The Walking Dead - Recap: Just Another Dead-Alive
Recap video and review of The Walking Dead - Season 4 Episode 11 - Claimed:
"Claimed" is yet another in a long line of ponderous hours for The Walking Dead, as the series returns to the slow burn storytelling of the midseason premiere. But this isn't to say that nothing of consequence happens. Quite the opposite, as it's the most consequential hour of the second half of Season 4 yet. From a pure character perspective, we get to understand how Michonne (Danai Gurira) has been shaped by having been a mother, and having lost her child. It's a loss reflected in how Carl (Chandler Riggs) mourns his baby sister, Judith. It's not exactly a perfect comparison, since Carl didn't bring Judith into the world literally (although he was with his mother when Judith was born), nor is Judith actually lost to him in the same way Andre is lost to Michonne. But these are two people who've experienced deep loss in a way that borders on unconquerable for them, as the grief weighs on everything they do. But "Claimed" is about much more than the ownership of your grief. It's about more literal claims to ownership, over your own life and your own choices.
Credit: AMC
With all that said, I admired the episode's choices more than I actually enjoyed the episode itself. This is mostly because many of the scenes felt any kind of narrative momentum, particularly those scenes with Carl and Michonne. When the two go on a supply run, we get a deeper level of insight into how Michonne is coping with the loss of Andre, and how Carl is dealing with what he believes to be the death of Judith. They put all of their pain into the hunt, and the business of survival. It isn't necessarily that they're more brutal now than they might otherwise have been, but they're far more pragmatic about survival, as their pain has made them all the more aware of just how quickly all could be lost. This is never more succinctly illustrated than in the horrifying scene in which Michonne stumbles upon the corpses of an entire family in the bedroom of a little girl. The family has committed suicide together in order to avoid the tragic business of the apocalypse, and while there's no guarantee that their lives wouldn't have ended in disaster had they chosen to live, it still plays as a horrific refutation of life, particularly to Michonne, who has made a livelihood out of soldiering on despite all she's lost. It's a solid scene, but it doesn't feel like it contributes to the rest of the episode in any substantial way, especially when the time could have been used to better serve different storylines.
Credit: AMC
For example, the storyline in which Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is trapped in the house upon the arrival of a group of sinister bandits. It's a terrifically tense sequence, and it's one of the few tension-filled sequences that I thought could have benefited from more protracted scenes of lurking around and just barely avoiding capture. You have the bandit leader killing one of his cohorts in order to use the bed Rick is hiding under, and the deadman and Rick make eye contact just before the end, in a powerful visual. From there, it's all about waiting for the leader to fall asleep so Rick can plan an escape. He's nearly caught by one of the ball-bouncing bandits, and even goes as far as to kill another to keep his movements secret. It all comes to a head when Rick makes it outside the house and needs to overcome one last hurdle before freedom in the form of a bandit lounging on the porch. Rick is about to go in, guns blazing, but he's ultimately rescued by the arrival of several walkers at the other side of the house. He takes the opportunity to escape with the just-arriving Carl and Michonne, and while it doesn't really have much of a thematic point, it's useful in driving Rick's group onto the next destination -- a community that claims welcome to all survivors, advertised on the side of a train -- since Lord only knows how long they would have stayed in that house otherwise. And I'm not sure the structure of focusing on all these disparate groups is entirely working for the show.
Credit: AMC
Take the business with Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Tara (Alanna Masterson) have basically been abducted by the three strangers that happened upon them last week: Sergeant Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos), and scientist Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt). Abraham is heading to Washington to take Eugene to meet with whatever higher-ups will see him, since Eugene apparently knows how the outbreak happened. Abraham views this as nothing less than a mission to save the world, which is why he becomes so agitated when Glenn wants to storm off and go back to the bus they yanked him away from in order to keep searching for Maggie (Lauren Cohan). Tara even supports him, siding with him against this group that isn't being very forthcoming with why, exactly, they need Glenn at all. Abraham tries to talk Glenn out of leaving by insisting the walkers will get him within the night, and he'll end up being "just another dead-alive," but it all rings a bit hollow. It just seemed stupid for Abraham to waste so much time trying to convince Glenn not to bail on their "time sensitive" mission when he could have just kept booking it for Washington. But then, I suppose if Glenn had opted to go with, Abraham would have been by the truck when the walkers came, meaning we wouldn't have been able to have Eugene firing wildly into the horde and accidentally puncturing their truck's gas tank in the process. Ultimately, Abraham and co. have to accompany Glenn and Tara back to the bus (a three-hour trip by car, considerably longer on foot) with the hopes they'll find another vehicle in the process. Yet this all could have been avoided if Abraham had been less severe in his conviction to force everyone to share his desire to save the world. For some, the world just doesn't matter if certain other people aren't in it.
Credit: AMC
"Claimed" was far from my favorite episode of this half-season, but it was the most substantial so far, as it feels like the stories are actually en route to converging. The quicker everyone gets back together, the better, since I'm not sure if the show can sustain the separate plot structure. This is an action-thriller and survival horror drama all rolled into one. It can't thrive as a travelogue.