At least once a season AMC’s powerhouse Sunday night drama pulls a “killer” version (see what I did there?) of Whomp, There It Is out of its bag of tricks. Someone unexpected gets offed. That’s a given.
(If you’re keeping count, we’ve had two so far. The beloved Hershel bowed out in surprising fashion during the mid-season finale “Too Far Gone” earlier this season. )
“My mom used to say: Everything works out the way it’s supposed to.” — Mika to Carol when they first see the house
And that’s why I asked above if anyone was really shocked. While Mika’s moving death at the hand of severely disturbed sister Lizzie was horrifying on multiple levels, as a long-time fan of The Walking Dead you just knew something was going to come along and knock our socks off. (Didn’t you?) Because, often, the M.O. for TWD is to zap us outside our peripheral vision — the producers seem to like to hit us when we least expect it. And, often, to the point of shaking us to our very cores.
With one preview of this week’s episode showing Lizzie being “playfully” chased outdoors by a walker, you figured there would be consequences for such actions. It was a hint of things to come … but we didn’t know what those consequences would be.
But … let’s back up a moment to the beginning of this season …
Lizzie’s deterioration has been evident … well, forever. Originally, I thought it was Bob Stookey doling out rats through the fences to walkers way back in the first episodes of the season. But showrunner Scott Gimple (who penned this week’s “The Grove”) had a long term (and much better) goal in mind. And that goal was to set lots of subtle “Lizzie hints” for us along with way. Little did we know she would turn out so twisted as to not only kill her sister but rationalize the killing as well. That was the stuff of nightmares.
Have you noticed Lizzie has been exceptionally calm and collected when we’ve seen her? For example, in this latest episode it’s come easy for her to talk about who she’s killed. She’s practically boasted about it … and she did just that with Carol when she emphatically noted she saved Tyreese by killing several attackers at the prison during the Woodbury siege. Now … think about how composed she’s been throughout. There was a definite pattern being developed there. And it supplanted itself again and again, right into the latest episode. While tending to Tyreese’s injured arm, Carol noted Lizzie was “confused” by the walkers. Even Mika told Carol she knows the difference between the living and the dead: “I’m not crazy like Lizzie.” Hints and hints and hints.
“She’s was playing with me!” — Lizzie, after Carol kills the walker chasing Lizzie around the yard
“She wanted to kill you! You could have died!” — Carol
“You killed her! You killed her! What if I killed you … ?!? What if I killed you … ?!? She was my friend and you killed her!” — Lizzie
The revelation of “things to come” for me came after the girls were attacked at the house. Subsequent of Mika putting down the walker and while comforting her obviously shaken older sister, I felt a niggling “uh oh” moment: “Crap. Lizzie’s going to kill Mika.” It was an uneasy gut feeling about it … a gut feeling which manifested itself shortly thereafter.
And when it happened, it was shocking. But it wasn’t unexpected.
Wait … what? You didn’t think Mika’s death was the most shocking thing of all? Lizzie doing in her own sister? So callously? So cold-heartedly? Without blinking? And then sloughing it off because she knew she would return? Undead? Let me guess: You thought the more contemptible thing was Carol’s (with forethought, knowingly) action, the “punishment” of Lizzie for what she’d done? And without Lizzie knowing it was coming? Nah. The unbelievability of Lizzie’s exercise — and the cold and lifeless manner in which she did it without any regret whatsoever — was the more abhorrent, not the act Carol carried out. Consider that Carol has to live with the consequence of her actions the remainder of her days. Or look at it this way: At least Tyreese forgave Carol her sin of killing Karen. There’s no such concession for taking Lizzie’s life.
Love it of vilify it, I’m not going to debate whether or not the producers took things too far on the show this time around. It’s The Walking Dead, people. If you follow the show, you know something will be comin’ ’round the mountain when it comes. And if you don’t, you’re simply in it for the sensationalism of bumbling, stumbling walkers and the mayhem they perpetuate. If that’s the case — and I’ve said this several times over while writing about the show — you don’t get The Walking Dead.
I’ll go further: You’re cheating yourself of terrific characterization and intricate story.
“I’m not afraid to kill. I’m just afraid …” — Mika
“You can’t be.” — Carol
“How?” — Mika
“You fight … and fight it … and don’t give up. And then one day you just … change. We all change …” — Carol
A Few Thoughts
Picky Continuity Notes (because … I’m a picky continuity person who’s picky)
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