The Walking Dead - S04E04 Indifference (2013)

Review

Carol is heading out on a supply run to a nearby suburb with Rick, food, medicine. is running low and besides Carol having gone psycho there is no one else available due to the flu outbreak. Looks to be slim pickings but the pair do discover Sam and Ana, another couple of survivors. While rummaging for supplies things don't turn out well for Ana, and Sam is nowhere to be seen. Guess Rick has been thinking it through, he cuts Carol adrift, effectively banishing her from the prison, because, well murder most foul and Tyreese being on the warpath.

Meanwhile Tyreese, dig the segue there, is with Daryl, Bob, and Michonne as they continue their epic journey to the Veterinary college for medical supplies. They need a vehicle and source a van, but not without difficulties of the zombie kind. They do make the college and get the drugs needed to fight the flu but then run into a horde of zombies, at least one of which looks like it might have died from the same flu ravaging the prison. And speaking of which, things are going from bad to worse on the home front with Hershel doing his best.

Holy crap I haven't lock and loaded on a Walking Dead episode since 2015! Guess Mortecai did a bunch in the interim from season seven, and yes the big fella is coming back next month personal issues resolved finally, but clearly we are well behind on this franchise. Come to think of it we are about three graphic novels back as well. Time to make amends and hit this bad boy running, I'm across season four, Mort will hit season seven, and then we'll hopefully meet in the middle for season eight. So let's shoot this episode in the head.

Rick takes decisive action on the Carol situation and Bob manages to piss off Daryl

Like most of the season four episodes Indifference is tightly packed with ideas and developments, but doesn't exclude a bunch of zombie action. While the previous episode, you know the one I reviewed back in the dark ages, was more character orientated this one ups the ante on the action with Rick once again reverting to action man Rick rather than meek farmer type Rick. As Daryl points out he needed the break but is the first person holding a shovel when the chips are down, see the last couple of episode if confused here.

Plenty of zombie action in this episode to keep you grinning and happy with the world, and let's be honest while zombie outings are all about the survivors we do like to have the odd rotting corpse lumbering around the place to keep things real. Rick and Carol run into one walking corpse they have to deal with, spy a few others, but otherwise are pretty much left to their own drama. Daryl and crew have a lot more rotting flesh to deal with and to be honest first Tyreese and then Bob prove to be something of a burden for everyone's favourite Redneck and the katana swinging lethal Michonne.

Bit of a shock with Carol disappearing this episode, on the bright side she didn't get munched on or shot by some errant psychopath. We're used to major characters coming to bad ends in the Walking Dead universe but having someone banished is a new take on the idea. I was a bit ambivalent about Rick's reasoning behind sending Carol off provisioned but then again Carol's decision to take things into her own hands was slightly out of order at the very least. Fingers crossed Carol is only temporarily in the doghouse and comes back twice the bad ass next season, have a feeling Rick is going to need her.

Michonne is taking time out of her regular gig of quartering the countryside to find the errant Governor to help Daryl find the necessary flu treating drugs. Daryl is less than impressed by her activities and doesn't see the point of hunting someone who doesn't want to be found. But Michonne not going out would see an end to Carl's regular supply of comics, and let's face facts folks it's not like they are going to be publishing any more in the foreseeable future. So in the normal run of things Daryl is responsible for Carl not getting reading materials. On the bright side of the shiny cover if Daryl convinces Michonne to spend more time at the prison then I won't be complaining.

Continuing our years long discussion of Tyreese, maybe I'm obsessed or something, but I'm not warming to the character. He kind of goes weird during this episode again which is going to at some stage put the others in his group at risk. Now I know y'all are putting this down to the big fella grieving over Karen, previously murdered by Carol in an attempt to stave off the flu epidemic, but if this is what passes for grief then the Producers need to rethink things. Chad L. Coleman (Tyreese) simply isn't a good enough actor to bring off the emotional requirements of the role he is playing. The sooner they kill off the character the happier I'll be, while people are bitching about other characters longevity I'm death riding this one.

Some folk have been asking for my interpretation of what the at times cryptic titles of the various episodes mean so I guess now is as good a time as any. For mine Indifference can be applied to a couple of characters. Carol is showing a growing indifference to the deaths of those around her, exemplified here by Ana's demise; Carol barely registers any human sorrow over the chick becoming walking dead munchies. Just a side note here, the leg Rick and Carol discover, which is the last remains of Ana - witness the tattoo, seemed a bit too clean to have been ripped off by ravenous zombies. The other character it could apply to is Tyreese who seems indifferent to what might happen to him. If you have any ideas let us know, always up for differing views on what exactly is going down.

Back in the Walking Dead saddle and I got a decent episode to continue my journey through the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Director Brook took things down a dark path, got to say some of the action at the veterinary place was shrouded in darkness and hard to make out, but still appreciated. Some episodes tend to discard anything like tension but Brook was all over it like white on rice, I really thought one or more of Daryl's party were not going to get out of their mission alive. All in all great episode, a couple of surprises to keep us on our toes, and plenty of walking dead to keep the haters at bay for at least another episode, two thumbs up. Full recommendation dig on in here kids, the season is now in full swing and this episode keeps things rocking along, for sure I wasn't indifferent to its charms.