Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 9 Review

Walking Dead S04E09 – After

AAAAAAND We’re Back! The Walking Dead is back on air and it’s better than it ever was before! Episode 9 “After” was the most well paced and subtle episode of the season and in it’s entire run on the air so far, if the rest of Season 4 is this thoughtful, I’m ready for the ride of my life! The smart decision to focus centrally on Rick, Carl and Michonne, paid off big time.

Episode 9 opens with a lost and lonely Michonne, who was once a power-player in the Prison and now she sees that everything that once was is now lost from the aftermath of the mid-season finale . It’s a really dark scene as we see walkers crawling at the gates and numerous shots of the towers that once meant “security” and full of friends is now fuming with black smoke. We get a shot of The Governor’s corpse and see his final act of depravity, killing Hershel, is actually still in effect as Hershel’s head gnaws for fresh blood on the prison grounds. Having Michonne put the final hit on Hershel was an interesting move and good way to progress through her characterization as in this episode we are treated lovingly to her character.

Michonne, Michonne, Michonne…

Never leave home without em’

Michonne’s past and future is displayed in this episode. We get a really cool dream sequence where we see her lover and her friend (who we have only previously saw as her pet walkers a season ago) having a chat at a dinner table while she holds her son in her arms. And then that dream is stripped away from her slowly as every shot we get of the two they slowly become more and more decayed. It was really subtle as they go from being donned in suits to draped in rags and seeing the whole foundation of her past life crumble and her new reality set in: that she is completely alone. This shows that she really does value relationships, and wholly misses the ones that she made in the prison, so this transition is truly a loss for her. Being able to see a Michonne that is so close to the edge was really cool as she stalks this walker that looks like her, and could have been her, if The Governor wasn’t so forgiving. In a final way to sort of build a new life for herself she gets a couple new pets at the beginning of the episode, but by the end she completely breaks down realizing where she now is, killing the pets and every walker she tried to disguise herself with as she just simply wanted to become “The Walking Dead” as her entire life was taken away from her. Then she’s given a glimpse of hope in a can of Pudding. And this leads to one of the cooler elements of this episode and it’s…

Carl’s All Grown Up

Stuntin’ Like His Daddy

Carl’s development has been a long time coming. He’s become the show’s most feared sharp-shooter albeit his lack of height and strength. And this episode was able to spotlight on his more emotional and human aspects. He’s become a lot more jaded since the loss of his little sister and his mom a few months apart from each other. He is now a lot more disobedient and believes for most of the episode that he can actually survive and make it on his own a lot better than even his father can. However he learns quickly that this is dead wrong. He ends up treating life outside as a game. In a really creative scene, Carl goes into a kids room and knocks over a bunch of video games and a TV to grab a cord from behind it, completely not caring about those childish items in classic Carl fashion, but it ends up being that he’s just found another way to cope than the sedentary lifestyle choice that so many of our youth today end up in. Carl becomes a lot more human this episode as he does end up realizing the reality of his situation – that he can’t make it out there alone. And the big treat that he receives is Michonne and him reuniting by the end.

Despite Rick being in a coma for most of the episode, it was awesome to see that he’s actually hurting from The Governor’s beatdown and that there were real ramifications for it. The way he handles leadership after dealing with his son now and the loss of everything he had that was stable will hopefully create some interesting situations later in the season.

All in all, it was a slower paced episode, but it was really well done and I had a great time spending time with this duo of minor characters and hope the rest of this season is just as good.

A

My Messy Musing:

• I really am curious how Rick will address the whole “Missing shoe” situation. I hope we get to see Michonne slice that walker up and grab it for Carl
• The Walker that attacked Carl in the house was intensely strong, and so was the one Rick fought in the Diner
• Ironically, if Carl saved the bullet from the diner, he could have killed the one that took his shoe
• Favorite quote: “I Win” I don’t know why, but whenever he said it something inside of me cringed, but in a good way, like something was changing.
• I’m glad I have evidence now that books can get you killed. Don’t read kids.
• When Carl goes off on Coma Rick, it was seriously one of the most intense things ever. Get this kid an Emmy! Best child actor on TV right now!
• Carl learned a lot from Crazy Lizzie, leading that walker astray like that was a neat little Prison Throwback
• Prediction: Next episode is hopefully going to just focus on the other survivors (that’s what the preview seemed to imply) but we’ll see Carol again and she’ll uncomfortably reunite with Lizzie AND Tyreese. Most awkward situation that will ever be broadcast on AMC. Ever.
• I’m glad TWD is back, and as always I’ll be livetweeting it @KeenHenderson at 9PM or 12PM if I’m catching the re-run so follow me and I’ll follow back and we can talk lovely TWD with one another!