Review – The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 15 – “Us”

[NOTE: This review is for The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 15 and contains SPOILERS!]

The Walking Dead’s latest episode “Us” teaches Daryl the rules to claiming. Meanwhile, Glenn and Tara break off from Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita to continue the search for Maggie. The two main stories are well balance considering Daryl’s story is just starting as Glenn’s resolves.

Daryl’s story dives into his internal conflict juxtaposing the man he has become with Rick and Co, and the man he could revert to with Joe’s group. One of the cronies, Len, accuses Daryl with stealing his half of a rabbit, which Joe saw Len planted it, but in an act of self-righteousness give Len the chance to come clean. He lies about it and Joe has the gang teach him a lesson resulting Len’s death. Afterwards Daryl sees the body and considers covering it with a tarp providing a makeshift burial, but chooses not to. Joe tries to further persuade Daryl that men like them would never be welcomed at Terminus. Joe references the events from the episode “Claimed” that the guy they’re tracking killed one of their own and left him to turn. Rick, Michonne, and Carl are inserted into the episode to show Joe’s group is right on their heels.

The episode give audiences hope when Glenn and Tara with Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita stumble onto one of the many signs from Maggie left for Glenn. At the tunnel’s entrance, Glenn is convinced it’s the shortest route to catch up to Maggie’s group, while Abraham decides to go around it in order to better protect Eugene, so the two groups split up. And to further complicate the issue, part of the tunnel has caved in pinning a handful of walkers in the wreckage, with a herd trapped on the other side. Coming to the conclusion that Maggie must have made it through, Glenn and Tara press on, but not before Tara gets her leg caught in the rubble. Not leaving without her, Glenn unloads his handgun on the group of walkers.

Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene return in an explosive entrance with reinforcements in the form of Bob, Sasha, and Maggie. They blow away the rest of the walkers and just like that Glenn and Maggie are reunited. He introduces Maggie to Tara saying they met on the road and he wouldn’t have made it this far without her help. The group collectively decides to head to Terminus, and they find a clean gated community complete with a growing vegetable garden it appears to be abandoned but they are warmly greeted a mysterious woman who is only introduced as Mary.

I was sure we were going to get closer to the answers of Beth’s disappearance with Joe’s gang squatting in the garage, or at least have her mentioned during Maggie and Glenn reunion. Alas she’s lost in the shuffle of stories, and we probably won’t get any answers until season five. With one episode left the happy ending can’t last forever; the scene in which Maggie burns the only photo Glenn has provides an uneasy feeling that terrible things are on the horizon.

Terminus offers more questions than answers, but with one group already there the next episode can focus on the unaccounted groups. Although a showdown between Rick and Joe could provide some action it seems too little too late for it to have a lasting impact short of killing off a major player. The collision course is set and is sure to end with some kind of confrontation, but The Walking Dead returns next week with its season finale episode “A”.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? What do you think of Mary so far? What are your thoughts on Terminus? Which question(s) are you hoping to get answers to in season five?

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The writer of this piece was:

Laurence Almalvez
Laurence has previously written over at Whatculture.com.
Laurence tweets from @IL1511