Home Theatre The Walking Dead Episode 4 By Tao Mori December 16, 2010 - 00:35 Studios: AMC Writer(s): Charlie Adlard, Frank Darabont, Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callis, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yuen, Norman Reedus, Michael Rooker, Lennie James Directed by: Frank Darabont Produced by: David Alpert, Charles H. Eglee Running Time: 60 min Release Date: October 31st 2010 Rating: PG13 Distributors: AMC Genre: Horror     The Walking Dead is based on the comic book series the Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. The story follow Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) who wakes up in a world overrun by zombies a world commonly referred to as a zombie apocalypse. He travels to Atlanta to look for his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callis) and his son. Eventually he is reunited with his wife and son and a group of survivors who try to decide where to go and what to do. The story focuses on the humanity of the characters and tries to provide a realistic approach to how people would live in a zombified world. The characters in this story are not perfect, they are very human with human flaws. Episode 4: Vatos     In Atlanta after Rick, Daryl, T-Dog and Glen look at Merle’s severed hand, they realize that he made his way back into the building and cauterized his wound on a stove. That’s intense. The group decide to go get the bag of guns following Glen’s tactical advice. Daryl asks what Glen used to do, which was deliver pizzas. Which, is what Glen did in the book too. Perhaps in another life Glen would’ve made a good platoon leader. So when they go for the guns, they get attacked by a group of Hispanics who make for the bag, but Daryl scares them off by shooting a crossbow bolt into the butt of the one of them. They grab Glen instead of the guns and drive off, but Daryl grabs one of the Hispanics.     The use of Hispanics for these characters was deliberate, immediately my mind thought that these guys were gang members who survived the apocalypse. The clothing and look of these guys conjured up these images, with the tattoos, the muscle shirts, and their way of talking. What were we supposed to think? They reminded me of characters right out of the Grand Theft Auto games, and I believe this was deliberately done by the filmmakers to deceive us, well done writers. At the same time these guys may have made themselves look like they did to deceive any opponents that they came across, which Guillermo explains that they‘ve had some bad encounters. I won’t get more specific than this as I want you to see and feel the deception and not see the twist coming. The emotional punch that follows the standoff, is brilliantly executed, I thought some grenade action might be used here, but it wasn’t. But Glen is safe, don’t worry, I would be sad if something happened to him too.     Back at the camp Andrea and her sister Amy are having a little girl time fishing out on the lake. Did they ever think that they might be safest on the water and that they should live in houseboats? No that’s crazy, nobody would do that. Other than Romero’s Land of the Dead, I’ve never seen much interaction with zombies and water. Would zombies walk across water to get you? Would they walk across a river and not be swept away? I’d like someone to answer that for me. I found it strange as well that Andrea is a lot older in the show than in the comic book, I wonder if it has something to do with her romantic interest that takes place later in the comic. Did they make Andrea older so that audiences would find such a relationship less offensive? That’s my guess. While the girls are fishing, Jim (Andrew Rothenberg) was digging graves, and lots of them. Dale goes up to him and asks him what he’s doing, and Jim tells him to go away. When Shane gathers everybody together to try and stop Jim, Jim asks some interesting questions regarding the legitimacy of Shane’s authority. Who put you in charge? Who indeed. They tie Jim up to a tree and let him cool off. Dale is very compassionate towards Jim, concerned that Jim is going to overheat out in the hot sun. Jim eventually calms down and forgets the reason for why he was digging the graves, but he makes it sound like it’s important.     Rick, Daryl, T-Dog and Glen come back to where they parked their truck, only to find out that it’s been taken. Daryl suspects Merle, and he suspects Merle is going to be pissed right off when he gets back to camp. Merle never gets back to camp, so I kind of wondered what happens to him, but I suspect that we haven’t seen the last of him. Cue evil laughter. There’s going to be a some kind of showdown between the two brothers, we’ve already seen some compassion come out of Daryl, which Merle lacks. Daryl will be forced at some point to make a choice between the group and his brother.     Near the end of the episode everyone at camp it sitting around their fire enjoying their fish. Much like in the comic, the camp is attacked by zombies that night, and Rick and his group arrive just in time to shotgun the snot out of them. Amy, Andreas sister has fallen, along with Carol’s sexist husband Ed. He’s the first to go, I cheered. Now Carol can flourish into her craziness. There’s also a few people who are killed who didn’t get named or got any camera time, they had just been living at the camp. I think this was only one or two people, but who were these people? Why are their deaths significant if we don’t know who they are in relation to the other characters? In the comic book we only had Amy die, and Jim get bitten. Back to the show, Jim says after the attack that he remembers why he dug the graves. Whether or not this implies that he’s got some kind of psychic ability, it s beyond me, but if so, it sucks because he’s been bitten and he would’ve been useful as a psychic. Granted this would take the show in a completely different direction in terms of realism, but then it does already have zombies. Another important rule to zombie survival, make good use of the resources that you have available to you and that includes human abilities whatever they may be. © Copyright 2002-2026 by Toon Doctor Inc. - All rights Reserved. All other texts, images, characters and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Use of material in this document (including reproduction, modification, distribution, electronic transmission or republication) without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.