‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Internment’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Over the course of the past few weeks, these Retro Recap of Seasons 3 and 4 of the AMC series, The Walking Dead, have been supremely in depth in nature and it makes sense as to why. For this leg of the journey is when the show really dug into the human condition like never before and explored aspects of who we are and what we can become in a positive and negative light, in supremely great detail. Allowing for all of us to chew upon powerful concepts. But alas, in regard to today’s Retro Recap of the show, there is none of that to be found. For the next episode in this storied franchise, took the time to remind us that TWD is a horror story set in an awful environment, and it accomplished that feat, by unleashing utter hell upon the prison. 

But at first glance, it didn’t seem as though that was going to be the case in ‘Internment’. For when we catch up with everyone at the West Georgia Correctional Facility, here, they’re just surviving. For Hershel, and Sasha, and Glenn are working together to try and keep everyone alive inside the isolation block of the prison and they’re dealing with mixed results there. Because the flu was making people deathly ill and some were slipping away regardless of their efforts, and when they did, Hershel was kind enough to keep everyone from having to see the horror of resurrection and the indignity of true death in this world. But... they were getting by. Plus, Rick returned in this tale, without Carol. Which made a few waves when the truth about her actions were revealed. Making it appear as though this episode was going to focus heavily on survival and consequences and potentially some battles between Rick and Daryl over the former’s tough choice.

However, all of that… was designed to make us completely and utterly comfortable. To the point where we don’t have a care or worry in the world and that’s when the terror begins. Because just like that, the deaths start coming in waves in the isolation block, and because there are so many, so quickly and since Sasha and Glenn are weaker than ever… the dead return to life and attack the living. Forcing Hershel to work fast to kill the dead and save the living and that leads to one intense and horrifying sequence for certain. One where we don’t know who will live and who will die, and this sequence still puts you on the edge of your seat because of its sheer intensity and what’s amazing… is that the terror in this tale, doesn’t end with Hershel’s mad dash to save lives and slow the infection of living death surrounding him.

For outside that cell block, Carl and Rick were dealing with a big problem of their own. In that, waves of the dead were stressing the fences like never before, to the point where more wood struts had to be put down. And because Rick lost a little bit of time in finishing this project, since Maggie went to help save Hershel from chaos… the dead did just enough damage to break through the fences. Forcing Carl and Rick to engage in wholesale slaughter with the weapons cache. But thankfully, our fears of a worst-case scenario for the group were not realized in this tale. Because eventually, Daryl and company returned with the drugs, ending the madness inside the isolation block and saving lives. And Rick and Carl defeated the dead, making it seem as though the terror was going to come to an end for a while, and wonderful times were ahead for everyone.

But… the last image of this episode, wherein a certain Philip ‘The Governor’ Blake was revealed to be alive and watching over the prison, makes it clear that more trouble is on the horizon. But before that comes to fruition, we can bask in the wonder of an intense and engaging and downright scary tale. One that once again found new ways to make the living dead a legitimate threat, and it also managed to put so many of our heroes in danger, and there is likely good reason as to why this moment was chosen to allow for an episode of this caliber to take place. Because it inadvertently prepared us for the genuinely dark moments that lie ahead. For the return of the Governor would signal a great deal of suffering for these heroes, the kind that would come not only from Philip’s cold hands, but also from a world that was continuing to fall to pieces. Until next time.   

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