We have only three episodes left and this one did not disappoint. The opening scene of Serial Killer Lizzie playing tag with a walker while that creepy music played was strangely beautiful. (Am I the only one who had flashbacks of Insidious when that music was playing?) I really loved this episode because I felt that it was a retrun to form for the seires; it had all of the elements that make me tune in week after week. This was the episode where everyone had to face their demons and decide if how they were reacting to the new world was right or wrong. Carol, Lizzie and Mica are the three people who have caused the most discussion about this. While I still don’t believe that Carol had the right to decide that Karen and David should die, I absolutely agree with Tyrese’s reaction to her confession. Forgiveness is the hardest thing to do, but it is also the most human thing to do and we need to keep an eye on maintaining our humanity to a certain degree.
When Carol described Sophia as being sweet and not “having a mean bone in her body”, Lizzie asked if that’s why Sophia isn’t here anymore. This was a particularly insightful and incredibly sad observation on Lizzie’s part and it kind of summed up the moral conundrum brought up in this episode. You must tap into that basic survival need and kill walkers if you’re going to live, but you must also know when to turn it off. It is such a dangerously fine line between killing to survive and killing because you can. I didn’t appreciate Mica being the moral voice, tearing Carol down for her decision at the prison, but I suppose we needed to keep needling Carol so she would finally just own her actions.
The sight of Lizzie standing in front of her dead sister with bloody hands and Judith waiting for her turn was so heartbreakingly chilling. When Carol told Lizzie that she would tie Mica up, my heart broke. There were so many feelings in that coversation for everyone and I was supremely impressed with how Tyreese and Carol dealt with the situation. Carol being the one to dispose of Mica brought me to tears. Carol has really been dealt a crap hand in life; married to an absuive man, losing her only child, excommunicated from her group and now she has to get rid of her two adopted daughters. When she passed the gun to Tyreese and told him what she did, it felt a bit like a “suicide by cop” moment on her part. She has been beaten down by life and Tyreese killing her out of anger would have stopped all of her emotional misery. Tyreese is a good man, though, and the sight of the three of them moving forward was the only uplifting thing that happened in this episode.
On a lighter note, I was a huge fan of the crispy walkers, Lizzie feeding the walker a mouse (maybe she never had a puppy?) and I super enjoyed how Tyreese had Judith on his back like a little Yoda when they were leaving the house. I used to believe that Lizzie was on to something with her attitude towards the walkers, but it turned out she simply couldn’t wrap her brain around the crazy reality she was growing up in. Really, who can blame her? Kids are so beautiful because they still have that innocence, understanding and forgiveness that we slowly lose as we grow up, so, it isn’t a stretch to believe that some kids simply wouldn’t be able to “get it”. Mica understood, but she didn’t want to and I completely understand where she’s coming from.
If this episode is any indication of how the next two will be, I cannot wait to see what else will happen. As much as I love the character driven episodes, this season was beginning to become a bit taxing, but I am now 100% optimistic for the rest of the season. However, as RuPaul would say, “Don’t fuck it up.”