"The Walking Dead" 4x09 -"After"- Review

"The Walking Dead" is officially back with the episode "After" which deals with the aftermath of the prison's attack by the Governor and the walkers. The episode focused on Michonne, Rick and Carl. The episode was emotionally heavy while our heroes are back on the outside with no shelter trying to survive.

At the beginning we see Michonne fighting walkers and getting herself two new pets, after that she finds Hershel's head which had turned and takes it out with her katana, she touches the head showing that she cared about Hershel. We finally got a flashback or more a dream of her past probably after the first zombie outbreak, Michonne is at her apartment with her boyfriend Mike and a friend discussing what to do next, Michonne wanted to fight while Mike seemed more thoughtful, the big surprise happens when a boy around the age of three comes into the room, i think that most of us had guessed she had a baby after she burst into tears while holding baby Judith. Soon after that the two men turn into her pets and she wakes up from her dream. She talks to Mike and tells him she misses him, she had previously said to Rick that she used to talk to her dead boyfriend when he was seeing Lori. While she walks along with walkers she sees one that probably reminds her herself, i think that at that moment she realised she might survive but she is walking with dead so what kind of life is that? She got hurt many times,she lost Mike and her baby, she was close to Andrea and she died, then she got close to Hershel and the other survivors and most of them are presumably dead or lost but it was worth it! Its the turning point when she chooses to live, to be with people even if that means getting hurt. She goes back at the footprints she found at the beginning of the episodes and follows  them.

In the meanwhile, Rick and Carl walk into the forest, Rick in his condition cant walk very fast he and Carl argued about everything. They found a house whith a walker inside, Rick had troubles putting it down with an axe so Carl shot it which angered Rick because "every bullet counts". After that they moved to another house while still arguing and Carl mentioned Shane. Carl found a kid's room in the house, he seemed excited to find some video games but then he just thew them on the floor showing that in this world you don't get to be a kid anymore. The next morning, while Rick was passed out on the couch two walkers came at the door and Carl went outside to deal with them, he had a close call but he managed to kill them. Coming back in to the house Rick is still asleep and Carl gets angry with him for not being able to protect them from the Governor. He is still a kid who watched his mother die and now lost his sister and all of his friends, he is angry at the world and he needs to take it out somewhere. After that Carl goes back outside to find food, he goes into a house where he has another very close call but he manages to lock the walker into a room loosing only his shoe, later on he sits on the roof with a huge can of chocolate pudding.

Coming back home he finds Rick breathing heavily, he falls of the couch and grabs Carl's leg, Carl believing that he turned takes out his pistol and is ready to shoot but he gives up, he already shot his mother, he just quits he is still a kid who needs his father. Thankfully Rick starts talking proving that he is still alive. Father and son have a talk where Rick tells him that he is man now after everything that his been through. Their relationship seems to be back on track as they realise that they need each other.

They are being interrupted by a knock on  the door Rick looks through the eye on the door and tells Carl "Its for you." at the same time we see Michonne knocking on a door. End of the episode.

It was a slow episode not a lot of action but we had some character growth proving that "The Walking Dead" its not just fighting zombies, blood and gore. It was dedicated to family and what really means being alive in this brutal world. Danai Gurira was awesome as always showing emotion without words, Chandler Riggs was also very good in this episode which gave him a chance to shine.

I am looking forward to next week's episode to find out what happened to the rest of the survivors.

The Walking Dead 4x09 Major spoiler Alert!!!

The episode was leaked on Xbox by mistake, AMC and Xbox realised the mistake and pulled the episode out of the video store.
A few users of Reddit managed to watch it and post about it.

Major Spoilers for the episode

 First thing is the prison overrun with walkers. Michonne is watching it, she uses her katana to put down Hershel's severed head. She then makes new pets (the armless jawless zombies) and heads off into the wilderness.

Then we see Rick and Carl, Rick is all beat to shit and Carl is pissed off. They are walking. They're clearing buildings together, Rick is trying to give orders but Carl's not havin it. Eventually they settle down in a house for the night.

In the morning Carl is trying unsuccessfully to wake up Rick, and the noise alerts zombies outside the door. Carl goes outside to lure them away, he trips and has a close call but manages to kill them and go back in. He then talks to unconscious Rick about how he can handle himself now, how Rick couldn't protect anybody and so they're all dead. Carl then wanders off outside again.

We see a dream sequence of Michonne in her apartment before the turn, with the men who were her original zombie pets. They're sitting at a table, dressed nicely, then abruptly halfway through the scene they're dressed in zombie survival mode. The conversation becomes incoherent. Michonne is holding a baby through most of this scene and it abruptly vanishes near the end. She wakes up and continues on her way.

Back to Carl. He comes to a house. He's going through clearing it and finds a big ass can of pudding. A zombie pops out, he has another close call, but again gets away. He eats his big can of pudding outside that house, then goes back. When he gets inside, Rick is groaning and lurches off the couch; Carl thinks he's turned and readies his gun. Then he decides he can't do it, and resigns himself to being eaten. Then Rick goes "Carl..." and everything's alright.

We see Michonne going through the woods, she kills a fuckton of zombies, then finds places that we saw Rick and Carl in at the beginning of the episode. The episode ends with her knocking on the front door of the house they're in. They become alerted at the sound, then laugh with relief when they see it's her. Episode over.

Source:Reddit

'The Walking Dead': Danai Gurira previews Michonne's 'volatile' moment

Entertainment weekly spoke to Danai Gurira on whats next for Michonne on the second half of the fourth season.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So we start the final eight episodes with everyone sort of splintered off into smaller groups and I know in this first episode back we are going to see what happens to Michonne as the prison falls and where she goes. What else can you tell us?
DANAI GURIRA: What we know is that she was really starting to settle in. She really cared about this place. She really wanted to prevent what she knew the Governor was capable of. She didn’t see any hope in his transformation or redemption. The idea that this actually happened just as she was letting her guard down. You know she says to Daryl in episode 404, “I’m not going to go out and look for him anymore.” So the trail did get cold and she starts to will herself more to just being there, and not like man-caving on her horse anymore. She does that little trip with Hershel and starts to literally help more with the housekeeping of the prison. So to get to the point where all that is lost is severely traumatic for her. What happens to Hershel right next to her, in her presence, something that she couldn’t prevent, that for her is extremely traumatic. You know she likes to take care of business. She had just started to slip into being a member of the community and plugging in and that is huge for her. It’s revolutionary for her. So the loss is pretty extreme. So the question is, how does she metabolize this? How does she handle it?

EW: What’s the aftermath for everyone in terms of seeing of Hershel executed? There have obviously been a lot of deaths on this show, but that one was so brutal for such a kind and gentle soul to be killed in such a savage way. What will that loss do to everyone?GURIRA: I mean, really what everyone has to do is process and survive. But they have to survive, and will they even have the time or space to process? Of course they live in an apocalypse where there’s no more walls and there’s no more protection, so how is everybody going to handle this loss? It could go any which way. How do we navigate this world while still trying to metabolize all these losses and grievances? This is a volatile moment. This is a scary moment for everybody.

EW: For the most part this show has been one big group. Now that everybody seems to be splintered off into smaller groups, how will that change the show?GURIRA: I think Andy said it best. There’s space around events in a way that is definitely different. There is a lot of honing in on people and their experiences and their inner turmoil and outward trauma. There’s a lot more getting to know everybody. We’re not functioning in an ensemble-like way anymore because the group is fractured. What I love about that is that looking at it from a macro-perspective it is fantastic storytelling-wise because in the little research that I’ve done I learned that one of the key elements of war is displacement. People are caught up in the concern of where people are and what happened to them and not having any way of finding out. That’s such a rich, authentic component of what really happens in a war zone. So I think that’s really thrilling that’s going to be rippling through the back eight.

EW: Any other teases for Michonne coming up?GURIRA: What’s interesting for Michonne is that she is on the tip of something. She was on the tip of something in those first eight episodes. Was she going to settle in? Was she starting to open up? Then the trauma hit and I think the big question is, will this clam her back up or open her up? It’s a question of going back to the old her or going on a different path. That’s the question sitting on her soul as she tries to metabolize the trauma that’s befallen her.