[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwl4XlfUYs0]
The Walking Dead: Claimed (4×11)
Synopsis: A tense episode that peeks into Michonne’s past and Rick’s will to survive. Meanwhile, Glenn’s fate and the fate of the world may become intertwined.
Rating: ★★★★☆
In the back of a military vehicle, Tara is writing the names of roads down on her hand in sharpie as it drives. When the truck stops, she jumps out and gets prepared to shoot some zombies when Abraham gets out of the cab of the vehicle and orders her not to fire the gun. He kills three walkers with glee and she remarks about never having seen him smile before. Come on, Tara, you’ve been with the guy for like five minutes, of course you haven’t seen him smile before. They work together to move some cars out of their path, but the more pressing concern is WHERE IS GLENN?
In their safe house, Carl and Michonne are eating breakfast, playfully arguing over the taste of soy milk. Carl gets carried away and claims he would rather drink Judith’s formula than soy milk, upsetting himself at her mention and leaving the table. Rick expresses his gratitude for Michonne helping to make him laugh, but she only wants to hear what’s next, are they going to use this as their new home or is it only a stop on the road? For now Rick is content to stay and figure it out from there. She reasons with him to stay at the house while she and Carl go foraging for supplies. He is still trying to uphold that responsible adult role over Carl, but when they leave he settles in to sleep, expecting them back by noon.
Unfortunately, Carl’s still upset from earlier and no amount of Michonne’s antics will cheer him up. Seriously, props to Danai for putting all that crazy cheese in her mouth, I hope she only had to do that take once. Gross. She goes on to tell him that toddlers find her funny and she tells him about her three year old son, who thought she was hilarious. This new information is all Carl wants to talk about, and she promises to answer his questions after they clear the house they’ve just entered.
Back at the house, Rick wakes up to hear a group moving around downstairs. He hears the group of at least four men stomping around the house inspecting it, as well as killing one man they had with them. Rick hides under the bed just before one of them goes into the room to check it out. The watch that Carol gave him is ticking loudly and he makes it stop just as the man lays down on the bed to nap.
Michonne reveals to Carl that her son was named Andre Anthony. He was her only son and he was a handful. When Carl asks how long it’s been, she says it happened right after everything happened and when he asks who knows, she tells him no one else – Carl is the first person she’s told. He promises her secret is safe with him, but she clarifies that it’s not really a secret. Looking at the picture Carl brought her as he searches the rest of the house, it’s revealed to have graphic imagery of blood and violence over the image of a person.
The door that Carl just went through is now shut and she draws her katana as she goes to investigate the room. But literally, we just saw Carl go in there and now he’s nowhere to be found. Through the bathroom is a kid’s room, where Michonne finds two dead bodies in one bed, two dead kids in another, and a fifth in a chair in the corner. As she exits the room, Carl magically reappears and she tells him it’s just a dog to keep him from entering the room himself. He finally opens up about why he is so upset about Judith’s death – he got to name her, for one – and Michonne comforts him by telling him that she and Andre are together somewhere. Foraging mission complete, they begin to head back to Rick.
Rick, unfortunately, is in some shit with the strangers in the house. Two of them fight over the bed Rick is hiding under, with one of them actually seeing Rick there briefly before his companion forces him to pass out.
We’re finally brought back to Glenn, also in the back of the truck, who finally wakes up and flips out because he wants the truck stopped and he wants to go find Maggie. When it’s clear he’s going to do anything necessary, Abraham does finally stop the truck and explain to him that the fate of the human race is depending on them. He introduces himself, Rosita, and Eugene – the scientist who knows the cause of this whole mess – and they’re headed to DC. But when Glenn asks what happened, he’s told it’s classified information. They’d been talking on a satellite phone with DC, but it’s been a while since anyone on that end had picked up. Abraham asks for his and Tara’s help on their mission, but Glenn declines. Tara runs along behind him and offers to take him back the way they came with her sharpie arm directions.
It’s Abraham who tries to reason with him… by telling him Maggie is dead anyway. He and Glenn get into a fist fight and are distracted by the walkers steadily approaching Eugene and the truck. They’re alerted to the danger when Eugene begins firing with abandon at the walkers. When the dust settles Abraham utters the best line he’ll get, “Son of a dick!” when he realizes that Eugene shot a hole in their gas tank. The truck can’t be fixed and Rosita gets her first lines of, “Is this yours?” when she hands Glenn back his picture of Maggie.
With no other real options, and Glenn hell bent on going back to Maggie, Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita tag along behind them, headed back the way they came. On their trek, Abraham seems to be bonding to Tara, as he tries to convince her that saving the world is more important than heading back to a dead girl. Tara somehow knows all the magical relationships of this group, telling him that Rosita loves him and would follow him anywhere.
Finally, Rick manages to sneak out from under the bed he’s been hiding under and hides in a room. It’s one close call after another as he moves through the house to try to escape. He makes a mistake in trying to hide in the bathroom, only to find one of the men in there. Rick has no choice but to kill him before he alerts the others. Taking his gun and cracking the bathroom door open, Rick sneaks out the window and drops from the roof to the ground.
Hiding outside, he gets close to someone on the porch, but sees Michonne and Carl headed back. How Porchman didn’t see them coming, I’ll have no idea. But just as Rick readies an attack, there’s a commotion inside and he rushes towards it. My closed caption said something like, “Get her! Get her!” so I thought walkers were coming, but Talking Dead made it out to be that dead guy in the bathroom that Rick left for them. Whatever it was, while they’re distracted Rick runs to Michonne and Carl and hurries them away from the house, leaving behind who knows what.
On the road again, they come across the sign to Terminus and decide to head that direction. Setting them on a path to reunite with the others already headed that way.
English