The Walking Dead: 7 Things That "The Grove" Did Right (And 3 It Didn't)

2. Unearned Survival Skills

One of the qualities that always made Daryl Dixon so valuable to the group €“ even when he was more or less intolerable €“ was his unique mastery of the wild. He could track where there were no prints. He could hunt where there was no game. He could eat rodents raw. It's gotten nearly superhuman by this point, but the character has earned his prowess. He can effortlessly kill a rattlesnake with a stick and a knife without seeming unrealistic. In the Season 4 premiere, young Patrick was practically swooning over Daryl for managing to take down a stag. Why? Because hunting is hard. In "Still," he missed a shot at a squirrel, and he and Beth were down to collecting dew off of leaves to drink. Now, why does Daryl get his own paragraph in an article about an episode in which he did not appear? That would be because Daryl's hard-earned near-superhuman skills of wilderness survival were magically usurped by his good friend Carol in "The Grove." Carol may have grown into a leadership position among the survivors at the prison, but there was never indication that she possessed any sort of woodland expertise. She's never been seen going on runs or even venturing outside of the prison fences, and even the disappearance of her daughter in Season 2 did not drive her into the forest for too long. She was a domestic administrator at the prison, which was great. Good for Carol. But suddenly, in "The Grove," she can find water easily and identify trees with antibacterial sap. She has utter faith in her ability to hunt and butcher large animals... as well as faith that she had so expertly taught Mika how to shoot that the 10-year old could bring down a deer herself. Honestly, Carol and Mika together wouldn't even be able to drag a deer.