The Walking Dead: 30 Days Without an Accident (Season 4: Episode 1)

It seems the addition of the people from Woodbury helped turn the prison into a functioning community while we were away. In the first scene, Rick goes outside to tend to the gardening. Sure, there are moaning, hungry walkers on the other side of the fence but with a pair of earbuds and a good country song it’s basically another day on the farm. Except most gardens don’t grow guns.

Carl joins his dad at the makeshift pig pen, wondering why “Violet” is acting strangely. Rick scolds him for naming the pigs, reminding him they’re food, not pets. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with Violet. (Hello, ominous foreshadowing.)

Everybody loves Daryl, because in addition to being the strong, silent type he provides luxuries like deer meat. He even gets called Mr. Dixon by some kid with glasses.

The bad stuff is still going on outside the prison gates, as evidenced by the zombies forming dangerous little herds and pushing against the fences. They have people on fence duty, spearing walkers through the heads with pointy sticks, to reduce the numbers and thereby the threat of the walls tumbling down. Karen is moving down the line when Tyreese approaches her. He tells her he doesn’t want to do his turn on fence duty because he doesn’t like putting walkers down unless it’s face to face, during an adrenaline-fueled battle for survival. He says instead he’s going on a run with the others, to get supplies. She gives him an indulgent kiss.

Bob Stookey, a new guy, volunteers to go on the supply run, too. Sasha is openly critical of this plan, with good reason - the guy looks twitchy. She does give in, probably because you can never have enough help during an apocalypse.

Michonne comes riding back to the prison on a horse, which is just…I mean…THE HORSE. We all remember Rick’s horse, right? The memory of the zombies clamouring around it still keeps me up some nights. Horses do not do well on this show. Anyway, Michonne has been out looking for the governor and collecting comic books for Carl, but immediately agrees to help on the supply run. Carl seems pretty attached to her; she has to reassure him she’ll be back.

Hershel has a talk with Rick about carrying his gun while checking the snares outside the prison gates. (WHAT? I mean, why do they need to have this talk with Rick? Why wouldn’t he be carrying a gun on jaunts through zombie-infested forests?) He says The Council thinks it would be best, and Rick doesn’t argue.

While out checking snares, Rick encounters the charming human/walker hybrid pictured above. I really thought she was a walker, even when she started chattering about needing food and help and a place to stay, because LOOK AT HER. People outside the prison are not faring well. Rick hands her a package of meat but she pushes for him to let her and her husband join his camp, and despite all signs flashing neon about this woman being seriously mentally ill, Rick agrees to meet her husband. He says he has three questions to ask the husband first.

Meanwhile, Daryl and the supply crew are checking out the situation at the store. One of the younger kids - Zach - tries to guess what Daryl did for a living before the world ended. He guesses homicide cop, which Michonne thinks is hilarious. Daryl says he was, but the kid opts to keep guessing.

Once they all get inside to get the job done, Twitchy Bob (what did I tell you?) veers down the liquor aisle. Bob, it seems, is an alcoholic. He grabs a bottle and looks at it lovingly before smashing it back down on the shelf with enough force to cause the whole thing to come crashing down, as it wasn’t stable to begin with because of rot/neglect. He gets trapped underneath, and all the zombies milling around on the roof with the wrecked helicopter start shuffling toward the noise. GOOD WORK, BOB.

As Daryl and the crew try to free Bob’s foot, which is trapped under the weight of the fallen shelves, zombies begin to fall through the ceiling. Through the ceiling. Out of the sky, basically. One gets his intestines caught on the debris and dangles in the air, looking grotesque.

Rick and the very ill woman walk through the forest, what seems to be a VERY long distance to me, to greet her husband. They (she, mostly) have a philosophical discussion about having to do terrible things to survive, and whether or not you ever get to come back from them. Rick’s silence on the subject seems to indicate that he doesn’t think so. He does ask her what she’s had to do, and she gets all vague and nervous.

In the store, walkers are raining down and everyone is fighting to get the hell out of there. Zach helps Daryl free Twitchy Bob, and while Bob gets to safety Zach is grabbed and bitten on the leg, then falls and starts getting devoured. Daryl looks unhappy but of course there’s nothing they can do. As they flee, he gets surrounded by walkers and then barely rescued as the roof caves and the helicopter crashes down.

The woman and Rick arrive at her camp, and she gets emotional and falls to her knees to greet her husband, who seems not to be there. Just as Rick starts to scratch his head she turns and attacks with her knife because HER HUSBAND IS A WALKER AND NEEDS MEAT. She falls down after unsuccessfully trying to feed Rick to Mr. Walker, and starts crying and rambling on about things I don’t remember because GOOD LORD. Rick looks equal parts sympathetic and disturbed. She drives the knife through her own stomach before he can stop her, because she can’t survive without her husband and needs to be with him. As she dies, she asks Rick what his three questions were. He crouches beside her and tells her, how many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why? She asks him not to end her life properly, because she wants to be a walker like her husband. A lump under a blanket stirs as Rick leaves camp.

In the prison, Carol hosts story time for the kids. Carl lets the other kids think he’s too grown up for stories and doesn’t attend. In reality, Carol is teaching the kids how to arm and defend themselves. (I like Carol, she’s a practical woman.) The kid from before, with the glasses, complains he doesn’t feel good. Carol asks if he’s just going to quit because he doesn’t feel good in the middle of a zombie attack. He says he doesn’t want to vomit on anyone, kids move away, and Carol excuses him. She sees Carl hiding behind a bookcase, watching. She begs him not to tell Rick about it before he runs away.

Daryl goes to break the news of Zach’s demise to Beth - they had a romance in the works - and she accepts it with a look of unhappy resolve. When Daryl lingers, worried about her, she tells him she doesn’t cry anymore. She hugs him, and he hugs her, and I have the urge to remind Daryl that she’s got to be like sixteen and I know there’s no functioning government or anything but HI, cradle-robber.

The kid with the glasses stumbles - it’s really more appropriate to say he shuffles - out of bed and to the bathroom, looking dog sick. He does the one-dragging-leg thing the walkers do, and UH OH he turns on the shower because it’s clear he’s burning up and then drops like a stone. We see him on the shower floor, dead. He opens his eyes.

I’m curious about whether he was just really sick and died because of a lack of medical attention, which is likely, or if there’s something more sinister going on. Violet died, too. Next week should be exciting, either way.