Whether living or (un)dead, young females aren’t safe on The Walking Dead

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

• Let’s think about this a moment: How was it the house the group stumbled upon had working gas? Gas at the simple turn of a knob? We’re talking at least 18+ months — give or take — from when the infection first began. Hard to believe gas to the house has been in working order all that time.
• All this time I’ve been holding out for a reveal from Carol that she took the blame and covered for Lizzie for the deaths of David and Karen earlier in the season. (That little detail was cleared up once and for all … and pretty satisfyingly.)
• Another feeling during the episode? When Carol finally confessed to Tyreese that Karen’s death (and David’s) were her doing? My second gut reaction: Tyreese would forgive her. And, sure enough, he did. It didn’t come easy … but it was given.
• As noted in the title of this post, females (young ones in particular) aren’t safe on The Walking Dead. Sophia. Amy. Meghan. Mika. Lizzie. You have to wonder if Judith is next on the chopping block …

Picky Continuity Notes (because … I’m a picky continuity person who’s picky)

• In the initial scene with the train track walker, there are several things wrong: It stumbles along before plummeting feet first into a space between a couple railroad ties and it falls quite some distance directly down as if into quite a substantial hole. But, in the next scene, its right leg is seen splayed behind it … and with nary the huge space between the ties it appeared to have fallen in.
• Just before Carol kills Lizzie and she is seen talking to her, telling her to “look at the flowers.” Carol is standing at approximately the “10:00 o’clock” position at Lizzie’s back and at some distance from her. When she pulls out the gun to kill her, Carol is suddenly at practical arm’s length directly behind Lizzie.
• At the table when Carol slides the gun over to Tyreese as she begins confessing to him, there is a puzzle piece directly in front of the gun’s trigger. In the next scene, the piece has moved noticeably away from the gun. As Tyreese grabs the weapon (and as well when he releases it), the piece is nowhere to be seen.