The Walking Dead The Grove The Death of Innocents (Review)

On The Walking Dead tonight, the episode is called The Grove. AMC did not let the media see any sneak showings of the episode, which has left many people to speculate that someone important will die tonight, possibly Daryl Dixon. AMC is not showing any of the rest of the episodes to the media beforehand, either.The expectation is that there will be plenty of people dying these last three episodes of this season of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead began with the preview people saw on The Talking Dead last week, of the interior of a house, where old timey music is playing, “Maybe” by The Inkspots, and a tea kettle is going off. Looking through a window, we can see, outside, the eerie scene of a walker chasing someone, but we don’t see who the smaller person is very well.

After that, we see Carol and Lizzie talking, and Lizzie says see can take care of Judith. Carol doesn’t look so convinced about this. Lizzie tells Carol how she shot some walkers to save Tyreese; Carol answers that “you had to.’

Lizzie and Carol then talk about a daughter that Carol had, who died. Lizzie asks: “Do you miss her?”

Carol answers “yes.” Lizzie then asks her if she’ll miss her, if anything happens, and she says “yes.”

Tyreese has nightmares, and, in the morning, Carol puts some sort of salve or medicine on Tyreese’s wounds.

Carol to Tyreese: “Lizzie’s confused about the walkers. She thinks they’re just like people, only different.”

Later, as they are walking down a road, they talk about Huck Finn. Carol says she smells a fire burning. Lizzie and Tyreese play “I Spy,” until Tyreese hears something, and tells her to stay where she is, while he investigates.

Walking down a railroad track, Tyreese see a walker without legs on a railroad track. Lizzie comes up behind him with baby Judith, saying: “Sometimes we have to kill them. Sometimes, we don’t.”

Mika tells Carol “I’m not like my sister. I’m not messed up.” She says that she can kill walkers, but “killing people is wrong.”

Carol: “What about killing people who are bad to you?”

Carol tells her she’ll have to change the way she thinks about people, that everything doesn’t always work out. Mika disagrees, and says her mom was right, that everything does work out.

Carol, Tyreese, and the girls come upon a grove of pecans, They consider staying there for a few days.  The talk about killing a deer to eat. The come to a house, and Carol tells the girls to sit tight and not to come into the house, no matter what they might hear.

Tyreese: “Stay strong, little ladies.”

“They aren’t people, Lizzie. They’re just dead,” Mika tells Lizzie; then, a walker crashes through a window and crawls towards the two girls. Carol runs out as Mika shoots the zombie. Mika tells Lizzie she’s sorry she yelled at her.

Inside the house, in the light of a kerosene lantern, the group crack pecans. Tyreese says that they now have “plenty of water,” becaue the house has a pump outside that works, and he seems to like the idea that they will now “live together, in a house.”

Lizzie: “Yeah — so relaxed.” She adds: “We should live here.” Tyreese looks at her as if she’s lost her mind.

Outside, we see what was outside the window more clearly — Lizzie with a walker behind her, leading her on. Carol runs out, and stabs the walker in the head. Lizzie freaks out, saying that Carol didn’t have to do that, that eh walker was her friend.

Carol and Mika go strolling, and Mika has a gun — Carol is going to try to teach her how to use it. Mika aims the gun, but says: “I can’t,” adding “We have peaches.”

Tyreese:  “Maybe we don’t need to go to Terminus. I’ve been thinking, maybe we can stay here. I know Lizzie, baby Judith, and Mika. And, I know and trust you. We can stay; we can live here.”

Lizzie feeds the walker on the tracks a mouse she’s caught.  She reaches out one of her hands towards the prone walker. Mika says that Lizzie is “pretending” that the walkers are nice. Lizzie says she can understand them, and that Mika is really the one who’s “pretending.”

Then, other walkers approach, and the girls run away. One of the walkers almost bites Lizzie, who has fallen; but, Carol and Tyreese come running, and shoot the horde of walkers to bits.

Inside the house, Carol asks Lizzie if she understands what they are now.

Lizzie: “I know what I have to do now.”

Mika: “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Lizzie: “You have to be mean sometimes. But, just sometimes.”

Outside, Carol tells Tyreese: “The girls like it here.” She tells Tyreese that they don’t have to go to Terminus; that they can stay.

Tyreese: “I’m not ready to be around other people.” Carol tells him that they can stay where they are.

Tyreese tells Carol in his dreams, his wife is still alive. “Some nights, bad ones, I see someone kill her. Some — stranger. And then, it happens all over again. We are who we are; we do what we do. The whole world is haunted now, and there’s no getting out of that. Not until we’re dead.”

Carol and Tyreese end up hugging each other.

Carol: “What’s the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts? Beer nuts are $1.79, Deer nuts are under a buck.”

Coming back from the walk, they see that Lizzie has a knife in her hand. She has killed her sister. Baby Judith is crawling on a blanket. Lizzie points a gun at Carol and Tyreese. Lizzie says that Judith can change, too, that she was “just about to –”

Carol tells Lizzie that she will tie Mika up. YIKES! Tyreese leads Lizzie back to the house, and Carol breaks down and cries.

“I brought her some food. Cleared out her room. Made sure she didn’t have any knives; anything like that. She had a shoebox full of mice. I asked her if she was the one feeding the walkers back at the prison. That was her. She said she was just ‘having fun.’ I was thinking; maybe she killed Karen and David.”

Carol tells him that it wasn’t her, but doesn’t say it was Carol– she says she can go away with Lizzie, that she should have seen it, but she didn’t.

Tyreese asks her: “Where should I go with Judith?”

Carol: “She can’t be here. She can’t be around other people.”

Then, we see Carol walking with Lizzie, and Carol tells her she’s picked some wild flowers for Mika. Lizzie asks Carol if she’s mad at her. She says that she’s “sorry” and cries. Carol tells her that she loves her, and that “everything works out the way it’s supposed to.”

Lizzie: “I’m sorry.” She keeps crying, while Carol tells her: “Just look at the flowers. Just look at the flowers.” Carol points a gun at her head and shoots her; then, she sees a deer, and walks away, leaving it unharmed. She digs a grave for Lizzie.

That night, Tyreese and Carol are sitting at the dinner table. Carol shoves Tyreese the gun, and admits “I killed Karen. It wasn’t Lizzie — it wasn’t a stranger. You do what you have to do.”

Tyreese did she know what was happening? Was she scared?” Carol shakes her head no.

Tyreese: “Was it quick?”

Carol: “Yes.” Do what you have to do.”

Tyreese’s hand is on the gun, but he pulls it back and says: “I forgive you. But I’m never going to forget it happened and you did it. It’s a part of you now, and me, too. But, I forgive you.”

Carol: “Thank you.”

Tyreese: “I’d love you to stay. But, we can’t stay.”

Carol, Tyreese, and baby Judith walk away from the house together. They come upon the walker on the tracks and pass him by.

YIKES! A double death of regulars on The Walking Dead — Lizzie and Meka! And, Carol finally confesses that she’s the one who killed Karen, but Tyreese doesn’t violently kill her — he tells her he forgives her!

The Walking Dead episode, The Grove, was pretty messed up.  Did everything turn out the way it was supposed to? While Lizzie definitely shouldn’t have killed Mika, thinking that she’d come back and be okay, She also shouldn’t have been left along with her sister, Mika, and baby Judith. That was a major error in judgment made by both Tyreese and Carol.

Also, how will Tyreese and Carol (eventually) explain to the others whenever they reunite about the deaths of Lizzie and Mika? That will certainly be interesting, whenever it happens in a future episode. Also, though Tyreese tells Carol he forgives her, what will Sasha and the others feel when they learn about what Carol did? Will they be equally as forgiving?

The Grove was definitely an intense and disturbing episode of The Walking Dead. There are now only two more episodes left in this season — what are your predictions about any of the other regulars who might not make it alive to the next season? Please leave your comments and thoughts about this episode below!

 

Written by: Douglas Cobb