Now Tyreese is the one out in the yard, digging a grave as though he's racing to Australia. Bob comes out and finds him in this condition and suggests Tyreese come in to get cleaned up. Tyreese refuses, glaring at Bob through his one eye that isn't swollen shut and refusing to go in until David and Karen are in the ground. This seems like so much wasted effort given that someone already went to the trouble of cremating them. Bob knows better than to get in a fight with Tyreese, unlike some people, and picks up a shovel for himself to join in. I don't think he's going to catch up, though.
In the inner yard, Glenn is asking Hershel for reassurances that they're going to be okay, pointing out that some who were exposed aren't yet sick. Hershel says the disease doesn't work on a strict timeline, but he admits that everything might be okay. Glenn is frustrated that this isn't anything he can fight. "I'm just digging graves," he complains. And that's not great TV, as much as Tyreese might try to make it a competitive event. Just then Sasha comes up behind them, coughing her lungs out and saying she needs to see Dr. S. "Gonna be okay, "she lies before making her way to D. Block. What she finds inside is a dim, dank terminal ward with bars on all the doors and people coughing up blood, and a fresh zombie that grabs at her from behind the bars of its cell. Shouldn't someone have taken care of that by now? Dr. S, clearly as sick as Sasha, shambles into view and says, "We have to tell them. It's starting." Yeah, we noticed.
Looks like the council meeting has been pushed up, or else it's the day. Hershel tells Carol, Glenn, Daryl, and Michonne that the sickness has spread to everyone in Cell Block D. While Hershel is outlining his plan to make Cell Block A the isolation ward (which worked out so great for Karen and David), the sickness suddenly and visibly hits Glenn. After some lip service to what they're going to do about the murders, Carol asks Hershel how they stop the disease. Hershel says they can't -- people will just have to go through it. Michonne points out the flaw in that plan, which is that people tend to come out of the other side dead. Like, how do you go through an illness that kills you? "The illness doesn't, the symptoms do," Hershel corrects. And that distinction matters…how, exactly?
Hershel says they need antibiotics. Daryl says they've picked every nearby pharmacy clean, but Hershel says there's a veterinary college that might not have been looted. Daryl says that's fifty miles, so he's not wasting any time and taking a group out ASAP. Michonne volunteers, and when Hershel points out that she hasn't been exposed but that Daryl has (as though they're not all in the same room), Michonne points out that Daryl's already given her fleas. Snark sweeps aside all objections, apparently. Hershel offers to come along and lead the way, but Daryl warns that they always end up running, which is probably not ideal for someone like Hershel. "I can…draw you a map," he says a bit sheepishly. He also suggests putting the most vulnerable residents, like the very young, in the admin building. "What about the old?" Glenn wonders. Translation: "What about you?"
Carol and Rick try to work the bicycle-based water pump out in the yard, but all they're getting out of it is muddy sludge. Carol says this means they'll have to go outside the fence to clear the mud out of the intake hose. "Set the bird, go out through the tombs, swing around through the forest route," she figures, but Rick says it can wait until tomorrow. After a brief discussion about Carl and how he's not going to like being sent to quarantine, they look over at Tyreese, who's now patting the dirt down on Karen's grave across the yard. Carol suggests Rick go talk to him, though she declines to come along. Rick heads over alone as Tyreese is about to place Karen's bracelet on her grave, and apologizes for earlier. "It's on both of us, "Tyreese says, as though he didn't start it. "You got to find who did this," he repeats.
Rick eases right into the standard interview with the bereaved, asking if Karen or David had any enemies. Tyreese insists that he was with Karen all the time, every day, and she got along with everyone. "Same with David." Well, that sounds like a cozy little threesome. Rick floats the theory that the perp might have been trying to stop the disease from spreading, which isn't exactly a stretch. "They didn't," Tyreese says, obviously, "Now Sasha has it." Rick assures Tyreese that the killer isn't going anywhere and they'll find them, but it's not happening fast enough for Tyreese. "In fact, what I'm picking up is, murder is okay in this place now." Well, assault clearly is. Rick says that they have to save lives and keep the place going. "You worry about that," Tyreese says sanctimoniously. "I'll worry about what's right." And on his way back into the prison, he encounters a group of sick people heading into isolation, who pass within three feet of him while coughing up a storm. Yeah, good thing they're separating the sick people.
Carl is angrily packing his backpack, and Rick makes the mistake of saying he need Carl in there to make sure the others are safe. So of course Carl picks up his gun. "You don't fire unless you absolutely need to," Rick sighs. "But you know I might need to, right?" Carl pushes. This is not reassuring, but Rick lets Carl leave which his gun on his hip. It's only a matter of time before Carl gets trigger-happy with someone else, isn't it?
Glenn sits in a cell telling himself it's going to be okay, and tells Maggie to stay back when she comes in. "I have it," he says. Yeah, we got that earlier, thanks.
Michonne finds Daryl prepping the car for the road trip, and he says he's glad she's here. She wonders where else he thinks she would be. "Runnin' off, "he says artlessly, but backs off when she mildly corrects his choice of words. He thinks they could use another person with them besides just Bob. But Rick's off the table and almost everyone else is sick, so we cut to Daryl finding Tyreese inside the prison, standing self-appointed guard over the isolation ward. Daryl says he wants to find the killer too, and "put a bolt in them for what they did." But he assures Tyreese that nobody's getting to the sick rooms unseen and even though Sasha's in there, Tyreese's vigil won't do any good unless they come back with the medicine. Tyreese still isn't budging, but at least he hasn't hit anyone else.
Hershel sits alone in one of the offices in the admin building under a painting with the epigram, "Smooth seas do not make good sailors." Topical! Eventually he gets tired of fidgeting, or else finding a coffee mug gives him an idea. So he starts ambling out of the building, only to be stopped by the hallway-patrolling Carl, who wonders where he's going. Carl is apparently took Rick at his word when Rick appointed him Protector Of The Admin Building, apparently not realizing that Rick told him that just to shut him up. Hershel tells him to stay back, but Carl observes that Hershel appears to be heading out. Hershel admits that he's going to the woods. "Don't need anyone worrying about me, and I damn sure don't want someone telling me I can't go," Hershel says. Carl admits that he can't stop Hershel, but he's going to need to tell Rick. Hershel calls that bluff, so Carl insists on coming along. Well, so much for being Protector of the Admin Building.
Wearing a cloth over her face, Carol herds some sick people into A Block, including one older woman from Woodbury who tries to plead allergies. No sooner has Carol shut the door on all of them than Lizzie comes up, saying she's sick and coughing into her arm. Best news of the night, so far. Maybe she's faking, but if so, it's her funeral. Carol gently sends her on into the sick block, and when Lizzie asks Carol to come tuck her in, Carol has to pass her off on Glenn instead. After a couple of long, contaminating hugs, Carol finally succeeds in shutting the demon-spawn in there with the rest of the sickos, then breaks down crying as soon as the door is closed. Yes, Carol is having a bad day, and it's only going to get worse.
In the admin building, Maggie is talking to Beth through a closed door, because Beth is inside taking care of the baby. Beth asks Maggie if everything is okay. "Glenn has it," Maggie all but sobs. Beth tells Maggie that they don't' get to be upset, and has a whole long speech about it. "We all got jobs to do, that's what Daddy always says." She says they'll deal with it, because they have to. Hey, Beth, you asked. And it's not like Maggie spent a lot of time talking about it.
Out in the foggy woods, stupid Carl is back in his stupid hat, patrolling the area immediately around Hershel with his gun pointed at the forest floor. If I were Hershel, I'd tell Carl that either he or the hat could come along, but not both. Hershel asks Carl when he got the gun back from Rick, and Carl says it was yesterday, "after everything happened." And here he is pushing it already, like a kid who just got off an Xbox ban.
While gathering berries from a bush into a sack, Hershel remarks on Carl's growth and increased responsibility over the past few months since Rick took him off duty. He thinks Carl's break might have done him good. "Can't be like that all the time," Carl says. Hershel comments that he would have been fine on his own. "Peaceful out here. Last couple of days, might be safer outside those walls than in." Carl says they aren't, because he's spotted a ravaged campsite with a torn tent, and a torn, undead body leaning helplessly against a tree. It turns and looks at them, reaching out a desiccated hand. "Let's wrap this up," Hershel says. And from behind them, another zombie steps into view with an animal trap on its leg. Carl raises his gun, but Hershel stops him, saying he doesn't need to. And Rick did say not to fire unless he needs to, not that Hershel knows that. For once Carl listens and lowers the weapon, and the old man with one foot and the trigger-happy 'tween walk away. "So peaceful," Hershel repeats. Carl says it was, and repeats, "Can't be like that all the time." Oh, quit trying to be wise with that goddamn hat on.
Tyreese is talking to Sasha though a closed interior window between A Block and wherever he is. He tells her not to think about Karen and to stay positive. He tells her about Daryl's mission to get the drugs. "So we could have medicine as early as tomorrow," Sasha realizes. "We got a chance." With that, Tyreese takes his leave, telling her to get some rest.
Bob joins Daryl at the car, which Daryl lets slip belonged to Zach. Suddenly smacked with guilt, Bob wonders if Daryl's sure he wants him along, and since Bob's the only one who can read Hershel's shopping list, that's a yes. And it's also a yes when Tyreese comes up asking to join the mission after all.
Carol's trying to get some water into a bucket from the big blue plastic water tanks in the inner yard when Tyreese walks up behind her and just stands there, causing her to jump out of her skin when she realizes he's looming over her. He tells her he's joining the run, but says, "I know how you are. You care." This is why he asks her to check on Sasha while he's gone. Carol agrees, and tells him she's sorry about what happened to Karen. He just nods tightly and takes off. Left alone, Carol hurls the empty bucket aside, then throws a proper tantrum and knocks over one of the blue tanks. This turns out to have had many gallons inside it after all, not that they'll do any good now that she's just spilled them all over the pavement while flipping shit. Feel better now?
Hershel limps toward the entrance to A Block with a little wooden crate when Maggie comes storming up behind him demanding, "Why aren't you in quarantine?" Hershel puts down his box and says he's not helping anyone in there, but he can stabilize people now, including those who might not otherwise survive until Daryl gets back with the medicine. He's not above reminding her that Glenn's in there, either. Rick comes up wondering what's going on, and Hershel explains how he's made some elderberry tea like his wife used to. "They're a natural flu remedy. [Dr. S] is too sick to help, I can," he says.
And he's just getting started, launching into a speech about how there have been too many times when they haven't been able to change anything happening to them, but he can this time. "You step outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water, you risk your life. And nowadays you breathe and you risk your life. Every moment now, you don't have a choice. The only thing you can choose is what you're risking it for." He says saving lives is enough reason to risk his, and they know it. With that, he picks up his little crate. Maggie stands between him and the door, but ends up opening it for him and closing it behind him. That's all well and good, but isn't there someone already inside there who might be feeling well enough to, you know, serve tea?
Maggie and Beth have another conversation through the closed door while Beth holds Judith. Beth tells Maggie that Hershel left, which Maggie already knows. Beth guesses where Hershel has gone; "Dr. S is sick and we all got jobs to do." "We'll deal with it, right?" Maggie says. Beth repeats that they don't get to get upset, but she's looking like she' having trouble taking her own advice. For once.
Rick is checking out the scene of the murder, or at least the burning part of the murder. The blood's since been cleaned off the ground and now there are just the charcoal marks where the bodies were dragged back out of the yard. Rick checks out the bloody hand print on the edge of the door, crouching down and putting his own hand over it to compare size and position. Yeah, I though this seemed like something Carl might do too.
The "bird" Carol referred to earlier must have been the loud, squeaky assortment of pole-mounted bicycle wheels now making a racket just inside the fence and attracting the nearest walkers to it. That's so Carol can be out on the little footbridge just outside the outer fence -- the one where Rick hallucinated Lori last season -- and haul the thick hose out of the creek. Sure enough, the nozzle is clogged with mud and is going to take some clearing. Meanwhile, Rick comes out of the building and takes in the scene: the "bird" doing its thing, not nearly far enough away from Carol, who is being approached by walkers from the woods behind her as she's banging the fouled hose against the edge of the bridge with increasing carelessness and volume. Cursing angrily, Rick breaks into a run as the zombies start paying attention to Carol's growing racket. "Shit," she says.
Rick yells at her to run as he sprints for the place where the fence is held shut by crowbars, and starts working at the opening. Carol finally throws the hose back into the creek and, before getting trapped in the bridge, kick a zombie off it and then sinks a mini-scythe into the skull of another. But the blade gets stuck, so she's left there trying to get it free while walkers close in. Rick comes to the rescue, luckily for Carol an excellent shot even with his uninjured left hand, as she's forced to abandon her weapon. With the help of her backup knife, however, she and Rick get safely back inside the fence. "Piece of cake," she pants. Rick, unamused, reminds her, "We decided to do that tomorrow." She says, "We don't know if we get a tomorrow." Yeah especially if it takes as little work to open and close that rip in the fence we just saw. If Rick can open it in seconds, why can't determined walkers open it in the months they've had?
Daryl drives the away team (Michonne in the shotgun seat, Bob and Tyreese in the back) in Zach's Mustang down one of this show's endless abandoned two-lane roads. I hate to say it, but unless the black folks in this car beat their usual odds for survival in horror movies, Daryl is going to end up very lonely. He tells Michonne that he gets that she wasn't running off. "The thing is, that trail went cold. If it was any different, I'd be right out there with you." Michonne just looks at him. You know, I don't know why Michonne has a bigger hard-on for the Governor than Daryl does. Unlike Daryl, she at least got a piece of the guy, plus the Governor zombified Daryl's brother. So it seems a little lopsided to me. Whatever the case, Daryl flips on the radio and asks for a CD from the glove box, but before they pop it in, they hear a voice coming over the airwaves. It's not clear what it's saying, but while Daryl fiddles with the dial, the closed captioning at least picks up snippets like "find sanctuary…determined to survive…keep alive." (The closed captioning hears better than I do, which I suppose is its job after all).
While everyone's preoccupied with that, Daryl suddenly crashes into a walker on the road, then wrestles with the wheel as he hits another and another in a kind of reverse slalom. And after bouncing those off the grille, he comes to a stop – because a herd of hundreds if not thousands blocks the road ahead of them, stretching in an unbroken mass to the base of a distant hill that has a building sitting on top of it. Presumably that's the veterinary college, but our heroes aren't getting to it without a helicopter. The zombies quickly surround the car. Daryl throws it into reverse and mows down a few with the back bumper, but they soon pile up under the rear tires and Daryl finds himself literally spinning his wheels, sending up a fantail of dark blood. What they need right now is a Minnesotan who knows how to get a car free of a snowdrift, which makes this the first scenario I've ever seen on this show in which I would actually have a useful skill. But since I'm not there to save them, there's nothing for it but to abandon the car and make a run for it to the woods.
Michonne pops out of the shotgun door, katana flashing, while Daryl and his very busy crossbow exit through the sunroof. Bob moves to follow, drawing his gun. The actor playing Bob has terrible aim, but luckily for the character, the squibs on the heads of the zombies near him go off anyway when he pulls the trigger. At least he's out of the car, thought, unlike Tyreese, who just sits there pouting while the other three fight their way in the direction of the woods. Bob screams Tyreese's name until finally, abruptly, Tyreese gets out of the car, swinging his giant framing hammer in every direction and splitting the skulls of the increasingly numerous zombies surrounding him. The other three are mostly clear now, and with the mob trapping Tyreese, they see no choice but to leave him behind. Well, three survivors out of four isn't bad after a clusterfuck like that.
We rejoin them deeper in the woods after the ads, still encountering zombies that need dispatching. Michonne continues to slice heads, but Daryl has to be running low on arrows and Bob is now reduced to pistol-whipping the critters to the ground. They run through a clearing and pause to turn back to kill a couple of zombies that seem to be following them. But before Daryl looses the bolt, Tyreese brains one of them from behind, having survived being swarmed after all. He looks pretty worn out, though. Without checking to see if he's bitten or scratched, the others drag him to his feet and into a run, away from the growing crowd of beasties now following them.
With a bandanna around his face, Hershel pours a cup of tea for Dr. S and bids him drink. Dr. S, weakly says that Hershel shouldn't be in there. "Tell me you wouldn't be," Hershel dares him. Instead. Dr. S .has a coughing fit that ends up spattering his bloody phlegm all over the uncovered part of Hershel's face. Jeez, cover your mouth, dude, were you raised in a barn? While Dr. S. stares, not even bothering to apologize, Hershel calmly removes the cloth and wipes the blood from his face, then repeats, "If you weren't in here already, you'd be in here." Well, I suppose Hershel took that pretty well. But come on, he was already exposed as soon as he walked into D block last week, wasn't he? Again, these are the most half-assed and arbitrary quarantine procedures I've ever seen. More like a pint-tine.
Hershel's stop is Glenn, who lies that he's fine but can't manage to get up. Hershel tells him to keep a cloth on his forehead, and Glenn complains that "after everything, we just get taken out by a glorified cold." Probably not, but I'm sure it’ll keep thinning out the extras considerably. Hershel tell him not to think that way. "You can believe somehow. We all have jobs here. That one's yours." Super-important, too.
Outside, Rick stops Carol while she's carrying water and says, "That was a stupid thing you did. Going out there like that." It wasn't the only stupid thing she did, though, as we're about to find out. Carol doesn't argue, and Rick comes up to her remarking on how much she does and sacrifices for everyone. "Is there anything you wouldn't do for the people here?" he asks pointedly. Carol, who must know what he's really asking, simply says no. She starts to continue on her way, but Columbo-like, Rick has just one more question: "Did you kill Karen and David?" "Yes," she answers, and goes on carrying water. Rick watches her go, probably wondering what the hell he's going to do now. And yes, I know I said it was Carl earlier, but really I was only off by one letter.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.