Things go from bad, to worse for the survivors in 'The Walking Dead'

"The Walking Dead" picks up right where it left off last week, with the discovery of the two burned bodies and an angry Tyreese.

In a scene taken right from the comics, Rick and Tyreese get into a fish-fight, but unlike the comics, Rick comes out the victor.

We still see Rick has not truly recovered from his emotional problems. Rick has a hard time accepting the fact he had to use violence to get to Tyreese.

The major theme of the episode is the councils reaction to the viral outbreak. Sasha, a survivor who joined with Tyreese, begins to suffer symptoms of the virus and is quickly brought to quarantine.

However, we soon see many more people coming down with the virus. Almost everyone who was in the cell-block from the initial attack has begun to show signs of the virus and things are beginning to get out-of-hand.

The council discusses options of where to quarantine but things get worse for one of the members. Glenn soon finds himself with symptoms of the sickness.

One interesting thing to note about the council is it seems Rick is not a part of it. The council members include Hershel, Daryl, Carol, Michonne and Glenn. With Rick absent, it's save to assume no one trusts him in a leadership role after how disastrous he made things before and after Woodbury.

It didn't help he lost his mind for the better part of it all, but to not include him really says how the others feel about him. With Rick no longer maintaining the farm, I wonder if he'll try to contribute in the decision making.

Another council member is having problems with the outbreak and it's not because she is sick. Carol is not coping well and is having a hard time having to separate the sick from the children.

It's important to see her struggle because Carol was starting to become a strong-willed character. After making strides in strength, Carol is faltering in staying cool under pressure.

Carol mkes things harder for herself when she goes out to get water ahead. Rick comes to the rescue, but it shows the cracks beginning to form again on Carol's armor. 

With Daryl and the others going for supplies and Carol having issues, Hershel tries to take matters into his own hands as well. Venturing out to get leaves for tea, he puts himself at risk by going outside the prison and then venturing into the quarantine zone to serve the tea.

What all this really says to me however, is even with a council to make decisions, every member tries to solve the viral outbreak in their own way. With Hershel trying herbal teas, Daryl wanting to get supplies and Carol focusing on separating the sick and gather water; it's like having a council is pointless.

With the virus running rampant through the prison, we also get an episode following Tyreese. After his altercation with Rick, he wants revenge for the death of Karen. He also has a problem when Sasha's condition gets worse. He decides to go with Daryl, Michonne and Bob to gather medical supplies.

It's nice to see Tyreese get some air time but it feels forced. Rather then ease him into an important role, he now has to deal with the death of a woman he loved and is now about to lose an important person in his life.

After driving for a few moments, things go wrong on the supplies run with the car getting surrounded by a herd of walkers. In another scene from the comics, Tyreese sacrifices himself to let the three escape danger. And just like the comics, Tyreese miraculously finds his way out and survives.

As the episode comes to a close, it's revealed who killed Karen and the other man, and it's not someone you'd expect. Will Rick tell Tyreese this information? We unfortunately have to wait a week to find out.

A new enemy is introduced on 'The Walking Dead'

In an opening that involved feeding a rat to a walker, "The Walking Dead" brought home another entertaining episode. 

As last weeks episode ended, we saw Patrick succumb to the zombie virus yet he had not been bit. Before anyone could notice, Patrick killed a fellow survivor and now two walkers were making their way inside the prison. Things get worse when the walkers find the general population and begin to cause a panic.

It's interesting to note just how Patrick was able to make his way around the prison for so long without being noticed. The size and scope of the prison has never really been explored, but it was clear from last season many of the prison wings were blocked off for protection. It's possible the prison living areas have been extended since the Governors attack, but its never explained. 

After the commotion of the walker attack, it's surmised Patrick and another un-bitten turned-survivor Charlie died from a flu virus. With this knowledge, Rick and the survivors now have to fight an enemy they never thought possible.

It's known that everyone is either infected or something is in the air that will turn people whether they die by another walker or of natural causes. But this is the first case of someone dieing from a flu in less then 24 hours. It's the kind of enemy that is hard to fight and detect. 

It will be interesting to see how the group handles this in the coming episodes. Quarantine seems like the best idea, but that won't come easy. Having no solid medical equipment to even set-up a quarantine area makes things difficult.

As the episode continued, Rick has to sacrifice the hard work he's been putting into the garden and farm to lure away a herd of walkers threatening to breakdown the fence around the prison. It's hard to watch and you feel bad for Rick. The farm took him away from the fighting and let him focus his efforts on something positive. 

Rick ultimately does away with the farm as he straps up his gun again and decides to give Carl something he's been wanting for a while. It's sad to see Rick realize he is needed in other important areas like defense and leadership rather then farming. 

A fun aspect to the show was the little tidbits of Michonne's character development. We're seeing her grow like she did in the comics. At first, Michonne was silent and stoic but as the comics went on she opened up to Rick and the others and became an integral part to the group. She's beginning to open her emotions as she interacts with Ricks daughter and it's a nice touching moment.

In the ending, Tyreese is met with an unfortunate surprise and is left to wonder how and why it happened. With someone feeding rats to walkers and now burning bodies of suspected sick people, someone is up to no good. It's reminiscent of the comics when someone was killing random women in the prison. 

The prison group survivors are going to have some rough seas ahead of them and it will great to see how this all unfolds. 

Rating

8.5/10

'The Walking Dead' has returned

After months of waiting, "The Walking Dead" has returned and it did not disappoint. 

The show's cold opening gives the viewers a glimpse at how much Rick has changed. Finding a gun buried under the now fully grown crops and instead of cleaning it, he looks right at the zombies and throws the gun away, with a jubilant smile across his face. 

As the episode unfolds, we are introduced to new characters and the growing community within the prison. It's setting the new status quo of the show after the climatic battle between Woodbury and the prison camp.

It's never mentioned how long it's been since the last episode, but if the title of the episode makes it seems it's been at least a month. In this time, the community has added horses and pigs and have made the inside into a make-shift farm. 

Daryl has become a living folk-hero and seems to have the respect of everyone. He is more up-beat then usual and relishes in the fact that he is loved.
 
He leads a supply run with Michonne, Tyreese, Glen and some of the new recruits to an abandoned army camp. One of the new recruits, Bob played by Lawrence Gilliard Jr., makes a mistake leading to zombies raining down from the roof. The threat of a falling military chopper leads to an escape, but not everyone makes it.

The real interesting part of the episode was to see Rick and his new attitude. It's almost a complete 180 degree change. Rick doesn't like to carry around his gun anymore, even when he is outside the prison fences. 

He is also more welcoming, as his first instinct when finding a woman in the woods was to give her food. He then agrees to meet her husband and consider bringing them into the prison community.

Last season was all about shoot first and ask questions later, and now Rick is trying to play ambassador. It's interesting to see and really shows how 30 days is a long time in a world full of zombies. 

As Rick continues to the survivor's camp, he soon learns that things truly haven't changed outside the prison walls and gets a harsh lesson on how much the world has fallen apart. It's a nice reality check and an even better view into how Rick has learned to cope with his loss and make himself better. 

The ending leaves on a dark note as one of the new survivors begins to turn into a zombie, without being bitten. It's a nice twist and could lead to a whole new burden the survivors will have to deal with.


It started slow, but the scenes with Rick were a driving force for a fun and interesting episode. It will be fun to see what new obstacles the prison camp will face now with no overarching enemy.  

Rating
7.5 out of 10