And so we are back to cell A. “Internment” washed Season 4’s slate clean with zombie blood – from both inside and outside the prison walls – resolving and almost resetting prison dynamic. By the end of the episode it seemed the only survivors were our old favorites, although Glenn is still touch and go, and the two girls once under Carol’s guardianship in Lizzie and Mika. “Internment” showed that is learning from the past but at what cost?
Season 4’s improvements were evident from the beginning with Rick’s constant glances to the mirror and his fidgeting hand on the wheel making it seem like he could turn his car around at any moment and stop Carol from leaving. It is these subtler moments that Season 4 has shown time and again that make The Walking Dead feel like something different from its past two season.
However, the most important improvement has come through character development and “Internment” may be the finest example yet. In previous seasons most of the ancillary characters never felt fully formed. They all had their one or two core beliefs and, despite being tested, always ended up holding on to those beliefs steadfastly. Dale and his constant righteous refusal to let Andrea kill herself, Glenn either being able to complete some minutiae to get through that episode or his inability to protect Maggie, or Hershel’s morality either butting heads with Rick or trying to bring him back to sanity. But like Carol, Hershel’s character has been fleshed out to the point where it actually seems like a complete human being. Instead of everybody revolving around the Grimeses, Hershel has been given his own story, a new purpose.
“Internment” was Hershel’s episode and featured the finest performance Scott Greene has done while on The Walking Dead. While holding on to that moral center we’ve come to identify Hershel with, his faith was repeatedly tested. He was hobbling back and forth in hopes of trying to keep the dying alive as he held out for medicine, even if meant having to manually pump air into someone’s lungs. Even when many of the sick patients transformed he still held onto his string of civility, the belief that the sick didn’t need to see how they would be disposed of, and led a zombie away from Lizzie before killing it. And while none of these things would be out of character for the Hershel we met in Season 2, it is the fact that Hershel was acting on his own and was making decisions based on who he was and not because of what Rick asked him to do or would have wanted. This episode revolved very much around Hershel and it completely reinvigorated his character and is another sign that Season 4 is making meaningful changes in how The Walking Dead operates.
“Internment” marked the end of the main storyline for the first four episodes of this season as well. Finally the sick could fight no longer and the medicine, from either Daryl’s or Rick’s journeys did not arrive in time. The quarantined finally died and turned into zombies and Hershel could not stop it. Too many died and Hershel was distracted just long enough for many of the walkers to leave their cells and wreak havoc on the few survivors remaining. Glenn, who had been helping Hershel throughout the episode, seemed to be on his way out leaving only Hershel and some random person – who lived just long enough to save Hershel before being bitten – to stop the walkers. By the end of the mayhem it looked like the only survivors were our main characters and Lizzie, which seemed all too convenient. And while this is The Walking Dead 101, having everybody except the characters who have been in multiple scenes survive, it did actually feel like Hershel and Glenn’s lives were in jeopardy. Season 4 has done a pretty good job at making the characters feel like they are in real peril, which is in direct contrast to how routine every zombie attack had begin to feel last season.
And just in case the zombification of the sick bay wasn’t enough, Rick and Carl had to deal with their own zombie onslaught as the fence finally collapsed in one spot and a horde spilled into the prison yard. While this easily could have felt tacked on to induce more dramatic zombie killing into this episode it felt organic. The prison group had been fighting a weakening fence since the second episode this season. So despite the serendipitous timing of the fence collapse it come completely out of left field. Rick let go of some of his protective civility over Carl as he taught Carl how to shoot an automatic rifle in hopes of staving off the onslaught. Unfortunately something at the end of the episode did feel completely piled on for dramatic effect – the Governor loitering in the woods outside the prison.
While it was only a matter of time until the Governor made his return the end of “Internment” certainly did not feel like the right place to introduce his return. Yes, the whole point of “Interment” was to show that there’s no place in the world that’s ever safe and accomplished that goal in intense, everything hitting the fan manner. But even though the shot of Rick and Carl sharing a pea, basically trying to return to “30 Days Without an Accident” non-violent Rick and Carl, cutting to the reveal of the Governor was smart it changed the whole dynamic of the episode. Instead of the intense thriller that “Interment” should be remember for it will end up being the episode in which the Governor reappeared. And even though it is clear that the writers have learned their lesson to keep things moving – unlike the bulks of Seasons 2 and 3 – the show doesn’t have to unravel at breakneck speed.
The Governor’s reveal would have been better placed at the beginning of next week’s episode – especially if next week’s episode focuses on the Governor. There was no reason for the cliffhanger after such an intense, both action filled and emotionally, episode. A crying Hershel, his religious faith visibly shaken, should have been the final image of this episode.