Previously on
The Walking Dead: Rick sees a Walker with blood streaming from its eyes; Walkers pile up against the perimeter fences; Michonne hunts for the Governor on horseback; Tyreese and Karen fall in love; Carl catches Carol giving secret knife lessons to children; Patrick gets sick and dies and in the communal bathroom; Patrick reanimates as a Walker. Now: Spoilers ahoy! (For those who want to skip the recap, the review is on the last page.)
A Day For Pigs To DieNight. An unidentifiable person stands on the prison side of the perimeter fence, holding a flashlight at eye level to get a good look at the hungry Walkers...and then picks up a rat by the tail and feeds them. As you do in the zombie apocalypse. Good job on watch duty, Glenn. Elsewhere, Karen and Tyreese cuddle. He begins to sing "I've Got You Under My Skin," and it's kind of sweet but mostly embarrassing. Karen agrees with me and gets up to return to her cell in D-Block, saying that she's not quite ready for sleepovers just yet. Tyreese makes a mental note to try a different song next time. Karen returns to her cell, and we see for the first time that the individual cells are not actually locked at night. Instead, there are merely sheets and shower curtains hung in the doorways for some semblance of privacy. Zombie Patrick doesn't care so much about the privacy, and he wanders into a sleeping man's cell. This man--who I am going to call Dennis because he doesn't have a name and I don't want to keep calling him "man"--does not even have the chance to scream before Patrick rips his throat open. Patrick feasts on poor Dennis until the sun rises, at which point another person coughs and distracts him. He abandons Dead Dennis, who reanimates and becomes Zombie Dennis. Zombie Dennis shambles out of his cell to seek out some fresh meat of his own. Outside, Rick and Carl farm. Carl, feeling totally lame for being the kid who works with his dad in the garden every day, wants his gun back so that he can be a zombie killer again. Rick, remembering trigger-happy Carl from Season 3, emphatically says no. Before Carl can further plead his case, they hear shots echoing out of the prison. A cavalry of main characters races to D-Block, where they find that Patrick and Dennis had managed to turn several other survivors during the night. Rick tries to usher the panicking people to safety while the others try to take out the Walkers. The Zombie Kill Of The Week goes to Daryl, who shoots a Walker in the head with a crossbow bolt
backwards as he picks up and rescues a sobbing little boy. He takes down Patrick as well, and the cavalry is soon left with the unfortunate job of making sure that the dead stay dead. Rick finds a corpse and waits for Daryl to come and take the head shot, his Season 4 unwillingness to get his hands dirty still going strong. Daryl, however, stops. And then this happens:
"I think you should handle this one," says Daryl. "I'd rather not," says Rick, "but I trust you."
Rick stabs the corpse through the brain.
"Good job," says Daryl. "I believe in you." "Thanks," responds Rick. "Your opinion matters to me. Best friends forever?" "Best friends forever," Daryl confirms, and they share a celebratory high-five.
Well, that's what might have happened if the interaction had been between anybody other than Rick and Daryl. As it was, the exchange was pretty much just a series of significant looks and manly nods. Anyway. They discover a Walker who had not been bitten but had apparently died from an illness. Hershel opines that this is a new and virulent strain of influenza that would flourish in their close living conditions. Rick reveals that one of his pigs had mysteriously died the previous week, and Hershel says that infections are often spread via pig and bird. As this new disease is kind of a big deal, we go to...