The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 5 Recap ‘Internment’ — ‘Guess Who’s Back?’

Herschel battles the infected while Rick and Carl fight back the horde of the dead looking to break into the prison while an old friend comes calling in a shocking return…

By Scott Harris — Staff Writer

THE GOVERNOR’S BACK! THE GOVERNOR THE GOVERNOR!

I know, I know. I saw him, too. I want to get to that. But first, I’d like to cover what happened during the first 59 minutes, 53 seconds of this episode of The Walking Dead, titled “Internment.”

I understand the compulsion to jump right to the final moment. This wasn’t the world’s most action-packed episode on the At-Least-For-A-Show-About-Eating-Guts scale. This, after all, was a Hershel Episode.

Imagine the equally maligned and well-regarded “Lisa Episodes” from the glory years of The Simpsons and you have your data point. See, Hershel Episodes are always the thoughtful ones. Perhaps you believe them to be corny. They usually mean you’re Back At The Ranch, methodically gathering expedition like cordwood, just waiting for the next burst of action.

On the good side, if you’ll indulge a brief continuation of the tangent, Hershel Episodes, like Lisa Episodes, are also what remind you of the stakes. They inject the humanity. These are just everyday people, by God. And they’re struggling! They’re struggling, bro! And after all, aren’t we all just a bunch of veterinarians trying to figure out how to operate on people?

OK, that feels nicely overanalyzed. Most of this episode follows Hershel through his paces on the sick ward from hell, still laboring in a semi-state of self-exile. And seriously, it’s getting to be like the slums of Calcutta in there, and Hershel’s the snowy-bearded guardian angel, part Mother Theresa, part Santa Claus, part Jack Kevorkian.

I have to say the doc lost a lot of patients during his rounds (the most notable being the recently arrived physician, Dr. S, who, you know, would have been useful). And wouldn’t you know it, but one or two of them went sour in their beds while Hersh had his back turned, tending to some distracting selflessness. So there were hijinks on that front, then.

Rick also returned to camp, and shortly reunited with this son, Carl. There was a funny and endearing (maybe neither intentionally) bit of dialogue when Rick slides a bag of supplies for the kid ward over to Carl and says “there’s a lot of fruit leather in there. Just make sure everyone brushes their teeth when they’re finished.” With all the zombieing and such, a dad still finds time to care about the teeth brushing. I don’t know, maybe I’m just hormonal.

But I’ll tell you what: That relationship is more complex than just fruit leather. Rick still wants to shield Carl from the violence and gore, even as Carl continues to chomp at the bit for an opportunity to prove his mettle. Finally, when a glut of walkers breaks through a small section of the prison fence, Rick enlists his son to solve the problem. Know how to load that machine gun, Carl? Commence hair-tousling.

So they go out and they do the damn thing, and the exercise confirms what has been clear about Carl for multiple seasons now: Carl is a bad man, er boy. Unflappable, stone cold murderer of walkers.

As the episode winds down, Daryl and his cavalry ride their minivan steed into town with the medicine, and not a moment too soon for many, including Glenn, who was in dire straits. Hershel finally finds a moment alone, which he elects to spend weeping with his Bible. And while it remains to be seen if the drugs will work, for now there is hope.

And if you didn’t get that, let’s cut away to Rick and Carl standing, a new understanding between them, in The Garden, which I like to call The Hope Garden. They’re in The Hope Garden eating Green Things in The Sunlight. Get it, viewer? The hope is springing forth in an eternal fashion in The Hope Garden.

But wait…what’s that I hear? There, in the distance. Is that…is that the high-pitched squeal of violins in the breeze? Pan back, camera, so we might identify the source of these violins.

And there, over there, to the side, a little fuzzy. A man with an eye patch, watching the prison gates from just inside the tree line.

As Lisa Simpson would say: DUNH DUNH DUUUUHHNNNNNNNNNNN.

Also for those curious — the song that was featured several times during the episode is called “Oats in the Water” by Ben Howard. You can hear it below: