'The Walking Dead' Season Four Premiere Recap: '30 Days Without an Accident'
Season four of "The Walking Dead" premiered Sunday night and contained glimpses of a calmer time while bringing the viewer back to a zombie-infested Earth.
The beginning of the episode, "30 Days Without an Accident," reveals the group has been working hard to make the prison habitable. They have crops growing, horses and even pigs. But that is not enough to sustain them so they must leave the prison to hunt and gather supplies.
The episode sees Rick volunteer to check the traps while a group led by Daryl goes to collect supplies at a nearby store.
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While at the store, which was formerly a military staging zone, the group is unaware of the rooftop full of walkers.
The group of Daryl, Glenn, Zach, Sasha, Micchone and another new arrival, Bob, are faced with an epic fight after the walkers begin to fall through the roof of the store in a fight that sees new arrival Zach being bitten in the leg and killed.
While Rick was in the woods he comes across an Irish woman who begs him to help her and her husband. Rick is cautious as the nameless woman leads him to her camp only to have the woman stab herself in the stomach after unsuccessfully trying to kill Rick once he realizes her husband is a walker that is hidden under a blanket.
Perhaps the most telling part of the episode is when one of Carl's friends at the prison, Patrick, falls ill. He seems to be suffering from a fever as he heads to the shower room to soak underneath the water but then falls and presumably dies. The last shot reveals that Patrick, who is inside the security of the prison walls, has turned into a walker.
Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer of the series, previously spoke to MTV about changes to the show, such as upgrading writer Scott Gimple to lead writer.
"He wrote many of our favorite episodes. What's great about Scott is that he combines the ability to write great, almost intimate character moments within larger epic tableaus," said Hurd. "There's a sense of completion in his episodes."
"Rick really wants to focus his efforts on being what he hasn't been so far, which is a really good father to Carl, and now to his baby Judith," she said. "That means everything else takes a back seat ... At least as far as when times are rather calm."
