Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Walking Dead S.4 Ep. 9 “After” Review


The show starts with the zombies overrunning the prison. Michonne watches on as she sees it burning. She walks through the gauntlet of zombies taking off heads as she goes. She collects two zombie followers for protection and finds the zombie head of Hershell. She appropriately kills it. We now see Carl walking on a mission as Rick stumbles behind him. They find an old bar to ransack for supplies. Rick tries to get Carl to stay outside but Carl properly puts him in his place and luckily they find supplies.


Michonne comes upon Rick and Carl’s tracks but heads the other way. Rick and Carl find a house to stay in for the night. Rick is one big bruise and has labored breathing and despite this Carl does not go easy on him. Dream sequence of Michonne with her brother and fiancé before zombies and they are happy. She has a son. A different flash of after the zombie outbreak occurred and they are fighting among each other. Another flash and they are without their arms. Michonne wakes up from the dream visibly upset. 


Carl wakes up at the makeshift house. Carl realizes that Rick will not wake up and by mistake notifies the zombies outside. Carl leads the zombies away from the house. Carl finds himself overwhelmed by the  zombies and buried under their bodies but in the end comes out on top. Michonne is walking with a horde of zombies. Carl begins yelling at Rick for all his failures as Rick is passed out on the couch. Carl goes out to scavenge the neighborhood for supplies. 


Carl has a run in with a zombie in the house but wins again but does lose a shoe. He sits and eats pudding on the roof, proud of his accomplishment. Michonne wakes up from her stupor of following all the zombies and begins slaughtering them all. Michonne comes back to where she initially found the tracks and begins to follow them. Carl wakes up and realizes the Rick is waking up. He thinks he has become a zombie and starts to cry that he might have to kill his father. He says he cannot do it but luckily Rick has not changed but is very ill. Michonne comes up to the bar and has a moment of reflection about her past. 


Rick is up and awake telling Carl to be careful but understands things have changed and Carl is a man now. Michonne is happy to see Carl and Rick alive and has a moment of crying and says a silent prayer before knocking. Rick is happy to see Michonne and tells Carl the person at the door is for him. End. 


My Thoughts: Appropriately titled. The aftermath of the Prison falling, while not as epic as the graphic novel it will do. Finally Carl is getting more and more grown. I cannot wait for him to start becoming the true character he is meant to be. I am enjoying the power struggle between Rick and Carl. This moment needs to happen. It is a telling moment when Carl is at first happy to see all the toys in a room in the house but then ends up using the cords to tie the front door closed. Carl needed this time to become self-sufficient as Rick is passed out on the couch. This is a turning point for Carl and I am happy to see that they appear to be doing it justice. 

Well done showing the magnitude of loss that Michonne went through. While we still do not have the whole story we at least now know that she lost family and a child because of the zombies. The relationship between Michonne and Carl is strong and good for the story line. She helps to bring Carl out of his shell and he helps to soften her up. The two reuniting is a nice end to an episode. 

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