The Walking Dead Recap: “Slabtown” [Episode 4]

We finally learn Beth’s fate.  She wakes up in a hospital in the middle of downtown ATL, with an IV in her arm.  Locked in a room, she is introduced to Dr. Steven Edwards  and Officer “Unfriendly” Dawn Lerner. We are introduced to a new term for the walkers. Dawn tells Beth that she was alone and surrounded by “rotters” when one of her officers found her. Beth, she says, owes them. From her tone, the words “human trafficker” come to mind.  I don’t feel good about Beth’s odd of survival. She dropped her IV needle, which she’d planned to use as a weapon, when Dawn told her to.

Watching Doc Edwards put down a patient on life support, she learns that Dawn makes the call about who gets to live. Minus the walkers, despite limited electricity, and the eerily empty halls, you would never know they were in a post-apocalyptic state. There is even a functioning cafeteria. Officer Gorman, the man who took Beth, lets her know a rotter was “eyeing her thighs” when he found her. He feels she’s not grateful enough and threatens to write down how much food she took. He tells her that everyone pays, somehow. She stops by Doc Edwards office. He’s listening to music and talking about his boredom, unable to believe he use to complain about his research.  Beth tells him he’s lucky if he has the luxury of being bored. They dine on guinea pig.

A patient comes in, in pretty bad shape. Dawn whispers with one of her officers and she begins demanding this patient, Trevitts, be saved.  When Doc Edwards says that it is a waste of resources, given his injuries Officer Unfriendly slaps Beth and tells him to understand what’s at stake. What I wouldn’t give for Carol to be in the doorway watching (Maggie who?)  Adding insult to injury, Beth, who bled when her cut face was slapped open, is told she has to change because Dawn likes things neat. Just then a bitten patient named Joan is brought in. It would seem that she prefers to turn than stay there.  Joan says two very interesting things. “I’m not going back to him” and “You can’t control them.”

Beth learns from another resident, Noah, who tells her that no one really gets away from the group. He was saved but his father was left behind when they were told that only one of them could be helped. He knows that because his father was strong and could fight back, they left him even though there was room for both. He tells Beth that the two of them are stronger than this group knows.

Dawn is trying to soft sell Beth into believing that she and her group are saving as much of the world as they can.  It’s only fair that people pay back what they take from others (human trafficker).  It’s clear that no one every fully “pays the bill.’ Beth is cleaning Joan’s room and they strike up a conversation. Joan says Dawn can control “them” (her officers) but won’t because she’s a coward.  Just as Beth is alone in another room. Gorman has the sucker Noah left for Beth earlier.  He sucks it and then sticks it in her mouth, stating that “the girl” should have been his, when stopped by Doc Edwards.  We learn that Joan was “his” and he plans to get her back. Doc Edwards asks him what will happen to him when he becomes ill or gets “bit” in response to Gorman’s aggressive posturing. Gorman thinks someone else will be there to help them if Doc Edwards is gone. When Beth wants to know why he stays, Edwards shows her the walkers around the building and tells her he takes a look whenever he thinks of going.

Doc Edwards tells Beth their story.  Dawn helped save them and got them through the toughest times, but in many ways she is weak it comes to her officers. He sends Beth to check on Trevitts and give him his meds.  Noah and Beth are talking when Trevitts seizes and dies.  Noah steps up and tells an angry Dawn it was his fault, he accidentally unplugged the ventilator. He is beaten for it.   awn later tells Beth that she knows that Noah wasn’t responsible but everyone has a part to play.  Dawn plans on her men being part of putting the world back together. She thinks Beth is not strong enough to help them survive and asks how many people had to die to save her. She uses the cuts on Beth’s wrists as evidence that she might not be strong enough for the life they’re living. She tells Beth that it’s ok as long as the weak don’t take advantage of those who are strong enough. Beth later finds Noah to tell him that she’s leaving with him.

They hatch a plan – Beth will grab the spare elevator key as Noah keeps Dawn occupied.  Once in the office Beth learns that Joan has killed herself in Dawn’s office. She needs to find the key and go before Joan wakes up.  Just as she plans to leave, Gorman arrives and does the predator thing he’s been doing the entire episode – incredibly creepy. Beth sees Joan waking, hits Gorman in the head and drops him for Joan to feast on. I am seriously not breathing! The best part of the scene is that Gorman was just telling Beth that it’s lucky for him she’s not a fighter. Bye, bitch! GO Beth!  Get him Walker Joan! When Beth sees Dawn, she tells her that Gorman and Joan were headed to her office to meet with her. Soon after, we hear screaming.

Noah and Beth have to take an empty elevator shaft to the basement.  They were both supposed to do it quietly and of course make nothing but noise on the way down.  Noah falls in, Beth joins him. Once in the basement, Beth – who has stolen a gun, goes on a shooting rampage, killing walkers. Noah is badly injured but is somehow able to run to safety whileBeth is captured by Gorman’s colleagues.  Like Bob, last week, she smiles, even if this might mean the end for her.  She’s happy to see him go free. Emily Kinney must be playing her Emmy reel because she stands up to Dawn and it is magnificent.  She tells her that no one is coming and she’s letting them be hurt and letting them all die for mothing. Unfortunately, Dawn was not scripted to react to Kinney’s performance as I would have hoped. Dawn hits Beth with all the misery she can muster.

While treated, Beth tells Doc Edwards that she knows that HE knew that Trevitts was a doctor and intentionally had her give him the wrong meds. He admits it, saying that he knows that they would have gotten rid of him – kicked him out (Hence, Gorman’s arrogance about not needing Edwards). Later, with a scalpel in her hand, Beth walks in Edwards’ direction, ready to end him – until she sees the new patient come in. It’s Carol… Yes… I can now breathe!

 

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