I enjoyed this episode more than "After". Walking Dead is a show that has been criticized at times in the past for it's pacing, and with good reason. Things tend to move a little slow in the world of this particular zombie drama. And because of that past reputation, I assumed that we would be getting a few more episodes like "After" to start the second half of season 4. In short, a few relatively slow-paced episodes focusing on one or two groups of survivors as we gradually learn what happened to all of our beloved characters following the fall of the prison. Turns out, though, it wasn't very gradual at all. "Inmates" serves pretty much as an enormous information dump, letting us know exactly where everyone is and what they have been up to since that tank rolled into town.
And I liked the approach. As a one-off episode, at least. There was so much catching up to do that we didn't linger very long with any characters, instead jumping away quickly to the next story segment. I suspect that it would get a little tired if every episode was this fragmented, but it worked for "Inmates". Of course, I never thought for a minute that Walking Dead would kill off any main characters off-screen (or even in a flashback), so a lot of the "did (insert main character here) survive?" scenes lacked a little drama, but the zombie scenes managed to keep the tension high. I have to give credit where credit is due: in it's early seasons, Walking Dead struggled a little with finding the right balance in terms of exactly how much zombie-killing to include. But over the last couple of seasons, they have perfected the formula. It always seems like there is just enough zombie action going on to satisfy my (admitted) blood lust without ever getting monotonous.
One thing I was really looking forward to was how the characters would be divided up, and how some unusual pairings might work on screen. In that regard, "Inmates" did not disappoint. It reminded me a little of the early seasons of the show, before everybody grouped up and settled down, when nobody to got choose who they ended up needing to rely on. Everyone was simply making do with what they had. Of course, some of the pairings are incredibly convenient. Carol (who I am glad to see back) had to end up with Tyreese. And two of the more physically attractive, young characters on the show (Darryl and Beth) ended up together, so it's pretty easy to guess what direction that particular story-line will go in. But Maggie, Sasha, and Bob (who actually showed flashes of a personality in this episode)? Glenn and the sister of The Governor's girlfriend? Those are potentially intriguing pairings. "Inmates" succeeded in making me very excited to see where the story will go from here and just how our cast will be (inevitably) reunited.
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