What happened?
The prison is sabotaged by the convict Rick had condemned to death, releasing walkers into the compound. Lori, Maggie and Carl are separated from the group inside when Lori goes into labour. Problems in the delivery mean Maggie is called upon to perform a cesarean that Lori knows she won't survive but she demands it so that her baby will. When the baby is free Carl shoots Lori in the head to ensure she won't return.
Rick and the group manage to clear the prison of walkers at the cost of T-Dog's life, also, and then Rick is forced to take in the devastating truth when he learns what has happened to Lori and what his son has done.
Meanwhile, Merle has reached a decision to go and look for his brother. The Governor asks both Andrea and Michonne to stay, yet while Michonne remains mistrustful Andrea convinces to stay on for a little while longer.
Thoughts
I think the correct response to this episode can be succinctly captured in one word: 'Wow'.
The episode title, Killer Within, was put to work in myriad ways, but perhaps one of the most sophisticated interpretations was to do with Rick himself and it's worthwhile dealing with that issue first. The episode began with Rick committing once more to another act of what was becoming a commonplace hard, firm leadership with brutal decisions. The two prisoners had failed to stick to their end of the bargain and wanted to join the group and Rick (with Daryl's complicity) decided that wasn't going to happen and they had to hit the road.
As someone said, it was a certain death sentence, but Rick now houses a 'killer within' and will allow such things to pass. I touched on it previously, however, about how it was that Rick once condemned Shane for having that same brutal survival mentality. At the time I thought The Walking Dead was simply showing us how times have changed and shaped Rick's decency into something more compromised. Now, however, with this episode, it feels like the show has been quietly setting Rick up to eventually face up to his actions with a harsh penalty.
Rick was tough on the man that would, at the start of this episode, set in motion the chain of events that would lead to the terrible outcome. There was a choice, at that moment when the man begged to be let back inside - Rick could have let him in or, as he did, shut him out. The moral rights and wrongs of the matter can be debated indefinitely, but what is definite is that the man released walkers into the prison and messed with the power and, after that, tragedy followed. Rick's conscience is going to carry that and, I suspect, not going to forget it.
Will it prompt a change of heart? A way of making him review his harsh decision-making? Like, will the two prisoners he was intent on setting loose be allowed into the fold now? I suspect they will - they proved themselves. More at stake is how Rick will be able to forgive himself, because that's not going to come easily. Far, far from it. Something like this isn't a thing that you just eventually get over - this kind of event can forge irrevocable changes in a person.
Andrew Lincoln's performance when he saw Maggie emerge holding the baby was absolutely sensational. You could read the progression of his thought processes. The baby was Lori's, yet Lori wasn't there. That meant. . . Well, that meant the baby had proven to be a 'killer within' - another angle on the episode's title. And as Rick stumbled upon the realisation Lori was gone he then saw Carl, the traumatised boy, and the logical progression of what his son must have done to ensure Lori stayed dead also slowly registered. The horror of it all sank in. He had lost his wife, and his son had had to be the one to put a bullet in his mother's brain.
Bad day all round.
It's worth mentioning the question of whether Carl actually did commit the deed. I personally think he did. I think keeping the grisly act off-screen was more a matter of sensitivity than ambiguity. After Lori had said her heart-rending goodbyes to her son and passed away she was left out of focus when on-screen. We never saw her dead face. I think that was a conscious, artistic decision from the director and a nice touch.
Mind, I don't think we have seen the last of Lori. I save scope for there being some kind of flashback showing us in more detail what it was that drove a wedge between Lori and Rick. As it was, Lori and Rick last saw each other with a fence between them. Lori managed a semi-smile, perhaps because she thought Rick was looking at her - but it was rendered unclear if Rick was returning her gaze. Such a moment was significant at any time, but that it turned out to be their last moments of possible connection just makes it absolutely devastating.
It really was a battering ram of an episode. Such was the crushing avalanche of emotion about Lori's death, and the manner of it, that it's easy to forget that also tucked away was the gruesome demise of another of the show's longstanding characters - T-Dog. To be frank he's been more than just a little bit sidelined, particularly during the second season, so his departure won't leave much of a vacuum. Most other episodes it would have been a seismic event, and it did look a particularly horrible way to go, but in this episode it was a sleight of hand before the real gasp-inducing reveal.
The plot ticking over with Andrea and The Governor took a couple of interesting turns. Contrary to my certainty last week, The Governor actually did reveal his real name to Andrea (although possibly he was lying!). Indeed, all round he was a slightly nicer character here. I suspect this is mostly because we saw The Governor in the presence of either Andrea or Michonne, people he is looking to recruit and keep on side, so it's only expected that he wouldn't show any mean elements. On saying that, I think I was perhaps guilty of painting him purely in shades of black from my first impression when The Walking Dead clearly has intentions of giving him more depth than that. I doubt they'll go so far as to try and make him likable but, sure, understandable in his misdeeds would be welcome.
Merle has elected to go off and seek out Daryl and, I suppose, he will almost surely be successful as it seems he will be the catalyst that brings the two factions together. He's another character that seemed to be painted with a softer brush this episode as well, actually. Michael Rooker is another member of the cast that gives a terrific performance so I hope the show doesn't just drop him out of the world whilst he goes on his brotherly hunt. We've only just got him back so let's at least keep tabs on him!
This was easily the best episode of the new season, and a highpoint of the whole show - well-earned mainly because it had the guts to kill off a character that you would have almost certainly considered untouchable, especially at this stage in the game. Once again The Walking dead knows how to land its big plot bombs at perfectly judged moments and, most importantly, how to literally execute them for maximum impact.
Like I said, wow.
What was the best part?
Without question it was Lori's goodbye. Very moving moment, with her hugging her son for the last time and telling him he was the best thing she had ever done, and that he had what it took to survive this world. Tender stuff. Which made the violent birth of new life tempered with the ordeal that Carl shouldered in shooting his own dead mother through the skull just feel all that more vivid. It was a scene that swept you through tears, shock, relief and than left you agog as you realised all that had just happened.
What do I think will happen next?
I suspect Rick is not going to take too well to fatherly duties. Indeed, I wonder if he is going to have a longterm problem bonding with his new baby at all. This 'killer within' was obliviously responsible for the death of Lori, for one thing. Irrational as it is, Rick may struggle to come to terms with that. Furthermore, in the back of his mind, the idea that the baby is Shane's might take seed and germinate. For Lori he was prepared to take the baby as his no matter what. With Lori gone? What reason would he have to claim the child as his when it may have no more blood relation to him than it would to anyone else? These and many other guilts and rages will be flowing through Rick - dark days lie ahead.
Rick and the group manage to clear the prison of walkers at the cost of T-Dog's life, also, and then Rick is forced to take in the devastating truth when he learns what has happened to Lori and what his son has done.
Meanwhile, Merle has reached a decision to go and look for his brother. The Governor asks both Andrea and Michonne to stay, yet while Michonne remains mistrustful Andrea convinces to stay on for a little while longer.
Thoughts
I think the correct response to this episode can be succinctly captured in one word: 'Wow'.
The episode title, Killer Within, was put to work in myriad ways, but perhaps one of the most sophisticated interpretations was to do with Rick himself and it's worthwhile dealing with that issue first. The episode began with Rick committing once more to another act of what was becoming a commonplace hard, firm leadership with brutal decisions. The two prisoners had failed to stick to their end of the bargain and wanted to join the group and Rick (with Daryl's complicity) decided that wasn't going to happen and they had to hit the road.
As someone said, it was a certain death sentence, but Rick now houses a 'killer within' and will allow such things to pass. I touched on it previously, however, about how it was that Rick once condemned Shane for having that same brutal survival mentality. At the time I thought The Walking Dead was simply showing us how times have changed and shaped Rick's decency into something more compromised. Now, however, with this episode, it feels like the show has been quietly setting Rick up to eventually face up to his actions with a harsh penalty.
Rick was tough on the man that would, at the start of this episode, set in motion the chain of events that would lead to the terrible outcome. There was a choice, at that moment when the man begged to be let back inside - Rick could have let him in or, as he did, shut him out. The moral rights and wrongs of the matter can be debated indefinitely, but what is definite is that the man released walkers into the prison and messed with the power and, after that, tragedy followed. Rick's conscience is going to carry that and, I suspect, not going to forget it.
Will it prompt a change of heart? A way of making him review his harsh decision-making? Like, will the two prisoners he was intent on setting loose be allowed into the fold now? I suspect they will - they proved themselves. More at stake is how Rick will be able to forgive himself, because that's not going to come easily. Far, far from it. Something like this isn't a thing that you just eventually get over - this kind of event can forge irrevocable changes in a person.
Andrew Lincoln's performance when he saw Maggie emerge holding the baby was absolutely sensational. You could read the progression of his thought processes. The baby was Lori's, yet Lori wasn't there. That meant. . . Well, that meant the baby had proven to be a 'killer within' - another angle on the episode's title. And as Rick stumbled upon the realisation Lori was gone he then saw Carl, the traumatised boy, and the logical progression of what his son must have done to ensure Lori stayed dead also slowly registered. The horror of it all sank in. He had lost his wife, and his son had had to be the one to put a bullet in his mother's brain.
Bad day all round.
It's worth mentioning the question of whether Carl actually did commit the deed. I personally think he did. I think keeping the grisly act off-screen was more a matter of sensitivity than ambiguity. After Lori had said her heart-rending goodbyes to her son and passed away she was left out of focus when on-screen. We never saw her dead face. I think that was a conscious, artistic decision from the director and a nice touch.
Mind, I don't think we have seen the last of Lori. I save scope for there being some kind of flashback showing us in more detail what it was that drove a wedge between Lori and Rick. As it was, Lori and Rick last saw each other with a fence between them. Lori managed a semi-smile, perhaps because she thought Rick was looking at her - but it was rendered unclear if Rick was returning her gaze. Such a moment was significant at any time, but that it turned out to be their last moments of possible connection just makes it absolutely devastating.
It really was a battering ram of an episode. Such was the crushing avalanche of emotion about Lori's death, and the manner of it, that it's easy to forget that also tucked away was the gruesome demise of another of the show's longstanding characters - T-Dog. To be frank he's been more than just a little bit sidelined, particularly during the second season, so his departure won't leave much of a vacuum. Most other episodes it would have been a seismic event, and it did look a particularly horrible way to go, but in this episode it was a sleight of hand before the real gasp-inducing reveal.
The plot ticking over with Andrea and The Governor took a couple of interesting turns. Contrary to my certainty last week, The Governor actually did reveal his real name to Andrea (although possibly he was lying!). Indeed, all round he was a slightly nicer character here. I suspect this is mostly because we saw The Governor in the presence of either Andrea or Michonne, people he is looking to recruit and keep on side, so it's only expected that he wouldn't show any mean elements. On saying that, I think I was perhaps guilty of painting him purely in shades of black from my first impression when The Walking Dead clearly has intentions of giving him more depth than that. I doubt they'll go so far as to try and make him likable but, sure, understandable in his misdeeds would be welcome.
Merle has elected to go off and seek out Daryl and, I suppose, he will almost surely be successful as it seems he will be the catalyst that brings the two factions together. He's another character that seemed to be painted with a softer brush this episode as well, actually. Michael Rooker is another member of the cast that gives a terrific performance so I hope the show doesn't just drop him out of the world whilst he goes on his brotherly hunt. We've only just got him back so let's at least keep tabs on him!
This was easily the best episode of the new season, and a highpoint of the whole show - well-earned mainly because it had the guts to kill off a character that you would have almost certainly considered untouchable, especially at this stage in the game. Once again The Walking dead knows how to land its big plot bombs at perfectly judged moments and, most importantly, how to literally execute them for maximum impact.
Like I said, wow.
What was the best part?
Without question it was Lori's goodbye. Very moving moment, with her hugging her son for the last time and telling him he was the best thing she had ever done, and that he had what it took to survive this world. Tender stuff. Which made the violent birth of new life tempered with the ordeal that Carl shouldered in shooting his own dead mother through the skull just feel all that more vivid. It was a scene that swept you through tears, shock, relief and than left you agog as you realised all that had just happened.
What do I think will happen next?
I suspect Rick is not going to take too well to fatherly duties. Indeed, I wonder if he is going to have a longterm problem bonding with his new baby at all. This 'killer within' was obliviously responsible for the death of Lori, for one thing. Irrational as it is, Rick may struggle to come to terms with that. Furthermore, in the back of his mind, the idea that the baby is Shane's might take seed and germinate. For Lori he was prepared to take the baby as his no matter what. With Lori gone? What reason would he have to claim the child as his when it may have no more blood relation to him than it would to anyone else? These and many other guilts and rages will be flowing through Rick - dark days lie ahead.
1 comment:
Yep, Rick is in full meltdown mode no question. I think my favourite characters on this show are the ones that totally embrace the end of civilisation and take it and run with it. That's why people like The Governor and Michonne(who I am officially in love with by the way, the Katana wielding maniac) on some levels seem to get better the more screwed up things become, whereas Rick not so much.
The Walking Dead really does get better every week!
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