The Walking Dead - Recap: Come Together

Recap video and review of The Walking Dead - Season 4 Episode 13 - Alone:

One of the things we haven't seen all that often in this walker apocalypse is loneliness. I'm talking true solitude, in which someone only has himself on which to rely. We got some of that in the two-parter about The Governor, and at the start of the series when Rick was pretty much a man trying to piece together what the hell happened all by his lonesome. But "Alone" takes the world of The Walking Dead, and shows just how hard it is to survive in that world without other people. I didn't love "Alone," but it still feels like we're making incremental progress towards the climactic moment in which each of these disparate story threads meet. Of course, for the same reasons I wouldn't want to knock a show for how its stories might go, I don't want to give it a pass by that same criteria. Whether The Walking Dead Season 4 proves to be a success in its own right, or simply one long prologue to Season 5, will depend on how the next three episodes play out. But I have more confidence after this episode than I did after last week's hit-or-miss hour.

Credit: AMC

Much like last week, the majority of the episode's narrative weight is in the subtext. After teaching Beth (Emily Kinney) how to track, Daryl (Norman Reedus) stumbles across a funeral home, and together, they set up a threadbare, down-home life. It's not going to last, and we know it's not going to last, but this is the more bucolic version of last week's glimpse into a domestic living arrangement for these two, and in this sense, it's an interesting departure from the usual doom-and-gloom. Beth discovers some bodies in the funeral home that have been embalmed and dressed for burial, and infers that the people who made these arrangements must have cared, and while Daryl seems to reject the notion out-of-hand, there's a certain beauty in the idea that dignity can still be preserved even after civilization has gone to pieces. Sure, these people are dead, but they seem almost peaceful. In fact, one of the bodies, in his business suit and tie, looks more like a vibrant, living representation of humanity than Daryl does, in his bedraggled, weathered duds. There's an idea here that the business of survival, the grind of living itself, takes its toll to the point where people gradually become indistinguishable from the walkers they're trying to overcome. What separates people from walkers, then, is what they choose to do with their lives beyond simply surviving from one day to the next. And it's in this moment where the details become all the more vital.

In finding this domestic retreat from walkers, Daryl and Beth choose to defend it by arranging a sort of front-door alarm consisting of cans meant to alert them to the presence of walkers. This allows them the freedom to actually enjoy themselves a bit. Not only do they feed themselves ("Peanut butter and jelly, diet soda, and pig’s feet. That’s a white trash brunch right there."), they also enjoy a bit of music, as Beth finds a piano and sings a lovely cover of "Be Good" by Waxahatchee. It's so lovely, in fact, that Daryl reverses his opinion on the notion of Beth singing, telling her that she's the closest thing they have to a jukebox in this world. He chills out in a coffin, of all things (as if we needed any more images fraught with symbolism), and it seems as if they're settling in for the long haul. This picture of domesticity is bolstered by the appearance of a dog at the front door -- a dog that immediately runs off in fear, as if to suggest that this domestic life for which Daryl is reaching isn't attainable. Okay, that's probably a bit of a reach, but that doesn't change the fact that the simple life quickly dissolves once a horde of walkers appears at the front door. The resulting sequence is one of the best since the midseason return, as Daryl defends himself against the walkers using the gurneys to herd the walkers, and embalming syringes to finish them off. All the while, it's so dark that it's hard to tell the difference between a walker and a possible human, such as Beth.

This becomes important later, as Daryl escapes the outbreak and searches for Beth, finding only walkers around every corner. By the time he successfully makes it outside, a car is seen speeding off -- presumably with Beth inside. Beth has presumably been abducted, and there is little else for Daryl to do but give chase. He walks through the night and into the next day, following the tracks and trying to catch up. But all he manages to do is find himself surrounded by a sinister gang led by Joe (Jeff Kober), a guy that could be a new Merle surrogate for Daryl to follow. Yet even while Daryl has been a part of groups before, he's always come across as a lone wolf within a herd of sheep. He's a protector, a man whose talent for survival is unparalleled. Yet he's not someone who really blends into a group. Within his own mind, it's hard to imagine that Daryl doesn't see himself as alone, especially now that everyone he cared about is gone. This group might not be a collection of the most moral people in the world, but these are people whose blunt ways of living seem much more in line with who Daryl is -- or, at the very least, who he used to be. It should be interesting to see if, or how, the character of Daryl changes once his "lone wolf" aspect is removed, and he's integrated into a group from which he doesn't really stand out any more than anyone else.

Yet Daryl's storyline is just a small part of this week's episode. If there's a real A-story, it's in the background and development of Bob (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.). In the flashback to his days prior to meeting Daryl and Glenn (Steven Yeun), we see the depths of Bob's solitude. His life was not only draining from a survivalist standpoint, but also from an emotional standpoint as well. Camping out on top of a trailer is a nice way to avoid walkers, but it's not the best way to meet other people. I'll admit that when the flashback kicked off the episode, I wasn't particularly certain that the episode would prove there to be much point to it, since flashbacks don't always end up holding significance to the episode in which we first see them. Yet I was happily wrong this time. Bob's flashback illustrates just why he tries so hard to keep his trio together, as Maggie (Lauren Cohan) decides to go off on her own to find Glenn, leaving just himself and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). The episode splits, in some respects, by showing us both Maggie's solitude, and her ongoing pursuit by Bob and Sasha. For Maggie, it's a bloodbath, as she bludgeons a walker and cuts the corpse open in order to make ink to write a note to Glenn: directions to meet her at a "terminus" several miles away. Bob and Sasha follow these directions, and along the way, confront lingering issues existing between them. Bob has been a man who's been a long time removed from having anyone (or anything) to fight for, and yet he's crafted a makeshift family out of Maggie and Sasha. Thus, it's no real surprise when he makes a move on Sasha ("I'm going to try something here," he says, before kissing her). In that moment, it's hard to tell whether she's disapproving of the kiss, or trying to hash out her feelings, but Bob's decision is all the same: he's going to soldier on by himself in order to find Maggie and reunite the group, against Sasha's suggestion that they find a building, get on some higher ground, and just hunker down.

Credit: AMC

Of course, Bob ends up coming nowhere near finding Maggie. Instead, it's Sasha who spots her hiding among a group of fallen walkers from atop the empty building in which she hides out. This leads to a damn fine sequence in which Maggie and Sasha bludgeon their way through a horde of walkers, with Sasha using a plank and Maggie skillfully wielding a road sign to maximum walker-bashing effect. There's a lot to be said for how the show has deployed its life-or-death setpieces this season, as many of these action sequences have been few and far between for each set of characters. The danger is still there, to be sure. But it's not as excessive as it's been in seasons past, and that makes it far more tension-filled and visceral when these sequences occur. Moreover, the reduced frequency of such sequences allows the action to be tied more into the theme of the narrative: because the theme seems to center on Bob's perpetual solitude, we fear for Maggie and Sasha, believing that one or both is destined to die, returning Bob to his lonely, hopeless existence. But that crisis is averted, as Maggie and Sasha are able to slay all the walkers, with Maggie asking for Sasha's help in her search for Glenn, arguing that they need each other to survive. It's not so much refuting the idea of loneliness as it is embracing the need for others -- not just to survive, but to provide a reason for living. Sasha and Maggie catch up to Bob and reunite their rag-tag family unit, and this is yet another week in which the climax is more hopeful than despairing, particularly once we see that Glenn is on his way to the Terminus, and a possible reunion with Maggie.

"Alone" is an episode that suggests we're headed towards the reunion of the ensemble, although The Walking Dead is taking its sweet time in getting there. These isolated story approaches don't always work, but I think it mostly got the job done this week, thanks to a strong unifying theme around which the narrative could be organized.