The Walking Dead - S4E12 - Still

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Previously on The Walking Dead, ‘Claimed’

I was not looking forward to a full hour of Beth and Daryl because, well, Beth. And while I don’t think the payoff at the end of the episode was worth everything I had to sit through to get there, there was some nice character development.

This episode begins with Beth and Daryl deciding to hide in the trunk of an abandoned car because rain and walkers are coming. We get some some pretty intense moments as they huddle inside the vehicle with nothing more than a bandana and Daryl’s vigilance keeping them from being discovered. As the rain pours down, walkers growl outside. The two stay in the trunk all night, Daryl with his crossbow aimed at the sliver of an opening.

The next morning, they wordlessly gather junk and parts from and around the car and head off down the road. They make camp in the woods with Beth using the glass from the car’s headlights and one of the side mirrors to reflect the sunlight and make a camp fire. Hubcaps and string make a crude alarm system around the perimeter of their camp. Daryl traps a snake for a meal. While he munches down on the snake (*gag*), Beth declares that she wants a drink. And she ain’t talking water. She wants a dranky-drank. Daryl ignores her so she grabs a knife and goes off on her own.

Of course, she encounters four walkers, but distracts three of them by tossing a rock. She’s about to take out the fourth when it wanders off and she finds Daryl behind her. She thinks they’re headed off to find booze, but Daryl just leads her back to their “suck-ass camp.” She’s pissed and says she’s not going to just spend her time there, staring into a fire. She flips him the bird and heads off in search of libations.

They stumble upon Pine Vista Country Club, which seems like good as place as any to find some liquor. It’s starting to rain so they’re going in regardless. Also, walkers are coming. Some bad shit went down inside this country club: There are walkers hanging from the ceiling and dead bodies everywhere. Daryl does find a large stash of cash and takes it. He doesn’t answer Beth when she asks why he’s keeping it. They have to hustle on to another part of the club as the walkers are banging on the door and the golf club between the handles might not hold.

Beth finally finds a bottle of wine in a storage closet, but has to use it to fend off a walker. It’s not really an effective weapon, though, and she ends up stabbing the walker in the head with her knife. Daryl arrives when it’s done. “Thanks for the help.” “You said you could take care of yourself. You did.” There are more dead bodies with the words “Welcome to Dogtrot” on the wall.

They make it through to the gift shop where Daryl continues to pocket trinkets and check for cash and Beth finds a new outfit. Someone has put the top half of a dead woman on the legs of a mannequin and put a “Rich Bitch” sign around her neck. Beth wants help taking her down, but Daryl says, “It doesn’t matter. She’s dead.” It matters to Beth so Daryl covers the corpse before they head on.

They eventually get cornered by walkers in two directions and end up facing off against five in a room. Daryl does all of the heavy lifting, using his crossbow, knife, and a golf club to beat the walkers to death. In the process, he gets walker goo all over Beth’s new clothes.

They make it to the bar and Beth rightfully points out this may be stupid, but she needs to do it. At least she’s owning this stupidity; I’ll give her that. She finds some peach schnapps and Daryl tell her it’s not good. But it’s the only thing left so Beth’s gonna drink it. She’s searching for a glass that’s not covered in blood, gook, or dust when she finally decides to drink from the bottle. Daryl plays darts and then watches as Beth starts to cry without taking a drink. He breaks the bottle and tells her that her first drink is not going to be “no damn peach schnapps.” They leave.

Daryl leads Beth to an abandoned house and shed in the woods. It’s a place he found with Michonne and there’s a stash of moonshine in the shed. Score! Daryl’s tryna put some hair on Beth’s chest. Well, not really since she had the most unrealistic reaction to a first-time drinker tasting moonshine. She could have been drinking tepid faucet water with that reaction. Daryl refuses to drink because someone needs to stay focused. He reveals that his dad’s place was a lot like the run-down house they’re in with titty ashtrays and buckets to spit your snuff. There’s a lone walker outside and they decide to let him be unless he starts making more noise. Then Daryl relents and has a drink.

They play the “I Never Game” because apparently this show can’t just have characters talk and develop without it being a game. See: Last week’s 20 Questions. When Beth implies that Daryl might have been in prison, he gets offended. Then he turns into the meanest drunk ever. He pisses in the sink, yells loudly, and talks about all the things he never had (a pony, frozen yogurt), you know, the finer things in life he assumes Beth has had.

When the walker outside starts making noise, Daryl runs outside and taunts Beth with firing at the walker. She’s had enough of Daryl’s shit and kills the walker. They fight: Beth yells at him for treating her like crap because she’s survived and she’s not like Maggie, Michonne, or Carol. But she still survived. She wants him to stop acting like nothing matters. He accuses her of acting like a “dumb college bitch” searching for hooch. He finally breaks down and reveals he feels guilt over convincing Michonne to stop looking for the Governor. For not looking himself. And then he rolled right up to their gates and killed her father. He cries and Beth hugs him from behind.

Later that night, they bond on the porch. Beth apparently has an iron stomach because she doesn’t feel sick. She’s a happy drunk. Daryl tells this story about Merle pissing off a tweaker and the guy putting a gun to Daryl’s head. He admits that before the apocalypse, he was nothing. He just followed behind Merle. Beth admits that she misses Maggie and her brother. She misses Hershel. She imagined he’d be a grandpa, and they’d have somewhat of a happy life at the prison. And then he’d die a quiet death surrounded by people he loved. And he’d be old. Well, older.

She wanted to change, and when he tells her that she did, she says she didn’t change enough. Not like he did. She predicts Daryl will be the last man standing when it’s all over. He’ll miss her so much when she’s gone. You have to be the person you are, not the person you were. He wants to go inside, but she says they should burn it down. And that’s what they do. They use the moonshine and the money to set the place on fire. And the flip the inferno the bird.

My question is this: Where they gonna sleep?