The scene that defined the Walking Dead as more than just a zombie movie is when Rick searches out a female walker who lost the lower half of her body.
Rick finds her in a park. She crawls toward him. Her hunger to kill compels her, even though she clearly cannot harm him. The camera glides over her skeletal frame and her inability to hurt anyone evokes pity in the audience. She is tortured. And what raises this scene to majestic heights is why Rick goes back to find her. He watches her and there is sadness in his eyes for what she has suffered and lost. He talks to her and expresses his sorrow for what has become of her. And in doing so he humanizes her and gives her back her dignity. He does this not because of who she was or what she had when she was alive, but because she was once one of the living.
It is no easy feat to humanize a zombie, but writers of this show did it through the character of Rick. Thus, they captured the loyalty of so many viewers. In Episode four, the writers justified that loyalty once again.
Rick and his crew are found building themselves a little piece of paradise in the abandoned maximum security prison. Plans are being made for planting crops. Glen and Maggie are found “together” in the biblical sense. Rick watches Laurie from a distance. Their eyes meet, and the love and attraction between the two is palpable. Herschel pulls himself out of his prison cot and uses his crutches to walk around the prison courtyard.
Everyone watches him, and they are all giddy with laughter because life feels good.
But this Eden has a snake in the form of a saboteur who lets walkers into the prison. And what ensues is a bloody fight with walkers and everyone scattering to find refuge.
T-Dog is bit by a walker. He is next seen running in a prison corridor with just Carol who begs him to stop because he has been bit. She tells him she will not let him become one of those things. He tells her that it is too late for him. And the very silent T-Dog shows profound nobility when he explains that God has another plan for him and that is to save her. He throws himself at a couple of walkers, so Carol could get away. His screams in agony as the walkers rip at his body, but even in the midst of unspeakable pain, he commands Carol to run and save herself.
The writers are not done though. Lori goes into labor and there are complications. Only Carl and Maggie are with her to help her deliver. Lori knows it’s her life or the baby’s and she chooses the baby’s. And then the writers deliver one of the most riveting scenes of the series as Lori prepares Carl for life without her. She tells him that he is the best thing she ever did. Thus, she spares her son a lifetime of guilt for being cold to her for the last few months before her death.
She tells him he has it in him to fight this world and never let it spoil him. She explains that it is hard to do the right thing, and people do the wrong thing because it is easier. And warns him to never do anything just because it is easier. Finally, she shows her son what she means by making hard choices: She has Maggie cut her abdomen open to save the life of her baby, knowing she will most likely die. It is a bloody and breathtaking scene. And like the scenes with Rick and T-dog , it transcends mere zombie gore because a character is shown reaching into the best part of her humanity and leaving the audience in awe of what great lengths she will go to maintain it.
The last scene has Maggie walking toward Rick with the baby in her arms. He realizes that Lori is missing and it dawns on him that she is gone. He is left wailing. He has to grapple with the fact that he is responsible for T-dog and Lori’s death because the person who let the walkers in the prison was Andrew, the man Rick banished to a courtyard full of walkers even though he begged for mercy.
Rick Grimes was once a man who could find compassion for a walker, but life in the world of the Walking Dead is stripping him of his humanity. And it has cost him dearly.
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