Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Walking Dead: Recap and Review of Season 4, Episode 1

The moment we had all been waiting for finally arrived on Sunday night when the season 4 premiere of The Walking Dead aired.  With a whopping 16.1 million viewers The Walking Dead broke the record for the most viewers in the history of television.  It is amazing how far The Walking Dead has come in only four seasons, and we are very excited for the fourth season of one of our favorite TV shows of all time. This show has exceeded our expectations the more and more we watch it. 



In the episode 30 Days Since an Accident it had been a month in their world since an accident and everything seemed pretty calm for the most part at the prison.  There seemed to be a herd of zombies at the fence, but nothing out of the ordinary in their World. There seemed to be a remarkable amount of new additions made to the prison.  There was a barn now, crops, and the group seemed to be very settled in and everyone had their own jobs and roles in helping out around the Prison.  The group had also set up several zombie traps outside of the prison yard.   There also seemed to be new romances in the air, Beth had a new boyfriend named Jack.  Carol was calling Daryl "pookie", and there also seemed to be some crushes going on with the kids.  Daryl had also brought even more people that he found out in the woods so even more people were added to the prison besides the people in Woodbury.  Daryl had become the new hero to all the people that he had brought in.  We also know that Maggie is not pregnant, but she wants to live life normally and have a baby with Glenn. 



The episode started with Rick digging for new crops and he had his headphones on to avoid hearing the zombies at the fence.  While digging he ran into a gun, and when he found it he took the clip out of it and threw it in the wheelbarrow.  It seems as though Rick is starting to take the more conservative approach, and is hesitant about guns for some reason. Does he feel how Hershel did on the farm and just wants things to be peaceful and not draw attention?  This is the first thing that entered our minds when we were watching Rick be so hesitant to something he used on a daily basis before this point.  He always encouraged everyone to carry a gun for safety and now it was almost as if he didn't want guns to exist.  In the beginning, him being so drawn away from guns, almost makes it seem as if he was still a little off, but we felt like this was Rick just trying to keep things peaceful.  Then he and Carl start talking about the pig being sick.  Right at this moment I knew that pig was infected, it was just very obvious and this is when I really started to think that the animals were infected and this could be a tragedy for the entire group.  If the pig was infected what else could be there that's infected animal wise? Shortly after this Michonne comes back from her hunt for the governor, and finds no signs of him.  The rest of the group (especially Daryl) doesn't seem to be very supportive of her hunting down the governor out of concern for her safety.  The rest of the group is about to go on a food and supply run, but Rick sits this one out because he needed to go check the zombie traps in the woods.  At this point he runs into a woman, Clara.  He was talking about bringing her back to the camp, but then she leads him back to her camp to help out and Rick discovers that her husband is a zombie.  Her husband was too weak to fight, and looked to be covered by some type of cloth.  It was obvious that Clara had completely lost it and had given up.  She didn't feel like she could redeem herself from the bad things she had done.  As her and Rick were chatting by her tent, she all of a sudden tries to stab Rick and he dodges her and then she takes the knife and stabs herself.  She then asked Rick not to kill her so she could live with her husband.  He then leaves and then heads back to the prison and talks to Hershel.  Hershel explains to Rick that even if he lost both kids he would still have to carry on.  From this point on we knew Rick would be just fine.  He had finally over come the guilt of everything that had happened in the previous season.  While all this was going on  Daryl had an idea to go check out The Big Spot in town and so he and Michonne, Sasha, Tyrese, Jack, and the new guy Bob all headed into town.  What they didn't realize is that The Big Spot had a crashed helicopter on top of the building with tons of zombies on top of the building, and of course the roof was extremely damaged from the crash and herds of zombies on top of the building.  When they pulled up Bob was just staring at a persons legs who had the whole top half of them missing.  I think from this point on Bob knew something was up, when Bob approached the store after the other went inside he went to go take a bottle of Alcohol and the shelf crashed making a whole bunch of noise attracting all the zombies to one part of the roof.  His one problem with alcohol may have costed the entire group their lives. Then all of a sudden, zombies started crashing through the roof.  The only casualty before the rest of the group escaped was Jack.  Poor Beth. This had been her second loss of a significant other since her husband died at the farm.  The group comes back to the prison and Daryl goes to break the terrible news to Beth.  When he told her she seemed numb, almost like it didn't bother her that he was gone or that she was just so distraught that it didn't even affect her.  The same thing happened at the farm when her husband died.  With Beth, ever since the zombie version of her mom was killed in the barn, she just seems numb, like nothing else affects her.  When people die she doesn't grieve normally, she almost acts as if it never happened.  Then there seemed to be a connection between her and Daryl, but then he left and Beth had a sign designed for workers by her bed that said  30 Days Since an Accident.  She removed the 3 to make it from a 30 to a 0.  




Overall we thought this episode was amazing. There is really nothing we can think of to complain about or find any flaws, and it seems as though the rest of the country feels the same way as The Walking Dead broke the record with astonishing 16.1 million viewers.  It was shocking in parts, they did things they have never done before, and there was a very decent amount of action and revelations made.  Was it the best episode ever made?  No, not in my opinion, but it definitely is up there with one of the best episodes.  I thought the part with Rick and Clara was a little on the bizarre side, but I also think they put this part in there to show that Rick was not lost and that he was still there.  He has not lost all hope, and the point was for the viewers to see that he wasn't completely damaged.  It was good to see that Rick was almost feeling completely back to normal and was ready to fight back again.  Even though there has been many trailers released the best one with the most reveals was from San Diego Comic Con in July.  We have included that trailer, and it should clear up some questions you may have from the first episode. 
There were so many things revealed in this trailer and if you watched it before Sunday's episode, then the first episode was most likely a little more exciting for you and you might have some answers to questions that others may not.




In every Walking Dead blog there are a few places we like to awknowledge.  First, is our friends at Senoia Coffee and Cafe.  They have some incredible food, and this fun filled fan environment is even known on set as The Woodbury Cafe.   The other place is The Woodbury Shoppe which is a very new Walking Dead merchandise store that is on set.  They have some great merchandise that you will not see anywhere else and they do have online ordering so if you can't make it in you can pick up some orders online.  You never know who you will run into at both places since they are both on set. As we learned last June at Denver Comic Con from Vince Gonzales and Michael Koske that many of the actors don't like to eat the food that is provided to them on set.  They prefer to go out and eat somewhere that isn't covered in blood and zombies so a lot of times you can catch them grabbing a bite at Senoia Coffee and Cafe and stopping by The Woodbury Shoppe.



The Walking Dead on AMC:  http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead

Senoia Coffee and Cafe:  https://www.facebook.com/senoiacoffeeandcafe

The Woodbury Shoppe:   https://www.facebook.com/WoodburyShoppe

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