The Walking Dead S4 Ep 16: A

~~~SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS~~~Before I go one step further into any discussion about last night's episode of The Walking Dead, I just want to address the elephant in the room. YES, OK? I haaaated the final line of the episode as much as everyone else. I thought it was a hackneyed, weak way to end a really complicated episode that pushed the viewer in a bunch of different ways. I've had a night to sleep on it so I don't feel quite as much vitriol today for that line as I felt last night, and I'll 'splain why. Later. I don't want to get too ahead of myself, so now? We move on.A narrative regarding self-identity runs through this episode and even through the entire season, as it's become increasingly apparent that the zombies are horrifying and lethal, but people are the real monsters in this world. And they keep blurring the lines between "human" and "zombie" behavior. Sometimes the line is blurred subtly, like in this very episode, as Michonne said in a quiet moment sitting around the fire, "All we ever talk about is food." Funny. If zombies could talk, I'm sure that would be their primary topic of conversation, too. "Brains! Brains? Mmmm, brains!" Nothing like having a similar agenda as the ravenous undead.The human/zombie/what-makes-a-monster narrative started in earnest once the group separated after the prison was destroyed. Lizzie identified with zombies more strongly than with living people. Beth was spirited away by unknown persons (though I'm pretty sure I was wrong in thinking she was taken by The Hunters...more on this in a bit). Joe and his marauders were willing to kick one of their own to death for lying. Michonne had her "I am literally among the ranks of the walking dead" moment as she created new zombie pets, wandering among a herd of walkers until she saw herself mirrored in a zombie and chose to live again. In the same episode, as Rick heals from the insane beatdown The Governor gave him, he let out a strangled gurgle in the dark that sounded weirdly like zombie hissing. I mean, it wasn't, he lived, y'all can relax. But these episodes illustrate that the apocalyptic dark side isn't that far away from our protagonists, ever.With that in mind...season 4, episode 16 opened with an unknown character being taken down by a zombie herd. Too bad for him, but a great way to remind the audience that teeth are a viable weapon because....As Michonne and Rick sit around the fire talking about food, they are set upon by Joe and the marauders, thrilled that they've managed to track and catch their prey and take revenge for their fellow gang member, who Rick killed in the bathroom. Michonne and Rick are outmanned and outgunned and Carl, asleep in the car, is out-everything. Sized, gunned, muscled. During this time Daryl--who almost left the group, but instead hung around to see what would happen--realized his friends were the quarry in question, and because he is one noble SOB, makes a plea for his friends' lives. They're good people, he says.Which, of course, isn't possible in Joe's interpretation of good people vs. bad people vs. monsters, because he has judged Rick for the killing of his friend and found him guilty. Anyone saying they're "good" despite what they've done is lying, and you don't lie to Joe. Done. Game over. Let the brutal beatdown begin.For the record, Rick Grimes can take one hell of a beating.And it is a brutal scene. Since Daryl stood up for his friends he's getting beaten to death by Joe's gang, who tells Rick that Michonne is next, and then Carl, and he'd have to watch it all. Meanwhile, one of Joe's inbred, drooling-on-himself-while-evilly-laughing gang members throws Carl to the ground for a bit of a rape, and that? Is when Rick checks out. They have a perfunctory, "let the boy go" back-and-forth, but Joe & Co. refuse. Big mistake. Fight fight fight, scuffle missed gunshot punch, and then Joe's got Rick, arms and all, wrapped in a bear hug. "What are you going to do now, Sport?", Joe sneers.Rick, taking a page straight from the zombie playbook, rips out Joe's throat with his teeth. Because teeth are viable weapons.It further blurs the line between man and monster. Joe clearly never thought, with his "Ha ha, Sporto!" comment, that having his throat bitten out was an option. This helps explain Rick's answer to Daryl the next day, when Daryl says that anyone would have done what Rick did.  "No, not anyone," Rick replies. Because Joe was a terrible, merciless asshole and not even Joe would go there.  The only other person who has gone bitey on TWD, for the record, was The Governor, who bit Merle's fingers off just before he shot him and left him to die.Now what?Oh, right, lest we forget. Just after biting Joe's throat out, he makes his way to Evil Dan the drooling would-be rapist and guts him from navel to sternum, staring into his face the entire time.So they make their way to Terminus and finally--finally!--someone in this former prison group (and by someone I mean Rick) thinks, hey, maybe our dreams of a peaceful sanctuary are too good to be true. We don't know who these people are. Let me cache some weapons outside their fencing...just in case.Earlier in the episode--this is important, pay attention--Rick teaches Carl how to build a slipknot trap to catch an animal. Build a trail the prey will follow, he says, and camouflage the rope. Then the animal will catch itself in the slipknot; it's practically like the trap does the work for you!So. Back to Terminus. Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl creep over the fence all sneaky-like and skulk through the hallways until they find themselves at a big open room filled with scarf-wearing hipsters painting signs and broadcasting on a ham radio. And for some unknown reason, they walk in and introduce themselves. Do they check out the entire compound? No. Do they have even a modest poke at the premises? No. Instead they walk in and practically fall over themselves saying hi to Gareth, the de facto leader of Terminus.Gareth, of course, tells them everything they want to hear. You're all very smart. We don't have problems here, only solutions. Come on, let's take you to the main entrance, get you situated.Then Rick recognizes his friends' stuff; he sees Maggie's poncho, Glenn's riot gear, Hershel's pocket watch (which he'd passed on to Glenn in a moment of fatherly acceptance).  Much shooting ensues, though it's probably best to let the pictures tell the bulk of this part of the story.The good people of Terminus, it seems, are not very good people at all, as they herd Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl to a very specific area.These are clearly not the first people they've herded in this manner.And then they run them past a bone yard. I like that they're looking in. See what's in store for you here? Rut-ro!Through a fetishized memorial to...prior dinners?The good news is, I don't see Beth's name on that floor, which is why I don't think she was taken by this group. The bad news is, we still don't know what happened to Beth.The one door that opens out of this room leads them into a back train yard, which dead-ends. This is where Gareth pulls the slipknot tight.Gareth sends them into a railway car to await their fate, which adds a nice Holocaust-Nazi touch, as does the BS propaganda they've posted along the tracks. In retrospect, Terminus's "Those who arrive, survive" slogan sounds uncomfortably like "Arbeit Macht Frei", or "Work makes you free", the phrase wrought into the iron gates of Auschwitz. It appears that Terminus is incredibly well organized and staffed by ruthless folks. Cannibals. Monsters? Of a sort, it seems, and absolutely monster-ish if the Nazi analogy holds. We'll see how that goes.Interestingly enough, Gareth apparently doesn't actually realize he's reuniting a group, or doesn't care, or doesn't have two different "A" group holding cells, because he puts the Rick crew in the A car, where surely he must know he's also got the guy with the riot gear and the lady with the poncho. Because ahhh, reunion.It kills me that Sasha looks so sheepish.There they are. And here's where Rick speaks the line that kills me. Once they briefly assess their situation, Rick says, "They're gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out...(find out what?)...They're screwing with the wrong people." ~~~end scene~~~OK. I know this is taken almost verbatim from an issue of the original comic. But here's the thing: it SOUNDS like it's taken from an issue of a comic book. All Rick needs is a cape and he'll fly his people out of there, amirite? I hate it less a day later; I get that he needed to put forth a call to arms among his team. But I wanted a line that was more real-life sounding and less glib. They just herded him and his friends like rabbits into a death hutch. What's he got to be so cocky about?We still have no idea what happened to Beth. And we also don't know the whereabouts of Tyreese, Carol, and baby Judith, though they were on the Terminus highway. This could be good, it could be bad. There's a bag of weapons buried in the dirt. And it will be interesting to see if Eugene has the smarts he claims to have and can help them outwit the assuredly clever, manipulative, smooth, lying-to-your-face-like-it's-his-job Gareth. Or is Eugene just dead weight? He can't fight; he's got to do something.I guess we'll see in October!So, to play us out, I'm linking to Mark Knopfler's ridiculously appropriate song, "Cannibals". Click here for the lyrics for those playing at home.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQxAAWnzpc8]