This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.12.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.12: Still

Written by Angela Kang

Directed by Julius Ramsay

We get another character specific episode this week; this time we’re focusing on Daryl and Beth.  They spend a terrifying night locked in a trunk as waves of walkers approach the car.  Not surprisingly, they stay away all night and are finally able to get out in the morning when the crowd of walkers has dissipated.  They go into survivor mode immediately, stripping the car and the surrounding area for valuable supplies.  Once in the woods, they set up their camp.  Daryl tries unsuccessfully to kill a squirrel, but has better luck with a snake – resulting in a pretty disgusting snake gutting and eating scene.  Daryl is chowing down on that snake, right?

Beth decides she needs to try alcohol, since she’s never tried it before.  I’m pretty sure she expected Daryl to be 100% behind her on this, but I can’t see a scenario where going on a run for a non-essential item like alcohol is a good idea.  Daryl basically tags along because there’s no way Beth is going to make it on her own, and he feels responsible for her.  They try their luck at a country club, only to find that a group had holed up there before apparently turning on each other.  There’s some gross hanging zombies reminiscent of the second season and a large pile of bodies in a back room underneath a handwritten sign that says, “Welcome to the Dogtrot”.  Clearly, there were some class issues as well, as a particularly disturbing image appears in the pro shop.  A women’s head and torso have been attached to the lower half of a mannequin and a sign was hung around her neck reading “Ritch Bitch”.

After discovering the bar, Beth sees that the only liquor left is a half-empty bottle of Peach Schnapps.  Daryl is determined that her first drink will be something stronger, and leads her to a house he had previously discovered on a run with Michonne.  It is a still, a house almost expressly used for making moonshine.  Beth encourages Daryl to drink with her by involving him in a drinking game, Never Have I Ever.  The game starts innocently enough – Daryl has never been out of Georgia or on vacation.  But, when Beth says that she’s never been in jail, Daryl becomes defensive and confrontational.  Beth doesn’t back down, and we learn that Daryl is grieving the loss of their group and feels guilty about not trying to find the Governor.  He weeps and is embraced from behind by Beth.  They end the night talking about their siblings and Daryl reveals what he was doing before the epidemic – nothing.  He followed Merle around and let his older brother dictate what they would be doing.

This episode was devoted to fleshing out two characters that are still a mystery to most of the audience.  We’ve been able to watch Daryl’s significant character development over the past three seasons, but we know little about his background.  The writers have included hints that his childhood was rough, but the revelations in this episode have shown conclusively that life is actually better for Daryl now, than it was prior to the epidemic.  His insecurities are laid bare and he expresses to Beth that he was “nothing” before, indicating that he found his purpose in the group.  Now that the group is gone, he is foundering.  Beth appears to be the one thing that keeps him going.

Beth was a fairly thin character before this season.  She was mostly known for singing and taking care of Judith, but she has been the strong, motivated one in this duo and her strength is a surprising development.  She is convinced that there are other survivors and wants to keep looking for them, despite Daryl’s pessimistic attitude.  I believe that she was less invested in actually getting alcohol than prompting Daryl to help her with a task to keep him going.  Hopefully, they will continue to make Beth a well-rounded character so that she does not experience the same fate of Lori and Andrea.

This storyline is prompting many fans to speculate that the writers are developing a romance between Daryl and Beth.  Certainly, the two have had much more alone time on screen than the other fan-favorite ship, Carol and Daryl.  I think, at this point, it could go either way.  The two have chemistry and now have a bond, but if a romance does develop, I hope that it takes more time to manifest.  I also hope that the group reunites soon.  It appears that the next episode will focus on the other scattered survivors, so I’m crossing my fingers for a reunion in the following episode.  I think it would be a mistake to drag out the separation until the season finale.

Norman Reedus and Emily Kinney did a great job in this episode, which is no small feat, considering that the entire episode focused on their characters.  Reedus in particular did a wonderful job conveying the range of emotions Daryl goes through, and I hope that he gets to display this range more often in the future.

The Best Bits:

All of Norman Reedus’s scenes.  He did an amazing job!

The Best Kill(s):

Daryl wailing on the walkers in the country club was awesome!

Is a romance on the horizon for Daryl and Beth?  When will the group reunite?

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.10.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.10: Inmates

Written by Matt Negrete and Channing Powell

Directed by Tricia Brock

This week we get to see what happened to the other scattered survivors.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about Beth’s voice over diary entry juxtaposed with Beth and Daryl’s current reality.  It felt like something that would make sense and sound awesome on paper, but it was one of the show’s more heavy handed moments.  I hate to see Daryl so pessimistic when he was finally opening up a bit, but he has to be devastated by losing everyone, especially after finding out about Carol.  I think he’s struggling – he wants everyone to be alive, but he also wants to prepare himself for the worst.  Hopefully, they’ll join up with the others soon and we’ll see the (new) old Daryl again.

Tyreese has his hands full with those three girls.  I can’t imagine traveling in those conditions with a baby, but I am super glad that Judith made it.  I was fairly sure that the baby hadn’t died, since we didn’t see a body – and we know the “Walking Dead” rule.  Lizzie continues to be creepy and evidence mounts that she is a budding psychopath.  Did you see her stabbing those bunnies?  That is a huge red flag for future serial killers.  She also makes a comment about Sasha being gone that seemed to be made exclusively to hurt Tyreese.  And then we have the excruciating moment where she appears to be smothering Judith.  The scariest part of that scene was that Lizzie seemed to be enjoying cutting off Judith’s air.  I think it’s pretty clear that she is the person who fed rats to the walkers and dissected the rabbit at the prison.  Knowing what happens in the comics, I’m starting to get scared for Mika

I wasn’t sure why Tyreese left the girls to go investigate the screaming, but he may have been afraid that it was Sasha.  I loved Chad Coleman’s performance in this episode.  He has an amazing emotional range and I’m hoping that they really continue to develop his character, as the comic book counterpart is such a huge part of the story.  I’m glad to see Carol back, but I think the longer she waits to tell Tyreese about her part in Karen and David’s deaths, the bigger the blow up is going to be.  There’s a large group of people who still think that Carol was covering for Lizzie, but I really hope they don’t go down that path, because it jives more closely with Carol’s recent character development to have her be the killer.  I do think she’s going to be devastated when she finds out what a pyscho Lizzie is, though.

I’m pretty sure Sasha is in the same mindset as Daryl – she wants to find Tyreese, but she’s prepared for the worst.  Bob seems to be excited to be alive and that he’s with others, considering his past history of ending up the lone survivor of two groups.  Maggie is clearly grieving the loss of her father and letting that grief influence her decision to find Glenn at any cost.  She does try to leave Bob and Sasha behind to keep their exposure to danger minimal, but I definitely think she wouldn’t have made it through that bus without them.

I’m happy to see the awesomeness of Glenn reemerge.  We haven’t really got to see badass Glenn since early last season, so I loved seeing him put on that riot gear and push through the crowd of walkers.  Glenn has always been the most logical and forward thinking of the group, so it makes sense that he would accept Tara and enlist her help in getting out of the prison and finding Maggie.  I still think Tara is kind of a limp dishrag of a character, but hopefully they’ll develop her and give her something good to work with.

And now we come to the ending!  We get the iconic shot of Abraham Ford, Eugene, and Rosita that looks like it was pulled straight from the comic book.  The show has clearly made sure the look is exactly right, so hopefully they put as much work into making the characters awesome.  I’m thinking that Terminus is going to be a combination of the Hilltop Colony and the Alexandria Safe Zone (which means we may see Negan sometime soon), and there’s also a possibility that we’ll see the Hunters as a big bad for the rest of this season.

I hope that the groups start to converge pretty soon.  The worst thing they can do is drag the separation out for the rest of the season.  Scott Gimple and the writers seem pretty invested in moving the story along, so I have faith in them.

The Best Bits:

GLENN!  I heart you badass Glenn!

The Best Kill:

Newcomer Tara gets an awesome head bashing kill right at the end of the episode that gives me hope for her character!

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.9.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.9: After (Mid-Season Premiere)

Written by Robert Kirkman

Directed by Greg Nicotero

The Governor’s attack has brought the return of badass Michonne.  The only hint that she’s not completely back to the stone-faced, silent Season 3 version of herself is the small wince we see when she stabs through Hershel’s reanimated head.  (And, was that really necessary, writers?  Isn’t it bad enough that’s he’s dead?  *sob*)  Luckily, we also get to see the Governor’s body and confirmation that he’s really and truly dead with a giant hole in his forehead.

Being in the middle of the apocalypse doesn’t change the fact that Carl is teenager.  He’s been defiant before, and even challenged his dad before, but we get to see the full force of his teen angst.  Unlike most teen angst, it’s backed by some heavy duty trauma, so he’s got plenty to be angry about.  It’s interesting that it still manifests in the usual way – passive aggressiveness, acting out, and talking back.  His fights with his dad are petty, despite the fact that their lives are in serious danger.  Carl isn’t above dealing a few low blows, including bringing up Shane.

We see a glimpse of Michonne in her old life, arguing about an art exhibit in a beautiful city apartment with her boyfriend and his friend.  It seems like memory at first – a relatively unimportant moment, but one that represents the normality of the past.  But, we start noticing signs that things aren’t what they seem, even though Michonne doesn’t.  I loved the nearly seamless transition from Michonne holding a kitchen knife to a katana, and her obliviousness while the men went from talking about art to survival.  We also see that Michonne did have a child at one point, which makes sense considering her reaction to Judith.

Carl takes the opportunity to confront his dad while Rick is passed out on the sofa holding the door shut.  He’s obviously angry and he says things he doesn’t mean, but he also has some valid reasons to be upset and disappointed.  Rick kept them at the prison knowing that the Governor was out there, but he didn’t do much to get them prepared.  The farming he did was a way to not deal with reality, and he wanted Carl to do the same, which could have got them killed.

Carl is tough for a kid his age, but as we see when he goes off on his own, he’s still got a kid’s common sense.  He nearly dies twice.  He’s excited about the big screen TV and stacks of video games before it dawns on him that he can’t use any of it.  He tries to break down the door the way his dad does, but his small frame just bounces off. But, he does get  a rare moment to be a kid on that roof with the giant can of pudding.

Even though I knew Rick wasn’t dead, I did hold my breath for just a minute when he was reaching out for Carl and rasping.  Carl has a reversal and clearly can’t do what he did for his mother because he doesn’t want to be alone.  He finally admits that he’s scared, even with all his posturing.

Michonne joins a group of walkers for protection, but she realizes she wants to be around living people again after being confronted by a walker that somewhat resembles her, and slaughters them all in an epic scene.  She returns to the tracks she found earlier and follows Rick and Carl’s trail.  We get to see her talk to her boyfriend as she described in “Clear”, and she effectively says goodbye to him – she misses him, but she’s angry that he gave up.  From what she said, it’s very possible that he may have killed himself and their young son.

Rick and Carl have a heart-to-heart that culminates with Rick finally acknowledging what Carl’s wanted all along – that he’s an adult.  But Carl knows better now, and he shrugs off his dad’s apology.  They will both have a better appreciation for each other now.  We get a rare good ending for a “Walking Dead” episode, when Michonne finds Rick and Carl and weeps with joy.  I loved Rick laughing with relief and saying, “It’s for you.”  It was an awesome way to ease out of a really tense, dark episode.

This episode belonged to Danai Gurira and Chandler Riggs.  They were both amazing.  I was hesitant to see a Carl-centric episode, but I think the writers did a great job of balancing his good and not-so-good qualities to show him as a well-rounded character.  I really feel like if they continue developing Michonne this way, she is going to be a stellar character, maybe even better than the comics version, because of Gurira’s acting ability. (I loved getting to hear her talk about Michonne on “Talking Dead” – she obviously loves this character and loves playing her.)

The Best Bits:

Michonne’s dream was both beautiful and horrifying, and I loved the way they avoided a lot of the dream clichés and the detail they put into the background elements as it progressed.  I also really enjoyed Carl eating the crap out of that pudding.

The Best Kill:

It can only be Michonne killing the entire herd of walkers.  She rules!

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.8.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.8: Too Far Gone (Mid-Season Finale)

Written by Seth Hoffman

Directed by Ernest Dickerson

We know the Governor is in full form from the get go because the leather coat is BACK!  The people in Woodbury 2.0 seem to eat up his Grade A bullshit just as hungrily as the original group, despite the fact that he’s the newcomer.  It’s that same old Greg Stillson-esque political charm that reels them in, and he seals the deal by telling half-truths about the sins committed against him by the prison group.  Only Lilly seems to realize that he’s a con man, which means I vastly underestimated her.

For some reason, he seems to think he can schmooze Hershel and Michonne too, even after they’ve seen what he’s capable of.  Hershel tries to play along, but I don’t think for a second that he really believes the Governor has changed.  I think he’s trying to buy he and Michonne time in that scene in the trailer.  Changing his mind is the optimal, but unlikely, outcome.

Daryl took the news about Carol pretty much as I expected.  I think he was mad at Rick and hurt that he wasn’t included in the decision, and I also think he was devastated by the loss of Carol as a friend.  Ultimately, though, he accepted the decision and shared the responsibility of telling Tyreese the truth about who killed Karen.  I think, because of who he is, he is always going to back Rick because he truly believes that Rick has the group’s best interests at heart.

I think it’s pretty clear that the person who dissected the rabbit is the same one who fed the rats to the walkers.  I’d put money on it being Lizzie.  I think she’s got some deep-seated problems and I get the feeling the final outcome is going to be pretty shocking.  There’s some speculation in the fandom that Carol is actually covering for Lizzie and that the little girl also killed Karen and David, but that seems like a pretty big stretch.  Carol’s new MO is all about being strong and proactive to survive, and her killing them as a preventative measure is in line with that.

Of course, Tyreese never gets to hear the truth about Carol because the Governor interrupts … with his tank.  Again, the Governor seems to think that Rick is going to accept that he’s willing to just “talk” and that he’s going to let them leave peacefully.  They’ve gone through all of this before, when he asked Rick to hand over Michonne.  He was going to ambush them then and he’s obviously planning to ambush them now, although he’s being a little more obvious this time.  Most likely, it’s just a show for his people, to show that he’s every inch the benevolent dictator he’s promised to be.

Rick’s decision to accept the Governor’s new group comes directly from Hershel’s advice.  Hershel genuinely believes that they can live together if everyone is willing, and I think Rick desperately wants to believe that because he’s so tired of watching people die.  You can see the hope on Hershel’s face and it’s directly contrasted by the dread shown on Michonne’s.  Michonne is the realist and she knows that the Governor is unwilling to bend, because, to him, compromise is the same thing as failure.  Rick has the same kind of hope as Hershel, and he believes that he can “come back” from the trauma he’s experienced and the things he has done.  But the Governor knows that the same isn’t true for him.  He tried to start over when he met Lilly and her family, but that unending thirst for power is still there.  He can’t come back from his past sins, and he doesn’t want Rick to be able to either.

I knew in that slowed down moment when Hershel starts to smile and everything starts to go hazy for the Governor that it was over for Hershel.  I don’t think there has been a death on this show that’s affected me as much as this one.  Hershel was the soul of that group, as I said a couple of posts back.  Fans have touted him as the “new Dale”, because Dale was considered the moral center of the group, but Hershel was more than that.  He supported people without judging them.  He used his own failings as examples of how people can hit rock bottom and come back.  Out of everyone in the prison, he was the most compassionate and the most loving.  He almost single-handedly kept their hope alive.  You can see the anguish on the group’s face when the Governor attacks him with the katana.  I think they could have lost Rick at this moment and there would have been less damage to the group’s center.  Rick had already tried to distance himself, and, as he said, there are several leaders among them.  Hershel’s loss is so devastating because it represents an end to their hope for normalcy.  It’s a huge blow to their morale, and I think that’s precisely why the Governor chose him over Michonne, despite their turbulent history.

Once the Governor makes the decision to kill Hershel, that group that he professed to care so much about becomes cannon fodder.  He is only interested in taking out the prison and everyone in it, as evidenced by his callous shooting of Meghan.  He lets everyone else go ahead while he hides behind a truck, just like the pawns in the chess games he played with Meghan.

This is the fight we were hoping to see in the Season 3 finale, and I’m glad we didn’t have to slog through eight more episodes to see it.   Despite having tanks and a ton of weapons, Woodbury 2.0 gets beaten by a smaller, less equipped army, which is admittedly a bit far-fetched, although the prison group probably fights like a well-oiled machine by now.  Predictably, Tara was all talk and couldn’t handle the actual fighting. Lizzie nails Alisha right in the head, which saves the otherwise cooked goose of Tyreese.  Mitch, for all his tough-guy army swagger, gets ousted by a grenade and then foolishly tries to surrender, but, of course, Daryl isn’t having any of it.  (I thought it was interesting that Daryl ended up being the one who killed Bizarro Merle.)

And Carl saves his dad – again.  (We probably haven’t seen the last of that trope.)  Carl is the one holding his dad up, after they discover the empty bloody carseat and presume that Judith is dead, mirroring the scene when Rick discovers that Lori has died giving birth.  Rick is physically and mentally anguished, and we can guess that Carl will end up being the one who makes their survival possible in the second half of the season.

It was so satisfying to see Michonne be the one who got to kill the Governor.  I was rooting for her (with Daryl in a close second), and I think it was definitely her intention to leave him to be ripped apart by walkers while he was still alive.  It wasn’t quite as earned for Lilly, but he did get her into this mess and basically killed her daughter (twice), so I’m okay with her finishing him off.  I loved the scene of the herd of walkers trampling over the white king chess piece, just as a final “screw you” to the Governor as well. It was also nice to see walker-Clara, the Irish woman who tried to lure Rick to feed her zombified husband’s head, as a call back to the season premiere.

The group is scattered now, and in the chaos it was confusing to see who ended up with whom, so here’s the rundown of where everyone ended up:

Maggie, Sasha, and Bob – Maggie runs over to Sasha and Bob to ask if they’ve seen Beth, just as Bob is injured in the firefight.  Sasha and Maggie move Bob away from the gunfire to treat his wound and the bus full of survivors drives off, forcing the three to flee on foot.

Tyreese, Lizzie, and Mika – Tyreese jumps behind some debris to avoid being shot by Alisha and a random male Governor supporter and is saved in the nick of time by Lizzie, who shoots Alisha in the head without blinking.  When Tyreese tells the girls they have to leave, they run off, and he runs after them, telling them that they’re going the wrong way.  It will be interesting if they run into Carol.  Carol will be ecstatic to see the girls, but things could end badly if Tyreese finds out that Carol killed Karen and David.

Glenn and the survivors on the bus – Glenn tries to follow Maggie and help look for Beth, but Maggie knows that Glenn is too weak to run and likely to be killed, so she tells him to stay on the bus with the others.  The bus drives off after being shot at before Maggie can make it back.

Daryl and Beth – Beth was trying to round up the children and got separated from the bus.  She runs into Daryl, who tells her that they have to leave right away.  They appear to run together into the woods surrounding the prison.

Michonne – Michonne helps Rick by killing the Governor and helping him up, but she’s quickly on the run again and on her own.

Rick and Carl – Carl helps a badly beaten Rick by killing the walkers approaching him.  Together, they find the empty carseat and break down over the death of Judith.  Carl helps Rick into the woods away from the prison as Rick tells him, “Don’t look back.”

Judith?  We’re supposed to assume that Judith was killed by walkers, but as we’ve learned from this show, unless you see a body you can’t be sure that the person is actually dead.  I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Judith alive and well somewhere down the line.

The Best Bits:

I absolutely loved the moment in the trailer when Michonne tells the Governor she is going to kill him.  She’s so calm and straight-forward and she has a hint of a smile on her face.  She has that same hint of a smile as she watches the Governor cough up blood after running him through with the katana.

The Best Kill(s): 

I had three favorites – Lizzie’s dead on shot of Alisha, Daryl shooting Mitch, and of course, the Governor.  Good riddance!

How long will it take for the group to find each other?  Is Judith alive?  How many times will Rick shout “CAH-RUL” in the last eight episodes?

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.7.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.7: Dead Weight

Written by Curtis Gwinn

Directed by Jeremy Podeswa

Oh, Martinez.  Back in Woodbury, you at least seemed street smart, but I started to doubt you when you decided to get in the car with the guy who just mowed down your fellow townsfolk.  You should have left “Brian” in the pit and you definitely shouldn’t have offered to share power.  Bad move.  The Governor was never going to let you live, knowing that you could tell the others the truth at any moment.

This camp seems to be the Bizarro version of Rick’s group.  The Governor rejoins Martinez, much as Rick found Shane as the head of a ragtag group of survivors, and the two vie for supremacy – basically a small scale version of the conflict between Rick and Shane that covered the first two seasons. Except this time they’re both Shane, and the Governor kills Martinez for his own nefarious purposes instead of self-defense.  There’s also a pair of survivalist brothers, completed with squirrel hunting. The elder brother is a Merle-like asshole, an ice cream man turned tank driver named Mitch.  He’s a beer swilling, rough-talking misogynist who is keen on taking what they need from a small camp and is angry when another group beats them to the punch.  Pete, on the other hand, is a nice guy and a natural leader whose first thought is to take the smaller group in.  He refuses to rob the group and insists on gathering their own supplies (sound like someone else we know?).

Of course, in this world, Pete gets killed for his kindness, which the Governor convinces his brother is weakness, and Mitch is made his second in command.  The Governor clearly sees Pete as a threat, perhaps even viewing him as the “new” Rick.  He makes quick work of making the camp into Woodbury 2.0 – starting a wall, digging pits, and cultivating an ingrained fear of outsiders.  He’s even got a new makeshift head aquarium in the form of walker-Pete chained to the bottom of the lake  It doesn’t seem good enough for the Governor, though.  He mentions finding a “better” place to Lilly, and even tries to flee with her, Tara, Alisha, and Megan before being turned back by a mud pit full of entrenched walkers.  We see that he’s still got the prison on his mind and, even with his new family and followers, he can’t shake the need for revenge against the prison group, especially Rick and Michonne.

This could go one of two ways.  We could see a struggle play out between the two camps over the next nine episodes, culminating in an all out battle in the season finale.  The groups are fairly evenly matched, although the prison group has been weakened by the virus.  It could very easily become Woodbury 2.0, with people being kidnapped from both sides and Rick and the Governor going head-to-head – again.

We could also see a much quicker resolution, with the end coming next week at the mid-season finale. They’ve primed the pump for this quicker resolution with how quickly things are progressing for the Governor.  In the space of a couple of weeks (months?), he’s acquired a new family, found a new group of gullible rubes to lead, and worked his way back to the prison to spy on the vulnerable prison group.  As we’ve seen with previous seasons, there’s likely to be at least one major character death, a whole lot of chaos, and a nail-biting cliffhanger ending.

Even though this episode was much more interesting than last week’s, I’m anxious to get back to the prison group and I’m hoping that the writers have wrapped up the Governor’s storyline by the end of next week’s episode.  I’m still not interested in any of the new characters they’ve introduced, and they killed off the one decent person that had the potential of connecting with the audience.  I’d much rather see Rick’s group deal with the threat of the virus, than spend another half season dealing with the Governor.

The Best Bits:

Was I the only person who relished seeing the Governor have to hole up in a crappy trailer and take orders from Martinez while it lasted?

The Best Kill:

Martinez’s death was pretty harsh, although completely avoidable.  The writers didn’t take long to remind us how ruthless the Governor is by having him tip Martinez head first into that pit of walkers.

Are we in it for the long haul with the Governor, or is he living on borrowed time?

This post contains spoilers for the “American Horror Story” Episode 3.7.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 3.7: The Dead

Directed by Bradley Buecker

Written by Brad Falchuk

This episode was one of the weirder ones of the entire series, which is saying something.  We saw a bit of back story about Kyle.  He explains to his frat brothers that he’s not going to ruin his chances of becoming a respected engineer with a tattoo chosen on a whim.  He teases the others about getting Chinese symbols and meaningless shapes.  In the present, he finds that his brothers’ tattoos are now part of his reassembled body, which makes him cry out in anguish.

Zoe makes another attempt to kill him, this time with a pilfered gun.  She can’t bring herself to kill him, however, and decides instead to try to teach him the words for basic actions.  He’s frustrated because his intelligence is there, but he can’t communicate.  Zoe’s called away by Cordelia to talk about Fiona’s role in the murder of Madison, and Madison takes the opportunity to connect with Kyle over their common resurrections.  Zoe agrees to help Cordelia kill her mother after the newly blind woman reveals that her second sight allowed her to see a glimpse of the crime.  Cordelia also warns Zoe that her growing power has been noticed, and while she can’t confirm that Zoe is the next supreme, there’s enough of a threat to be worried.  After Zoe finds Spaulding’s enchanted tongue, saved by the vengeful Myrtle Snow, she reattaches it and forces him to reveal the truth of Madison’s murder, then ruthlessly kills him after getting the desired information.

I’m almost certain that Zoe is the next Supreme and her exponentially growing powers seem to be giving her a confidence that she didn’t have in the first few episodes.  She’s pretty ruthless now, except when it comes to Kyle.  She still can’t manage to kill him, even though he’s obviously dangerous.  I don’t know if she’s strong enough to go up against Fiona yet, even if Fiona is starting to weaken.  I’m guessing it’s going to take the entire coven to take her down.

Cordelia gets a late night call from her scumbag husband, but quickly blows him off.  He’s revealed to be sitting in the middle of a heavy arsenal of weapons, apparently ready to bring the hurt down on the coven at Marie Laveau’s request.  After nearly falling down the stairs, she’s saved by Madison and her new gift shows her the truth of Madison’s murder and resurrection.

Like Zoe, Cordelia’s becoming hardened.  She’s a far cry from the clinical potion maker and gardener we saw in the premiere.  I’m guessing there’s going to be at least one casualty at the hands of Hank, but hopefully Nan’s mind-reading capabilities can warn the others of his coming.  Speaking of Nan, I really missed seeing Jamie Brewer.  I’m hoping she’ll be back for the next episode.

Madison laments the emptiness she felt in life and continues to feel after death, trying to fill the whole with food, magic potions, and ultimately sex.  Zoe walks in on her and Kyle having sex, the only thing that allows Madison to feel.  Madison confronts Zoe about what she witnessed and convinces her to join the couple in bed.

Madison is probably my least favorite character.  Even though I’m not as invested in Kyle and Zoe’s relationship as I was with Tate and Violet, I was really disappointed to see Madison go after Kyle.  I’m not sure how I feel about the three way relationship either, but between Madison and Misty Day, Zoe’s got a lot of competition for Kyle!

Queenie and Delphine encounter each other in the kitchen, both hoping for a late night snack.  Madison has cleaned out the pantry, and the two are forced to go out for fast food.  They begin to bond over cheeseburgers, but Delphine sours the mood by pointing out that Queenie’s race separates her from the rest of the witches in her coven.  Queenie seeks the advice of Marie Laveau, who offers to let Queenie join her – if she brings Delphine to get her just desserts.  Queenie asks Delphine about the worst thing she ever did and Delphine reveals that she once killed a slave’s newborn to use in her “beauty treatment”.  Cruelly, she asks the baby’s mother to be her handmaiden and tells the woman about the “secret ingredient” – all because her husband impregnated the woman.  Queenie is disgusted and tricks Delphine into going willingly to Marie’s salon, where she is imprisoned.  Marie uses some of Delphine’s blood in a recreation of the sadistic woman’s beauty treatments.

I can’t say I blame Queenie for turning Delphine over to Marie Laveau.  The real LaLaurie and her husband did unspeakable things to their slaves, which would be hard for anyone to reconcile.  Cordelia’s intentions seem more altruistic than Marie’s, but Marie’s anger is completely understandable.  We’ll see if Queenie stays with the voodoo crew or goes back to Miss Robicheaux’s.  As always, Angela Basset turns in a fierce performance this week.  She is so gorgeous, it’s unfair!

Fiona spends the night with the Axeman, despite knowing that he has a murder victim in his bathtub.  Her hair begins falling out in large clumps, consequences of her chemotherapy treatment.  The Axeman opens up about his past and tells Fiona about their complicated, one-sided relationship as he watched her grow up.  She flees in disgust, but eventually returns to him.

The Axeman’s history with Fiona is decidedly creepy, but I feel like she went back to him because his desire makes her feel wanted and beautiful.  I am impressed how Murphy and Falchuk manage to make their characters complex and three dimensional.  All of the characters Jessica Lange has played so far could be simple villains, but they’ve each had a tragic, sympathetic side that makes them compelling to watch.  Lange will definitely be in the Emmy race again this year, but her costars (Basset and Kathy Bates, especially) are going to give her a run for her money.

The Best Bits:

Danny Huston is always amazing and his performance as The Axeman is really, really good.  I’m happy to see he’ll be around for at least one more episode.

Queenie has a big choice to make.  Do you think she’ll stay with Marie Laveau or will her loyalty to the girls at Miss Robicheaux’s win out?

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.6.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.6: Live Bait

Written by Nichole Beattie

Directed by Michael Uppendahl

My first reaction to Shumpert and Martinez leaving – WHY DIDN’T YOU SHOOT HIM AND TAKE OFF WHEN HE KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE?!  Was the breaking point really that he let a walker crawl through their campfire and he didn’t flinch when it was shot?  That means he’s crazy, not the fact that he killed their entire group?

The argument being made by the writers to the hundreds of fans wondering the same thing is likely that they were worried that he would also kill them them and that they took off during the night because he let his guard down and they could get away.  Which I would buy, if there weren’t two of them and they didn’t both have guns.  I still think they should have shot him right after the massacre happened.

This episode left me a little cold.  Are we supposed to feel sorry for the Governor/Brian?  More importantly, are we really supposed to believe that he’s changed?  He is sweet to the little girl, probably because she reminds him of Penny, but he’s already rewriting his history to make it seem like he’s the good guy.  Actually, he’s probably been doing that all along, but this is the first concrete evidence of it.

Maybe it’s because they’ve been sheltered from a lot that’s happened, but the Chamblers move pretty fast.  One minute, Tara is threatening to kill him and then they’re bringing him dinner and inviting him over for an after dinner coffee klatch.  He becomes their errand boy pretty quickly, too.  They’ve only known him for a few hours before asking him to help put their dad to bed and the old guy already has him risking his life for a shiny new backgammon set.  Then he gets sent out for oxygen tanks, in the ultimate “here’s your hat, where’s your hurry”.  And, of course, there’s the “I know we just met and my dad just died, but will you be my boyfriend?” conversation.

I’m not a fan of this group.  Lilly has no personality and the little personality Tara has is annoying.  The Governor seemed pretty consistently annoyed by them as well, particularly since they were so clueless about how to act around the walkers.  Of course, he never could resist the ladies, even back in Woodbury.  And, obviously, Meghan has become a surrogate for Penny.

As I said in my last post, I don’t really care what the Governor has been up to since the Season 3 finale.  I hope this is going somewhere, and we aren’t going to see it dragged out until the Season 4 finale.  They need to wrap this storyline up quickly so we can get back to the good stuff.

The Best Bits:

The Governor’s face was priceless when Lilly said her dad had been “gone for awhile”.  I actually laughed out loud.

The Best Kill:

It has to be pulling a walker’s head in half with a bone – no question.

Is Martinez long for this world, considering the Governor is trying to start a new life?

This post contains spoilers for the “American Horror Story” Episode 3.6.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 3.6: The Axeman Cometh

Directed by Michael Uppendahl

Written by Douglas Petrie

In keeping with previous seasons, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk incorporated a real world figure into the latest episode of “American Horror Story: Coven”.  The Axeman of New Orleans, a real serial killer who plagued the city and was never captured, is featured heavily this week.  We get a flashback to his crimes and his ultimate demise at the hands of students at Miss Robicheaux’s Academy, and he helps Zoe locate the missing Madison – or what’s left of her, at least.

Fiona spends most of the episode dealing with the aftermath of Cordelia’s attack and her growing illness.  Both women start to develop new abilities.  Fiona may be able to hear others’ thoughts, but it also may be the powerful chemotherapy medication.  Cordelia’s blinding has enabled her to have “second sight” – she can see flashes of information when she touches others, Dead Zone style.

The girls torture Spaulding after Zoe discovers Madison’s body, but she doesn’t quite trust his admission that he killed her, nor does she buy his motive.  Zoe’s strength has grown considerably over the last two episodes, and while she continues to make questionable decisions, she’s trying to do what’s best for the coven.  Her goal is to preserve the few witches left in the world, and I’m almost certain that she will end up being the new Supreme.  I wasn’t sure if Cordelia was covering for Madison when she told the Council that the young girl had a congenital heart defect, but I’m starting to think Fiona was wrong about Madison being the Supreme.

We got a big revelation about Cordelia’s husband, Hank.  Apparently, he’s not a serial killer, but a witch hunter working for Marie Laveau to get rid of all the Salem descendants.  Marie is out for blood, and if Hank wants to stay alive, he’s got to take everyone out at the Academy.  His internet girlfriend, Kaylee, was targeted because she had pyrokenetic powers and had once considered coming to the Academy.  Marie also reveals that she wasn’t the one who attacked Cordelia.  We’ve ruled out Myrtle and Marie, so who could have committed the attack?  Fiona’s still a suspect in my mind, despite how upset she was when she found out about her daughter’s injuries.

We get to see Misty Day’s powers at work as she brings Madison back, no easy feat considering she was missing an arm and had started to rot significantly.  She’s not too keen on the girls at Miss Robicheaux’s, however, and she tells Zoe that there’s something evil in the home.  Did you notice the red hair of the person she was treating in her garden?  It’s almost certainly Myrtle Snow.  I knew we hadn’t seen the end of her – Frances Conroy is too awesome to get rid of just yet.

Cordelia’s second sight allows her to see the ghost of the Axeman, who continues to haunt the Academy.  Turns out Zoe promised him his freedom in exchange for Madison’s whereabouts, but she didn’t pony up when he gave her the goods.  He decides to terrorize Cordelia until he gets what he wants and Zoe performs a spell that she believes will send him back to the spirit world, but actually releases him upon modern New Orleans.  Fiona, vulnerable because of her impending mortality, is ripe for the picking.  The Axeman was played by the perennially creepy Danny Huston, who always makes a good villain.  (He’s probably best known as the head vampire, Marlow, in 30 Days of Night.)

The most exciting part of the episode was the sneak peeks for next week.  Episode 7, titled “The Dead”, looks intense.  Cordelia finds out about Fiona’s murder of Madison, Zoe might finally be putting an end to the tormented reanimated Kyle, and Queenie might end up working for Marie Laveau!

The Best Bits: 

Cordelia’s injury has made her a lot tougher.  She and Zoe seem to be really coming into their own and accepting their lineage.  It’s going to make both characters much more interesting and give them a lot more depth.

What will Cordelia’s reaction be to the news that her mother murdered Madison to keep her from becoming the next Supreme?

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.5.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.5: Internment

Written by Channing Powell

Directed by David Boyd

My heart was in my throat during this whole episode in a way that it hasn’t been for awhile.  Everything seemed to go bad at once, between people dropping like flies in quarantine and the fence breaking down – not to mention the added difficulty of having half the viable people away on a run.

I really liked how we picked up exactly where we left off in the last episode, with Rick driving back to the prison and agonizing over his decision to leave Carol behind.  We get a look at what’s going been going on in the prison, since Indifference focused on the two concurrent runs – Rick and Carol scavenging for food and Daryl and the others looking for medical supplies at the vet school.  It definitely puts the situation in perspective, as we see Hershel manning quarantine with only a very sick Glenn and Tasha to help him and Maggie in charge of the rest.

I was a bit surprised at how well Maggie took Rick’s decision, but she seemed on board as soon as he confirmed that Carol admitted to killing Karen and David.  I’m pretty sure she’s got more things to worry about, and she may be considering what would have happened had it been Glenn who got sick first, and whether Carol would have thought twice about killing him.  We’ve had nearly two and a half seasons to see the relationship between Maggie and Glenn grow, but this was a really nice look at how close she and her father are.

Rick and Carl get some father-son bonding time as well, as they mow down the flood of walkers that crash through gate.  Carl has saved his father’s bacon several times, and we’re getting a good dose of the badass Carl that’s prevalent in the comics right now.  After he shot the kid in the woods last season, I was a little worried that Carl would start to lose his moral compass, but he’s really come around this season.

Something is definitely up with Lizzie.  She’s getting way too friendly with the walkers and I really think she was disappointed that the whole chaotic frenzy of the infected people reanimating had ended.  And what was with her dipping the toe of her boot in Glenn’s blood?!

Scott Wilson is such an amazing actor and every moment he had in this episode was heartbreakingly beautiful.  Hershel is the soul of the group and I really believe if anyone else had been trying to hold quarantine together, they would have lost everyone.  I almost lost it several times in this episode, particularly during his reaction to finding about about Carol and when he started crying in Dr. S.’s cell.   My heart really broke for him in that moment.  Just a few scenes before he had been telling Rick how he still believed there was a plan and then all he could do was stare at his Bible in disbelief at what they had just gone through.  I think he starts to get a little bit of his old self back, though, as evidenced by his acknowledgement that he’s a “tough son of a bitch”.

Rick seems the most worried about telling Daryl about sending Carol away, obviously due to their close relationship.  Hershel seems to steer clear of telling him as well, saying, “Talk to Rick.”  (Which only seems fair, honestly.  Rick made the decision, he should be the one to deal with the aftermath, including Daryl’s unpredictable temper.)  People seem fairly sure that it might cause Daryl to leave the group, but I think that Daryl trusts Rick too much to go that far.  He’s backed every decision he’s made so far – the good and the bad – and I don’t think that’s going to change now.  That’s not to say that he won’t be upset.  He really cares about Carol and he is obviously closest to her out of anyone in the group.  I think he will be the first one to try to talk Rick into letting her rejoin the group if they run into her down the line.

And of course, the writers just can’t let things be good for a minute.  The Governor’s back, guys.  It’s happening.  I really hope they explain why those two guys went with him in the Season 3 finale, because that’s all I really care about concerning his storyline.  The new virus is a million more times interesting the whole Governor thing, in my opinion, and I hope we don’t waste too much time dealing with him again.

The Best Bits:

The entirety of Scott Wilson’s performance.  I have this sickening dread that they’re preparing us for Hershel’s tragic end and if that happens, I’m going to be bawling my eyes out.

The Best Kill:

I have to go for Hershel stabbing Dr S. in the eye.  They really got me with the reveal of him being a walker.

How will Daryl react to finding out about Carol’s banishment?  What does the Governor have in store for the prison group?  Seriously, what were those guys thinking when they went with him?!

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.4.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.4: Indifference

Directed by Tricia Brock

Written by Matt Negrete

The opening scene for this episode was pretty intense.  Lizzie and Carol are both worrying me a little bit.  Lizzie seems more and more like Ben from the comics and Carol has become so cold and methodical.  Rick imagining how she killed Karen gave me chills, particularly how she was stroking Karen’s head before stabbing her.  This may not be what happened, but it definitely puts Carol’s actions in perspective.

I loved the interactions between Daryl and Michonne this episode, especially when she smiled at him after teasing him about how the jasper matched his eyes.  Danai Gurira is gorgeous and we don’t get to see her smile enough when she’s playing Michonne.  Of course Daryl knows how to hot wire a car.  Is that something from his past, or something he’s picked up as part of the group’s survival?

I actually loved Sam and Ana.  They were still so optimistic, even after all the terrible things they had experienced and Sam’s dislocated shoulder gave Carol a chance to show that she is still caring (and incredibly useful as a medic).  I knew it was going to end badly for them as soon as Carol suggested that they help search for supplies.  You can see Rick tallying up points for and against Carol throughout the whole episode and I think the final major strike against her is when they find Ana’s leg and then see her being eaten by walkers.

Tyreese is definitely at his breaking point.  He’s lost Karen, he’s sure he’s about to lose Sasha, and I think he has several moments in this episode where he really doesn’t care what happen to him, which has made him much more decisive and much less squeamish about killing the walkers.  Michonne’s statement about anger making you stupid is dead on, but I definitely think that Tyreese is right about her still being angry.  I think she is trying to get rid of that anger and accept her place in the group, but it still fuels her hunt for the Governor.  Even though later she says that Daryl changed her mind, it’s really Tyreese’s question that makes her decide to stop looking for him.

Daryl seems to really try to befriend Bob as they discuss his past.  I think Bob has some good things to say about survival and he’s obviously been through a lot, which seems to  make Daryl respect him more.  Daryl is also possibly remembering his family’s struggle with addiction (we know his mom had a drinking problem and his dad and Merle both abused alcohol and drugs), and he is empathizing with Bob’s own addiction struggles.   This is probably why he so angry when they discover that Bob is trying so hard to save the bag not because it contains life-saving medicine or supplies, but because he didn’t want to let go of the bottle.  Bob let him down the way his family did, and we see a brief return to the angry, impulsive Season 1 Daryl.  Surprisingly, it’s Tyreese who tells him to “let it go”, in a reversal from earlier scenes when the others were telling him to let the walker go.

Carol makes some good points and she took a calculated risk killing Karen and David.  That risk didn’t pan out, as more people ended up getting sick anyway, but she was being proactive.  Rick has a history of not acting until they’re already in trouble, or putting things off until he absolutely needed to do them to save the group.  I do see his side as well, though.  Carol is obviously right that she was a strong person all along, but there’s a difference between being strong and being ruthless.  If Carol is willing to kill their own and be so callous about the deaths, she may not be safe person to have around his son and daughter.  He tries to reason that the others will want her gone, but I think he’s being more accurate when he says he’s making the decision for him and I think he’s genuinely scared of the person Carol has become

“Letting it go” seems to be the theme of this episode.  There’s a moment for each of the characters where they make a serious decision and, at the end, we watch them struggle with those decisions alone.  None more than Rick, who spends his drive back to the prison looking in his rear view mirror, first to see if Carol is following behind him and then at himself.  I think he spends every moment after telling Carol she can’t come back questioning that decision and you can see it on his face in that driving scene and the scene before, where she gives him her watch.

I think Carol doesn’t want to leave the group, but she is somewhat relieved to have an excuse to leave her old life behind.  She is literally starting over, regarding Sophia and Ed as part of someone else’s life.  She has effectively replaced them with Lizzie and Mika, and I wondered, watching this episode, if the only reason she wanted them to come with her was because they were part of her “new” life.

The Best Bits:

I loved everything with Daryl.  He has come so far since the 1st season and he’s finally opening up to people, which makes the revelation about Bob that much more heart-wrenching.  We get to see the dichotomy of who he was and who he is now with him confronting Bob, but I think his connection to the group will win out.  I am really looking forward to the Daryl-centric episode we’ve been promised in the back eight.

The Best Kill:

Definitely Michonne’s life-saving head chop.

Is Rick right about everyone wanting Carol gone after they find out what she did?