Review: The Walking Dead ’Isolation’

Last week on The Walking Dead, it looked like sickness was coming to our poor group of self-imposed inmates.  Someone tried to stop it by killing off those that were infected, but as we see very quickly in the latest episode, ‘Isolation’ that bit of murder didn’t help things at all.  In fact, in addition to the disease spreading just as it always would have, we now have a very, very pissed off Tyreese.

We begin this episode with Tyreese screaming for revenge.  This is quickly followed by some fisticuffs between him and Rick, with neither of them coming away without a few bruises.  Luckily, they make up (for the most part), so they can work together to figure out who did the dirty deed.

Meanwhile, the crew does everything they can to isolate the various victims of the plague, though even this does little to halt its spread.  In the end, Hershel has to put himself in danger to help the sick while a group heads off to find some medicine.  If they can’t get the medicine back in time, a whole bunch of people may die, including Glenn and Tyreese’s daughter.

Oh, and Rick figures out just who was responsible for killing the two sick people, but I’m not going to spoil that one (though it’s likely been spoiled already if you’ve gone anywhere near the Internet in the last few days).

Once again, I feel like this is by far the best season of The Walking Dead to date.  Being a fan of the original comic series, I feel like Scott Gimple’s involvement (as well as Robert Kirkman writing this episode) has created a show that follows the tone of the comics a lot closer.  We see people struggling against each other and against themselves and even though the zombies are everywhere, they don’t really become a major threat unless the living let them.  Interactions between characters are less “I’m right!”, “No, I’m right!” and we see that everyone is right depending on the point of view you want to take.  People do what they have to do to survive and not all of it’s happiness and ponies.  Yes, these issues have been addressed in previous seasons, but this time I’m actually believing it.  And the actors have moved up a notch in being able to portray it, which is an extra bonus.

The more this season plays out, the more excited I’m becoming for what the future may hold on The Walking Dead.  And though some have claimed that Tyreese’s zombie-mashing outburst was out-of-character, if you know what kind of person he was in the comics, you will probably appreciate the change as much as me.  Seriously, the TV version of Tyreese doesn’t hold a candle to the character in the book.  I sincerely hope he turns into the raging bad-ass that I once loved.

Next week promises even more chaos and zombie-infested madness with ‘Indifference’.  For a sneak peek at that, check out a couple of trailers at this site.

Photo Credits -           

Isolation courtesy of ibtimes.com