The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 9 "After" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            After the big, epic mid-season finale of The Walking Dead, we get the mid-season premiere. After an episode like the mid-season finale, there needs to be a slower, quieter episode, and that is exactly what this episode is. Though, many things happened in this episode. Still, it was able to be a character–driven episode. And this episode is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. I detected no flaws with this episode. I loved all of it. This is a fantastic, amazing episode.

            The main reason this episode is so great is because of the script. This is a perfect script right here, and I am going to get into why. One fantastic thing about the script is that we learned more about Michonne, but in a very unconventional way. It is a dream sequence, but it is not a memory from the past. Dialogue is spoken from Michonne’s husband and brother (I’m guessing) that seems like it would be from some other people that she had been around lately. Then, the two guys are both shown with no arms, letting us know that those were her two walkers she started out with on the chains. It is very smart to just let us figure it out ourselves what is happening and not spoon-feed the information into our mouths. And during this episode Michonne’s plan is a really smart plan which takes us a while to figure out.

            We have a new, different Rick in this episode. He is torn down because of what The Governor did to him and he is now at odds with Carl. He is different and he thinks that he still needs to be the adult, even though Carl can almost function like one himself. For a while I was debating with myself whether or not he was right. It is excellent when a screenplay can make the viewer think about something that small.

           

            The way Carl learns a new lesson is also excellent. In the past few seasons, he will think that he can do everything, then go out, almost get bitten, and that is where he learns his lesson. Here, learning his lesson is approached differently. At one point he is in the middle of three walkers, but survives it. He then thinks, “Does it matter? I got out and I survived.” Another time, he gets attacked by another, very strong walker. Though, he survives it and thinks the same thing. Although he is getting trapped in these situations, he is able to get out. Then, he thinks that he could live without Rick. He learns his lesson in the scene of which he thinks that Rick is a walker, and is about to shoot him. Though, he is not able to do it. That is when he realizes that he needs Rick alive, because he could not even handle Rick’s death.

           

            The most perfect and most excellent thing about this episode is Rick and Carl’s chemistry. They are at odds and constantly arguing, but it was hard for me to take a side. Yes, Carl is just a kid, but yes, Rick is barely able to move. I believe that when a screenplay really makes you think of which side of an argument to on, it is excellent. And this chemistry drives this episode. The dialogue between them was so good that I could not wait for them to start speaking and arguing again. I was anticipating dialogue to start happening throughout the episode.

            When I think about it, not one line of dialogue in this episode is bad. Every line helps further the plot and characters and every line seems real. Not one time in this episode did I think that this was a script. All the dialogue seemed like real, human conversations that humans were saying in this zombie world.

            This is a perfect follow-up to the mid-season finale. The only characters we follow the plot of are our main characters and the character that highly impacts our main characters’ storyline. It did not get lost in other characters’ storylines that took place fifty miles away. It was only inside these two storylines that eventually meet. We also see the obvious impact the battle had on our main characters. We see the mood they are in following the battle.

            This episode featured masterful acting. Dania Gurira is now really grasping the character of Michonne. She has made that character hers. Andrew Lincoln gives an excellent performance as a changed Rick and his American accent seems to be only getting better and better. Chandler Ridges is improving by the second as Carl. He is becoming an excellent actor. The performances in this episode are top-notch.

            The directing and cinematography in this episode are amazing. The look of this episode is flawless. It looks like the real world, but it does not look like the world today. It looks like the world after the apocalypse. The lighting makes the scenes look so real that it is almost perfect. And the framing in this episode is fantastic. All of these shots mean something and they are all perfectly on-center with everything.

            This episode has some intensity, although not that much happens. For about half of the episode, Rick is unconscious, and we are unsure of what might happen to him. Carl also has his run-ins with the walkers that are pretty intense. I just wanted to say that while this is a quiet episode, it also has intense parts.

            The ending to this episode is perfect. Michonne comes to the door, and Rick tells Carl, “It’s for you.” There is none of that “We’re saved! We’re free!” nonsense. We can save that for another episode. For this episode, all that needed to happen at the end is that Michonne’s and Rick and Carl’s storylines cross to show that Michonne is a key part of their storyline.

            There is a lot of controversy over Rick’s teased death and many people are saying that it was really dumb, but I think otherwise. Rick’s teased death was used to let Carl know that he cannot live without Rick, let alone see him die. This fake death was used for a reason. And when Rick is crawling toward Carl looking like a walker, some people might think, “Why doesn’t he just whisper Carl’s name so that Carl doesn’t think that he’s walker.” Well for one, I don’t think that Rick was thinking straight. And Rick thought that he was dying, so he wanted to be with his son in his final moments and he tells his son to go outside. The reason the made the death seem like Rick’s real death was so that the viewers could not have guessed that it was not Rick’s death. This is one of the best deaths they could have possibly thought of for Rick, and I thought he was dead. Another thing people will not like it that it just randomly cuts to Rick and Carl talking, but I am just glad that it did cut to Carl yelling “Yay!” as he found out Rick was not dead. It was good that the tone was kept consistent throughout the entire episode.

            This was an excellent episode that I personally loved. This is my favorite episode of the season so far. It is my 3^rd favorite episode of all of The Walking Dead so far. I cannot wait to see what happens next and I really getting into this show.