in the way of job security than Game of Thrones it could be multiple fatalities. The other way of viewing developments is of course the cast is being thinned in order to refocus on the major characters or in fact the prison becoming untenable. Anyway regardless of how you look at it we're going to be living in interesting times as the Chinese would curse us. Got to say even at its worse The Walking Dead just keeps us watching with consistently interesting dramatic developments.

I mentioned above that Daryl and team come up against the biggest herd of the walking dead yet seen in the show through three and a bit seasons but we aren't done there. Carol and Rick are fighting the undead hordes as Carol attempts to ensure water supply for the prison. Also Sasha has to contend with one of the recently dead in the isolation ward, fortunately locked behind bars for no doubt future disposal. The cool thing with this franchise is the dead are not aging well, there's some real gnarly makeup and prosthetics going down to give us some decomposing glory.

Another episode that combines character development and dynamic relations, for the mature amongst us, and a butt load of zombie action for the less mature. I fit into both categories which makes me both schizophrenic and rocking out to Isolation. Things aren't getting any easier for Rick and crew, with strife both within the camp and dangers without threatening security. When the chips go down Rick needs to step up, whoo mixed metaphor boy, I'm expecting our Georgia lawman to really go hammer and tongs over coming weeks, though the Carol situation does present a challenge Rick hasn't had to cope with previously. Fully recommended to zombie fans, drama fans, and horror fans in general, television doesn't get much better than this bad boy.