Season 4, episode 11
Claimed
- Rick hides from a hostile group of survivors, while Glenn learns that Sgt. Abraham Ford and his team are on a mission with worldwide ramifications.
The episode begins with Carl and Michonne enjoying a bowl of dry cereal as they rest in the abandoned house. Michonne remarks on the fact that things almost seem normal, and wishes she could have soy milk for breakfast, causing Carl to relate a story about drinking it and throwing up. He concludes his story by saying he'd rather drink Judith's baby formula instead, but catches himself after realizing what he said and leaves the table.
Michonne goes into the kitchen and speaks with Rick about their current situation, saying they could rest for a few more days and figure out a plan. She offers to go on a supply run with Carl, and he agrees, giving his son his revolver and telling them to be back by mid-day. As they leave, Rick gingerly climbs into bed and falls asleep.
As Tara sits in the back of Lt. Abraham Ford's truck, she writes down directions on the back of her hand. The truck stops in front of a pileup of cars on the road, and Tara notices walkers converging behind them. As she moves to take them out with her rifle, Abraham tells her to wait, gets out of the vehicle and dispatches them with a crowbar. Tara asks why he's smiling, to which he responds that he's the luckiest guy in the world.
Carl and Michonne walk through the neighborhood and come upon a large house. Once inside, they begin clearing rooms while Michonne tries to make him laugh by acting like a walker and eating aerosol cheese. Michonne says that she was good at making toddlers laugh, prompting him to ask if she had a child. She responds in the affirmative, surprising Carl. He keeps asking questions, and learns that her child was named Andre Anthony. As they move to the upstairs level, Michonne enters a baby's room and discovers the corpses of an entire family inside. She leaves the room, visibly disturbed, but lies to Carl that there was nothing inside except a dog's corpse. Although Carl is suspicious, he doesn't bother to check, and says that he hopes Andre and Judith are together somewhere.
Rick awakens from his sleep to the sounds of multiple people on the lower floor. Freaking out as the footsteps get closer and closer, he quickly climbs under the bed and hides his half-finished bottle of water. An individual enters the room and falls asleep on the bed.
Glenn wakes up in the back of Abraham's truck, and is initially confused at what's going on. Although Tara explains to him that they've been on the road for several hours, he angrily breaks the back window of the truck, forcing Abraham to get out and confront him.
Abraham tells Glenn that they cannot stop because they are undergoing a "mission" to deliver Eugene, the third man in the group, to Washington to meet with government officials. According to Abraham, Eugene knows what caused the initial outbreak, and that he lost contact with the officials a few weeks earlier. Glenn responds that he doesn't care and that he's going to find Maggie, and goes to leave anyway. Abraham continues to tell him to stop, leading Glenn to punch him in response.
They both begin beating each other as Rosita (the woman in Abraham's group) tells them both to stop, while Eugene sees walkers approaching and clumsily begins firing an assault rifle at the undead. Abraham and Glenn stop fighting, and the group clear the walkers before discovering that Eugene's wild gunfire ruptured the truck's fuel tank. Tara tells Glenn that she knows the directions they took, and they set off, with Abraham's group reluctantly following behind.
Rick is still hiding under the bed when a second man enters the room and begins arguing with the man in the bed over who gets to sleep there. The two men's argument escalates into a physical confrontation, and Rick can only stay quiet as the man on the bed is choked by the second individual, eventually falling down and going unconscious, but not before seeing Rick. The second man moves to the bed and falls asleep on it.
A short while later, Rick crawls out from under the bed, and moves to another room. As he listens to the dialogue between the men downstairs, he overhears their plans to wait for the occupants to return, and realizes that Carl and Michonne are in danger. He barely manages to get into another room before more men walk upstairs, but when he moves to leave the house the upstairs bathroom window, he is surprised by another man sleeping on the toilet.
Rick attacks and chokes the man to death, before taking his coat and submachine gun. Still affected by his injuries, Rick crawls out onto the second-floor overhang and painfully drops down, sneaking up to the front of the house. He sees a sentry sitting on the porch, then realizes Carl and Michonne are just down the street, walking back from their supply run. As he moves to shoot the sentry, the latter is distracted by the sounds of the man Rick killed reanimating upstairs, along with screaming from inside. As the sentry runs inside, Rick runs away from the house and directs Carl and Michonne to follow him.
Later, they walk down a set of train tracks and discover a sign on a boxcar directing them to "Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive, survive. Terminus." Together, they continue walking down the tracks...
Tropes:
- Arc Words: "Those who arrive survive" appears once again.
- Determinator: Glenn in his quest to find Maggie, something that gets lampshaded by Abraham.
- Five-Man Band: Abraham is the man who calls the shots. Glenn is the one who frequently crosses Abraham. Eugene is a scientist who claims to know how to stop the Zombie Apocalypse. Tara is an Action Girl and trainee cop, and Rosita is the group's mediator.
- Friendship Moment: Several between Carl and Michonne, who bond while raiding a house for supplies.
- Gorn: Abraham and Tara dispatching the walkers after she forces the truck to stop.
- Hollywood Healing: Drastically averted with Rick, who is still incredibly weak from getting shot and his beatdown from the Governor in "Too Far Gone".
- Hope Spot: A non-fatal variant - Carl, Michonne and Rick are relaxed and at ease in the house, and discuss staying for a few days to recoup and salvage supplies. This peace is broken by the arrival of the Claimers, who force Rick to escape the house before Carl and Michonne arrive.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Although he could have been more diplomatic about it, Abraham is probably right in that the odds of Glenn finding Maggie again are incredibly slim.
- Mythology Gag: The coat that Rick takes from Lou looks exactly like the one his comic counterpart wears through the majority of the issues.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Eugene put the truck out of commission by spraying it with bullets, forcing the group to continue on foot.
- Non-Action Guy: Eugene mostly hangs around in the background during the fight between Glenn and Abraham, and responds to the approaching walkers by firing wildly with an assault rifle, missing most of the zombies but shooting several holes in Abraham's truck.
- Oh, Crap!: Rick's reaction when he wakes up and realizes there are other, none-too-friendly sounding people in the house.
- Psychological Horror: The scenes with Rick trying to hide from the Claimers in the house devolve into this.
- Rape as Drama: The Claimers are overheard threatening to do this to Michonne.
- Shout-Out: Rick hides underneath a bed in order to avoid a group of intruders.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Between Glenn and Tara on the one hand and Abraham/Rosita/Eugene on the other.
- Three Plus Two: Inverted. The Glenn and Tara duo joins the Abraham, Eugene and Rosita trio.
- Two Girls to a Team: Tara and Rosita with Glenn, Abraham and Eugene.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Rick, Carl and Michonne, Abraham, Eugene and Rosita.
- The Unreveal: To the point that it feels like a Gilligan Cut; Abraham states that Eugene knows how to cure the walker plague and what caused it, and we cut to commercial. When we return, Eugene immediately states the cause of the plague is classified.
