The Walking Dead - S04E12 Still (2014)

Review

Daryl and Beth are in the scrub avoiding the animated dead by hiding out in car trunks and staying out of sight out of mind. Unfortunately this does impact on the menu with our unlikely duo surviving on squirrels and snakes and anything else Daryl can hunt. Naturally Beth isn't so happy with the redneck diet and decides she wants to get her drink on. And where do you get some alcohol, naturally the local golf course because golfers booze right? Beth quickly learns the local rich club went the path of suicide, with mixed results, and the undead are attracted to the club house, she does however discovery a bottle of peach schnapps.

Naturally Daryl isn't going to allow Beth's first time to be some chick drink, not when there's the prospect of hooch on the horizon in the form of a moonshine still he discovered with Michonne. It doesn't take Beth long to get into her cups and Daryl isn't far behind, and naturally that's when some home truths come out and we get a whole bunch of background information on both characters. In the end, they are going to burn it all down as perhaps a cleansing of their respective pasts, he lets not get too deep here folks.

You know every now and again The Walking Dead throws on an episode that is completely off the reservation and this is one such episode. We basically get a two shot with Daryl and Beth still coming to terms with recent events. Daryl is still holding to the line that what's passed is passed and it's time to acknowledge they are not likely to see any other prison survivors. For her part Beth still believes, as we do, that everyone will eventually hook up. Later we learn Daryl blames himself for the fall of the prison and believes he could have done more to advert what went down. Not sure how exactly Daryl could have done anything, but hey stuff.

So our drama cup overflows, lap it up kids

With no other contact the duo are drawn together and get an inside look into each other's quite alien environments. The Farmers daughter who lead a sheltered life and the Redneck who has never left Georgia but who is coming into his own in a post-apocalyptic world, both are showing strengths and weaknesses. I'm happy enough to see Daryl getting a lot more screen time, he is a major league character after all, but I'm also slightly worried about Beth's longevity in the show given the amount of time she gets in this episode. You know the drum folks, a semi-regular character gets given some dramatic moments and then, well someone that we used to know.

What I liked about this episode in particular was how grunge it got; I almost needed a shower so I don't know how Norman Reedus and Emily Kinney felt after going through what must have been gruelling makeup sessions. The sweat is rolling off both of them and they sure do get grimy and look like right grubs by the end of the episode. It's this attention to minor details that underlines just how good Still is, though of course the haters are still going to whinge and whine like pork chops about some serious drama in their episodic diet.

There are a few light moments during the course of festivities of course, Beth getting her first drink and promptly getting drunk, Daryl trying to teach her to shot a crossbow - god alone knows why, and of course Beth trying to teach Daryl a drinking game she learnt from her friends. It might be the end of times but hey always allow the humour to lighten the load right.

While I was certainly digging what went down and to be honest a good bit of drama is I believe good for the soul there were a few times that I thought perhaps the scribes were pushing the notions a bit heavily. Surprising us Daryl gets drunk, then of course maudlin, and then blaming himself for the whole Governor and the fall of the prison. Apparently Daryl regrets not spending his time searching for the elusive former ruler of Woodbury, which was the first time I remember Daryl going the Michonne path rating a mention. Similar the cabin and moonshine still Daryl already knows about is passed off as something he and Michonne discovered sometime in the past. Standard script writing, don't simply land something in an episode without some sort of foreshadowing in a previous episode. I'm calling this lazy writing to be honest, not something we have previously been overburdened with in previous seasons.

There was one outstanding scene in Still which certainly had me nodding my head in something approaching approval. Having got drunk and then gone through various changes Daryl and Beth decide to burn it all down, which symbolically they do with the moonshine as a fire accelerant. So I guess we have one of those moments where characters finally clear their minds and move on from past traumas, so naturally the future isn't going to be all wine and roses, just call me cynical okay. While on the subject, cabin in the wood, Daryl and Beth cut that particular horror Gordian knot by burning it all down.

And before everyone gets upset about the general lack of discussion about the actual walking dead we do get us some undead action, though this isn't the central focus of the episode. I'm kind of starting to see the risen, hey how many synonyms can I come up with here without using the "Z" word, as more of nuisance value than a clear and present danger. We get a herd, about the only true danger in my strange opinion, and the odd wanderer going solo. So yes even with a dramatic interlude we get stinkers to keep things flowing; that would be as opposed to what the haters claim in a constant barrage of drivel that isn't actually based on what is happening on the screen.

I'm not even going to broach the subject of the episode title Still, naturally there is an obvious meaning, but just saying there are other more subtle nuances one could take as well. As usual The Walking Dead doing a lot more than is apparent on a mere glance at the screen to find something to bitch about. Lock and load people, this is the sort of television show that is going to mark the requirements moving ahead for the genre.

Solid episode that weighs in on the dramatic side as the viewer explores more background of two major characters that need additional details to explain their motivations. Unfortunately while the script is strong with the two shot requirements it does throw up some strange facets that were not foreshadowed and hence come as left field developments. If you are a Walking Dead fan, and hey who reading this isn't, then this episode is worth catching a viewing of, if you are one of the haters than you are just going to hate so have at it. I guess we are in a self-reflective stage of the season so let the good times roll and pray for at least one episode of all out action to lessen the weight of heavy ides. I'm going to be still watching regardless, catch you next time round.