Another season of “The Walking Dead” has come and gone. Massive headlines, massive ratings, and the phenomenon keeps chugging along. With season four split in to three very brutal and effective story arcs, we break down the fourth year of the series, and explore ten of our most shocking moments of “The Walking Dead,” season four.
10. Raining Walkers
Episode: 30 Days Without an Accident
During a run to scavenge for food, Daryl leads a troop of foragers in to a large abandoned supermarket that may just have enough supplies to keep the prison going for a long while. Sadly, no one notices the crashed helicopter with a slew of walkers wandering around, sitting on a very fragile structure less sturdier than a house of cards. During their raid, new member Bob is tempted to take a bottle of wine and accidentally knocks down a shelf, prompting the vibration to cave the roof in. That chain reaction prompts walkers to rain down from the skies at all corners, leaving the group fighting for their lives, and falling by the tooth and nail of the dead. From the dead slamming in to the floor, to others hanging from their intestines, it’s a fight for survival that nearly destroys the entire hunting group. Daryl, included.
9. Zombie Patrick Goes for the Throat
Episode: Infected
It was all going so well. And then the super flu hit the prison, taking all that they’d built and destroying it in one fell swoop. Seemingly unassuming and nice guy Patrick spent his first appearance building a hacking cough, and by the end of the season premiere was in the showers coughing in to the water supply. After passing out, and asphyxiating to death on his own blood, he arises as a walker and begins feasting on the completely oblivious residents of the prison. In the most gruesome moment, Patrick bites in to the throat of a sleeping resident, and feasts on his intestines. As an added touch, said resident arises with his intestines plopping all over the floor a la “Day of the Dead.”
8. Rick sacrifices the Piglets for his People
Episode: Infected
As the walkers begin crowding the outer fence of the prison, right in the middle of the super flu outbreak that is laying siege to the civilization Rick and his committee built, it becomes apparent that the dream is all but gone. With the out fence about to drop, Rick figures it’s only merciful to take the pigs they’d been using for meat, which they soon discover was one of the sources of the super flu, and begin sacrificing them. With Daryl driving, Rick leads the crowds of walkers away by cutting the pigs for blood spill and feeding them to the walkers. With their screams of pain, and blood splashed along Rick’s face, he bids farewell to a wish for peace and quiet. The dream is over.
7. The Snake in the Grass
Episode: Isolation
The flu has been defeated, but at what cost? The group has lost a lot of very good, and very resourceful people, the outer gate has finally crashed down, and only because of Rick and Carl do the walkers finally recede in numbers. But after all of the heartache, we finally see who has been waiting in the woods to strike. It’s been the one and only Governor, watching in the darkness, and now devising a new plan to strike Rick and his group down once and for all.
6. Home Invasion
Episode: Claimed
After recovering from a bad beating, and discovering their old ally Michonne is alive, Rick, Carl, and Michonne decide it wouldn’t be a bad idea to settle in the house for a little while. As Carl and Michonne venture out for supplies, Rick lies in bed with a book. No sooner does he doze off, does he awaken to the sound of a vicious murder taking place below. Once again proving there is no sanctuary in the land of the dead, Rick evades a group of violent nomads that have taken over the house, but are unaware Rick is hiding under the bed, watching and attempting to remain as still as possible. With quick foot work, resourcefulness and just dumb luck, Rick barely escapes, and manages to save Carl and Michonne from a horrible fate.
5. Hershel Struggles with Faith
Episode: Internment
With most of the group indisposed, or out looking for supplies, Hershel is faced with taking care of the sick patients all on his own. He is forced to keeping the ailing alive, disposing the dead, and exterminating them before they rise. But things spiral quickly out of control, and he runs back and forth looking for some way to control the tide of the dead lurking about. By mere luck and the help of mentally unbalanced Lizzie, Hershel manages to keep the body count as low as possible. When the medicine arrives, Hershel is told to go to bed and sleep. All he can do is sit over the body of the kind Dr. S, and weep in to his bible struggling to keep his hope alive.
4. Lizzie Smothers Baby Judith
Episode: Inmates
In a scene that garnered a pseudo controversy, Tyreese is now traveling with Lizzie, Mikah and Baby Judith. After hearing survivors fighting walkers, Tyreese rushes off to see if they’re from the prison and orders Lizzie and Mikah to stay put. As Tyreese fights a losing battle to keep the survivors alive, Lizzie and Mikah are being given away by the cries of baby Judith. In an effort to keep their location quiet, Lizzie shockingly covers Judith’s face muffling her cries, but simultaneously suffocating her. Showing zero remorse, Lizzie smothers Judith as the walkers creep in. Thank goodness for Carol, who unwittingly prevents the death of a toddler. I’m surprised this was so “controversial.” Did you know in the comic, a serial killer beheads a little girl? True story.
3. Hershel’s End
Episode: Too Far Gone
In a scene very similar to the comics, The Governor has manipulated an entire group in to following him in to combat, and wages war against the prison. Capturing Hershel and Michonne, shortly after the crises with the flu, the Governor holds them at ransom, demanding ownership of the prison. Despite Rick pleading for co-existence and co-ownership of the prison, The Governor gives in to his violent urges and beheads Hershel in cold blood. The death of Hershel was a hard blow for the group, and set off a massive battle that took many lives and brought down a once blossoming community.
2. Look at the Flowers
Episode: The Grove
When we first meet Lizzie and Mikah, their father is bitten and about to die, and Carol has no choice but to finish him before he rises. Mikah and Lizzie volunteer to exterminate him, but at the last moment, Lizzie turns and Mikah soothes her by asking her to look at the flowers. In “The Grove,” Lizzie is convinced that the dead are capable of being domesticated and trained, much like wild dogs and is determined to prove it. So much so, that she murders her sister Mikah in cold blood with a knife. Only by good timing do Carol and Tyreese arrive in the middle of the scene as Lizzie announces she was about to murder baby Judith, too. Seeing no other recourse as she posed a danger to others as well as herself, Carol leads Lizzle out in to the field, depends on her mental breakdown as she looks at the flowers, and executes her in cold blood.
1. By Any Means Necessary
Episode: A
After Rick manages to narrowly escape the nomads from his last safe haven, He, Carl and Michonne are ambushed by the nomads who hold Rick and Michonne at gun point. Planning to murder Rick and gang rape Michonne and Carl, Daryl interrupts the scene and is shocked to learn Rick is the man they’ve been hunting. Offering himself to preserve their lives, the leader Joe decides he’s had enough. As the two group members beat Daryl to death, and Carl struggles helplessly about to be viciously violated, Rick loses control and fights Joe, ending the struggle with a horrific bite in to his neck, finishing him, and the group off with zero mercy. He takes great zeal though in murdering the thug victimizing Carl, jamming his knife in to his privates and sliding it up in to his chin, barely flinching. Carl, Michonne, and Daryl watch in horror, and can do nothing but accept what has happened. Another bit of Rick’s humanity has been wasted away, and now he can only accept his newest form, and use it as a means of winning the next battle. Gone is the average humble sheriff. Long live the vicious warrior Rick Grimes. He will do whatever it takes to protect his family, and he will sleep soundly at night knowing it was a necessary evil.