Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) story this week gave a lot of insight to how she got to where she is now. The nightmare we saw gave insight to her family life (now we know who her first two pet walkers were), and it was extremely creepy. At first, the cut seemed like a flashback, but the off-putting suggestions during the scene (Michonne’s unsettling smile, the blink-and-their-arms-are-missing part) put a very sinister spin into Michonne’s mind. There’s also the implication that Michonne’s husband killed himself and their child to avoid being zombie-chow.
Michonne had the strongest segments, her struggles with memories and mentality at the forefront of her screen-time. At the beginning, finding Herschel’s head and having to… err… ‘dispense’ him properly, all the way up to the doldrums of blending in with a small walker horde, and being utterly shocked at discovering one that looked almost like her (I would kill my zombie clone too), we were given a great insight to a character who, before now, was very guarded on her past.
One of the only other prominent clues into Michonne’s past was how tender she was with baby Judith earlier this season. Looks like we’re going to get a lot deeper into her story in the next couple of episodes.
Rick waking up and not being a zombie was a give-in, however, grabbing Carl’s leg, playing into his heavy breathing, all worked very nicely. I think there’s something to be said about Rick’s slight coma this episode, as that was the basis for the very beginning of The Walking Dead. This may be a revival of the sheriff, and departure from the farmer, a welcome return for this season. Seeing Rick grow into something other than protector got a little dull over the course of just a few episodes.
“After” ended on a high-note, with Michonne finding Rick and Carl’s hideout after tracking their footprints. I’m curious as to whether they’ll switch to a different group of disbanded survivors next week, or have these three go on a search. My biggest gripe with this Robert Kirkman-penned episode was definitely Carl’s overall bitchiness. Without it, I would have rated this episode a little higher seeing how there’s no doubt it was a good start to the finish of season 4.
I’m so glad my Sunday night is going to be spent with The Walking Dead again.
