The Walking Dead: An Evil Within Review

.....................I, uh, I... I almost cried.

Spoilers galore follow.

So the episode started off a bit weird, by which I mean everyone was happy: Hershel walking on crutches, Carl and Beth resisting the urge to make like Glen and Maggie, who's location results in a pretty major laugh, people are cracking jokes, heck, Rick's even making eye contact with Lori. And then the prison starts getting sabotaged and zombies attack. And people start dying.

May as well get the big one out of the way first: Lori is dead. When she started giving birth in the middle of the zombie attack, I figured this was just something to amp up the intensity and it'd all pan out. And then the blood shows up, and she tells Maggie she needs to give her a C-section, one she won't survive. And Carl has to watch. It's never been easy tolerating, let alone liking, Lori, that much isn't a secret. But the amount of intensity and emotion in the scene, as Carl said good bye to his mother and Maggie sliced her open to retrieve the baby, nearly had me in tears. The actors did such a good job in this scene, perfectly portraying what was happening, just selling it perfectly, and, well, bringing the audience to tears. This was easily the most dramatic moment of the entire show thus far. And then as Carl had to put a bullet in his dead mother's brain to stop her from turning, briefly flashing back to Rick's advice in season 2, well, any Carl haters are now silent. This boy is a man.

Before this even happens though, T-Dog gets bit, at which point I realized I was in for a heavy episode. It was on the shoulder to, so I was more or less convinced they'd just amputate his arm and he'd live right up to the point where he charges a few walkers so Carol can get away and gets eaten alive. As emotional or disturbing as Lori's death? No, but probably more shocking. The shame in it is that T-Dog had finally gotten some development just twenty minutes earlier, campaigning for the other prisoners to be able to join the group. He was finally more then just a throwaway character. And then he dies.

The implication is that Carol is now dead, as we were meant to surmise from her head scarf. Of course, if this is the case, it was off screen and was overshadowed by two other deaths, so it didn't really resonate like it should have. That's assuming she's actually dead. I'm not saying the Walking Dead writers don't have the stones to kill three people off in one episode, but if we didn't see it, assuming it actually happened in a twisty show like TWD might be a mistake. Granted, it could just be we don't want her to be dead, but I'm not writing a Chewbacca-eulogy for her just yet.

The big reveal of who's behind all this really took me by surprise: Andrew. He absolutely had the motive, what with Rick all but handing him to the walkers, but that's kind of it: how the hell'd he survive that? Doesn't really matter, he's dead by other prisoner who's name escapes me now, an action which might get him into the group, but the reveal still caught me off guard in an episode that'd already thrown me for quite a few loops. I mean that as a good thing, obviously.

The Woodbury scenes felt a tad out of place, but they were still good, providing a bit of breathing room and some info: the Governor's name is Phillip, his wife's dead but his daughter's still around somewhere, and he's pining for Andrea. Merle's wants to look for Daryl, but his sense of obligation to the Gov keeps him from pushing it. And while Michonne is putting a tad much into her acting, it was fun to see her play detective.

The final scene hammers home the emotion, as Maggie and Carl walk out with the baby but no Lori, driving Rick into a full on breakdown. I was speechless, and really wanted to watch the next episode before next week. TWD is one of the best things on TV right now, and this episode couldn't be a better example of why.

Final Rating: 100%