The Walking Dead - S04E11 Claimed (2014)

Review

With Rick still resting up from his injuries Michonne and Carl decide to go out into the township, which suddenly seems sans walking dead, in order to find food, batteries, and water. Why they aren't getting medicines for Rick remains a mystery. Anyways we learn a bit more about Michonne pre-apocalypse and her relationship with Carl grows stronger. Meanwhile Rick wakes to find he isn't alone anymore, a group of marauders have taken up residence. In a tension filled sequence Rick needs to evade detection and warn the returning Michonne and Karl that they are in danger.

Meanwhile out on the road Glenn wakes in the back of an army truck with Tara who has been noting the route the truck is taking. Everyone's favourite pizza delivery dude isn't happy with developments and forces the truck to stop. We meet Sgt. Abraham Ford who is trying to deliver Doc Eugene to Washington, as apparently Eugene knows what caused the apocalypse and may have the solution to save humanity. Along for the ride is Rosita Espinosa, who I guess adds extra firepower. Anyways while Glenn and Abraham are discussing whether they should continue to Washington or go back and try and find Maggie, Eugene notes a number of walking dead arriving and takes matters into his own hands with a machine gun. Okay so Eugene doesn't do much damage to the walkers but by hell he makes short work of the truck. In the wash up Glenn and Tara continue their trip back and Rosita decides enough is enough and follows, asking her crew what else can they do in the circumstance.

I had this horrid notion at the beginning of the episode that we were going to be caught up in a prolonged chick moment as Carl and Michonne get to know each other in more detail. Thankfully a group of raiders happen along to give Rick a bad day. About all we know about them is they claim stuff and are more likely to resort to violence rather than discuss things. While Rick barely escapes their clutches, and has to resort to desperate means in order to make that escape, I have a feeling we aren't finished with this group and they will come into play later in the season. So Rick and team are on the run once again but at least have a destination, the allure of Terminus apparently offering some hope of safety.

Really wish we would focus on a single group during each episode

Not quite sure why we spent so much time on the Michonne and Carl side show to be honest, the revelations about her past from Michonne weren't news to anyone who has been following the show, so I'm guessing this had more to do with building things up for some sort of dramatic turn of events in a future episode. You know one of them finding themselves in danger with the other one having to risk their life to save the situation. What the time spent did do was slow the narrative to the extent that I was checking text messages on my phone. By all means go for some dramatic interludes, but make them fundamental to the episode and not inserted for some dubious future development that may or may not happen, depending on the whims of the script writers.

The biggest development for mine in Claimed was one Dr. Eugene who apparently knows what caused the apocalypse. For my peeps that have been rocking the graphic novels, well we all know where this is heading, but for those who are simply watching the episodes no spoilers, though you can probably work out ahead of time where this might be heading. Without belabouring things too much Eugene is clearly on spectrum, considers himself highly intelligent, and has zero chance of surviving if he isn't protected by others. On the bright side if the crew ever wants to kill another truck Eugene is their go to guy for that.

Glenn is naturally single minded about things, he doesn't give a damn about getting to Washington, he's all about getting back to Maggie which leads to a direct confrontation with Abraham. I was mildly confused by that development to be honest. Okay Abraham believes there is strength in numbers and there should be a single aim for the group, but with Glenn clearly not falling into line with Abraham's mission why get into a fight over it? Either Abraham is a little bit thick, or he has the blinkers down so tight that he can't see the forest for the trees! On the bright side of the bar room brawl at least Eugene makes the whole fight moot, so hey Glenn and Abraham can put aside their differences.

Possibly a character who isn't getting enough attention in these reviews is Tara, who you may remember didn't fire a shot in the Governor's attack on the prison. She almost acts as Glenn's secretary in Claimed, taking down notes of where the truck is going, and backing every decision pizza boy makes. While she definitely owes her life to Glenn, I'm not sure where the writers are going with this character. Anyone else getting the feeling that Tara is going to be cannon fodder at some stage in the future?

For those constantly bitching about lack of the dead in their Walking Dead diet well once again maybe you should get your eyes checked. Abraham has to deal with three walkers, in pretty direct fashion, showing Tara he is more than happy to engage the enemy. Later Eugene engages a growing group of walkers with disastrous results for Abraham's plans and ambitions. So once again we get walker action without having to wonder if the makeup will match previous episodes.

In another disjointed episode, not the biggest fan of sudden cuts between groups of characters, we do get some tension and a new group of antagonists that no doubt Rick is going to have to deal with in due course. There's further indications that Terminus is going to be the ultimate destination for the prison survivors, which may or may not be a good thing. If I had to make an honest call then this episode fits in the okay range without raising the stakes on the season. Guess we are in the final third of the season so hopefully things will start to come together rather than continuing the current scatter gun approach we're having. One of those episodes that diehard fans are going to dig, but the haters will watch solely to find fault. If you fall into the later camp then I feel so sorry for you, clearly you have so little happening in your life that you have to watch a show you don't like, maybe you could take up knitting or something.