Reviewed by Rich Jepson.

Following last week’s ‘road trip’ and the dismissal of Carol (for the time being at least), I began worrying that this episode was just going to be a sequence of scenes dealing with the aftermath of her departure and the aiding of all of the sick, how wrong I was.

Tonight’s episode had some truly gripping moments as Hershel led the fight to protect as many of the infected as possible. This was the most amount of action we’ve seen since the opening episode and it looks like Beth will have to reset her ‘… Days without an accident’ board back to zero.

In terms of tempo I think the writers got this episode spot on. It wasn’t rushed and gave us just enough balance of substance to keep what would otherwise be a filler episode full of excitement. Hershel began the day keeping alive another former member of the Woodbury clan with an ever-decreasing Glenn as his assistant. This was clearly an explanation of how you can keep a person alive for an indefinite time, so the idea that another member of the cast might end up like this was there from the start.

Glenn has been sidelined for a couple of weeks with this virus so I’m glad that we got to see him in the mix more as he’s a staple character to the show. Hershel’s good will and refusal to fear for his own safety really drove this episode throughout. His discussions with Glenn and Sasha about moving the dead bodies to finish them off before they reanimated was compelling and humane. Despite the logic even in times of such horror, Hershel is still willing to risk his life for the comfort of others as he puts it “a sad soul can kill more than a germ”.

The reality of the situation soon became apparent when Caleb, looking gruesomely close to death, told Hershel the facts of the situation and even showed him a get out of jail free card in the shotgun under his bed. It was from this moment that you could see where things were going, if only Hershel had shut all the cell doors properly instead of ensuring the killing of the recently deceased was done in privacy.

In what was a series of tense moments and close calls, Hershel was faced with tough choices and one hell of a fight. Breaking Caleb’s arm to get to the shotgun was the easy part when it came to it and there were a handful of moments when I really questioned whether Hershel would survive this onslaught. When he backed himself into the guards tower and the moment when he suplexed the walker onto the steel cage roof before taking back the DIY life support bag, (excuse the wrestling pun but) this really was hell in a cell.

There was also a very creepy moment during all of this that reiterated that there is possibly something very wrong with Suzie, the little girl who sees the zombies as pets to be named. The walker with the breathing apparatus on was quite a scary sight as he limped down the walkway after her, yet the little girl kept teasing him without a moment’s hesitation. She’s got issues that’s for sure and at some point it’s either going to get her or, most likely, someone else killed.

Even in the immediate aftermath of the battle, as she looked down on Glenn and Maggie, her foot rubbing over the blood set off a few alarm bells, when she heard Hershel’s response to the question ‘Is it over?’ she looked almost disappointed, eerie.

Meanwhile, outside Rick and Carl did a bit of father-son bonding as Rick finally seems to have understood that a man is developing underneath his old Sherriff’s hat. This complemented the action inside the prison well and really added to the intensity of the episode. There was a particular moment as the fence broke that saw Rick body checking a few walkers to buy Carl some time to get up the hill, this made the scene for me as it proved just how much Rick is willing to risk for the safety of his son.

As the Governor’s cameo at the end, well, we don’t know much but I guess we can assume he’s been keeping an eye on the place for a while.

9/10

Scene of the Episode: Prison Riot – Hershel showed that there’s life in the old dog yet as he fights off walker after walker in order to preserve what little life was left in the cell block.