The Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 3: Isolation
Well, the two main storylines move forward quite a bit in this episode -- the sickness is spreading very far and wide throughout the colony, and Tyreese is out for the blood of Karen's murderer. As all of this go on, we see how Hershel, Carl and Carol in particular deal to all the madness and death happening all around them.
Let's talk about the important things first. The sickness quickly ravages through the colony, forcing the group to quarantine everyone exposed to the sickness and developing symptoms to be quarantined to a portion of the prison. This includes Glenn and one of the girls that Carol adopted last episode, causing Carol and Maggie no small amount of grief. The sheer speed of the sickness's spread is pretty awesomely portrayed, and it does show that last episode's murder was all for naught.
Meanwhile, we get a very brutal fight between Tyreese and Rick at the beginning of the episode as Tyreese... is absolutely fucking furious at seeing how Karen was brutally murdered, the identity of the murderer whom we find out at the end of the episode -- Carol. There are enough hints about all this, of course, enough stiffness from Carol to make you suspect her, but not quite enough coldness for you to expect that Carol did it. Rick's investigation was quick, and Carol's flat "yes" to Rick really sells how she probably thought it's the right thing.
Yes, Carol's murder of Karen and David (who?) was brutal, unwarranted and ultimately pointless considering the disease spread anyway, but compare it to the themes brought up by Carl, Hershel, Beth and even Tyreese himself throughout this episode: better to do something quickly and assuredly instead of not doing something at all. It's shown with Hershel doubling down and refusing to be just this old cripple that's only good for drawing maps, and instead try his best to help out the people in quarantine, or for Tyreese to finally decide to do something about it when he decides to go out with Daryl's group. Meanwhile, Carl has the opposite, with Carl's restraint from gunning down the bear trap zombie (which is delightfully creepy) being a counterpart to acting too hastily.
Yes, Carol's decisions might have saved the colony. It didn't, but it might have. It's a whole new interesting can of worms. Yes, Carol should've probably ran this by someone else, yes, she could've just elected to cordon off the entire section of the prison and let David and Karen cough themselves to death, yes she could've chosen a less brutal method than burning them alive, but still, it does show how much Carol has grown from being a beaten and abused wife into a far, far more deadly, serious and broken character all at the same time.
Granted, while Carol's proactiveness and general 'do what's necessary to survive' is starting to be shown these past few episodes, with knife-stabbing tutors and that cold-hearted moment with Lizzie's father, as well as her own reckless running to fix the water line halfway through the episode, it's still not entirely convincing that Carol would stoop so low as to burn two people to their deaths, but still, it's believable enough that I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. I still feel that the storytelling could've taken more time to show the woman that Carol is now to understand why she would do what she did, though at least the mystery wasn't dragged on for too long.
Rick is still kinda boring, though his fight scene with Tyreese is well done, and his quick detective work is kinda cool, but I still don't particularly like him at this point.
Hershel, after spending more than a season only spouting sage 'only sane man' advice, finally manages to get one of the best scenes, acknowledging that, yes, elderberry tea isn't going to help much, and yes, he's probably going to get his old crippled ass infected... but he's still going to help the people in there, god damn it, everyone's risking their lives, why should he do any less? Good show, Hershel.
Tyreese, though, is the star of the show, quickly being transformed (in a sense that zombie horde was like a baptism) from one of the gentlest, most pacifistic member of the cast into a badass that hammer-bashes his way through one of the largest zombie hordes we've seen in some time. With his lover dead and his sister dying, and the rage that's seething in him, it's absolutely amazing. Combined with Daryl and Michonne (and, um, Bob) the three of them are like the best zombie-slaying team in the prison.
Speaking of which, how awesome is that absolutely gigantic zombie horde that Daryl's group literally hit while on the way to the vet facility? The way it's shot, from one zombie in the road to Daryl being distracted by the radio to more zombies surrounding the car, to the slow pan that, yeah, it's way, way more than the twenty-zombie hordes that tend to signal 'bad news' in the previous season. There are hundreds and hundreds of zombies in their way, and it's absolutely amazing to behold, a spectacle that I don't think Walking Dead managed to accomplish since season one's big city zombie scene ended.
Overall, a pretty strong entry in this series and season. Hopefully the Carol subplot will be explored well, though -- it's something that can make or break this season's story.
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