‘The Walking Dead’ Recap Season 4, Episode 12 — “Still”

Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) – The Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 12 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Previously on The Walking Dead…Beth and Daryl bonded over getting more cold-hearted over loss, and Maggie WAS worried about Beth (nearly) as much as Glenn.

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Miss last week’s? Catch up: ‘The Walking Dead’ TV Recap — Season 4, Episode 11 “Claimed”

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Beth and Daryl are geniuses, so they decide to lock themselves (with all their human scents that walkers might smell?) inside of a car trunk. It’s the worst idea ever, and it’s hard to believe why these seasoned fighters would ever do it. Maybe only because they knew how big the herd was? Talk about tension. It gets worse as the walkers are climbing all over the car. And it seems like a lot of time passed…all the way until morning, that is. So, technically Beth and Daryl have now spent the night together. Daryl gives Beth a look like he’s disappointed in her, and she walks several paces behind them. What is going on with their dynamic?

Daryl’s arrows are getting ruined over time, and that’s no good unless he can find new ones. Meanwhile, Beth uses glass from a car’s headlights to start a fight. This is how they set their camp. They capture bugs and snakes and put up things that can alert them to walkers. Daryl skinning a rattlesnake is the grosses thing over, btw. No, eating the snake is also pretty gross… it’s like corn on the cob…kind of…They are…”mud snakes” as Beth calls it.

Beth decides she’d like some alcohol, since she’d never tried it. She thinks her and Daryl should have a quest to find some. But Daryl ignores her.  And really, how does Beth think getting drunk is going to help her outrun zombies? Here’s a hint, it won’t.

“Okay…enjoy your snake jerky.” – Beth

So Beth goes out on her own. Even though it’s a dumb move. And two weeks ago, we saw that Daryl wouldn’t let her go somewhere alone. And soon enough, Beth is confronted with a large handful of walkers. You’d think she wouldn’t be so nervous to take on just one, but she’s terrified. And, luckily, Daryl was with her the whole time, apparently.

“I’m not staying in this suckass camp.” – Beth

“Golfers like to booze it up, right? – Beth

At a deserved golf course, the hunt is on for alcohol. But is it worth the risk of clearing the building?

(At this point it seems like Daryl is feeling as though Beth is a whiny, bratty, little sister. The romance does not seem like it will happen…Instead, the relationship has no fun tension, just depressing tension…which makes it so much less fun to watch.)

Inside, there are many people who tried to kill themselves by noose, and are now just hanging walkers. It appears many people set up camp in the place.

Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) – The Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 12 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Daryl finds a bag of money and gold….which makes no sense…it doesn’t have worth anymore. Is he going to lug it around until it does? I hate to say it Daryl, but what are the chances of you seeing that day? (We all root for our favorites not to die on the show, but does it seem like any will outlive the entire way of life that they will once again live in nice apartments and have Netflix?)

When the inevitable walker lunge happens towards Beth, she has to use her newly aquired bottle of liquor to kill him. But she does manage to kill him…and Daryl purposefully stood down so she could do it herself.

“You said you could take care of yourself. You did.” – Daryl

As Daryl steals more cash, Beth tries on yuppie clothes. We see a walker with a sign that says “rich bitch” on her…begging the question, who put it on her? Beth decides they have to take her down, but Daryl solves this with a blanket. Either way, it shows us something that Beth can still afford to care about that kind of stuff.)

As another wave of walkers comes, golf clubs become the perfect weapons.  Daryl goes crazy and Beth doesn’t even bother to help…and then her new white cardigan gets slammed with blood.

“We made it.’ – Beth

Our girl explains why this mission was important for her…she’d wanted to lay down and cry all day, so she needed something to get her through the day.

“Peach Schnapps. Is it good?” – Beth

As Beth tries to have her ritual…cleaning blood out of a glass and sitting at the bar..Daryl plays darts and ignores her. It’s a monumentally important moment for her, and he doesn’t care…it’s somehow very frustrating and sad. Of course, as she starts to cry he does seem to soften. And why, why does Beth cry now that she has what she wanted? Because the goal was met, and she doesn’t feel any better.

“You ain’t gonna have your first drink be no damn peach schnapps.” – Daryl (Smash)

Back on the road, Beth is guessing what Daryl’s job was before the turn. Remember that game? She guesses he was a motorcycle mechanic, but he shrugs it off and says that stuff doesn’t matter anymore. Besides, they’ve come across an old house that Daryl remembers. And inside is moonshine. Is that really an ideal first drink? Wowzers.

Beth takes to the moonshine without too much trouble, while saying it does taste awful.

Daryl explains his Dad had a house just like this one…with fancy buckets for spitting chow, the newspaper aka the internet, all sorts of familiar things.

It’s not long before Beth can give a nudge towards Daryl having some of the moonshine with her. (This is not a smart move. But maybe we can hope for some sloppy kisses?) She introduces him to the “I never” game. Which he has never played.  And soon he wishes he hadn’t, because Beth implies Daryl’s been in prison. Ergo, he gets pissed and goes to take a piss. And then he gets nasty and even mentions Beth’s cutting. Then he pulls her out to try and teach her to shoot a crossbow. A lot of manhandling goes on.

“I ain’t ever needed a game to get lit before.” – Daryl

“I know you look at me and just see another dead girl.” – Beth

There’s a lot of yelling, and Daryl finally has his breakdown where he gets sad and admits how upset he is about not being able to stop what happened back at the prison. It needed to happen eventually, and now the levy has broken. (Thank God.)

Night descends, and our duo are now mellow, listening to crickets and fiddling with knives. The usual. (It seems really peaceful and nice, really.) Beth says she enjoys the feeling of being buzzed. And Daryl opens up about a story of his life growing up…and the moral of the story seems to be that he resents Beth’s happy-go-lucky life of vacations and nice parents, and now wanting to be a rebellious girl who tries drinking. He grew up in the hell that was growing up young,  unsupervised, with a stoner brother and everyone drinking and fighting.

“You wanna know where I was before this? I was just drifting around with Merle. …I was nobody, nothing. Some redneck a#%hole with an even bigger a#%shole for a brother.” – Daryl

Does Daryl feel conflicted that his life has only gotten better after the walkers…if only because he now has people who care about him and think he’s somebody?

“You’re gonna be the last man standing. …You’re gonna miss me so much when I’m gone, Daryl Dixon.” – Beth

“You gotta stay who you are, not who you were. Places like this…you gotta put it away.” – Beth

Beth says if you can’t put it away it kills you…and then she says “here” as she points to her heart. It’s a very interesting question about how Daryl hasn’t been physically killed, but there are things that are emotionally killing him. And what’s the point if he’s the last man standing but he’s broken inside?

Anyway, a happy song plays and they throw the moonshine all over and then light that old house on fire with…all of that money. (Which is good for starting fires!)

Beth gives her middle finger. Daryl gives his middle finger. They are happy rebels for the moment.

(Trivia: What song played at the end of ‘The Walking Dead’ “Still”? It is “Up the Wolves” by The Mountain Goats.)

Next week on The Walking Dead…Maggie is back! And we get more of Beth and Daryl. It looks like a very spooky episode…very cool. (Tonight’s seemed a little…tame?)

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