The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 10 "Inmates" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS  

SPOILERS  FOR THIS EPISODE

       

            As another week begins, another episode of The Walking Dead comes on. After the mid-season opener, I was really pumped for this episode, because I loved that episode. Read my review of that here. Of course I did not like this episode nearly as much as I did the last, but that was one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. I cannot expect this one to be better. Though, this is still a very good episode… and also a very different episode. The Walking Dead has never really done this before.

            Because most of what I will mention are things that I like, I will mention my few flaws with the episode first. My first is that some enjoyment factors of the episode is lost due to the sudden changes in pace in tone between all of these points of view between the four stories. The transitions could have been a bit smoother. Another is that there are still times with walker attacks that if the walkers would not have done something so dumb, the people would have been dead. The rules with the walkers have seemed to change, and I am not okay with that. My last flaw is that sometimes I started to like the characters less because of their actions and dialogue that are there so that there could be drama. I think that we should like all of these characters, because they are our protagonists. It is okay for them to have arguments and fights, but we have to be able to take both sides. Sometimes that was not the case.

            Those are my only three flaws with the episodes. None of them are too big, but there are flaws to address with this episode. Now I can get into why I really liked this episode. I will first mention that this was a great way to bring Carol back. Not only was it a great time for her to appear and fix the situation when we really did not expect it, but it was fantastic to bring her into Tyreese’s storyline. Because of the fact that she murdered his girlfriend, it would be hard for her to keep living and speaking to him.

            Now I will get into how separating this episode into four stories with four different sets of characters really works. For one, there are some really good connections between the story of Tyreese and the girls (at the beginning) and Daryl and Beth. We see that would Daryl was tracking was what Tyreese and the little girls were doing. Also, the four different storylines just work. We see the struggles of all of the different groups of people, so the plot can move along further. Also, the way that they were directed worked very well. Whoever directed this episode did a good job of wrapping up and starting each new episode with well good transitions. Another good thing is that although this episode was not too entertaining, I never got full-on bored by it.

            The flaw I had with the fact that some of the walkers should have killed their victims only applied to two walker attacks. In the rest of them, the walkers seem to have their some of their strength back. Like with the ones on the bus, they were fast moving and they seemed menacing. At one point, Glen hits a walker in the head with a gun and it falls over. Seconds later, it gets back up. Another small pro with the episode is that we have good insight on Beth and we see that she had a diary and she was hopeful with the prison for a long time. We also see that now, Daryl is pessimistic. Therefore, the two clash and we get some good drama. We also get some insight on the psycho little girl.

            My last pro is that a lot of room is left for future episodes. Beth and Daryl are where Carol, Tyreese, and the two little girls were. The two little girls, Carol, and Daryl are about to find another society. Right after Maggie killed one of the walkers on the bus, she stared at who it was then cried. And, biggest of all, we see that there is another big society. It may be the one that Carol, Tyreese, and the two little girls heard about from that guy and read from that sign. There have been hints of another society throughout the season. In one episode, there is a voice on the radio for a few seconds. In another, another group cleans out a camp that The Governor and two other people had just passed. This could be an excellent new storyline.

            Despite its few flaws, this was a really good episode. It was a very inventive episode for The Walking Dead and a new thing that they had never really done before.