The Walking Dead Season 4 Recap : The Story So Far
Well it’s finally 2014 and the second half of this season’s The Walking Dead is coming up quick. Before you know it, it’ll be February 9th and it’ll be back on air. So in case you missed AMC’s marathon yesterday, we thought it would be a good idea to recap the season thus far.
We meet Rick and company in the prison several months after the Governor’s initial attack on the prison. Life is tense as always, but it appears that they are managing very well, almost like they have found the perfect home to reside in. Rick maintains a relative leadership as Michonne and some others go on runs for essentials, food, and a search for the Governor, and Carol decides that the children must learn how to fend for themselves. Suddenly their preferable living arrangements were challenged when a deadly virus kills a young boy with glasses named Patrick. Inadvertently, as a walker, Patrick attacks a bunch of the residents within the prison.
As the walker infestation is dealt with, the virus, still persistent, begins to show signs in a couple more survivors— one being Karen. In an obvious attempt to eradicate the virus, soon after their infection became apparent, their corpses were found outside burned to a crisp. It wasn’t long until Rick learned that Carol was the murderer and banished her from the group. However, the virus infection spread regardless into Glenn, Sasha, and several more survivors and rose to the point that they all had to be quarantined into a specially devised cell block. Hershel then took it upon himself to care for those infected by the virus, but once again, walkers infested the cell block and the outer fence and without some of the prime walker killers, Hershel, Maggie, Rick and Carl were left to fend for the prison, eventually containing it.
To make matters worse, the Governor makes his return. We follow the Governor shortly after his crew deserted him to see a lost and broken man. After burning Woodbury to the ground he manages to stumble across a small family to which he presents himself as Brian Harriet (a slight Easter egg referring to the Governor’s real name, Brian— instead of “Philip” which was the name of his brother and father to Penny— in the comics/book tie-ins from Robert Kirkman). The family, sisters Lilly and Tara, Lilly’s daughter Meghan, and their dying father David, is a bit uneasy at first but slowly excepts him as they, and the Governor, get to know his new identity. Once David dies, they leave their home in attempt to find a better place.
In that pursuit, they stumble upon a group of survivors lead by one Caesar Martinez, who used to a follower of the Governor back in Woodbury. When Martinez asks for the Governor’s help in leading the group, the Governor snaps and kills him. But in an ironic set of events, he becomes the leader of the group anyway, denouncing that the prison is the safest place to be after a walker almost bit Meghan. To gear up for the take over, they capture Hershel and Michonne and present them as hostages as they roll up to the prison in armored vehicles and a tank.
As Rick tries to negotiate peacefully, the Governor decides to end the negotiation and decapitates Hershel with Michonne’s katana which ensued a spray of bullets from both sides of the fence. Hershel died with a smile on his face; he was proud of Rick’s offer for both groups to attempt to live together at the prison because it reminded him of conversations he had with Rick where he couldn’t comprehend that humanity is still left in this world and that negotiation plea was an example of true humanity, he felt that his wisdom ad legacy could carry on through this world because Rick finally understood him.
During the gunfight, a walker bites Meghan and she dies away from the battlefield only to have Lily bring her over for the Governor to shoot her in the head. Trying to focus on the battle, he orders the tank to push through the fence, allowing not only his group, but also walkers to enter the prison perimeter. Most of the Governor’s group is eventually taken out as Tara strays away and Rick challenges the Governor one on one.
Needing some assistance, Rick struggles with him as Michonne’s blade goes through the Governor, allowing for Michonne’s revenge and for Rick to head back to find Carl and baby Judith. Instead, he and Carl find am empty bloody baby seat; distraught, they leave the prison, getting separated from Daryl and the rest of their group. To finish the Governor off, Lily shoots him in the head assuring viewers that he will not be coming back for the rest of the season.
Thus far we have been treated with a well-written season that can probably be graded as a B- in comparison to other seasons at this point (a C seems too low, but anything high would be pushing it). I just personally wish more happened because if you’ll notice, most of the detail in the recap are spent on the last couple episodes while the other episodes just feature small points that attempt to push the season along.
Some of the episodes seemed to address pointless problems such as Bobby’s alcoholism (which could have been interesting if they showed it) or Tyreese’s apparent death wish (that could have been explored more), but instead the glossed over it, leaving them unimportant to the plot at hand. Regardless it was a decent season and I could only imagine what’s going to come next… What do you think? And if you had to grade this season based on what we’ve seen already, what would you give it?
