The Walking Dead - S04E10 Inmates (2014)

Review

Daryl and Beth are on the run from walkers, but seem to elude the dead. Beth wants to find other survivors while Daryl seems cynical about anyone else's chances. Tyreese is protecting Lizzie, Mika, and Judith but is forced to leave them as he hears screams and goes to help whoever is in trouble. Unfortunately he doesn't save anyone and the girls are suddenly surrounded by the dead. Surprisingly help arrives in the form of Carol who gets the girls to Tyreese as he learns from a victim that they should follow the nearby train tracks to a safe haven called Terminus.

Meanwhile Maggie is steadfast in her wish to find Glenn, and gets Sasha and Bob to get on board her decision. They run across the bus that was kept at the prison to get the children out, and find it filled with the dead; Maggie still goes through the motions to ensure Glenn isn't on the bus. Glenn for his own part awakes in the overrun prison; he searches for Maggie inside the prison and then decides to get out of Dodge. This involves donning riot gear and physical wadding his way through the undead, on the way out he runs across Tara and decides to help her when he finds she didn't use her gun in the attack on the prison. They get away and the episode concludes with them being confronted by three people who arrive in an army truck. Hold onto your popcorn, we got returning characters to sift through.

While last weekend focused pretty much on the Grimes boys and of course Michonne this episode takes us through the trials and tribulations of other survivors, and yes our core group of characters are all alive and kicking. Clearly the first half of the season revolved around the final confrontation with the Governor and then the culling of what was getting to be a large number of cast members, the second half is going to slow the pace and focus on our survivors.

While the survivors are fragmented all roads would appear to point to Terminus

The problem with this approach is that we only have forty odd minutes of run time and a whole lot of plot to get through. In effect we have four separate stories crammed into a limited time frame and this isn't going to allow for anything effective in terms of plot development or character exploration. Sure we know who survived, assuming more characters don't turn up next episode, but besides that and pretty much telling us they are in the same area, there's nothing much happening besides possibly three new characters. Okay the three new characters are of course Sgt Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa, and Eugene Porter; check out the imdb listing or like me immerse yourself in the ongoing graphic novels to get a handle on these three.

So we get one of those hints that have been going all season that someone might just be a little bit psycho, because not enough dangers in the post-apocalyptic wilderness as it is right. Director Tricia Brock is going kind of subtle with this one and have to say I did miss it on first viewing. Lizzie is taking time out of her busy schedule of staying alive resting up on a log when she notices some baby rabbits nestled in with no cares in the world. She pulls a knife, and well I was expecting the worse, then the episode cuts to another group. Later in the episode someone else notices the now deceased leporidae, which makes us aware that Lizzie is a potential future bunny boiler oh and is clearly a psycho right here right now. Folks this is going to play out later in the season for sure.

I quite liked the struggling relationship between Daryl and Beth, talk about your odd couple, yes Kids that would be a pop reference, ask your Granddad. We have on the one hand the Georgia backwards redneck who I guess defines the term "white trash", hey before you write in Daryl is my favourite character in the show, and the farmer's daughter brought up in a rather protected environment. You need to be right across the character of Beth who has been developed quite nicely with limited screen time. She had a relationship with some random dude who died due to Bob's drinking issues, on hearing of his death Beth hardly showed a reaction. We learn during her monologue at the start of this episode that Beth has only recently started to believe they can have a life behind the prison walls, so naturally that peace of mind got ripped apart. She is now on a quest to find other survivors from her extended family and has an almost pathologically need to believe others have survived. For his part Daryl is a lot more pragmatic and faces what is in front of him rather than looking to the future. It makes for an intriguing setup, pragmatism versus naïve optimism; this is another aspect to the second half of the season that is going to play out in a no doubt surprising fashion. Witness Daryl's passing comment on the death of Hershel, matter of fact and pointing to his world view.

For the chicks in the audience, hey the gals are loving them some Glenn and Maggie romanticism in the cooling ashes, we get lovers turn asunder and of course the quest for reuniting the resident love interest. Maggie is simply possessed by the notion of finding Glenn and isn't giving a toss as to how this might affect companions Sasha and Bob. Surprisingly she isn't all weepy over the death of Herschel, Beth was very emotional, but goes into a strange place after the bus load of zombies battle. For his part Glenn is also wanting to find Maggie, and remember neither is entirely sure the other has survived, he does so by battling his way through the undead hordes and getting out into the wilderness. No doubt after much trial and tribulation the two will find each other, the show needs it, and sorry about the spoilers but I figure Sminds readers aren't intellectually challenged in any fashion.

We have a number of new characters added this episode including Tara, who I guess is going to be a regular for at least this coming half season. The new trio are going to add some well needed freshness to proceedings, sorry as much as I enjoyed the prison sojourn there were a few too many characters for mine. Without giving away any spoilers here, hey end of day the television series has already deviated from the graphic novels, all three characters are important in one way or another and should be with us for a while.

Currently The Walking Dead is going through the regularly programmed quiet stage each season serves up, which isn't to say we don't get some undead action in Inmates. So I guess if you are only in the show for action and car chases and things going bang then you are going to be right disappointed with this one. For fans of the show, and yes we are legion, this is the sort of episode that has us engrossed though if I had to be brutally honest there are so many threads in this episode that nothing really gets resolved in any sort of depth, though of course there are some character developments to keep our unabated attention. So naturally I'm going to roll around the floor naked, try to get that mental image out of your mind, while ranting uncontrollably that Inmates deserves a recommendation. Things are building through the second half of the season and I guess all roads are going to lead to what on the surface seems safety at Terminus. What dark delights will the wilderness have for our viewing pleasure; I'm sure as hell looking forward to finding out.