Still opens with one of the creepiest scenes we've seen in a long time. It was a dark and stormy night... Seriously, it was. Also, Daryl and Beth just barely managed to outrun a herd before finding a car trunk to hide in while they passed. Daryl used his handkerchief to tie the trunk lid down without fully closing it. This gave us the nice, dark feeling of being trapped in a small space while they watched walker shadows move by, growling the whole way. That's a new scenario to fuel nightmares with. Thanks.
This is one of the best up close episodes where we really get to see the survival tactics that our characters have picked up over the years. We get to see Beth make a sunken campfire using some twigs, a piece of glass, and a broken car mirror. We get to see Daryl skinning a snake and Beth collecting bugs. Their camp is surrounded by rope and hubcaps to prevent against surprise attacks. It's a great setup scene.
Then we get the reality of what's happening. After the prison, Daryl shut down. He's reverting back into that silent, sullen loner he was before. This is demonstrated in a number of ways, but none more effectively than when he throws a bottle of water at Beth without even looking at her after she's said she needs a drink. Way to be a dick, Daryl. Now Beth was talking alcohol. Insider scoop: I would be too if I was in their shoes. You can take that to the bank.
She stalks off into the woods, apparently on the search for booze, and hides from a small group of walkers. She even calls Daryl a jerk. That's foul language from our baby here. After he takes her back to camp, she yells at him. You can stay in your suck-ass camp, Daryl. Beth needs booze. She actually said suck-ass. She's turning into a hooligan! Daryl is fine with just living out this soul-sucking existence for the rest of his life. Beth needs a mission. She knows her father is dead. She has little hope of finding her sister and brother in law again. So a drink is probably the best idea she's had all day and the one with the most chance of actually being achievable.
Cue dramatic setup: enter golf club.
Inside the club, you see the fallout of most dystopian novels. The class difference between the haves and have nots was played out here to a T. The rich are strung up on the ceiling while the poor are camped out below, having died and slowly dried out. Through the maze of hallways, we find another pileup of bodies with the phrase "Welcome to the dogtrot" painted on the walls. In the club store, there is a partially stripped female body affixed to the wall with a sign around her next that reads "Rich Bitch". We've hit on a lot of topics throughout the seasons - the class division and senseless violence and abuse of women was never more on display using the dead than it is here. There's no one alive left to fight against, just the fallout on display.
Beth tries to take the woman down and asks Daryl for help. He doesn't see that it matters because she's already dead. "It does matter," Beth insists. And it really does. This is what people do to women for fun, to relieve stress. It would matter to a woman like Beth who still has decency. They manage to cover her with a blanket.
This whole episode so far is showing what happens at the end of the world when your hate overwhelms you. It's showing the differences between groups and the animosity between them. It's also very demonstrably the difference between Beth and Daryl right now, which I'm not sure how I feel about. Upon entering the club, Beth is still looking for booze and avoiding bodies while Daryl is looting. This is the first time that he's not looting for anything useful, but he's packing his bag with wads of cash and jewelry. Wow. Way to make him look like a shallow, low-class hick.
Beth could use some new clothes so she grabs a cardigan in the shop along with some new shoes. But seriously, a yellow cardigan? That's gonna, like, wicked stain. It's probably also the preppiest piece of clothing she could put on at this point. Daryl takes out his aggression on a small group of walkers left inside, notably with the business end of a golf club, lobbing half a walker face directly at Beth's new white cardigan. She's half terrified of him right now, especially as you can easily see him doing all these things to the people at the golf club. If things had been different... Beth wanders off to find the last standing bottle of peach schnapps.
She says that maybe her idea is stupid, but she doesn't care so Daryl can just take his issues out on everything. So he does. He throws darts at guys dressed in suits, loots some more, and destroys property. This contrasts nicely with Beth at the bar, trying to wipe out teacups without breaking down into a puddle of emotions since she has lost her family, all but one of her adopted family who is currently totally ignoring her, literally at the end of the world, and has no hope of ever regaining her life back. Beth has had some serious ups and downs. She managed to find a reason to live when she was suicidal back in season 2. We got the most heartbreaking reading of her personal diary when the prison was attacked a few episodes ago. And now, here she is again, wanting to give up but not allowing herself. Beth, let me take you in my arms! You are my baby and we're finally getting to see how strong you are and how much you've grown and I hurt for you and oh god I'm going to cry.
Luckily, she starts crying for me. It's enough to snap Daryl of out his douche-baggery. He smashes her bottle and tells her that her first drink isn't going to be any damn disgusting peach schnapps. It's about time. Plus, bonus level, we also get to leave the super-blatant imagery behind.
Her first drink is going to be moonshine from a hidden still. Oh and remember what I said about imagery? I lied. We've just moved on to another cliche.
Now we are clearly in Daryl's world. A moonshine still in a broken down shack complete with plastic pink bra ashtray, just like the kind his pa used to shoot inside the house. And he is actually telling her about it. He's opening up and it deserves cuddles. Also, he gets introduced to every white kid's college drinking excuse - Never Have I Ever. This is all very charming so far. Especially when Beth slyly says that she's never been in jail. Smooth.
Hershal used to drink and got himself a night or twelve in the drunk tank, but the insinuation that Daryl must have been in jail before rubs him (and probably half the viewers) in the wrong way. "Is that what you think of me?" he asks, totally shut down. Granted, that's sort of what we all think of him. He's a backwoods kid who followed around his asshole brother anywhere, aping him, and they both planned on robbing the camp blind which is likely the only reason they joined them in the first place. It's what he was and the only reason he hasn't landed himself in jail is probably because he was too deep somewhere in a foxhole for the 5-0 to even find him.
Daryl finally gets his moment to throw a hissy fit of epic proportions. It's actually a long time coming. Do you remember earlier this season when Beth hugged him and told the man who most needed a cry that she didn't cry anymore. You are lying liars who cry.
He's come so far as a character as a man, but there's still that edge that many people think he's a little too rough to be totally civilized. We've watched him get spiky after Sophia died and Carol wanted him to join the group. We've watched him flail after he left the group with Merle and shoulder his way back to the prison with or without him. We watched him shed tears over the death of his only living family. But we've never really focused on how he's doing. People have just always assumed he was okay because he could push on, but he's finally gotten his shell cracked and the same sensitive baby brother that Merle alluded to is grabbing a weapon and taking it out on a walker.
So. Daryl pees in a corner, yells at Beth, picks up his weapon, drags Beth outside and wails on a walker. Like you do. Beth feels like shit. Actually, we all feel like shit at this point and if you don't I'm judging you hardcore right now. She runs out to him and goads him into finally admitting that this zombie journey is emotionally scarring and he's cared about the people they've lost.
And then she says something that made my eyes bug out the first time. She said that she knows when people look at her that they just see another dead girl. Oh snap! It's true though. In the zombie apocalypse, as in life, people only seem to value aggression and brute strength. It's especially true in patriarchal societies, which is to say almost all of them. No one values being able to survive quietly or smoothly, no one values patience and joy and optimism. Beth isn't like Rick or Michonne or Daryl, but she made it. She has her place and her strengths and it helped keep them all alive and happy for however long it lasted.
And while Beth has been enduring under everyone looking at her like a kid, Daryl has been blaming himself for the Governor's return. Maybe if he'd kept looking or been more vigilant, he could have saved the best home he'd ever known with people he cared about and who cared about him. He's never had anything until the prison and he worked hard for that only to have it taken away again. Remember? Daryl can't make it alone.
And then Daryl cries. And when Daryl cries, everyone cries with him, including Beth who reaches out and gives him what has to be one of only a handful of hugs in his life. Okay, I'm legit crying right now. I don't care who sees. He just sniffles and goes limp in her arms. Oh gaaaaawd.
The best thing to do in this situation is to drag their asses back inside and get slammed, which is exactly what they do. We find them later, talking on the porch. Daryl finally admits what he did before the walkers - nothing. I called that! Seriously, I totally called that one and vindication tears are the best feeling in the world. I've reflected quite a few times on how the end of the world was the best thing that could have happened to Daryl. He had nothing, was nothing, just followed Merle and acted like an asshole lacking anything better to do and no confidence or place to be otherwise. Now he's a brother, an integral part of a slightly less messed-up family, a provider, and someone who genuinely cares about other people. And yeah, they've lost the rest of the group for now, but Beth is his shining light. She's the best possible person he could have gotten lost with because she may be beaten down temporarily but she has an impossibly bright soul that will always recover.
Daryl knows she's one of the best people he's ever had too, especially when she reminds him that she'll be gone one day too and that he has to rely on himself to know that he's not trash. He doesn't like that one bit. And look at him! All shy and slyly allowing her to tell him he's a good boy and saying she'll have to remind him. Beth goes on to say he'll be the last man standing. Daryl's face is blank right that second, but I think he's screaming inside. There can't be a worse hell for him.
"You're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon."
Can you hear me screaming from here? Shhh. Listen close.
This is the Breakfast Club with zombies. Two misfits in a crazy world find each other and realize that they can still fit together. So they decide to leave this fucked up day and all of their horrid past behind in a blaze of glory. Setting the shed on fire is a questionable move as far as actually surviving the horde of walkers that will undoubtedly be drawn to it, but I can still get down with the symbolism. Not enough? They use a stack of cash as the firestarter. Punk, bitch. Then they flip it the bird as the music fades them out.
This is the happiest little psycho you've ever seen.
Eat it Judd Nelson.
And that, my friends, is the longest review of a single episode in history. It's actually a really important episode within the Walking Dead arc because this is the first episode that focuses solely on two characters and has no Grimes family in sight. Ya'll know how much I love that last point. We get to see the underworkings of Daryl, a character often seen but seldom delved into, and Beth, a character who has certainly had her milestones as far as events but has been tragically overlooked despite them. They get their chance to shine. And set shit on fire. Also, I didn't know that I shipped Beth/Daryl until this exact moment, but to hell with it - I ship it hard now!
The end. Seriously, I'll shut up now.
