The Walking Dead S4 Ep 14: The Grove

~~~SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS~~~Sorry this is a day late. I was out of town, couldn't do it.  Anyway.So. This episode. What can I say? There can be some recap, I suppose, but in the end... Lizzie did it. Lizzie did it, Lizzie killed it, Lizzie fed it.  And then...OK, a quick summary. Carol, Tyreese and the girls (Lizzie, Mika, and baby Judith) were walking through the woods when they came to a cleared grove and a house/situation that seemed almost too good to be true. A secured property, lots of workable farmland, plenty of fresh meat--like venison--that walks itself onto the property, and a shit-ton of fertile and productive pecan trees. What could be better? Why NOT take a load off, set a spell, and actually really really have your own postmodern, post-apocalypse version of The Brady Bunch?But of course, in the "too good to be true" vein...it doesn't last. This episode ties up a lot of loose ends before we go into the final two episodes of the season, and Lizzie seems to be dangling most of the ends. It boils down to this: she is organically broken and at her core doesn't seem to understand that zombies do not = an altered but nonetheless viable form of life (though she comprehends that they're dangerous and does things to protect people from them...usually, sort of...when appropriate).So Lizzie's "they're our friends" trope is somewhat selective, and I maintain that in a non-zombie world she would be a budding serial killer. This episode confirms, first by action then by conversation, that she was indeed the one feeding the zombies at the prison (called it!); we even get to see her feed a trapped zombie in this episode, ew.And she was the one doing rat dissections in the basement of the prison, though that's no surprise considering her assault on a bunch of bunnies while chilling out around a campfire one evening.She does, indeed, play keep-away from a zombie, and then flips out when Carol comes running out to kill it (called it!).Then Carol and Tyreese took off into the woods to gather firewood and check their perimeter and make sure they have a safe, fairly secure place to live, for the time being.  Tyreese took the opportunity to mope and get all, "I'm haunted by dreams of my one true love." I love the look on Carol's face as she's like, OK fine, Heathcliff, but can we gather some firewood?During this downtime from their subsistence-living, hunter-gathering, hiding in shadows and waiting for threats to pass, Lizzie--who was crazy, operating under her own agenda, alone with two kids smaller than her, and armed with a really sharp hunting knife--takes the opportunity to murder her sister, so she can prove that when zombies return they really just want to be our BFFs.Carol realized at this moment that Lizzie couldn't ever...ever...be trusted with people. With anyone, really, and while it's obvious that baby Judith would be Target Numero Uno now that Mika was gone, it would just be a matter of time before she moved up to bigger game. Like Tyreese. Or her. Or anyone she wanted to "prove" something to. Rut-ro! So, in the interests of not harboring an adolescent sociopath who was only going to get bigger and more insane because they live in a crazy world, Carol gets Lizzie to go outside with her and then--because there really is no other choice--executes her.Don't. Mess. With Carol. Hershel always said, "Everybody has a job to do."  Apparently, Carol's job is cutting out threats to her group like they were tumors. In all fairness, someone has to do it.Whether the writers intend for this to be a side effect or not, one of the bits of underlying social commentary that comes up is: being angsty is a self-indulgent luxury, available to those who have some time on their hands. Now, I'm not saying that applies to Lizzie, because she was barking mad, poorly wired, her tether to reality snapped a long time before. But Tyreese...While they were still at the prison, Tyreese was absolutely vengeance-minded and eaten up by rage (Michonne even had a "I want to kill The Governor, who made me put down my zombified best friend, but that's not where my heart lives and dude, you've got to let it go" talk with him) since Karen died. And her loss--let's face it, writers, this was a bit of a biff on your part--wasn't that keenly felt by anyone except Tyreese, since the viewers barely knew her. When the prison went down and he had to re-focus his priorities, he seemed much less alternatively angry and/or glum. Now that he's got some time on his hands again and is in a place in which he feels relatively safe, he's back to mooning about Karen, and seems overly depressive and Edwardian-romantic-hero-self-indulgent. There's things to do. This is the zombie apocalypse. Take off your neck ruffle and get off your fainting couch and snap out of it.So the other loose end was Carol's confession to Tyreese that she was the one who killed Karen. He suspected Lizzie, who never admitted to killing Karen even though she 'fessed up about everything else that she did. But here he is, relaxed and in a safe little house and right away he's all, "Karen is still dead. And now I think Lizzie did it, because clearly she's been our under-the-radar resident psycho, and I need to blame someone." Carol could have let him carry that belief, but in the interests of a) moving forward and b) being fair to Lizzie's memory (because despite her willingness to be incredibly cold-blooded, Carol is fair), she spills to Tyreese about how she killed Karen, sliding a gun toward him so he can dish up justice how he sees fit.Now, this is after she's demonstrated her willingness to kill someone she loves in the interests of the Greater Good (an expression I hate, BTW, and I'm not really sure why), so he can't say that she's mean or crazed or thoughtless or spiteful. And, Tyreese was on board with Carol dropping the 11-year-old Lizzie, so if he can be OK with this then he can start to wrap his head around Carol's actions with Karen. And he forgives her, because what else is he supposed to do? He just OK'd an execution. Who's to say that Karen's death was any different, really?And so. There we are. They move on, two kids down and baby Judith strapped to a papoose on Tyreese's back.I'll say this: Carol's track record for child care is less than stellar. But she tries, she tries.Questions: There was a fire burning somewhere close by that was a significant plot point, creating completely horrifying crispy-fried zombies.There's speculation about what was burning. My guess: the town that Rick, Michonne and Carl fled from after the creepster gang invaded the house. Because the gang (that Daryl is now a part of, remember) is trying to flush out the people or person (Rick!) that killed their friend in the upstairs bathroom and got out of the house unnoticed. I'm sure they're thinking this person can't be far. That's gotta leave a scar if you pride yourself on being a gang of violent and implacable dicks, like these guys doThe other question I've seen asked around the interwebs: Why, exactly, did Rick banish Carol in the first place?  The short answer: Because he is afraid of her. Because she's willing to do the wet-work, and he knows that if she decides he is a poor leader or a danger to her group in any way, she'll take him down. He can't control her, and he knows it.#teamcarol #4eva!Next week: Daryl walks through the woods with the other bow-hunting guy from the murderous creepy gang. And everyone closes in on Terminus. Finally.And finally. Let the Brady Bunch sing you out with "It's a Sunshine Day".  Ev'rybody's smilin'![youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCCG7QkM_c]