‘The Walking Dead’ 4.14 Recap: “The Whole World’s Haunted Now”

Although this week’s episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ yet again focuses on just one group of characters, it turns out to be one of the most daring (and should I say controversial?) episodes of the entire series. Some will hate this one and some will love it, but give credit to the writers for making bold moves.

The episode focuses on Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika and baby Judith. It opens with a creepy scene of a girl playing tag with a Walker, as seen from inside a house. We’ll find out more about that later in the episode, but loyal fans of the show won’t have a hard time figuring out which character it is.

Early in the episode, while Carol and Mika are separated from Tyreese, Judith and Lizzie, Tyreese sees a Walker heading their way down the railroad tracks (which they’ve been following to Terminus). Tyreese asks Lizzie to watch Judith, but when he goes to kill the Walker (which has fallen and gotten caught on the tracks), Lizzie begs him to stop, insisting that they don’t need to kill all of them. Tyreese relents and leaves it alone.

After Carol and Mika return, the gang finds an abandoned house that looks like a pretty good place to stay for a while. However, while Tyreese and Carol are inside checking for Walkers, the girls get attacked by one outside. Lizzie thinks it just wants to be friends, but Mika manages to put a bullet in its head after a few shots.

It quickly becomes obvious that (in case you didn’t know this from watching her in other episodes) Lizzie is one screwed up little girl. We see her taking rats to feed the Walker still stuck on the railroad tracks, and – yes – it’s finally confirmed that Lizzie was the one feeding rats through the fence back at the prison. It’s also Lizzie who is outside playing tag with one. When Carol sees her doing this, she runs outside and stabs it through the head, and Lizzie breaks down in tears about Carol killing her “friend.”

Meanwhile, Mika acts the complete opposite of her sister. She shies away from wanting to kill anything, even when she and Carol spot a deer near the house that would feed them all for weeks. Carol explains to Mika that she won’t be able to survive in this world unless she’s willing to kill. Mika says she’ll just run away, but Carol explains that her own daughter did that, and it wasn’t enough.

One afternoon, Carol and Tyreese return to the house to see a bloodied Lizzie with a knife in her hand. She says that she just wanted to prove that the Walkers want to be friends when they come back. Behind Lizzie, we can see the lifeless body of Mika… Lizzie has stabbed and killed her sister! When Carol tries to intervene, Lizzie pulls a gun on her, but Carol is able to talk her into handing it over. Tyreese takes Judith and Lizzie away so that Carol can finish Mika off before she turns (which, thankfully, the episode doesn’t show).

Carol and Tyreese both realize what needs to be done. While Tyreese watches over Judith, Carol takes Lizzie out for a walk. Lizzie starts crying and says that she just wants to be a good person. Carol tells Lizzie to keep looking at the flowers on the ground… and then Carol pulls out her gun and kills her.

Later that night, Tyreese and Carol are sitting inside the house working on a jigsaw puzzle when Carol slides her gun across the table towards Tyreese. Carol then confesses to killing Karen and David, saying she needed to do something to stop the disease from spreading inside the prison. Carol tells Tyreese to do what he needs to do. Tyreese then asks if they suffered or knew what was happening to them, and Carol responds “No“. Tyreese then looks Carol in the eye and says, “I forgive you“.

However, the two both realize that they can no longer stay at the house, not after all that has happened there. The next morning, Carol, Tyreese and Judith leave the area and get back on the road toward Terminus.

This is another impressive, gutsy (pardon the pun) entry in the series. What did you think of the episode? Did the show go too far in having one of its main characters kill off a child, or did Carol do the right thing? Did she have any good options? What would you have done?

9 comments

    • All our show recaps involve major spoilers. We’re careful not to put anything in the first paragraphs, so nothing will be given away if you happen to be on the Blog’s homepage. However, we’re assuming no one’s going to click on a story titled ‘Recap’ if they don’t want to know what happens.

    • Matt

      Um, seriously? It’s a recap of the episode, says it right there in the title, of course it will have so called “spoilers”. How else would they be able to recap the episode without telling what happened in it (which is the very definition of a recap??)

  1. Kevin Davidson

    Um yes seriously. IGN and every other site that publishes episode reviews plasters the review with “Spoiler alert” at the outset. As I said I saw the review already, but its still a courtesy. You’re saying that you’ve never encountered a recap/review with a spoiler alert lol. Seriously. I was neither rude not antagonistic, whereas you were. But I will go glady go there where the forums arent populated with dorknaughts.

    • No need for an argument here. However, it is our stance that putting the word “Recap” in the post headline already constitutes a spoiler alert. The point of a recap is to discuss everything that happened in the episode.

  2. Chris B

    What a ridiculous thing to complain about. That’s like bitching about someone reviewing a movie and saying if they liked it or not, it’s a REVIEW. Just like a RECAP of events, it’s right there in the title.

    • Not to mention that the major spoiler isn’t mentioned until the fourth to last paragraph…any reader would realize several paragraphs in that the article is recapping all the major events of the show.

      And Old Yeller dies at the end, you know. 🙂

  3. Great episode, but Lizzie kill her own sister to prove a point make no sense, she maybe confuse about those things, but to kill you own sister you really need to be totally insane.

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