The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 5: Internment

Another great episode. They're five for five now in my book. Let's hope their streak continues.

(WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, INCLUDING ONE ABOUT THE END OF THE EPISODE! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!)

Thoughts:
•  Hey, another "I" title episode. That makes four in a row now. "Internment" is an ominous title though, as the word means "the imprisonment or confinement of people, usually in large groups, without trail."

Hey, I've got a theory! All these titles that begin with the letter "I" are a clue. "I" sounds like "eye," right? Who do we know on the show who only has one eye? The Governor! It's all a clue that he's the one who's been feeding the zombies and weakening the fence! Do I win the internet?

• This episode was a definite tour de force for Hershel, as he tended tirelessly to the sick both physically and emotionally, removed the bodies of the dead, dispatched the recently deceased before they came back, and even wrestled with a few walkers! Daryl's right, he is a bad ass.

Like Carol, he's determined to do whatever it takes to save the group, but in the opposite way-- by treating the sick, rather than sacrificing them.

• Jaysis, this show's getting almost too nerve-wracking to watch. I couldn't sit still through the whole episode because I was terrified someone was going to die, get bitten, shot or all three. I was exhausted by the time it was over. I need to start watching something less intense, like The Beverly Hillbillies.

• Wow, for the first time ever we saw dogs on the show! I just assumed the zombie virus must have killed them all since we've gone four years now without seeing one.

So dogs eat zombies, eh? I wonder what that does to them? If you eat dead zombie flesh (bloody zombie flesh), isn't that pretty much the same as being bitten? Are there packs of zombie dogs out there?

Kind of disturbing that the walker the dogs were attacking looked like it was pleading for help from Rick as he drove by.

• Lizzie gets creepier every week. She saved Glenn's life in this episode, but she did so by calling a walker away like a dog. I don't know where they're going with her storyline, but it can't be anywhere good.

• Uh-oh. Carl had his crazy hat back on. He turned into a little psycho last season while wearing it, then after he took it off he seemed like he was normal again. Now he's got it back on...

• So Team Prison has a huge arsenal of weapons stashed in a bin just outside the cell blocks, including several automatic assault rifles. SO WHY HAVEN'T THEY USED THESE BEFORE TO CLEAR THE FENCE OF WALKERS??? 

I suppose you could argue that they're saving the ammo for something big (I'd say this counted) and shooting the fence zombies might attract even more. But still... 

Maybe they ought to consider torching the fence zombies? Or shoring up the inner side of the fence with dirt (as they did in the comic). Or digging a trench around it the perimeter. Or something besides wringing their hands as they watch walkers pile up against it.

• Man, Hershel was bounding up the stairs in the prison better than I could. Did everyone forget he only has one and a half legs? It looks like actor Scott Wilson only remembers to limp about half the time.

I'm aware that below-the-knee amputees can walk with little or no difficulty with the right prosthesis, but that's with a perfectly fitted prosthesis and months of physical therapy. What are the odds that they found a leg that fit Hershel perfectly?

• Speaking of Herschel again, we see he's still somehow a man of faith. He tells Rick that he still thinks all this is happening for a reason, as part of a plan. At the end of the episode though it appears he may be having a crisis of faith as he breaks down in his cell.

Personally I don't see how he, or anyone for that matter, could still have any kind of faith after everything he's seen. I know if I lived in his world I'd have abandoned any religious beliefs long ago.

• When Rick gets back to the prison, he runs to Maggie and breathlessly asks, "Hows's Carl and Judith and Glenn and Herschel and any other main characters? Oh, and I guess how are all those faceless, nameless background characters I'm responsible for?"

• I have a feeling Daryl's not going to react well to Carol's banishment. Tyreese probably won't be pleased either. 

• So the Governor's back, eh? We all knew it would happen eventually. So was he just passing through, or has he been observing the prison for some time, looking for weaknesses? Is he alone or has he raised another army?