Recap / The Walking Dead S05 E04 "Slabtown"

Season 5, Episode 4

Slabtown

Beth finds herself trapped in a prison camp and makes plans to escape.

Having been kidnapped previously by unknown assailants, Beth wakes up alone in a hospital bed, sporting a cast on her arm and a suture on her cheek. As she struggles to take in her surroundings, she stands up and looks outside, where she sees... downtown Atlanta, still damaged and scorched as a result of Operation Cobalt.

Upon realizing her situation, Beth struggles to escape from her room, but finds the door locked. Upon yelling out for help, she hears movement on the other side of the door, and pulls an IV from her arm for use as an Improvised Weapon. However, she is surprised when a doctor and a police officer walk in and greet her.

The officer identifies herself as "Dawn" and identifies the doctor as "Edwards". Dawn tells Beth that she is in Grady Memorial Hospital in the downtown core, and that she was brought there after she was found by the side of the road alone and sporting a broken wrist. Dawn then says that she has no idea where any of Beth's companions are, then finishes by telling Beth that she "owes" them for saving her life.

Edwards takes Beth on a tour of the hospital floor, identifying that the hospital is continuing to care for patients. Despite that, their resources are stretched thin and they can't save everyone, which he demonstrates when they walk by a patient who isn't showing any signs of improvement. Edwards dispassionately turns the patient's respirator off, then tells Beth that they dispose of the bodies by throwing them down an open elevator shaft. Edwards also tells her that any dying patient that's still warm will be disposed of by the walkers at the bottom of the shaft.

Beth is directed to a designated cafeteria and picks up some food before walking to a seating area. She is accosted by Officer Gorman, who works at the hospital and tells her that he was the one who found her. After intimidating her with a remark about walkers eating her thighs, he tells her that she should be grateful for him saving her, under threat of making notes about the food she's taking. After finishing her meal, Beth walks out of the cafeteria and sees a patient named Noah talking to Dawn, who mentions that someone named Joan has gone missing. Noah is directed to take over Joan's job doing laundry, while Dawn chastizes Dr. Edwards for being "safe enough to be bored".

Soon after, another patient named Gavin Trevitt is wheeled in, and Dawn (after an officer whispers information to her) frantically asks Edwards to save him. Edwards claims he doesn't have the resources and that Trevitt will likely die, prompting Dawn to slap Beth in the face in response, rupturing her suture. Soon after, Edwards re-sutures Beth's cheek and gives her a clean shirt that Noah left behind. Afterwards, Beth agrees to help Edwards perform intake on another patient named Joan who was bitten. It's revealed that Joan previously tried to escape from the hospital after the doctors, and she shouts at Gorman that he's "a little bitch". Despite Beth's attempts to leave the room, Dawn orders her to help Edwards, and together, they amputate Joan's bitten arm.

Beth drops her bloodied clothing off at the hospital's laundry room after and formally meets Noah, who tells her that he was taken by the hospital staff too. After informing her that the staff tend to take people who are scrawny and can't fight back, Noah tells her that he is looking to escape and get to a walled community in Richmond, Virginia. Noah encourages her to be strong before she leaves. Afterwards, Dawn claims that while Beth still "owes" the staff for saving her life, she also claims that Beth will eventually be able to leave and that an unknown authoritative entity will rescue society from its nightmare.

Some time later, Beth visits Joan and the former asks what Gorman did to her. Joan insinuates that Dawn has allowed Gorman and the other officers free rein to abuse and rape patients in return for offering protection. Soon after, Beth goes back to her room and encounters Gorman, who has stolen a lollipop Noah originally left for her and is sucking on it. He gently forces it into her unwilling mouth, but before anything else can happen, Edwards arrives and tells Gorman off. Before leaving, Gorman claims that he "owns" Joan and that Beth "should have been his".

Afterwards, Beth asks Edwards why he continues to work at the hospital. Edwards takes her on a brief tour down to the walker-threatened basement and up to the roof, explaining that he's capable of surviving on his own and that certain compromises have to be made. He reveals the origins of the aid for compensation system that the hospital runs on. Beth is unimpressed.

Soon after, the pair check on Levitt, who is being prescribed an anti-psychotic drug. Right as Beth administers the drug, Noah walks in, and both of them Levitt have a seizure and pass away. Dawn is angry and stabs Levitt in the heads to stop him from reanimating, while Noah covers for Beth and says Levitt died because he accidentally unplugged the respirator. Officers haul Noah out as Beth asks Edwards what happens, and the latter lies through his teeth that he intended to administer a different drug. Outside the room, Dawn confronts Beth and shouts insults at her, claiming that Beth is "not meant for this world" and insinuating that she knows Noah lied.

Finally fed up with the situation, Beth meets with the injured Noah afterwarda and they draw up a plan to escape from Grady Memorial. The plan involves stealing a key from Dawn's office, and Beth volunteers to get it while Noah distracts the former.

Beth makes her way into Dawn's office, passing a glass jar filled with lollipops on the way in. She discovers Joan dead on the floor of the office, with a message scratched out on the floor. Beth finds the spare key for the elevator, but is accosted by Gorman on her way out, who indicates that he's going to assault her. Beth plays along while Joan reanimates on the floor. Just when it seems that Gorman will rape her, Beth smashes him in the head with the jar of lollipops, just before his bit on the throat by the reanimated Joan. Beth grabs his gun before rendezvousing with Noah.

Together, the duo access the elevator shaft and begin to climb down on a Bedsheet Ladder. While Beth makes it down to the bottom safely, Noah is startled by a walker reaching through doors on his way down, and falls a fair distance, injuring his leg in the process. The duo manages to make it out to the parking lot, passing several hospital vehicles on the way, and Noah is able to climb over the fence while Beth shoots down walkers with Gorman's gun. Just before she can make her escape, though, she's tackled by one of the officers, and smiles after seeing Noah disappear in the distance.

Dawn hauls Beth into her office and accuses her of killing Gorman, but the latter plays dumb and says she was acting in self-defense. She accuses Dawn of the current situation spiralling out of control and tells her that "We're all going to die, and you let this happen for nothing." In response, Dawn snaps and beats Beth into unconsciousness. Soon after, Edwards gets her patched up again and indicates that he let Trevitt die for being a fellow doctor, saying he didn't want his role at the hospital to be threatened and likening himself to Peter, the Disciple of Christ, who protected himself as well in order to avoid being crucified.

While Edwards is distracted, Beth steals one of his medical tools, intent on going after him. However, she gets distracted when a new patient arrives at the hospital - Carol, who is being wheeled in on a gurney...

Tropes:

• An Arm and a Leg: The doctors are forced to amputate Joan's arm after she was bit (and initially refused treatment).
• Asshole Victim: Gorman, who gets eaten by the turned Joan moments after he tries to rape Beth.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Beth's cheek wound is swelling throughout the episode. Dawn proceeded to give her another wound to the forehead at the end.
• Bedsheet Ladder: Noah and Beth escape down an elevator shaft with a rope of towels.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Joan initially attempts to escape the hospital, gets her arm amputated and then ends her own life in Dawn's office. It was revealed shortly beforehand that Gorman had been sexually abusing her, prompting her to take drastic action.
• Big Bad: Dawn.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dr. Edwards is for the majority of the episode a decent guy and treats Beth well, but when his position as the hospital's doctor is threatened, he instructs Beth to inadvertedly kill the competition. When Noah takes the blame, Dawn has him beaten to a pulp for his supposed mistake, clearly indicating what would've been Beth's fate had she fessed up.
• Bittersweet Ending: Beth failed to escape Grady, but Noah does. Also, Carol is captured. But since she already took several levels of badass (as do Beth), they still have a high chance of breaking free.
• Breather Episode: After the gruesome "Fear the Hunters" adaptation, we get a slower-paced episode featuring antagonists who are lower on the scale of evil than the Hunters.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Beth returns, after being absent through the entirety of the Terminus/Hunters arc.
  • For a location-oriented example, downtown Atlanta is seen for the first time since the flashbacks to it being napalmed during the middle of the second season.
• Call-Back: As noted above, Beth's waking up in the hospital bears similarities to Rick in the pilot.
• Canon Foreigner: None of the residents of the hospital have a comic book counterpart (Beth included).
• Chekhov's Gunman: The zombified Joan inadvertantly saves Beth's life when Gorman tries to rape her.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Dawn notices evidence that Beth attempted suicide in the past.
  • Dr. Edwards mentions the napalming of Atlanta, which was seen in a flashback during the second season.
  • Dawn and Dr. Edwards mention that everyone at Grady has jobs to do. Beth visibly falters, remembering her father's last wisdom to her in the fourth season.
  • On the topic of Hershel, Joan has her arm amputated, making her the second person in the series to survive a walker bite.
• A Day in the Limelight: For Beth.
• The Dog Bites Back: Joan killed herself in an attempt to reanimate and kill Dawn, but ends up killing Gorman (the man who abused her) instead.
• Driven to Suicide: Joan was willing to die rather than continue to live in the hospital.
• Filler Villains: Dawn and the cops (and presumably, Dr. Edwards as well) are the first major antagonist group that doesn't have comic counterparts.
• First-World Problems: Beth mentions how lucky Edwards is when Gorman complains of boredom.
• Foreshadowing: Noah tells Beth about a walled community in Richmond, VA that he originally hailed from, and that he hopes will offer safety and security, being a walled community.
• The Idealist: Dawn seems to believe that society will eventually get back to normal, and that organized government forces will step in and restore law and order.
• Karmic Death: Gorman is beaten over the head by his intended victim, then Eaten Alive by the last victim he raped and abused. Tellingly, no one mourns for him after he goes.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Gorman is Eaten Alive by a woman he had raped, but not before he's bashed on the head with the jar of lollipops, one of which he had used to harass Beth.
• Made of Iron:
  • Noah is able to keep running on a broken leg.
  • Beth gets smacked hard twice by Dawn, and doesn't really look too worse off. Dr. Edwards comments about her healing quickly after Dawn's latest attack.
• Mythology Gag: By the end of the episode, Beth's wounds match Andrea's scars in the comic.
• The Place: The title refers to a street in Atlanta where Grady is located.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Gorman repeatedly sexually harasses Beth and nearly rapes her before he's killed. Horrifically, Beth is far from the first woman to fall victim to the cops' sexual abuse.
• The Reveal: The entire episode was promoted as this, regarding Beth's whereabouts. Turns out she was taken in by what amounts to a prison run by a tyrannical Knight Templar.
• The Starscream:
  • Dawn killed her partner when he made mistakes that cost lives, and it's implied it was largely just to take charge.
  • Gorman is implied to be this, after making a comment that there'll be a day without Dawn.
• Shout-Out: During a conversation with Edwards, Beth mentions that she hasn't lost her love of singing. This is a reference to actress Emily Kinney's music career, as well as several moments throughout the series where Beth sings.
• Stealth Pun: Dawn of the...
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Joan spits out that Gorman is a "little bitch" after the hospital staff bring her back in after her escape attempt.
• Took a Level in Badass: Beth begins to continues to shed her passive nature in a continuation in the start of her arc which started in late Season 4.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dawn genuinely wants the best for her community and to help rebuild the world once the apocalypse ends. Too bad she's extraordinarily temperamental, willing to turn a blind eye to sexual assault, and effectively runs a hospital worked by indentured slaves.
• Wham Shot: Beth sees Carol being wheeled in as the hospital's latest patient/victim.