The Walking Dead - Isolation

*** / ****
I’m the first to admit that when The Walking Dead isn’t at its best, it can be an endurance test. But the beginning of the fourth season episode (the third), Isolation, is to me damn good television. Tyreece is enraged at what someone did to Karen and David, killing them, dragging their bodies outside the prison, and lighting the corpses on fire. As they were frying to ash, the smoke sent off from the bodies, Tyreece tells Rick, Daryl, and Carol that he could smell them. And this sends Tyreece into a fury. Rick and Daryl both are seen as punching bags to pummel. Rick and Daryl both try to calm him down, talking to him about their own loss and how they will figure out who is responsible. That doesn’t seem to be enough as Tyreece is seeing blood red and wants to hurt somebody. So Rick, not in the mood for anyone to take a swing at him, just unloads on Tyreece before coming to his own senses. The fucking flu and the zombies just emerging in this flesh-hungry collective outside the gates gradually taking more and more from the community has exhausted and emotionally drained those still living. It is causing dissention in the ranks, stress, sorrow, and hopelessness. These folks are coming apart. That is the point. In just a few, the potential haven of the correctional facility as a means to rebuild and begin anew with a clean slate has been rent in two: keep out the zombies, a new adversary emerges. That visual from a distance of Glenn and others digging graves, burying more flu-taken dead, is quite potent: too many graves dug and bodies buried.  

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Hershel gets to go out of the prison for some elderberries with Carl, encountering a rotting zombie with no lower half rested against a tree and another female zombie dragging a bear trap on her leg. He wants to help those sick and needing some resistance against the flu. It might not stop the flu but at least Hershel will use his knowledge of natural remedies to be of some aid to those in desperate need of it. It is Hershel who mentions the veterinary college that might have some medicinal aids to possibly stop the flu. And while the flu has been ravaging the prison and severely diminished what appeared to be a community on the verge of thriving, soon even the main cast is unable to remain immune. Of course, those in Creative for the show aren’t about to bump them off, but Hershel serves to assist (and eventually must replace due to the flu) Dr. S when he is no longer physically able to. Hershel has to convince Maggie and Rick that his services are needed although in going into the infected blocks his own health is in jeopardy. Scott Wilson is given the dramatic dialogue he must get over and because he’s such a solid actor it is a bit easier to swallow even if it is meant for the stage than during a life-and-death struggle at a correctional facility. Because Scott can give the dialogue a brevity through how he delivers it, his character looking at the reality of their situation and embracing sacrifice if it comes to that. If anything, Hershel is secure in what is needed and is willing to risk exposure if he can help others. Rick and Maggie eventually just accept that Hershel understands what he possibly faces. I really like Hershel’s visit to Dr. S, deep in the block, when he coughs up blood and clearly realizes his days are numbered (if not hours are left for him). Hershel’s respect for Dr. S is so evident and their conversation, albeit somber, reminds us of just how dire and unfortunate the flu epidemic is. I actually enjoyed the brief time Hershel has with Carl, too. Carl is left in quarantine by his father to look after the other kids and is told by Hershel to keep a distance. Carl contemplates telling Rick but decides instead to go out with Hershel to the woods to gather up the elderberries. Instead of wasting ammunition, Hershel convinces Carl to save firing on two zombies who really do not pose a threat. I remain amused at the convenience of zombies in numbers on the show. When the zombies need to be en masse, you see them congregating aplenty surrounding Daryl’s car as Michonne, Tyreece, and Bob realize that going to the vet college by road might not work—or Carol needing to unclog the hose so water can flow more freely—yet if Hershel and Carl need to go into the woods by themselves, a couple meaningless ghouls offer no threat whatsoever. It is all part of the storytelling that we come to just expect on The Walking Dead.

Isolation, Episode 3 of the Fourth Season.
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The splintering of characters allows for time away from the prison so the show didn't become too claustrophobic. Daryl, Michonne, Ty, and Bob go in search of medicinal supplies needed for the ongoing flu crisis while Rick, Carol, and Hershel try to hang on at the prison. Maggie contends with Glenn's development of the flu while Beth watches the baby and tries to bury her tears behind a mask of indifference. Zombies parade around Zach's car, driven by Daryl, as Ty holds interest in the undead horse allowing them to flee into the woods. Rick, meanwhile, realizes Carol killed Karen and David, confirmation from her at the end concluding that this could be a problem down the road. Or perhaps it won't be: it's The Walking Dead after all.