TV REVIEW: FTN reviews The Walking Dead SO4EO2 Infected

WARNING…spoilers ahead.

Now this is more like it The Walking Dead! After last week’s lackluster episode, “Infected” kicks it up a notch as the community deals with a brand new unseen threat, swine flu. Living in such close quarters without the proper sterilization techniques is bound to wreak havoc, and wreak havoc it does as one person succumbs to the flu and dies, and we all know what happens when someone dies.

After dealing with the Governor all last season we’ve almost forgotten just how dangerous the walkers can be, and in all fairness, dealing with them after dealing with people isn’t as tough, but man, the walker outbreak in the prison was quite the scene. The chaos and panic created from the attack was utterly terrifying. Being the father of a two year old son, the part with the little boy sitting there crying really hit home with me as I panicked internally wondering how I would take care of him in a world like that.

Once everything got sorted out it was time to grieve and clean up. The mother carrying the small child wrapped in the sheet and then the man whom Carol tried to help again just hit me in the gut. In the comics it’s commonplace for someone to inherit the kids of a fallen friend, for instance Maggie and Glenn become Sophia’s parents after Carol’s comic book death, and we see that here as Carol now has two little girls to look after. Their father asking Carol to look after them and the subsequent scene of the eldest daughter thinking she has what it takes to brain her dead father were super emotional haymakers that landed flush on my jaw. I almost broke out in some tears, almost.

After all that Rick and company then had to deal with the walker build up at the fence which is threatening to take down the outer fence. The way Rick handled this problem was also another emotional moment. Farmer Rick loved those pigs and his new quiet life. With every pig he had to sacrifice he came closer and closer to reverting to back to Ricktator, and the way he slumped over in the trailer of the truck when all was said and done was a perfect note to end that scene. He wasn’t entirely sad for those pigs, he was sad for the loss of the new life he was trying to build. The whole moment is then capped off with Rick returning Carl’s gun and Rick once again donning the famous revolver and holster. Ladies and gentlemen, Ricktator is back. Not saying that he’s going to go all leader on everybody’s ass, just that the man who is the survivor is back.

It also seems that we are far from done with human enemies, as it seems we now have one running loose in the prison. The walker build up at the fence was spurred on by a hidden someone feeding them rats, and now we have a horrid attack on two community members who may have fallen ill with the swine flu that claimed Patrick’s life. It will be interesting to see how this situation gets handled, as I’m sure paranoia will start to break out in the prison. Fingers will be pointed, trusts will be broken, and I am hoping that it all leads to one of those moments that alter life for everybody going forward.

For everything this episode did get right though, I really didn’t like seeing Michonne so weak and in despair. She can get injured, but all the self-doubt and worry, that’s not Michonne’s character at all and it wasn’t becoming of her in the least bit. Michonne is a bad assed killer, she wants a normal life, she strives for a normal life, but her being this weak, especially with her hunt for the Governor still on, was just completely out of place.

Overall this was a great way to make up for the slowness of last week’s episode and I am hoping the show runners can keep delivering this pace every week, or at least as much as the story will allow. Darryl also has a good scene with Rick where he lifts Rick’s confidence in himself back up as I think Darryl understands that Farmer Rick isn’t what the prison needs. However, I also loved how Darryl acknowledged that Rick did deserve that time off. And I’m so glad that Carl has his gun back, I’m hoping the hat returns too. Carl is not a normal kid and this is not a normal world and my fear was that by forcing Carl to be a normal kid you might be sentencing him, or someone close to him, to death. Now I am so looking forward for to the rest of the season.

4.5 out of 5 nerds