The return of The Walking Dead has been for the most part lackluster at best. Perhaps to be fair, it’s because we’ve been spoiled with its brilliant storytelling and edge of our seat suspense. Sunday night’s episode titled “The Grove”, brought it back to a level we haven’t seen in a long while.
What makes TWD both as a TV drama and as its original source as a comic book, so intriguing, is the moral dilemma these characters must face almost daily in order to survive. We see ourselves in them and at times, it scares us. Such was the case on Sunday. The rules of everyday “normal” life does not apply here. This is the ultimate test in survival and the cost is almost always high.
Each one of the post-Olympics episodes has focused on the different individuals who had to go their separate ways after their prison showdown with the Governor. This time it focused on Carol and Tyrese as its central characters along with the children Lizzie, Mika and baby Judith.
Spoiler alert…
When Carol and Tyrese return to the house that they’re trying to make as a home for all of them, they discover that Lizzie has killed Mika. She did this just to see Mika turn into a walker and that they can be friends. This tragedy becomes the very definition of lost innocence, and it wasn’t first time. Lizzie has shown her instability in the past, almost smothering Judith at one time. So, what do you do? When do you stop seeing someone as simply a child and more like a threat? Powerful stuff. And even after Carol, with a heavy heart, does what she justifies in her mind as the “right” thing to do and puts Lizzie down, you can’t help but feel for both.
You feel for Lizzie because her life ended before it even began. It ended long before Carol’s decision to end it. You feel for Carol because she like so many of the characters can no longer see the world as they once did with hope and dreams. Instead, their world is black and white. They either fight to live and survive another day or give up and die. Either way, a piece of their humanity goes away with each passing day. Powerful stuff indeed.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
