Review: The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 4

Episode 4 focuses on Rick and Carol going on a scavenger hunt. The epidemic is getting worse and any form of medication is priceless. On the way they find a young couple, who are desperate to join the group in prison. After so many deaths in the first three episodes (even though they were mainly tertiary characters the fans didn't even have time to come to like) and Rick refusing many people to join them throughout the series one might think that these will finally be some characters that will stay longer on the show. But the girl gets killed easily a couple of minutes after meeting the prison leaders.

In the beginning of the series it seemed to me that Carol had a huge influence on the group, despite Darryl being the new leader. Teaching kids how to use weapons, taking care of the sick and finally killing and burning two people in order to stop the disease from spreading. When she was explaining herself to Rick, she seemed like female and post-apocalyptic version of Jack Kevorkian. No remorse was found in her words and that's probably one of the things that made Rick do what he eventually did - he cast her out of the group. At first I thought she could take some of the burden off Rick, who seems more and more eager to reclaim his leader status. Carol could sacrifice herself for the group and do the work that nobody else would be willing to do, just as with killing off two sick group members. However, to do that she'd have to obey Rick and I don't believe it would be possible. Besides, Rick was right - if other found out that she was responsible for the murders, she wouldn't live long anyway. Especially considering condition Tyreese is in. And if Rick decided to keep the killer's identity to himself he would simply prove he's not worthy of leading the group again as he wasn't able to catch the culprit.

There are also some scenes in this episode telling a bit about the group led by Darryl. After losing their car to a horde of walkers they seek a new vehicle to get back to the prison. And the main two things in these scenes are Tyreese's apparent wish to kill himself while fighting the zombies. He lost his beloved one (to be more precise, she was killed by Carol) and Sasha is sick, so it's quite understandable that he's spiraling down. However, after losing so many people a good soldier is worth even more, so that's why I don't understand why only Michonne is trying to sooth him. On the other hand there's Bob, an alcoholic who deserves to be thrown out of the group just as much as Carol. He endangered the group and instead of looking for medicine, he focused on finding some booze for himself.