The Walking Dead - Recap: The Carol-Daryl Power Hour

The action of the episode centered on Carol and Daryl looking for Beth by tailing the car with the white crosses on the back, which is the same emblem that was on the back of the car that took Beth. Towards the end of the episode, Daryl and Carol discover that the emblem references Grady Memorial Hospital, and with that, they have a location to aim towards. But it's a long time in getting there. "Consumed" fills its spaces with little moments that provide insight into who Carol was, and who she's become. Flashbacks interspersed throughout the episode show what Carol was up to when Rick sent her away, or when she discovered the prison in flames, and even farther back, to when she burned the bodies of Karen and David, the act which got her banished by Rick in the first place. In each instance, Carol is someone heading towards a pillar of smoke, which tells us that Carol has become someone who heads towards danger. Recalling Carol's past as the victim of an abusive marriage, the episode illustrates how that informs who she's become: Carol spent so long "doing nothing" (in her words) about her horrible circumstances, that she now exercises every opportunity to affect change in her world, and in the world of others. When she killed Karen and David at the prison, she was making a choice for the greater good of the group. When she attacked Terminus, she was looking out for the people she loved. And when she convinces Daryl to spare Noah (Tyler James Williams) from an oncoming walker, she's trying to help Daryl retain some semblance of humanity. It's a dog-eat-dog world as it is. But Noah robbing them at gunpoint and stealing their weapons doesn't justify being as cold-hearted as Carol's late husband.

Credit: AMC

And that's a decent story to tell, although there was enough padding in the early stages of the episode that I found myself wondering if the show had enough material to sustain it. I mean, I liked the character moments, and felt it really fleshed Carol out as a character. But...

1) I think she's fairly well-developed as is.
2) Even if she isn't, I don't think there needed to be a full episode of this development, since so much of what changed her can be inferred through her actions.
3) I get the thematic significance of the flashbacks, but it feels like this show is obsessed with accounting for every single minute a given person spends outside the group.

Do we really need to see what Carol was up to after getting banished by Rick? We can infer that she hardened in the absence of the group. Show her development through her actions in the present. You don't have to actually show us what she was up to, or get down to the brass tacks of spending another five silent minutes showing us how someone survives in a world with minimal supplies. I like those survivalist scenes, generally, but usually there's enough story around it that it doesn't feel like the episode is stalling for time. Yet that's what this felt like, a tactic to stall until we got to the end of the episode, at which point, things could actually start happening. I'm not entirely sure it matters how Carol got to the hospital, other than to make sure the audience knows this wasn't some plan to fake being injured to get inside. Turns out, Carol gets hit by a car being driven by the Grady Memorial cops. They immediately put her on a gurney and take her away, as a horrified Daryl is restrained by Noah, both of them concealed in the shadows. Noah smartly tells Daryl that they can get both Carol and Beth back if they bide their time. Attacking now would mean killing both cops, and being unable to treat Carol's injuries using Grady Memorial's machinery/supplies/doctors.

Credit: AMC

It's a moment that leads to one of the more badass line deliveries of the episode. In telling Daryl what they'd have to do to rescue Carol and Beth, Noah warns him about the Grady Memorial psychos. "They got guns...people," he says. To which Daryl flatly responds, "Yeah...so do we." And just like that, we know what's coming. Daryl and Noah commandeer a truck to return to the church, inform Rick and co. about what's happened, and lead an assault on Grady Memorial Hospital. And if it goes anything like how Terminus went, the fine folks at the hospital haven't got a prayer. It's a moment that almost makes up for the deliberate pace of the forty minutes preceding it, although those minutes do have some insightful moments that allow us to better understand these characters.

Credit: AMC

While initially tailing the Grady Memorial vehicle, Carol leads Daryl to a shelter for victims of abuse. Late in the night, they hear a sound and discover what looks to be a mother walker with a little girl walker on the other side of the door. Carol takes out the knife to kill them, but Daryl sternly insists that she doesn't have to. In essence, the walkers are a grim parallel of Carol and Sophia, and her desire to do right by them speaks to the ongoing trauma Carol is still processing in the wake of Sophia's loss. The next morning, when Carol sees that Daryl has put them out of their misery, and is burning the bodies to give them something akin to a proper sendoff, she cries and thanks him for it. It's a lovely exchange, and it tells us a lot about how much Daryl cares about Carol. It manages to be one of the best scenes of the season, and is the best sequence of the episode, rivaled only by Carol and Daryl escaping a herd of walkers by piling into a van teetering on the edge of a bridge. It's kind of crazy that they survive its plunge to the ground below, but it's a wonderfully tense moment, accentuated by the raining walkers that follow them off the edge.

Credit: AMC

Even in an episode as subdued as this, The Walking Dead still manages to find moments of genuine, pulse-pounding drama. I wasn't over the moon about "Consumed", but I didn't hate it either. This was a middle of the road episode, to me. And while that doesn't have to be a bad thing, it felt more like a setup episode for the towering drama ahead.