The Walking Dead‘s return to TV screens everywhere is so close I can almost taste it!
(Though not the walkers themselves thankfully although I do hear they taste like chicken.)
At 9pm Sunday 9 February US time, and 7.30pm Monday 10 February Australian time (12.30pm if you’re REALLY keen; let’s face it, I am), episode 9 of season 4, “Too Far Gone” will go to air to no doubt monstrously large audiences once again.
The return episode finds the Prison Gang in a number of small groups, each doing their best to simply get to some kind of safety in the aftermath of the bitter, bloody and ultimately pointless battle for the prison (which saw the death of both the conscience of the group, Hershel (Scott Wilson) and the psychotic Governor (David Morrisey) who is supposed to be making some sort of appearance in at least one back 8 episode).
You might not think it was possible for the post-apocaylptic world these people inhabit to get any worse, but trust us it has, and the final half of season 4 finds them tested in ways they have been before, according to an interview with series creator Robert Kirkman on insidetv.ew.com:
“There will be episodes that focus on different groups at a time when they’re in their worst situation yet. We’re really going to really drill down into them and get to know them much more than we’ve gotten to know them before. I think after the end of these eight episodes you’re going to be acutely aware of who these people are and I think they’re going to be some really shocking revelations about what makes people tick and who they really are at their core.”
A brutally bruised and battered Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is on the run with son Carl (Chandler Riggs) but alas no Judith, and is well aware things will never be the same (“We’ll never get things back to the way they used to be”), while Beth (Emily Kinney), with the ever dependable Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) by her side, is praying they aren’t alone (We aren’t the only survivors. We can’t be”).
Michonne (Danai Gurira), whose backstory is going to be expansively explored in these eight episodes, appears to have found herself some new walker “pets” and devoted couple Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn (Steven Yuen) are cruelly separated, unsure if they will ever see each other again.
It is bleak, it is grim, which frankly speaking is exactly what you’d expect in the aftermath of the cataclysmic battle they barely escaped from with their lives.
It’s a situation ripe with dramatic possibilities which the series producers are adamant they will explore as thoroughly as possible (see video below) and which Robert Kirkman says, again in the insidetv.ew.com interview, will surprise many viewers:
“… there are so many hints and so many little breadcrumbs thrown out that are going to be paid off in the back half of season 4 that people are going to be shocked at the things that they didn’t notice. There are so many little things that are unresolved and are going to be picked up and addressed in these last eight episodes and that recording is definitely chief among them but there’s a lot of stuff we’re going to be dealing with.”
It will all add up, no doubt, to riveting, engrossing viewing, the most fun you’ll ever have with the undead!
The Walking Dead season 4, part 2 returns on Sunday 9 February at 9/8C US time and 12.30/7.30pm Monday 10 February in Australia.
Oh and if you go out on the streets today, you’re in for a big undead surprise!
And no, I don’t mean re-animated teddy bears looking for a ghoulish picnic either …
UPDATE: 8 February 2013
Even Conan O’Brien has got into The Walking Dead spirit, zombie-fying himself perfectly for the intro to his show on which he featured the cast of the show.
He makes a perfect walker I must say, sensibly checking his smartphone maps when his rambling gets a little off track.
Like any zombie with a still active plan would do naturally.