The Walking Dead Review – “Four Walls and A Roof” S5E3

Every once in a blue moon, The Walking Dead takes a break from the divergent path it has made from the comic books in order to really bring it back to the source material. While the first three episodes of this season have varied in characters, their likeness to the comic books is completely uncanny. Whether or not it has done Robert Kirkman’s story justice is up for debate. If you’re having a hard time hitting the nail on the head, why not just get a bigger hammer, right? Viewers who have not read the comic books are in for a special treat, but avid readers may not get as much out of this episode as they would have liked.

In some ways, “Four Walls and A Roof” translates the events of the issues it takes its materials from (Volume 11: Fear the Hunters) flawlessly. The writers are able to seamlessly blend the events of the comic books with what has already happened at Terminus – a concept that doesn’t exist in the books – and make it all flow together. Word for word, the entire “Tainted Meat” scene is taken from The Walking Dead #66, and was a horrifying, yet appropriate way to open up the episode. We knew Bob had to go after we saw him legless at the end of “Strangers,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t go out in style, because he said the line we were all waiting for, and went out like a true G.

The Terminians, as the show has branded them, have always been a smart group of people. I mean, how else would they have been able to take back their camp, survive for so long, AND get the upper-hand on Rick’s group? Their downfall, however, would be their ridiculous arrogance. Leaving themselves a trail like Hansel and Gretel to get back to Terminus (is there even anything left there?) is inviting anybody – say, Morgan for example – to follow them. Also, while painting a big bloody “A” on the church when they returned Bob was spooky, a notion to the group that the Terminians still had them trapped, but it gave themselves away too early on.

However, Rick and Co. prove that their arrogance would be their undoing, as a small group trick the Terminians into entering the church under the pretense that all the strong members were leaving the weaker ones at the church to ambush the Terminians, but were rearing back around to surprise them. It was all going well until somebody, once again, decided to bring the baby to the apocalypse party. I swear, Judith better have the cure to the zombie virus because she is a complete crutch at this point. The scene where Rick finally finishes off Gareth and the rest of the Terminians is pretty quick. There’s not nearly as much build-up as I felt there were in the books, and even the poetic justice of Rick hacking away at Gareth with the red machete is a bit cliché. I would like to think that if I am about to commit gruesome revenge murder on somebody who just ate my friend’s leg, that I would have come up with a better punchline than “I already made you a promise.”

While the scene that unfolded in the comic books was not as visually vile as the one on the TV show, I felt an inane sense of horror reading it. The reaction that Rick, Sasha and Michonne get from the others is half-surprise, half-disgust. From the get-go, Maggie, Glenn and Tara have always known Rick’s group to be the “good guys,” which definitely challenges the idea of Rick gutting Gareth like a pig. Could that have been an influence for them to immediately join Abraham’s group in traveling to “Washington DC?” It seems as though Glenn has become the voice of reason in the group, and while Rick is not talking into disconnected telephones anymore, he sure doesn’t seem level-headed. Glenn even has to use his balls of steel to tell Rick to stand down.

With another episode of The Walking Dead in the books, we lose another group member in Bob. Bob’s character has gone through quite the transformation, going from the drunkard that Daryl almost through off a roof to a solid member of the team, and the only one able to crack the ice cold persona that Sasha had. The actor behind the Bob, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., has always been a Hush favorite. His place on the show has always been an auxiliary one, not one of great importance. Hey, at least he lasted longer here than he did on The Wire.

Speaking of that timeless show, the guy who really stole the show here was Seth Gilliam (Ellis Carver in The Wire), who plays the timid Father Gabriel. Under the confession-influencing blade of Sasha, Gabriel spills the beans about his cowardice when his congregation came to him at the start of the outbreak. Gabriel’s teary confession was both chilling and sad, making us really feel for him as a character. Gilliam plays the character to a T, really exploring the depths of his acting ability and making him instantly recognizable as the same character in the books. Although not necessary “useful” in the traditional sense of murdering scores of the undead, his spiritually-driven words will ground Rick Grimes, who seems to be teetering off the edge of normalcy.

Aside from the fact that the episode is primarily taken directly from the source material, there are a few Easter Eggs that the show refers to that might be of interest:

Tyreese face…

… is the new Dale Face

• When Father Gabriel voices his disapproval of the church slaughter to Michonne, and explains that he still hears the voices, Michonne coldly says, “Yeah, that won’t stop – hearing the voices.” This could be a reference to Michonne’s comic book character, who, like Rick and his phone, talks to her former lover through her Katana. When she states earlier that she did not miss the sword, perhaps she was trying to move on, but the pull of having it was a bond to more than just her killer, badass self, and more to the loved ones she has lost before joining the group.
• The marquee in the church has a series of Bible passages that relate specifically to the zombie apocalypse, or the second coming of Jesus, or whatever:
  • Romans 6.4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
  • Ezekial 37.7: “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.”
  • Matthew 27.52: And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised”
  • Revelations: 9.6:  “During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.“
  • Luke 24.5: “In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
• Although not exactly in sync with The Walking Dead timeline, Morgan does make a brief appearance in the books about 15-20 issues after the Hunters are dealt with. It doesn’t look like Morgan is in the same frail state of mind we left him in Kings County seasons ago. Will he be good? Bad? Crazy?

Hush Comics gives “Four Walls and A Roof” a B for its solid adaptation of one of the most brutal chapters in this now over a decade-long series. The episode has effectively transformed Rick’s group into cold-hearted killers, where the role of the “good guy” is extremely subjective. The acting in the episode was phenomenal, from Andrew J West as Gareth to Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel. However, I feel like comic book fans got the raw deal here. Where the show largely succeeds is its variation from the source material, and what he got here was a complete reenactment of what we already knew would happen. We would have liked to see a bit more originality and suspense. We do know that next week’s episode “Slabtown” will at least give us that much, as we get to see just what the hell Beth has been up to. #praythestrainaway?

All pictures belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review – “Strangers” S5E2

I should have known when last week’s episode of The Walking Dead concluded that the happiness I felt would be short lived. In all honesty, I knew the peace and serenity would be short lived for the characters I love so much, maybe I just didn’t want to admit it. At least last night’s episode, “Strangers”, was able to snap me out of my delusions.

First of all, let’s talk about Father Gabriel. Is he good? Is he evil? Like basically every single other person they’ve come across? I’m no fool, I know how this works, and clearly that man has some darkness in his past that he is trying to hide. Something is up with him and it’s very obvious, from the knife carvings on the outside of his oddly intact forest church to how clean his clothes are. I don’t trust him, but I feel bad for him. The man is terrified, regardless of what he was up to before he met our group. Yet, it was still sad to watch him panic.

Am I good? Am I bad? Does it matter since I was on The Wire?

For fans of the comics, the small screen adaptation of the Priest is spot on.  I was impressed with his skiddish-ness, his deer-in-the-headlghts looks, and fear of being “found out.”  So what did Father Gabriel do?  Well technically, he didn’t lie to Rick, answering the three interrogation questions as honestly as he could, but leaving out one major detail.  No, he hasn’t killed anyone; instead SPOILER, he just refused to let anyone in the congregation into the church because he wanted to save himself and all the food.  Is this just as bad as killing them himself?  It could be, but for a man of God, I think he really doesn’t care what others think, because only God can judge him, despite the ominous etching on the church that reads “You will burn for this.”

It is clear, though, that Father Gabriel judges himself.  He is very guilty about his actions, and this comes across flawlessly in this episode.  As fleeting as his character may seem right now, he is still around in the comics series.  He may be a character the audience will have to learn to love.  As a side note, Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel and is another alum of The Wire (Ellis Carver) is a fantastic actor.  This role is a total 180 from what I was used to from him.

“Strangers” was the good old The Walking Dead we all know and love, it was intense, gut-wrenching, and when it ended, all I could think about is how the hell am I going to make it to next week?! Not only that, but it was very aptly titled. The group doesn’t just meet a new stranger, who doesn’t repent to strangers, but in many ways they realize how they are strangers to themselves and each other at this point.

Do we really know any of these people?

The beginning of the episode spent a lot of time on Carol and her “strangerness.”  There are things she has done that parts of the group don’t know she did: David, Karen and Lizzie.  Carol is a stranger to the group, and frankly to herself.  If this was the Carol who was around when her husband was beating her up or when Sophia ran off, she may have been never gotten beat and never lost Sophia.  But it was all that, and her acts of murder, that changed Carol from abused housewife to full-on Linda Hamilton.  Unrecognizable.

Even Carl is a stranger.  He is not the kid who runs out of the house foolishly, but he still has a glimmer of humanity left in him.  He innately wants to help people.  He always is the one to run towards screams in the woods.  Carl is the man Rick was before the apocalypse.  He doesn’t torment walkers anymore, now he investigates.  Carl will continue to change drastically, at least I would guess so.  He is a teenage boy growing up in a very dangerous landscape.  The things that happen to him now will shape what kind of man he will become, and that could go one way, or the other, if he survives.  With that being said, in the comic series, at this exact point Carl is a murderer.  He killed a kid his age.  I doubt they will show this in the series, but it is the definitive moment of the books for Carl, in my opinion.

And then there is Rick.  Between his wife being a whore (yeah, I said it), having to kill his best friend, battling The Governor, losing people he loves, and losing not-his-baby, Rick is the best stranger; he has nearly lost all of his old humanity.  But we still trust his judgement.  And by we, I mean the audience (I assume) and his group.  They even say so by agreeing to go into the church in the first place.  Let’s face it: Rick is a murderer.  But he is loyal to people who don’t screw him over, and for the most part, he keeps them alive.

And now, for some rapid fire thoughts:

• From an outsider’s prospective, who doesn’t have to eat cesspool beanie weenies, it seems obvious that Eugene is a fraud. But I suppose that in a moment of “We almost got slaughtered” that he seems like their only hope, but he is no Obi-Wan for sure.
• Would you get in a cesspool of zombies and water leakage that have been cooking together for about two years?
• Would you eat the food that has been sitting in that cesspool whether it was canned or not?
• Michonne doesn’t miss her sword? Well I do.  She does explain that she found it in the first place, just like she did in the comics.
• Beth! Beth!  Carol and Daryl go after her!  Will they be in the next ep?  And so much for that whole, “we are sticking with Rick from now on” theory.

• The amount of religious symbolism was beautiful.  Father Gabriel has been copying the Bible word for word.  The carvings and quotes around the church are particularly poignant.  Especially “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has Eternal Life” from John 6:54, in reference to Jesus’ promise of heaven on the last day.

• Episodes written by The Walking Dead daddy are always great.  Thank you, Robert Kirkman for being so deliberate with your attention to detail.

At the end of last week’s episode we were shown how the “Termites” were once people, too, if you will, and that at one point all the survivors had their humanity intact, begging the question how much could a person take before they break? When Gareth comforted his poor mother in the train car I thought, “Okay, I might feel some sympathy for this guy. Maybe he’ll grow on me!” But after seeing what institutionalized evil becomes when it’s in the wild, I know that Gareth will only make the Governor look like the fat kid from Stand By Me.

Hey Beth. I’m bringing my last girlfriend with me to come rescue you. Hope that’s ok.

But what about Bob? (Yeah that was an intentional reference to the Bill Murray movie) Ever since Bob was introduced, I have been watching week after week, biting (ha!) my nails, waiting for the terrible inevitable death that awaits him. He’s a moral compass for the group, but more than that, he is their ray of sunshine. Yes, baby Judith gives us all hope simply by surviving, but Bob tries every day to find the beauty in the life he has, which was clear in the game he and Sasha play. When Bob got pulled down by the sewer walker, my heart stopped, but then he rose up and seemingly triumphed. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t sitting there for the rest of the episode waiting for the reveal that he had in fact been bitten.

It is clear that Bob is the new Dale.  Not only for the show but a stand in for the comic book version.  The moral compass never stays around too long. And even though we have no official confirmation he was bitten down in the flood water, if he is in fact replacing the Dale of the comics, he was.  Will we get the famed line, “Tainted Meat!”?  I certainly hope so; it is one of the hallmarks of the entire comics series.

Will our group meet Gareth’s group again? Will there be a battle a la the comics?  Will Gareth’s group die because they are eating someone who is about to turn?  And what the hell happened to Beth?  There are so many questions still looming! How exciting!  Hush Comics gives “Strangers” an A- because it gave viewers exactly what we look for; a major cliffhanger, intense moments of stress, and reminders of why we love these characters so much and we tune in to root for them week after week.

All pictures belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review “The Grove” S4E14

“The Grove” follows a similar formula to the last few episodes; where we slowly build a journey for each of the groups that have split after the mid-season finale. It’s served a good purpose of individually developing the characters, but it hasn’t pushed the story along at all; you’ve either loved the past six episodes or you hate them. It’s a style that’s heavily popularized Game of Thrones, where multiple parties push towards an inevitability (Terminus/Sanctuary in TWD‘s case), but the journey there is what drives the inching story.

Starting out the episode is a lot of small talk: Tyreese’s cut on his arm, Lizzie playing I Spy, and a lot of commentary about how Mika doesn’t have a “mean bone in her body.” We even get a bit of comedic relief by watching a walker fall down. Really though, this week’s episode of The Walking Dead stank of death from the moment it started. We join our makeshift Brady Bunch (Tyreese, Carol, Lizzie and Mika) as they settle down for a while inside of a house right off the tracks to catch their breath. Yeah, that worked out greeeeat, guys.

To spoil or not to spoil…. ugh such a tough decision. SPOILERS, it is! We’re gonna toot our own horn here, as we called the dramatic outcome of this episode a month ago. Lizzie has just become such a handful emotionally to deal with, and the resurgence of Carol and her “do what has to be done” attitude spelled certain doom for Lizzie. After she almost murdered baby Judith in “Inmates,” there are so many things that foreshadow the death of Lizzie and Mika. Hindsight is 20/20, but here are a list of the times, in this episode alone, that spelled R-E-D-R-U-M for Mika:

• Lizzie, AKA Son of Sam, says she can hear the walkers talking to her. From that line alone, it was obvious she was going to start killing bigger things than rats and little baby bunnies.
• The death stare that Lizzie bestows upon Mika when she mentions Lizzie’s tolerance for dead rabbits.
• Lizzie plays tag with a walker, hysterically threatens Carol when she kills the walker, and then calmly tells Carol “she knows what [she] has to do now.” Now I’m no therapist, but I can read between the lines enough to know that Lizzie was in trouble. Mother of the Year candidate Lori Grimes would have known. Just sayin.
• The real moment we knew Mika was a goner was the when she decided to tell Carol that she needs to stay a good person, and that she feels bas for the people who try to kill her. It’s an ideal that has befell Dale and Herschel before her – thus dubbing it the Summer Santa Syndrome.

Even baked pecans cannot quell Lizzie’s bloodlust. Her twisted, constipated mind believed that walkers were people inside. And she went to abhorrent measures to make her point. What I love about the scene – sorry, that is a poor choice of words; there is nothing satisfying about the scene… what I appreciate about the scene is how well it mirrored the scene in the comics books. Aside from the Michonne/Governor scenes, these were the most horrifying pages in the entire series. In issue #61, brothers Ben & Billy were in a similar situation – they had lost their father (Lizzie and Mika lost their father, Ryan, in “Infected“), had been adopted by Dale and Andrea, and had ended with Ben standing over Billy’s massacred body.

The reaction that Carol and Tyreese have is much different from the book, and all the more powerful because of it. The comic book parents, Dale and Andrea, have no idea how to deal with the slaughter, sheltering Ben from the rest of the group (not well enough). However, the show takes the most difficult road possible, and “does what has to be done.” It’s an especially strong move seeing as Tyreese is standing nearby, holding a baby and watching on as Carol did the deed. The actual mercy-kill is one of the most saddening things in the whole series. The complete Of Mice and Men inspired execution of Lizzie was a poetic ending for a misunderstood, but dangerous, character.

Just look at the flowers, Lennie!

The conversation between Tyreese and Carol in the woods was a poignant moment in the episode.  While it is a nice sentiment that one day this will all be over, Tyreese sees the it for what it is.  The world is haunted, and there is nothing they can do to change that.  The walkers will be there when they die.  And it will be hard to forget all the things people did and had to do in order to survive.  It was an appropriate reflective moment about survival and afterlife for the show.

Carol has grown more than any other character in the series – from battered wife to emotional rock. Overwhelmed with it all, she even decides to tell Tyreese the truth about Karen and David. She slides Tyreese the pistol and tells him to “do what he’s gotta do” – it’s kind of a theme here. Tyreese, of course, forgives her. They head off together down the tracks and back on the route to Terminus. This was definitely a growing issue for Carol, and hopefully whoever left the Peletier bandwagon in the mid-season can hop back on.

“You look at the flowers, you risk your life” – Herschel’s ghost

The loss of Mika hit extra hard, as she had been indirectly and directly compared to Sophia throughout the fourth season. She is now 0/3 in keeping children alive, so I’m hoping this brings out a badass-ness in Carol we haven’t gotten to see in some time. Judith has Tyreese and Carol, but who will take Griselda Gunderson? Doesn’t this world already have enough orphaned dolls?

Griselda Gunderson – forgotten victim of the zombie apocalypse

Hush Comics gives “The Grove” a solid A. The emotional maturation of Carol and Tyreese gives Walking Dead fans something to chew on until we all reach Terminus in the finale (I mean, what else could the finale be alluding to?). Where previous episodes have straddled the line between filler and fundamental development, “The Grove” remains safely on the correct side. The Walking Dead also continues to push the envelope with sick new ways to show off walkers, this week with walkers that have been char-broiled from the house fire (we can only assume it’s the same house that Bethyl set ablaze in “Still“). With only two episodes left, we will turn our attention to “Us” next week. Just like in the first half of Season 4, I’m fearing that they will speed up everything, sacrificing for a logically consistent finale. We’re optimistic, though, that the road to Terminus will keep us on our toes.

All Walking Dead media credited to AMC Television.

Photo from Of Mice and Men film credited to MGM Studios.

written by Sherif Elkhatib