Great episode. Too bad they had to off Lizzie like that though. While she may not have fans, her character was much more interesting than Carl
I'll take crazy Lizzie over phoney Carl any day.

On Talking Dead it said that the walkers were lured to the fire because their eyes are drawn to light and motion.

I thought it was excellent. And it was only 2 episodes ago where it looked like Lizzie was going to snuff Judith out to stop her crying.


Funny, I was just thinking how enjoyable this episode was because of Rick and Carl's absence.

This episode reminded me of the complaints from when they were all at Herschel's farm, how the adults would always let Carl run off unsupervised to get into trouble.

In this case, let me get this straight: You have two adults, two children and an infant. And you know that both girls have issues with being able to protect themselves --- one won't kill humans and one won't kill walkers. You've even found her playing with a walker.

But the two adults go off to look for whatever and leave the two little girls alone to watch the baby? Wouldn't it make more sense to pair one adult with one child for safety reasons, even if Lizzie wasn't disturbed?

I liked the episode --- it was the best out of this run of episodes --- but it was another case of the story advancing only because of lazy writing.

All the instances that I can think of, they have turned pretty quickly after death: Shane, the Dr. who got Andrea when she was tied up, the sick people in the prison, Merle.

They really missed their chance to have Carl and Lizzie hook up and create some shithouse rat crazy kid.

After Laurie's sister died in the first season, the change seemed to take several hours or a whole night. I guess it depends on when the attack on their camp happened.

Yep, I agree. In the real world you would pair an adult with a child unless there was no way to get around it.

That make no sense at all. Ty wanted to get into Carol's pants. Did you see how he copped a feel when he hugged Carol. The girls had to watch the baby to give Ty a chance to make his move. He aint the governor. He isn't going get it on in front of children like some one eyed crazy man.

I am in complete agreement. The minute I realized this episode was going to be about Tyreese and his harem of white girls, I knew that one of the two girls was a goner. Lizzy's character arc over the season was badly handled, TWD is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. It didn't really feel like it was the right time for Carol's revelation but they've dragged so many inane subplots out, I guess it was now or never.

The only good thing to come from this episode is that we don't have to worry about the story of crazy Lizzy anymore.

Points taken. I was thinking that Carol is being pushed to the point beyond which she might not be able to "come back"...the point Rick was in danger of reaching...even while she became hardened as the designated executioner. But maybe I'm wrong and she's just made of strong stuff, won't snap, and (as superdeluxe said) has managed to regain her humanity somewhat. Still think this stuff has to be taking a serious toll on her psyche, but then soldiers have done some pretty horrific things to other human beings and have been able to come out on the other side.

Thanks for the perspectives that make me think I'm selling Carol a bit short (and she's always been one of my favorites). I still think Daryl might be better off with Beth...someone who's still fairly "uncorrupted" at this point.

Also agree that it seemed insane to leave the girls with the baby...especially after just fighting off a massed walker attack. As Salty pointed out above, this just seemed an excuse to give Lizzie a chance to go all Borden on little sis.

One other point: Is is "kind" to leave walkers behind who are trapped (the latest being the guy on the tracks)? Hardwick mentioned on TD that a lot of tweets mentioned Old Yeller...I commented during the show to my wife that Old Yeller would have come in handy as an illustration to Lizzie & Mika about putting down walkers...that they weren't themselves, and that they wouldn't want to exist like that if they still had human understanding. Likewise, the Of Mice & Men references to Lizzie's "mercy killing" echoed that theme...that, in a world in which one has to fight against being eaten alive and turning into a "thing", the "true death" (borrowing from TB) is something preferable when no other option is available. I always wonder when they leave walkers behind...knowing that the humans are sick of killing but also knowing that they are "putting these things out of their misery." It seems cruel to leave them to linger in that state.

I thought the actress who played Lizzie bears a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Mitchell from Lost/V/Revolution.

When the girl was trying to shoot the deer, all I could think of was Carl bounding out of the woods and getting shot instead (again).

All I could think of was that Carol must have been thinking, "We've been living on chestnuts for days and haven't had a decent meal for as long as I can remember. We are living on the edge of malnutrition at best, starvation at worst. Let's have the 7 year-old take the shot."

Ah crap. I was about to post that for the first time in this series, the characters didn't do anything so obviously stupid - but I forgot about this particular chunk of stupidity for some reason.

Still a decent episode mainly because it was pretty fucked up.

Has this show ever gone 3 episodes straight without an appearance from Rick?

I was impressed that the episode did not show Lizzie killing Mika, just the after effects with Mika already dead and Lizzie with bloody hands and a knife. Actually showing the murder scene would've changed the tone considerably, made it more outright horror than pure shock.

The Talking Dead trivia splashes said this was the 1st time the show has gone 3 episodes without Rick.

I don't give a crap what happened to everyone else - I'm glad the deer lived.

If fire attracts the walkers why were they walking the opposite direction from it? Is it like moths to a flame or not? Are we supposed to believe they got smart and realized fire=bad?

Agreed about the adults leaving the children alone. I think Carol thought Lizzie figured stuff out now after shooting the walkers and it was safe. I guess. Still it was stupid.

Fire had burned itself out (white smoke). Walkers have no more bright and shiny things and shamble away.

OK I'll accept that.

Sounds like a great way to get rid of annoying walkers bothering anyone anymore. Just keep a nice fire going.

Wow. Tough watch, this episode.

It did seemed a bit telegraphed that Mika was going to die, but I hadn't imagined it going down like that. Both girls' deaths were really sad.

I thought Carol's timing with Tyreese was perfect. She seemed so heartbroken by what had happened, that she didn't care if Tyreese killed her. Then his forgiving her sort of renews her spirit.

I'd just be curious how Lizzie managed to kill Mika - they seemed to assume that was a given. Crazy nuts Lizzie, can we really believe her very first instinct would've been to do it by surprise/back turned? The wound was in the front anyways, right?

Needless to say, I think it more likely Nutty McNuts would've said, "Hey, Mika, I'm gonna turn you into one of them and you'll see it all my way! C'mere, you!'

For instance, Lizzie nonchalantly tells Carol and Tyrese she planned/plans on doing Sophia next, and like she was still going to and would be allowed to do so once they saw Mika. The lunatic clearly believed in what she was doing and felt others would, too. I don't exactly buy that she just springs it on Mika without saying something - even if she did, Mika would've been likely to defend herself or run away the second she sees the knife being pulled.

Obviously it happened, so we're supposed to believe it did go down that way... I just have a hard time buying it, all things considered. Furthermore, why the hell wouldn't she have slashed Sophia's throat the second Mika hits the ground? Or hurriedly does so when Carol and Tyrese appear? (Because the 'powers that be' couldn't have that, obviously, which shows the flawed/shoddy approach to the entire thing.)

Furthermore, if she really was so delusional, believing the dead are... whatever she thinks they are, why wouldn't she just have killed herself first? She never once hinted she had any plans of offing herself, nor the adults... I dunno, the whole thing seems to have a lot of holes to me. Just as others mentioned the absurdity of leaving Sophia after discovering Lizzie playing with zombies. Seems the writers fell in love with the payoff, having Carol *have* to kill Lizzie, and rationality be damned if it got in the way.

On the Talking Dead, Melissa McBride mentioned the crossword puzzle that was only partially put together on the table was revealed to the cast to be a picture of Carol's dead daughter Sophia.

They mentioned it on Talking Dead, but we also saw it on the show just a few episodes back. When Glenn and Tara were leaving the prison, Glenn threw a Molotov cocktail on the car to attract the walkers away from them.

That's the thing. If they wanted a boring show, the survivors would just teether armless and jawless walkers at the fence of the prison.

Wasn't it a jigsaw puzzle?