The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 11 "Claimed" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            Another episode of The Walking Dead came on last night, and it is my job to review it, so here we go. Some might call this episode a filler episode, and I am fine with that, even though I did like this episode.

            Because I liked this episode, I am going to start off with the problems I had with this episode, instead of the things I liked about the episode. First off, while this is an episode that I enjoyed, there is some enjoyment lost due to lack of character furthering when there is no action. Therefore, when there was just dialogue, all we have is dialogue and nothing else. So, there is nothing the episode can do to give us more than a slight interest in what may happen next.

            Another flaw I have with this episode is the cheesiness of the relationship between Carl in Michonne. Their back-and-forth dialogue is almost over-the-top. I do not know how dialogue gets over-the-top, but it gets that way here. For the tone of The Walking Dead, this does not work. It makes the tone in this episode very inconsistent. And the dialogue in general is not great. It is mostly the same dialogue we have heard when the dialogue is not fantastic. It feels like the writers have chosen the same types of lines for these characters, so it does not seem new.

            Now that I have all of my flaws out of the way I can get to the things in the episode that I liked. First off, in this episode there is a very big plot furtherer that could be foreshadowing the ending of the series. While thinking about that is a bit sad for me, at least the plot is finally being furthered big time. Also, I liked the storyline with these new characters. One reason for that is that I really like the big characters. I like the big guy because he is not The Governor 2.0. He is an actual character and I like this character. I also think the scientist character is interesting and the other character has my curiosity. One other good thing relating to the story is that I like the ending to Rick, Michonne, and Carl’s story. It is cool that they are now finding the sanctuary.

            This episode has some suspense elements in it. For example, when Michonne searches throughout the rooms to try to find out if someone was currently alive in the house was one of the moments, even though the main one was when Rick was trying to hide from the people that invaded the house. Both of these had good suspense. That was because of how well-directed they were.

             It finally happened. Michonne tells Carl that she had a son. One of our characters finally learns about Michonne’s past. I like that we have some more character development with her. We could start to learn more and more about her as we see more and more of her. Maybe she will eventually tell Rick about her son and maybe a husband. I like where this plot point could be going.

            Another thing I liked about the plot element of this episode with Rick hiding in the house is that it was something The Walking Dead has never really tried before. I did not expect Rick’s small storyline in this episode to go in that direction. I like that this show is trying new things, like with the layout of the last episode.

            Although it was not as good as the last two in my opinion, this was a good episode of The Walking Dead that I enjoyed. It did have its flaws, but it also had many good things and I like how the episode ended.