The Walking Dead s03e04: Killer Within

A review by C J Dee

Director: Guy Ferland
Writer: Sang Kyu Kim
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs, Steven Yeun, IronE Singleton, Melissa McBride, Scott Wilson, Lauren Cohan, Emily Kinney, Laurie Holden, Danai Gurira, Michael Rooker, David Morrissey, Lew Temple, Vincent Ward
Running time: 43 minutes
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5

[Spoilers, Sweetie — review contains a synopsis of episode]

‘Killer Within’ begins with an as yet unknown person luring zombies into the prison and breaking the locks.

The remaining prisoners, Axle (Temple) and Oscar (Ward), plead with Rick (Lincoln) for mercy. They can no longer stand being locked in the cells where their friends were slaughtered. Rick remains adamant that their arrangement stay unchanged. All of the group with the exception of T-Dog (Singleton) are in agreement with Rick. The inmates are given the choice to stay in their cell block or take their chances outside the prison.

Michonne (Gurira) is shown to be investigating the army trucks The Governor (Morrissey) brought back from the National Guard camp. She finds blood and bullet holes. As she is leaving, The Governor appears and tells her it would be a shame for a soldier like her to leave the town. When she confronts him about the truck and Lieutenant Wells’ death, The Governor evades the questions with the skill of a true politician.

Andrea (Holden) gives Merle (Rooker) a map to where the farm was located to help him find his brother. Merle asks The Governor’s permission to follow the lead and is refused.

Hershel (Wilson) is given crutches and is walking through the prison yard with Lori (Callies) and Beth (Kinney) while the rest of the group burns walker bodies. The walkers that had been lured in at the beginning of the episode make themselves known. In the initial confusion, T-Dog is bitten. Once the initial wave of walkers is killed, Glenn (Yeun) discovers the chains on the gate were broken and the initial blame falls to Axle and Oscar.

A siren starts blaring throughout the prison, attracting more zombies and riling up those in the prison that were yet to be cleared. The group is split. Lori, Maggie (Cohan) and Carl (Riggs) end up in the boiler room where Lori goes into labour. Maggie finds something wrong with Lori’s labour and has to reluctantly perform an emergency caesarian. Lori knows it will kill her but begs Maggie to ensure her baby lives. Once the baby is removed from Lori’s body, Carl shoots his dead mother in the head to prevent her from turning.

T-Dog sacrifices himself to allow Carol to escape from a hallway in which they are trapped by walkers.

Rick, Daryl (Reedus) and Oscar head to the generator to shut down the siren and find the inmate that Rick left to die in the courtyard.

The episode ends with Maggie bringing the baby and Carl to Rick who realises that Lori is dead. The entire group is devastated and Rick has a breakdown as Maggie sobs, unable to tell him what happened. The credits are silent to honour the dead.

Two in one episode! When Lori went into labour I knew she was done for but I did not see T-Dog getting bitten until it was just about to happen. Then for him to sacrifice himself to save Carol — it was almost as though the writers were trying to redeem the character and give him a reason for having existed. Up until that moment there really had been nothing extraordinary about the character. No real back story, no real story line, no real purpose.

Lori’s death had much more foreshadowing to it and it will be interesting to see how Rick and Carl cope, having already displayed very different reactions to the initial shock.

I love the respect that The Walking Dead gives its characters by having no music over the credits when significant deaths occur. The same thing was done for Dale and I feel it is perfect.

Non-stop thrills and twists this season. Bring it on.

“I get guys like this. Hell, I grew up with them. They’re degenerates, but they ain’t psychos. I could have been in there with them just as easy I’m out here with you guys.”

Related:

The Walking Dead s02e07: Pretty Much Dead Already The Walking Dead s03e07: When the Dead Come Knocking The Walking Dead s01e06: TS-19