Whoa. Just...whoa. That's the kind of episode we have in "The Grove." This is an hour focused on Carol, Tyreese and the kids, and I haven't been this emotional about an hour of The Walking Dead in quite some time. Here's where we are when "The Grove" is over...
Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika and Judith are still en route to the maybe sanctuary at Terminus. As Carol and Lizzie are doing the night watch, Lizzie asks if Carol had any kids. She tells Lizzie about Sophia...that she was sweet and didn't have a mean bone in her body. Lizzie asks if that's the reason Sophia is not here and Carol says yes. Lizzie then asks if Carol misses her daughter. When Carol tells Lizzie she misses Sophia every day, Lizzie asks "Would you miss me?" Carol says she isn't going to have to miss Lizzie and tells her to go to sleep.
The next day Carol tends to the wound on Tyreese's arm. She tells him that Lizzie doesn't understand what the Walkers are. She suuuuure doesn't. The episode had opened with Lizzie playing a game of tag with a Walker...as if we needed any more reasons to think she's a little psychopath. When Tyreese asks if Mika is the same, Carol says "She's worse. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body." Oh hell. Are you telling me that Mika is going to end up like Sophia? I don't know if I can handle losing that kid. If we have to get rid of someone in this pack, let it be Lizzie.
The group separates briefly with Tyreese, Judith and Lizzie sitting down to rest. Tyreese hears a noise and hands the baby to Lizzie(!) and goes to check it out. The torso of a Walker is dragging itself toward them but Lizzie asks Tyreese not to "kill him." She thinks this is a situation where it's not needed. The kid is probably right, but let's not humor her mentality of "Walkers are people too." A person's a person no matter how undead?
Meanwhile Carol chats with Mika about how little and sweet she is. She says Mika should toughen up. Mika maintains that she has tried to kill Walkers but she can't kill people. "I'm not messed up like my sister. I know what they are. But the bad people at the prison were right in front of us, but I couldn't pull the trigger. Killing people is wrong." Ouch. Shout out to David and Karen on that one. Carol tells her that everyone has to change now, that things just don't work out. At that moment the two of them see a grove with a house on the other side. Mika turns to Carol with the most adorable smile ever and says "My mom used to say 'everything works out the way it's supposed to.'" Something tells me her mom also didn't have a mean bone in her body.
Tyreese and Carol clear the house, leaving Mika, Lizzie and Judith outside. Can we PLEASE stop letting Lizzie hold Judith? A Walker surprises the girls and Mika successfully uses her gun to defend them. Lizzie looks horrified when the bullets enter the Walker's head...she really gives me the creeps. As Lizzie starts to cry, Mika tells her to look at the flowers, which is what Carol told Lizzie to do at the beginning of the season just before she stopped the girls' father from becoming a Walker.
That night the five of them sit in the living room and share what is probably the closest thing to a normal evening anyone has had in a while. Tyreese relaxes in a chair, Mika plays with a doll, Carol and Lizzie put together a puzzle...and Judith is not doing her usual "someone is scaring the shit out of me" scream, so I count that as a 'win.' Mika thinks they should live there, but we all know something is going to ruin this happy home soon enough.
We go back to Lizzie's play date with the Walker from the opening scene. Carol rushes outside and stabs the Walker in the head immediately. Judging by Lizzie's reaction, it was as if Carol just murdered her puppy. She tells Carol the Walker was her friend and screeches "You killed her! What if I killed you!?!?" several times. Okay. Seriously. This haaaas to stop.
Carol eases the migraine she no doubt has at this point by taking Mika hunting. Yes, let's get Mika's skills together so we can keep seeing that angelic face. Carol tells Mika that she is smarter than Lizzie and she needs to help look out for her even though she is the older sister. Um, no. Actually Mika needs to run like hell if she's alone with Lizzie. Somehow she also needs to teach Judith to run like hell. Carol has her work cut out for her though. Mika chokes when she tries to shoot a deer and suggests they just eat the pecans they've already gathered. Sigh.
Mika returns to the house and finds Lizzie outside...feeding a mouse to the Walker torso Tyreese did not kill earlier. Aha! So she is the mysterious prison zombie feeder after all. Mika scolds her but Lizzie says "I can hear them. They just want me to change. Maybe I should. Maybe I should be like them." She reaches her hand out to the Walker torso and I'm yelling "do it!" but the moment is interrupted by a bunch of crispy Walkers coming out of the trees. The girls scream and run to Carol and Tyreese. Together, the four of them take out the hoard. Progress? Lizzie tells Carol "I know. I know what I have to do now." Carol takes this as a positive statement, but I've got a pit in my stomach.
Another day goes by and Carol and Tyreese are on a walk discussing how great things are at this little place they've found. Wait. Why are Carol and Tyreese on a walk? Why do they think it's okay to keep leaving the kids by themselves? Even if Lizzie understands what Walkers are, that doesn't make her less crazy than she was 24 hours ago. Anywho, Carol and Tyreese come to an agreement that they should stay. They both seem very happy with the decision, though it's pretty obvious that Carol wants to tell Tyreese about Karen and David. She doesn't though and they walk back to the house. Again...why were they gone?
As they approach their new "home" they see something awful. Lizzie stands outside the house with blood on her hands. Shit. I pause my Tivo. I see Lizzie standing. I see an alive Judith sitting on the ground near her. What I don't see...is Mika. Carol and Tyreese run toward the scene and realize Lizzie is holding a very bloody knife. Oh, there's Mika. She's dead. DAMN IT! Whyyyyyyy? Lizzie says "Don't worry. She'll come back. I didn't hurt her brain." Carol steps forward and Lizzie pulls a gun. She says they have to wait for Mika to come back. She says Judith can change too. Well, now we know what would have happened if Carol and Tyreese had taken a longer effing walk! Carol promises to tie Mika up so she can't go anywhere if Lizzie hands over the gun and goes into the house with Tyreese and Judith. Lizzie does so. Carol stops Mika's transformation off camera.
Inside the house, Carol and Tyreese talk in the kitchen while Tyreese thankfully holds Judith. Tyreese says Lizzie has a box full of mice and she was the person feeding Walkers at the prison. Lizzie told him she was just having fun. Yes, because she is a little psychopath. He wondered if Lizzie killed Karen and David...but then realized she would have let them turn instead. Regardless, what happens now? Carol offers to leave with Lizzie. She says that kid can't be around other people. Tyreese says maybe they could help her but Carol replies "It's just how she is. It was already there. I should have seen it. She can't be around other people." Okay, so she has said that twice now. Does this mean....
We see Carol and Lizzie walk into the grove. Lizzie thinks Carol is angry because she pulled her gun on her and not so much because she stabbed her sister to death. She says she's sorry....that she just wanted Carol to wait. Man, this kid just doesn't get it. Carol tells Lizzie she loves her, but Lizzie cries and turns toward the flowers. Lizzie keeps repeating that she's sorry as Carol tells her "everything works out the way it's supposed to." She then says "Just look at the flowers, Lizzie." I'm so nauseous. Is she really going to kill her? Carol reaches for her gun and then she points. The camera zooms in on Carol's tear-streaked face as she pulls the trigger. Oh my god.
Tyreese and Carol bury the two little bodies and talk about the next steps. Carol pushes her gun toward him and reveals that she killed Karen and David. She explains that she thought she was stopping the illness and saving lives. "Do what you have to do." Tyreese fiercely grips the table. He asks if Karen knew it was happening. He wants to know if it was quick. Carol assures him that it was and tells him again to do what he has to do. Tyreese reaches for the gun and I am at the end of my rope. We can't lose Carol too. Instead of shooting Carol though, he forgives her and I let out the incredibly long breath I did not realize I was holding. They decide to head to Terminus after all, and as the (now) trio leaves the grove, we hear the "you have to change" conversation between Mika and Carol again.
The episode ends there and I'm spent. When Mika spoke earlier about not being able to kill bad people even if they want to hurt her, I had truly hoped she would be able to defend herself if the situation presented itself again. But really...she was never going to harm Lizzie. She was another Sophia...and with no one protecting her every second, she wasn't going to make it. I never could have predicted both kids would die or at least die in within one hour of the show. However, my hat's off to Melissa McBride for her performance in this episode. Carol has become one of the most compelling characters on The Walking Dead and what she went through here was gut wrenching. Fingers crossed Carol, Tyreese and Judith find sanctuary or at least the Grimes boys soon. After the scarring events of "The Grove," they need something to hope for.
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