Episode Title: “Inmates”
Writers: Matthew Negrete & Channing Powell
Director: Tricia Brock
Previously on “The Walking Dead”:
Last week’s midseason premiere of “The Walking Dead’ had the benefit of a pre-existing story from Robert Kirkman’s comic book series and three of the show’s most well defined characters: Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). It was also one of the strongest episodes of the season.
“Inmates” is the flipside of that story, as we catch up with everyone except Rick, Carl and Michonne. This episode also acts as four smaller episodes that focused on each group of survivors as they almost (but not quite) crossed paths in a very Rashomon-like style.
The problem with “Inmates” is that only three of the characters in these vignettes have any depth or really any love from the audience. “The Walking Dead” TV fans tend to care about Daryl (Norman Reedus), Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn (Steven Yeun), but the rest haven’t fully registered yet. I believe that Tyreese (Chad Coleman) would probably have been a fan favorite if he had been introduced earlier in the story (as he was in the comics), but this was a pretty good episode for Coleman and he made the most of his spotlight moments.
Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Bob (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.) still need more character development, although I don’t find them objectionable. I kind of like them as a pseudo-couple, but they lack the convincing emotional ties to the story even though Sasha is supposed to be worried about her brother, Tyreese. It doesn’t help that Bob and Sasha encounter a busload of dead members from their group and all Bob can say is that “they were all good people.” Name one, ONE character on that bus! No one can, because those survivors only existed to become zombie chow.
The zombies in this episode were pretty by the numbers. And what does it say when the most terrifying creature on the show is a little girl?! Seriously though, Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) is a big, big problem. Because Lizzie is not only a bit crazy, she seems to enjoy it as she smothers someone in her arms.
There are full spoilers ahead for “Inmates,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead’ then you should probably skip this review or else Lizzie is coming for you.
It was refreshing to see that Rick’s baby, Judith was safely in Tyreese’s custody along with Lizzie and Mika (Kyla Kenedy). This is a departure from the source material that I welcome. It’s too easy to kill off the baby and never deal with raising her in this world. It’s much more interesting to see the survivors refuse to give up on Judith. Tyreese is the random variable here. His presence alone saved Judith from what could have been a really ugly fate.
What I loved about Coleman’s performance in this episode was that he made Tyreese so tired and overwhelmed by the responsibilities of watching over a budding psychopath, a frightened young girl and a baby that won’t stop crying.
At this point, if Lizzie isn’t the one who was killing small animals and feeding them to the walkers back at the prison than I don’t know who else it could possibly be. Forget for a moment that she killed two rabbits in this episode for basically no reason, Lizzie nearly killed Judith just to keep her quiet.
Now, it’s one thing to cover a baby’s mouth to save her life. But Lizzie was so engrossed in smothering Judith that she seemed oblivious to Mika’s warning cries and gun shots. Believe it or not, there is actually a precedent for a character like this in Kirkman’s original comic. Although suffocating babies was not part of that equation.
While Tyreese tries (and fails) to save a father and son under attack by zombies, Carol (Melissa McBride) makes her long awaited return just in time to save the girls and the baby. Tyreese is extremely happy to see Carol, since she can help him carry the burden of looking after the children. Of course, he doesn’t know that Carol murdered his girlfriend back at the prison. The prospect of Tyreese and Carol getting closer during their time together is intriguing, given that Tyreese might want to kill her if he ever finds out the truth.
Although we see Daryl and Beth (Emily Kinney) in the first segment, it actually takes place after Tyreese’s story as demonstrated when they come across the bodies of the men that Tyreese failed to save. Reedus very effectively conveyed Daryl’s depression with his body language and minimal words. Unfortunately, Kinney wasn’t able to adequately play off Daryl, as Beth proved to be a poor foil for him. Using Beth’s old diary entrees as her voice over narration was also an extremely questionable choice.
The third segment focused on Maggie, Sasha, Bob and the prison bus filled with zombie-fied survivors who didn’t even get names of their own. If these were the last of the Woodbury survivors, did they die on the same bus that brought them to the prison? Cohan carried this part of the episode, as Maggie insisted on checking every walker on the bus in the slim chance that Glenn wasn’t among them. Maggie’s moment of relief was earned, although it was pretty cheap not to show us that the zombie she put down on the bus wasn’t her husband.
Which brings us to Glenn in the final segment, as he apparently got off the bus before it left the prison and he never made it out. Considering that there wasn’t even a hint of that possibility the last time we saw Glenn, this felt like a decision that was made to jettison all of the glorified extras on the prison bus without actually dealing with what happened to them.
Because he stayed behind, Glenn turns out to be the only prison survivor who got a chance to pack before leaving. On his way out, Glenn notices Tara (Alanna Masterson), the Governor’s defacto sister-in-law and he pressures her into helping him get out of the prison alive.
Glenn’s interest in Tara wasn’t entirely self-serving. Glenn had the chance to leave Tara behind, but he choose to go back for her. When Glenn demands Tara’s help, that’s actually his way of saving her life. Otherwise, Tara seemed ready to wander off into the woods and die. Glenn does this even though he knows that Tara was part of the attack on the prison and she gets to be the one who tells him that Hershel is dead.
I was honestly surprised that Tara made a return appearance, given the way she ran off in episode 8. And Tara has a long way to go to win over the audience; which is probably why she gets a chance to save herself and Glenn before the end of the episode.
The conclusion also brings in three new characters from “The Walking Dead” comic book series: Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos) and Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt). Without giving away any spoilers about what’s coming up, I’ll just say that Abraham and his group are definitely important. Keep your eyes on them.
‘Inmates’ was a solid episode, although it was far from spectacular. This story seemed to be designed solely to push the characters in their intended directions. But as long as those directions take us to interesting places, I can live with that.
