Episode Commentary: 30 Days Without an Accident
The prison turned is now a mini community and farm with the members from Woodbury, who would have thought?
With Scott Gimple now in charge of the show creatively, the premiere episode did have a different feel from last season. However this is not necessarily a bad thing. Although this premiere moved slowly at first, there were some intense scenes and one major plot line that is very interesting.
We first see Rick with his grizzly beard working in the prison yard, which oddly enough has turned into a farm and has a sick pig named violet. While Rick has his headphones as he digs up a buried gun in the soil, he notices a bunch of walkers headed towards fence and oddly enough there is one that stands out from the bunch. The one walker looked more decrepit with bloodier eyes. This walker becomes a clue on what’s to come toward the episodes climax and what we can expect this season.
In this episode we are introduced to new characters, one of which is Bob Stookey, who seems to have a troubled history that involves alcoholism. It will be interesting to see how his backstory will play out this season. One of the scenes in this episode involved walkers falling through the ceiling of a shopping center. Bob almost met his maker, but was saved by Daryl. What made this scene stick out for this episode was its intensity, because you didn’t know if a major character’s time was up. Although there was one member from the group who got the axe, the episode was still solid and will keep fans interested on what’s to come this season.
One flaw this episode had was Rick’s sort of departure from the group. Instead of being the leader we know he is, he has decided to live the conservative farm life. He has to be practically begged to bring his gun when he leaves the prison to hunt for food. While Rick was out into the woods, he meets a mysterious woman who looks beaten up and crazy. While she convinces Rick to bring her to her husband she attempts to kill him, and when she fails, she ends up killing herself. The scene itself was a complete waste of time and served no purpose for the show. It seemed like a useless story arc that would give the main character something to do.
Finally, towards the episodes climax, we see that Carol is showing the young new members of the group how to handle themselves with knives. While Carl walks in, he is not too happy and runs off like a child about to tattle tale. We see a new character Patrick walk in as well, and he does not feel well. In the final shot of the episode we see Patrick holding his stomach as he heads towards the showers in the prison. While he collapses on the floor we get a close up of him as he has turned into a walker similar to the one Rick sees at the beginning of the episode.
While the premiere kicked off to a solid start, there are several questions that leave us intrigued on what’s to come this season; one of which is that if there is a new virus on the loose, and is it airborne?
Leave a Reply