Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 4 - Indifference

Titling an episode "Indifference" is a pretty ballsy move on the part of The Walking Dead.  The show certainly has plenty of detractors, and those individuals will have no problem mocking this episode based on the title.  Luckily, I am, of course, a fan of the show, and I thought this episode was passable, although a title like "Largely unimpressed" would be a more accurate description of my attitude towards it.

Season 4 of Walking Dead has been heavy on scenes intended to effect us (the audience) emotionally. These moments landed well in the previous episode, "Isolated", but "Indifference" is a different story.  The episode opens with an exchange between Carol and her "daughter" that falls a flat.  Child actors are always a little hit and miss, and while Lizzie is better than Carl at his worst, she just isn't a character I can bring myself to care about, despite her ample screen time so far this season.  

"Indifference" is a highly Carol-centric episode in general (unsurprising given the events of "Isolated").  I've enjoyed her character arc this season (and throughout the show in general), and her scenes with Rick here were pretty good.  Andrew Lincoln does a pretty good job of expressing his growing distrust (and perhaps disgust?) of Carol, and there are some wonderful subtle moments between the two (such as Rick's reaction when Carol essentially sends the young couple they randomly meet while scavenging to their death).  But as much as I have enjoyed the Carol story line, this send-off (while likely not a permanent one) for her seemed a little weak.  I hope that she will pop up again soon.

Also in this episode, Daryl and his crew engage in some mostly boring adventures.  There are a few good moments between Daryl and Michonne (and it is very cool to observe their growing chemistry), but Tyreese is a little too one-dimensional "angry black man" in this episode for my tastes, especially given how great Chad Coleman was in the previous episode.  And Bob...well, Bob is the only character I may care about less than Lizzie.  

Overall, "Indifference" could have benefited from some more prison scenes.  Things seemed so dire back there in the last episode, but time must have frozen during the events of this episode, because we got no updates about the mysterious flu situation.  Walking Dead is a show that has shown an unfortunate tendency to get bogged down in the past, and we are dangerously close to having that issue yet again.  The good news is this: Rick will undoubtedly have some explaining to do when he returns to the prison, and that should lead to some much needed conflict (of the non-Bob variety, that is).