The Walking Dead S4E13 "Alone" 3/9/14

Yay!  Another episode bereft of Rick and Carl!

Bob.  Bob wanders, alone in the woods.  Damn, am I tired of our heroes walking through the woods. (I do like the folk/rock song that's playing though: Blackbird Song by Lee DeWyze.)  He avoids walkers, finds shelter where he can, drinks NyQuil because he's an alcoholic.  And then, one day, Daryl and Glen find him and, after he answers their three questions (how many walkers have you killed, how many people have you killed and why), he gladly goes with them back to the prison.  Flashback, you see.  Bob doesn't like to be alone.

Bob, Maggie, Sasha.  After the commercial, Bob, Maggie and Sasha defend themselves back-to-back-to-back against a small herd of walkers in a thick fog.  Fog is tough, because the humans need to see what's coming.  They manage to fend the zombies off, but it's a close call and Sasha has to use a couple of their few remaining bullets.  After the melee, Maggie is dispirited to find that their compass got broken.  Bob says they'll be fine, they'll stick to the plan (which is trying to find Glen still, I guess).  After some walking, they find some train tracks and one of those Terminus: Sanctuary signs.  Maggie decides that that's where Glen would be headed so they should go there.  Sasha is reluctant, noting how far away it is.  Maggie and Bob gang up on her, gently, and Bob says that they cannot split up.  They start following the tracks towards Terminus.

Daryl and Beth.  Daryl is teaching Beth how to track and how to shoot the crossbow.  She gets sassy, saying that pretty soon she won't need him at all,  "Yeah, keep on trackin'," he says.  They come upon their quarry: a zombie carrying a gun.  Beth approaches, ready to shot but steps in an animal trap.  Daryl dispatches the walker and frees Beth; her ankle is sprained but not broken, luckily.  She struggles to walk and Daryl volunteers to give her a piggyback.  On the far side of a cemetery, they see a big white house.  As they head there, through the headstones, Beth sees one - Beloved Father - and pauses.  Daryl yanks up some flowers and places them on the headstone; Beth reaches out and holds his hand.

When they get to the house, it is immaculate, clean and filled with antiques - obviously recently cared for by someone.  They search the place, however, and find no one living: there's a prepared corpse in a casket in the living room and a couple more down cellar - this is, at least partially, a funeral home.  Beth thinks it's nice, that someone wanted to give these poor dead folks a decent burial.  Daryl thinks about it, and wraps her ankle.

Bob, Maggie and Sasha.  While Maggie gathers more firewood, Bob and Sasha hang back at their makeshift camp and talk.  Sasha wants to stop wandering.  She thinks Glen is dead and that it's pointless to chase him.  They should find a town with tall buildings to set up in and just survive.  Bob just wants them to all stick together.  In the morning, they find a message Maggie wrote in the dirt before taking off: DON'T RISK YOUR LIVES FOR ME.  Bob insists that they track her down, knowing that on her own, she's at great risk.  Meanwhile, out on the tracks, Maggie finds another Terminus: Sanctuary sign.  She starts to scratch a message next to it with her knife, then hears an approaching zombie and gets a better idea.  She quickly puts down the walker and cuts into its guts, thrusting her bare hand inside.

Daryl and Beth.  As they explore the house, Daryl and Beth find a treasure trove in the kitchen.  "Peanut butter and jelly, diet cola and pigs' feet.  That's a white trash brunch right there," declares Daryl.  Beth starts grabbing cans of food but Daryl stops her, saying that none of this stuff is dusty.  It must be someone's recent stash, so they'll just take some of it.  "And those pig's feet are mine," he says.  Later, Beth finds a piano and sings a little.  Daryl finishes locking up the house and jumps into the casket (the dead guy having been evicted to somewhere else).  After declaring it the most comfortable bed he's had in years, he asks her to keep playing and singing.  DARYL LIKES BETH.  That heart-to-heart she forced him into last episode has softened up our favorite redneck badass.

Bob and Sasha.  Walking on the railroad tracks and talking.  Bob's soooooo glad not to be alone.  They come upon that Terminus sign and see that Maggie has written "Glen, go to Terminus, Maggie" in the walker's blood.  Blah blah blah.  More talking when they bunk down in a derelict barn at night.  Sasha wants to stop wandering; Bob wants to find Maggie.

Daryl and Beth.  At breakfast the next morning, they hear a noise outside but it's just a stray one-eyed dog.  Daryl tries to get him to come inside but the dog runs off.  Beth hopes the dog will come back around.  Later that day, Beth writes a thank you note to the folks who had been living in the funeral home.  Daryl suggests that maybe the two of them don't move on, maybe they should stay here a while and if the folks come back, they can try to make it work.  Beth's all, so you do think there are still good people in the world - what changed your mind?  Daryl, with sidelong looks, mumbles: You know.  Beth finally figures it out.  The awkwardness is broken when they hear the dog outside again.  Daryl goes to let him in but it's a huge crush of zombies bursting into the house.  Daryl staggers backwards, shouting for Beth to grab her stuff and meet him out on the road.  He leads the zombies down into the mortuary - christ, there's like twelve of them after him - and narrowly manages to get away from them, dropping quite a few.  When he gets out to the road, he sees Beth's bag, its contents spilled onto the tarmac.  A big black car peels out and drives away into the night.  "BETH!" Daryl screams, futilely chasing after the speeding car on foot.  Come morning, he is still chasing down the road, staggering, running when he can, following the tire tracks in the mud and the leaves.  Then he comes to a crossroads.  He drops his crossbow and drops to his knees.  She's lost.

Bob and Sasha.  Still walking and talking.  They keep finding Maggie's bloody signs for Glen.  When they come to a small town, there's a brick warehouse near the tracks.  Sasha tries again to talk Bob into stopping and making a go of it here.  Bob's like, no, Maggie is out there alone.  Sasha's like, well, I'm staying here and Bob keeps going, chasing Maggie down the tracks.  (So, he doesn't want Maggie to be alone but he's okay with Sasha doing it?  Your logic does not resemble Earth logic, Bob.)  Sasha goes into the warehouse which, at first glance anyway, seems clean of zombies.  She nearly starts crying but wrestles it down.  When she looks out the window, there are several dead zombies lying by an ice cream truck.  She accidentally knocks the window out of its frame; when it crashes to the ground, one of the corpses pops up: it's Maggie, who is alive and was hiding in plain sight.  A bunch of walkers show up, drawn by the crash, and Sasha runs downstairs to help Maggie put them down.  After the battle - Maggie uses an uprooted street sign as an effective improvised weapon - Maggie asks for Sasha's help in finding Glen. Sasha admits that she's scared to go to Terminus, fearing that she won't find Tyrese there, but agrees to help.  They head off down the tracks, chasing Bob.

Daryl.  After some time, a group of badasses walks up and surrounds Daryl.  It's the biker group (sans motorcycles) that Rick dealt with a couple of episodes ago.  The leader, introducing himself as "Joe," recognizes Daryl as a fellow badass and invites him to join up.  Daryl warily agrees, knowing that he's too vulnerable alone.  I can't see this association ending well.

Maggie and Sasha and Bob.  The girls find Bob and give him big hugs as he grins widely.  They continue down the tracks towards Terminus.

Glen.  Glen, on the tracks himself, finds one of Maggie's signs.

Man, I sure do like that song, even if it is by a friggin' American Idol winner.

Previously on The Walking Dead / next time on The Walking Dead