The Walking Dead Review- "The Grove"

Carol spotted a bear.  Carol doesn't like bears.

Warning: The following review contains a shitload of spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

Let's face it...The Walking Dead has been rather weak lately.  While it has been a great way of exploring characters at their most vulnerable points, it has been dragging quite significantly.  While all of the different members being split up provides a very interesting scenario, it feels like this was done simply to "pad out" the rest of the season.  That's not to say that the second half of this season has been bad...it has just lacking that little extra something that usually makes The Walking Dead great.  Until now.

From the opening shot of the eldest sibling playing with a walker outside, the viewer could clearly tell something would be amiss in this episode.  As the episode progressed, some questions were raised...one being who, or what, started the fire in the distance?  Then it dawned on me during the final quarter of the episode that the events unfolding in front of me were some of the most disturbing, yet emotionally powerful moments I've ever seen on a television screen.  And this is coming from a show that's based off of a damn comic book.  Sunday's episode was an emotional punch to the gut that I never saw coming; I was going into the episode thinking it was purely filler, but was absolutely amazed by it.

So, shall I delve into the particular events that unfolded?  Absolutely.  HOLY SHIT.  Excuse me for the language, but that is the most likely the best summary of the collective reaction of viewers throughout their households.  Tyreese and Carol returned and found that the young, sweet sister was downright murdered by crazy girl, in an effort to turn her into a walker.  They arrived just in time to prevent said crazy sister from "turning" baby Judith.  After a brief discussion with Tyreese, when he gathers that the same girl was the one feeding mice to the walkers, Carol claims "She (the girl) can't be around people," takes the girl outside and puts one into her head after she tells her to "look at the flowers."  Damn...and this isn't even the end of the episode.  Carol confesses to burning the bodies, one of which being Tyreese's girlfriend.  This is the ultimate moment of clarification and closure for Tyreese, and the look in his face is absolutely heartbreaking before he breaks down in tears and delivers an "I forgive you..." pulling his hand back away from the gun on the table in front of him, but not before saying that she would have to live with that decision for the rest of her life.

I have been using the words "crazy girl/eldest sibling" and such because the normal viewer probably does not even know the names of the girls.  That's okay, because up until this episode, I really didn't even care what their names were as they seemed quite insignificant to the overall plot structure of the show.  That being said, the performances from both of these little ones was great.  It is difficult for child actors to convey any sense of emotion, but they did a fantastic job with what they had to work with.  Melissa McBride (Carol) was downright fantastic and provided, hands down, one of the best performances on the show thus far.  Chad Coleman (Tyreese) was lack-luster, until the final few moments where he breaks down after hearing the news from Carol.

At a glance, this episode was one of my favorite episodes; similar in "shock factor" to that of the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones.  These are exactly the types of episodes The Walking Dead needs more of.  Episodes have been very dry as of late, and I am hoping this is not the case with the next few considering the season finale is coming up shortly.  This was a breath of fresh air and gives me another reason to eagerly anticipate every Sunday night.  At least for the next couple of weeks.

Rating:

9/10

 (9 out of 10)