The Walking Dead - S04E14 The Grove (2014)

Review

We re-join Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie, and Mika as they walk the line continuing their journey to Terminus and supposed safety. Carol is determined to teach the girls some well needed survival skills but is running up against a few obstacles; Lizzie has a strange belief that the walkers are still human but different, and Mika who can't bring herself to kill a living being. As we'll discover both girls are naïve to the max for different reasons. For his part Tyreese is just putting one leg after the other while still grieving for Karen, who was murder by guess who earlier in the season.

While getting some water with Mika, Carol stumbles upon an isolated farmhouse, complete with pecan trees, running fresh water, and apparent safety. The only sour note is a huge plume of smoke in the near distance, which Mika confirms is still a fire burning out of control, Terminus perhaps? Anyways just when Carol thinks she is making some headway with the girls one act will destroy the harmony that has been built up and cause Carol to follow through on her motivation of keeping the group safe. On the bright side the herd is culled a bit further, one of the requirements of the session, and the surviving duo are back on the road to Terminus.

You know every now and again a television franchise will drop an outstanding episode out of the blue that will have you giving a standing ovation. The Grove is The Walking Dead's such episode, outstanding, rocking the action, and with some extreme human drama underlying things. For mine the principle focus here is Carol and her wanting to protect her group even if this takes extreme action to achieve. So once again Carol is forced to confront her morals as well as the actual survival instincts she has, and in the wash up our gun totting heroine will once again have to make a harsh decision.

Outstanding and perfect episode that simply came out of the blue

First up we get zombie action to keep everyone happy with life and ready to rock it to the end credits. Besides one that happens to slip between the rails, you'll need to see the episode to work out what I did there, there's a whole bunch of burnt offerings for team Carol to do battle with. So there should be enough gnarly action right there. Got to be honest here, really hope they explain the whole fire and burnt zombies in the next couple of episodes however.

So while the zombie menace is for once not a clear and present danger and we do get a rest from the rails, there's a hell of a lot of drama to get through. Don't worry this isn't chick moment material, there's a lot of poignancy going down and for once I was grooving to the beat as scribe Scott M. Gimple nailed Carol finally coming to terms with her actions and attempt at appeasement for Karen. To a certain extent that's been slightly overdue and thankfully will close the door on the prison saga finally to allow us to move ahead with the overall story, bring on Terminus, anyone else have trepidation about what might be waiting at the end of the line.

So to recap a bit here Carol decided to take remedial action when it appeared the virus was about to swept all before it in the prison. Said action involved the murder and burning of two early victims of the virus in an attempt to stop its spread throughout the prison. Carol had no remorse in doing this but was eventually banished by Rick, who used his lawman wiles to determine her guilt. Flash forward to the current episode and Carol is forced to do the same again, although this time it's closer to home with what happened to Carol's own daughter. I think this is going to be a major turning point for the character but it may take a little while for the full ramification to become apparent.

Equally Tyreese has been going through changes, from an angry dude after the discovery of Karen's body, to someone seemingly accepting his lot in the post-apocalyptic life. His new found equilibrium is put to the test when Carl confesses to him, but he ultimately decides that friendship overrides revenge, yeah I know not very horror. So Carol is I guess absolved from her "sin", after basically doing it again, while Tyreese has some sort of closure. Who else thinks Tyreese, a deus ex machina character if there ever was one, isn't going to be with us for that many more episodes?

There's a few themes scribe Scott M. Gimple has happening during this episode that add depth to our viewing experience. First up the character of Mika, the younger of the girls, who won't take a life no matter the circumstance but who has an apparent effect on Carol through wide eyed innocence. Mika can't bring herself to kill a deer, but cheerfully informs Carol that they have peaches. When Carol tries to get serious about the situation and how to survive Mika once again cheerfully informs her that Mika's mom always simply said "everything works out the way it's supposed to". By the end of the episode, when it looks like the group might have found sanctuary, Carol is repeating the phrase. With Mika's ultimate fate discovered, and that was a hell of a shock scene, we discover that ultimately Carol was right all along and Mika simply didn't have the skills to survive.

Side noting like an Editor here, finally we have something The Walking Dead isn't about to show. For a franchise that thrives on blood and gore the death of Mica is handled off screen with zero close ups. Okay it works as as a shock development but did this have more to do with the Producers not wanting to give ammunition to the "moral majority" and less to do with rocking the world of horror fans?

Likewise Carol comes to personal realisation over Lizzie who has more than a few Roos bounding in the top paddock. Lizzie believes the undead are humans who are simply living in another state to the rest of us, pick up the hark back to Hershel barn in season two. We learn it was Lizzie feeding the mice to the walkers at the prisoner, Lizzie who tortured and mutilated the rat Tyreese found in the Tombs, and she is progressing with her dark passenger. Carol has to save Lizzie from a walker she is apparently playing tag with, that would be extreme tag I guess, and Lizzie goes bat shit crazy when Carol kills her "friend". Just when we think Carol might be getting through to Lizzie, the girl commits a shocking act that there is no coming back from. But there is the simple fact that Carol comes to a realisation of her role in the world, and I guess with confessing to Tyreese that there are implicationfs for her taking on that role.

There's a recurrent theme involving in The Walking Dead that is given some room in this episode, people find apparently safety, it seems to be going well, and then the walls come crumbling down with generally an undead horde pouring through those walls. Due to events in the episode the rather peaceful and idyllic grove discovered by Carol and Mika is no longer the haven it was at the beginning of the episode; we close with Carol and Tyreese resuming their journey toward Terminus and whatever that might actually be.

I'm not just calling The Grove the best episode thus far of season four I'm calling it the best ever episode of The Walking Dead. We have some action, lots of drama, and hell yes a lot of pathos. Once again Carol shows she is a hard arse and is capable of doing the hard things that others are not prepared to do. Clearly Carol is a survivor and Tyreese isn't going to be making the ten year anniversary party. Full recommendation on this episode, kind of think you can watch this one without having watched nearly four sessions, but hey your choice there. If you like great television then drop your linen and start your grinning, The Grove is going to be appearing on a lot of best of television lists this year.