"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner

There was death in every corner of The Walking Dead 4.3 last night - I can't think of a single major character who didn't have a close encounter with death, whether zombie or flu-plague or whatever. This heightened in-your-face peril is making this the best season of The Walking Dead since its debut  a few years ago.

But Hershel provided one of the real profiles in courage, with his decision to go in and treat the flu-ridden patients even though the risk is real that he'll contract it.  Of course, as I've pointed out in previous reviews, and as Herschel mentions himself, people have different levels of resistance to any flu strain, so it's by no means clear that Hershel will get it.   But he's certainly increased his chances of falling ill by attending to the ill in the prison.

What role the antibiotics will play, if our team indeed gets back with them, is also not clear.  The meds could range from curing everyone to just some of the afflicted to no one.  It's hard to imagine The Walking Dead without Glenn, so presumably he'll be saved, but I felt the same way about Lori.

Hershel's bravery was not a transformation but a confirmation of the brave soul that we already knew he was.    Carol's toughness is, in contrast, much more a change from what we thought her to be.  We saw the beginning this season in her teaching the students how to kill walkers, but in 4.3 her revelation as the killer of the corpses we saw at the end of 4.2 is a surprise.  In retrospect it makes perfect sense, as good narrative surprises do, which is the paradox of the effective surprise.

It was good to see Darryl and Michonne fighting so well together.  They're obviously not out of the woods on this yet, and next week bears some high anxiety watching.

See also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu







-> Just in time for the new plague on The Walking Dead, win a free copy ofThe Consciousness Plague on Starpulse!


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