What's Up with "The Walking Dead": Recap of episode "Internment"

“Internment”

What a switch from last week’s mainly action free episode. Internment should really be called Herschel because that’s what we’re all about this week (though there seems to be some weird “Start every episode name with I thing going on this season”). When we last saw the prison Carol had been exiled, Tyrese, Michonne, Bob, and Darryl had just escaped the University with some desperately needed medicine and the rest of the prison group was either in quarantine thanks to the building plague or dealing with the growing mob of walkers at the fences. In short, 2 out of 3 of those scenarios finally went as bad as possible this week.

I’ll start by going through the non-Herschel events which basically consisted of Carl cementing himself as a child (maybe man now) of the new world order. A tween soldier always ready to do what is necessary without hesitation and with deadly efficiency. After shots are heard coming from the quarantined ward, well get to that in a bit, Maggie has to leave Rick alone to reinforce the fences. Rick, knowing he can’t do it alone, finally gives in to Carl’s constant plea to be involved. As they’re propping up a section of fence with a cut down tree the inevitable finally happens…the walls literally come tumbling down. Rick and Carl escape but are left with upwards of 50 walkers past the outer fence. This is where the only non-Herschel scene of note takes place, knowing he has to clear the walkers Rick finally gives Carl his chance and outfits him with an M4 assault rifle. Not only does Carl stand tall next to his Dad, dropping cadaver after cadaver, but really outshines him. His movements are tactical and professional and he shows no sign of fear while the job is done, even when the mob advances on them and Rick freezes. Carl saves Rick with a well-placed shot, then proceeds to toss his Dad a mag and reload his rifle like a seasoned pro all in one fell swoop. I’m officially on the Carl train, he’s definitely proved his ability and even though it kills Rick to see it, he’s left childhood far behind him. It was a day for the very old or the very young, as Carl was getting his massacre on outside Herschel was inside proving that even though he only had one leg he definitely has two very large testicles.

As we saw last episode Herschel had confined himself to the quarantine ward to take care of the sick at great risk to himself. Still clinging to the idea that he can bring an illusion of normalcy to the prison he adamantly refuses to give the ‘ole head stab to any patients who breathed their last. Instead he insists that they be put on stretchers and moved to another wing where they will deliver the brain puncture. This is where most of the ridiculous amount of tension comes from in this part of the story….it’s not terribly exciting but as you see Herschel standing right near a dead body, knowing it can come back any minute, you could almost guarantee that the old man is not making the next episode. In a saint like way he not only stays in the ward knowing it can mean certain death but he incurs even more risk to treat the dead and the nearly dead with some quotient of dignity. Then the shit really hits the fan. As he’s making his end of the night rounds 3 of the patients kick it and turn before he can get there to lock them in or even notice. What follows is 10 minutes that make you not want to move or even blink culminating in Herschel jumping onto a chain link catch section between levels one and two so that he can rip an intubate-ing device from a still moving walker and use it on Glenn who is choking to death on his own blood. Somehow there’s a happy ending as Maggie gets there just in time and Herschel is able to intubate Glenn and save his life. As if you didn’t know this was going to happen, the scouting crew returns with the medicine just as everything is calming down. 

Almost unbelievably the episode ends happily for almost all involved, but with a few very foreboding nods for next week. Those nods? Well, the one that concerns me the most is what’s going to happen between Darryl and Rick, when the scouting party returns the first thing Darryl asks is, where’s Carol? Herschel simply says “she’s fine, go ask Rick”, as we all know Darryl is a bit fond of Carol and Rick already has one strike seeing as how he chopped off Merle’s hand in the first season. The other bit? A certain eye patch sporting psychotic. The episode ends with the camera pulling back from the prison to reveal the Governor sitting at the tree line looking into the prison complex. 

A Dash of Dissent: Rocky’s Thoughts on “Internment”

Herschel says to Maggie this episode, “Just hold it together a little longer. Please?” and I’m pretty sure he was actually talking through the TV, at me, because NO, HERSCHEL. I WILL NOT KEEP IT TOGETHER. THIS SHOW IS KILLING ME, ONE EPISODE AT A TIME. Or at least annoying me to a great degree. Like, a lot.

So I don’t know if I have any good things to say about this hour of television, honestly. It had such weird pacing; it took Rick and the Daryl/Michonne/Bob/Tyreese group forever to get back to the prison—seriously, longer than a whole day and night? How much time had passed since last week’s episode?—and everything, of course, went to shit in their absence. But even the going to shit seemed to take too long to develop; the episode was two-thirds done and we were 40 minutes in before any action. And it’s not like the episode was building tension; things were too obvious for that. We knew, eventually, that things would go badly. But how hastily it was cleaned up—the pandemic is over, thanks to Herschel, and all the walkers are dead, thanks to Rick and Carl and some automatic weapons!—in barely 15 minutes, with no major casualties from our core group?

Come on.

I have other issues, but I’ll keep them brief. I feel a frustration headache developing.

OK, not terrible:Daryl: “You’re a tough son of a bitch.” Herschel: “I am.” Yes, yes, you’re all badasses. I agree! But this exchange came at the very end of the episode, after Daryl and Co. appear back at the prison after all the shit had already gone down. What a coincidence! What did they do, loop around the entire state of Georgia before coming back to the prison? Come on; that commute should not have taken 24 hours, or however long passed between last week’s episode and this week. (Did we pick up the same evening that Daryl and Co. left to come home? Or the day after? That wasn’t clear to me.)

Terrible:Oh, the fence is about to go down again? Like it’s been about to go down for weeks? MAYBE YOU SHOULD FIX THE FUCKING FENCE, GUYS.

More terrible: Oh, a bunch of people are dying? Woodbury people that we never got to know and who I don’t care about? Like Beth’s boyfriend, who we didn’t know at all? Or those randos from last week in the house, who we didn’t know at all? MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP KILLING OFF STRANGERS AND START KILLING PEOPLE WE CARE ABOUT, WRITERS. No, I didn’t want to see Glenn die. I would have quit this show if Glenn died. But the whole killing-off-tertiary-characters bit is getting real old. Make the zombie threat meaningful! Make it real! Make it matter! This show is failing so much at doing that.

A new kind of terrible: Why are there so many scenes set to really meaningful tunes all of a sudden? I counted two different musical interludes in this episode, and that comes after the one that closed out last week’s episode. Why? Why is this necessary? If you want us to feel the characters’ pain and isolation, maybe fade out into silence. Maybe end the episode with the sound of the zombies, since THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE POINT OF THIS SHOW. Maybe reinforce the threat by reminding us how creepy they sound, and how omnipresent that death rattle must be. Don’t force emotions on us with these songs. We’re not watching a show on the CW. We do not need to be told how to feel.

And finally, most terrible: Well, I guess it was time for the Governor to come back, right? Now that the sickness is over, no one we like has died, Tyreese has gotten over his death wish, Michonne has vowed to stop looking for the Governor, and Carl is back to handling guns (and really quite good with a machine gun! Bless you, Carl), it was only time for the Governor to come back. What else could happen in the second half of this season? I can only hope that the following things don’t happen: Daryl threatening to abandon the group after learning of Carol being forced out, therefore leaving the group without his awesomeness when the Governor attacks; Carol returning to help beat the Governor; or that annoying little girl Lizzie continuing to live. OK, the Lizzie wish really has nothing to do with the Governor. But I just want her gone, alright? Much like I want this Governor storyline gone, or at least ramped up in intensity. If the thing that needs to happen to one specific character doesn’t happen, I’ll know this show will never have the balls to live up to its source material—and that’s a damn shame. GET IT TOGETHER.