‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Isolation’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

It is always shocking, when a zombie story ends up being prophetic in nature, and painfully reflective of current events. Because for the most part, this is a genre that loves to operate within observational commentary. The kind that uses the living dead to explore our societal ailments and the human condition and for proof… look at the genre’s illustrious past. Night of the Living Dead for instance, used zombies to properly examine the Civil Rights Movement and the underlying racism that sadly… remains today, and that wasn’t the only time that George Romero hit the nose on a hot button topic. Since Diary of the Dead correctly examined our obsession with online voyeurism and how it creates a safety net from the horrors of the world.

But every once in a great while, a zombie story lays down the right foundation in its story, to inadvertently look ahead. To the point where the audience finds themselves in an incredibly uncomfortable place when they sit through moments and concepts that genuinely feel as though the writers of said stories, just plucked an idea out of the headlines and put together a book or movie about it. For instance, Dawn of the Dead hits a little differently now with its examination of how the world would respond to a global pandemic, and oddly enough, The Walking Dead pulled of a similar feat. For ‘Isolation’ is a story that saw Rick Grimes and his prison group, work hard and fast to contain the virus that was brewing under the nose, with mixed results that are freakishly in tune and reflective of the past couple of years.
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Since a great deal of people come down with the flu in record time in the prison and despite trying to scramble and isolate every last one of them, the damage is done, and people just keep getting sicker and sicker and dying. And of course, there is fear everywhere to be found in the prison, which ratchets up tensions… but more on that in a moment. Because we need to talk about how eerily reflective and prophetic this episode is when it comes to the pandemic that has dominated our lives over the past two years. Since every cough and every flop sweat in this story, reminds us of our own fears while we were trying to get groceries for our families at the height of the pandemic. And seeing the group struggle to get social distancing in place and wear masks… really is a perfect parallel to the past two years and that allows for this episode to outright terrify for supremely personal reasons.

But there was mention of high-level tension in this tale as well, and that came courtesy of Rick and Tyreese. Since the latter of those two couldn’t control his anger over losing Karen and that motivated him to take it out on Rick, who paid back in kind and just seeing people fight over things they cannot control… also presents hints of the past couple of years since certain people couldn’t show common decency toward their fellow man regarding Covid, nor could they keep their tempers under control when they incorrectly believed their ‘freedoms’ were under fire for wearing a simple piece of cloth over their face. But while this episode does indeed do an incredible job of being inadvertently prophetic of the world to come some seven years before things got weird, it does have more to offer than prophecy and chills.

For this is a story that also sees a hero rise. Since Hershel comes to realize that he can save lives by risking his own when Dr. S gets sick with the flu, and of course, this episode also answers the question as to who killed Karen and David. Which as it turns out, was Carol all along and she appears to be struggling with that reality in this tale greatly, something that would also be a harbinger of things to come. But before we dive into that, we can celebrate a shockingly scary tale. One that takes the viewer on an unpleasant trip down memory lane as echoes of Covid dance through one’s head over the course of the hour and well, you can’t help but applaud that. Because it just means that TWD is up there with the greats, since Romero also correctly predicted the rise of greed and consumerism in the 80s and 90s in Dawn, and it does leave one to wonder, what other parallels we are going to encounter as our journey through season four continues along. Until next time.

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