‘The Walking Dead’ Breakdown: ‘Claimed’

SPOILERS AHEAD, so use caution, Walkers…

Season Four, Episode Eleven: “Claimed”

Written by Nichole Beattie and Seth Hoffman; Directed by Seith Mann

This week’s episode finished setting the stage for the rest of the season. We now have a clearer direction and new and interesting plot points, including a scientist with a mullet who claims he can save the world. I expect things to pick up speed in the coming weeks and to provide some of those great Walking Dead moments.

Quick Breakdown

The episode opens with a close-up of a road sign reading “Crook Rd.” This is clearly foreshadowing what’s to come for Glenn and company. We pick up with Tara and Glenn in the back of Abraham’s truck. Glenn is still passed out and Tara is nervously writing down the turn-by-turn directions on her hand (at least she’s thinking).

The truck stops and a few zombies approach. Tara quickly pulls her gun, but Abraham is quick to yell at her and begins killing them with a crowbar. He seems to be enjoying himself, which leads Tara to comment, “I’ve never seen that before. You were smiling.” And Abraham responds, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” Cue the creepy intro music.

Next we catch up Carl, Michonne, and Rick playing house. Michonne has changed clothes, is joking around with Carl about soy milk, and seems to be in the best mood we’ve ever seen her. After seasons of barely speaking, she’s suddenly a chatterbox, and I love it.

In the kitchen, Rick tells Michonne that Carl needs her, and she tells Rick, “I’m done taking breaks.” We all need you Michonne, so yes, please don’t leave. Michonne decides to take Carl out for a supplies run and leaves recovering Rick to rest. Much is made of the time and how long they should be gone, which makes us know something bad is going to happen.

Carl is down when they begin their journey because he keeps thinking about poor baby Judith, whom they all assume is dead. Michonne attempts to cheer him up by squirting canned cheese into her mouth. Carl tells her he’s laughing on the inside. (I actually love Carl and Michonne scenes because it gives both characters a chance to be different than they are with everyone else — we see interesting sides of both of them in this episode.)

Since her cheese gag didn’t work, Michonne decides to break her silence about her past, telling Carl that she had a three-year-old son. Nosy Carl is all over it and wants to know more. This works well for his character, but also for the audience. We all have questions for Michonne. She tells him she will answer one question for every room they clear in the house they are searching.

While they are having fun, Rick decides to take a nap but is startled awake by voices in the house. He gave his gun to Carl and realizes his only option is to hide under the bed. One of the voices comes into the room and decides to take a nap on the bed.

Carl and Michonne continue their Q&A a few houses down. We learn her son’s name was Andre and that no one else knows (which we assumed). Carl says he’ll keep her secret, but she says, “It’s not really a secret.” Michonne is becoming human again. As their search continues, Michonne stumbles upon a little girl’s room with the family’s bodies inside. She’s horrified and saddened, but quickly exits and closes the room so Carl won’t see them. When Carl questions her about the room, she says there was a dog in there (which seems worse), but Carl seems to accept this. He then tells Michonne that maybe baby Judith and Andre are together. Really, Carl?

We then return to Rick under the bed with the guy now asleep on top. Another guy enters, wakes the guy up, and they fight each other for the bed (which seems pretty silly). As they fight, one gets knocked to the ground, and the other one gets on top and strangles him. The guy being strangled can see Rick but dies before he can say anything. Of course, there’s now the fear of when the dead guy will turn.

Next we flip to Glenn waking up again in a strange place. He’s in the back of Abraham’s truck with Tara. He immediately panics and wants to know if they passed the bus. Tara tells them they did about three hours ago and that everyone was dead. Glenn freaks out and begins banging on the cab of the truck for it to stop.

The truck stops and Abraham and Glenn confront each other. Glenn is set on finding Maggie, and Abraham tries to convince him this is a waste of time. (He’s actually making a lot of sense in this scene.) He tells them, “We need people” and that the whole fate of the human race could depend on them. He goes on to explain that they are on a mission to take Eugene to Washington D.C. because he’s a scientist and knows exactly what caused this zombie outbreak. (Let me just pause to say that it’s alarming to me that a scientist with a mullet knows how to save the human race.)

Eugene-Porter-1392748026

We don’t get many specifics because Eugene says, “It’s classified.” But this is a new twist and a new storyline that might produce interesting results. Glenn, however, is not moved by the idea of saving the human race or by Eugene and his mullet (and can you blame him?). He wants to head off anyway. Abraham tells him, “There’s zero chance you will ever find your wife again alive or dead.” For this, Glenn punches him in the face.

They go at each other, and Tara and Rosita attempt to stop them. Eugene is the only one not engrossed in the fight and realizes that a group of zombies is emerging from the fields. In a panic, he begins spraying bullets everywhere, missing all the zombies but hitting the gas tank. Why doesn’t he know how to shoot a gun or that you need to aim for the head? Regardless, this does stop the fight.

Rick’s still under the bed but realizes he needs to escape. He gets out and runs into another upstairs bedroom as more men come up. He tries the windows but can’t get any open. He hears the men say they found a woman’s shirt (Michonne’s), which means they know people have been in the house recently. Rick then runs into the bathroom to discover one of the men in there. He struggles with him and ends up strangling him to death. (There’s a lot of strangling in this episode.) He takes the guy’s gun and goes out the bathroom window and jumps down into the backyard.

When we return to Abraham, Glenn is still planning to leave, but it no longer matters that much because their truck is destroyed thanks to the trigger happy mullet scientist. Glenn begins to walk away and Tara follows. Rosita also starts to follow telling Abraham, “What choice do we have?” Eugene agrees: “Trust me, I’m smarter than you.” (I don’t know about that, Mr. Mullet.)

Rick is now crouching beside the porch when one of the men comes out and sits down to eat. Rick then spots Carl and Michonne approaching in the distance and knows time is running out (see, time was important). He’s about to jump up and shoot the guy when a commotion in the house makes the man run inside. As he does, Rick runs toward Carl and Michonne to stop them from coming to the house.

Glenn and company are now on foot, but they’re still together. Abraham and Tara talk about being a “good person” (whatever that means in this world). Tara still feels guilty and is clearly skeptical of Abraham and this “save the world” idea. She probably should be since nothing is ever as it seems in The Walking Dead world.

The episode ends with Michonne, Carl, and Rick walking along the railroad and finding the sign for the Terminus community. The stage is set.

Rating

B+

Overall, I liked this episode. It gave us some interesting moments and some great setup for future action. I grew rather tired of the Governor plot, so I’m excited for some new stories to unfold and these seem promising.

Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…

Michonne got new clothes clearly from the house they are in, but Rick is still hanging out in his blood-soaked torn up shirt. Why?

There’s terrible art in the house Michonne and Carl are searching.

No one heard Rick’s fight with the guy in the bathroom? Come on.

Why does Rosita look like she walked off the set of a porno?

Related Content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter