The Walking Dead - S04E15 US (2014)

Review

For no apparent reason we get a scene involving Rick, Michonne, and Carl walking down the line, yes Johnny Cash reference, heading towards Terminus. Guess the only take from this is Michonne and Carl have grown closer through the years. Anyways Daryl is trying to adjust to the Claimers rules on life and their brutal reaction to anyone who doesn't abide by those rules. Leader Joe justifies things but I was left wondering exactly how long our favourite Redneck is going to last with this band of nutters who don't seem to have any plan beyond claiming things.

In the other major plot arc Glenn, Tara, Eugene, Abraham, and Rosita are still heading toward Washington due to Eugene apparently having a solution to the walker outbreak. Glenn has other ideas involving finding Maggie and wants to head to Terminus where he discovers via a sign Maggie is heading. Things come to a head when the road to Terminus involves heading through a derelict tunnel filled with walkers, Glenn is going to charge forward and damn the torpedoes, while Abraham isn't about to risk his charges and instead heads out finding a car and getting the Washington sojourn back on the agenda. Surprisingly its Eugene who goes against type and helps to get a reunion happening.

So the penultimate episode of season four is a character focused one, which is disappointing given we are in the undead wastelands. Here we are all about "us", the remnants of the prison, and conversely "them", the other human survivors rather than what might dwell in the ruins. While this is kind of an admirable idea it is not fully visualised with very few of "them" to be going on with. Still you get the idea, survivors gradually finding each other and everything concluding I would imagine at Terminus next episode.

Disappointing, too many characters, can we cull some more?

For those wondering yes we do get the odd walker happening but they are more nuisance value rather than being a clear and present danger. Thankfully the producers have continued with the general decay of the walkers, two thumbs up to the makeup team right there, some of the walkers are becoming quite slimy now.

The movie might be about "us" but for Glenn its all about him and Maggie, as he discards the trip to Washington that might resolve the whole mess humanity now finds itself in the midst of. Okay like the rest of you I'm not exactly convinced Eugene is what he appears to be, but any chance of reversing the apocalypse is something you might want to grab a hold of. In the wash up I guess the Glenn and Maggie story line is what the gals are dialling in for, so lets keep that rocking and we do get a conclusion to the trial separation, so big phew, can we move along with the horror now!

Back to Daryl and the Claimers, things are ever so slightly out of shape, Joe the Claimer leader in one scene admits to Daryl that the crew sort of aren't wondering around aimlessly, they are following someone who killed one of them in a house and left the body to reanimate. Okay Daryl has no idea who Joe is talking about, and doesn't seem overly interested, but the audience are nodding to each other sagely, Rick, Carl, and Michonne are no doubt unaware they are being tracked either. So hey expecting some excitement in the next episode on that front and unfortunately not entirely sure everyone is going to survive that full metal conflict.

Guess I should mention Terminus, which we finally get to this evening. Okay undefended gates, anyone else thinking things aren't as safe as claimed, and we get to meet an inhabitant of the community, Mary, who appears to be making BBQ. So a well organised community with established gardens etc, so why only one person around? I'm thinking that the Claimers aren't the only danger in store for our survivors.

Well another disjointed episode that continues the seemingly never ending journey to Terminus, admittedly we finally do get there, but hell that seems to have taken a month of Sundays. While there have been some decent episodes on the path we are currently travelling I'm not entirely sure its the best we could have hoped for from the season. Jumping between characters really hasn't made for a cohesive viewing experience, but we did get to spend some more time with minor characters and learn more about them which is a good thing I guess. Don't think anyone is going to list season four as their favourite season, but hey at least we are almost at the end of things.

There's been quite the journey through the past four seasons for Glenn, and the character development hasn't delivered the best version of Glenn we might want at this late stage of the current season. The Dude was originally a pizza delivery boy, ended up in Atlanta amongst a group of survivors and for the most part was the mild mannered one amongst the bunch. He did however save Rick and ultimately turn into the bad arse we all high fived over. Unfortunately over this season, and in particularly the last third he has turned into something of wreck putting others in danger and not displaying any intelligence when required. Hopefully the screaming mess that Glenn has become will be sorted out now that he is back with Maggie and he can perhaps think more clearly.

The other character I wanted to talk about is the newest addition to our survivor crew, Tara. Okay she was fooled by the Governor but pulled up short when the maniac executed Herschel, so she gets a get out of jail free card there. During the final third of the season we see Tara trying to atone for the attack on the prison and Glenn rescuing her when she was out of it. Hoping Tara will be around for quite sometime as actress Alanna Masterson nails it like a Boss. At least we are getting a character being developed and I reckon she'll be another hard arse in due course.

So we have one more episode to go in season four and there's a hint that the finale could rock it like a really rocking thing. During the wait we have US to contend with and to be honest I wasn't overly impressed with the multi focused character driven episode I had to sit through. Yes folks that's correct I had to sit through, if not for this review I would have turned off the show about a third of the way in. So yeah you know where this is going, no recommendation to the casual viewer, catch it if you are a regular connoisseur of the show, really hoping next week nails things to leave us with a good feeling about a rather disjointed and mixed season.