The Walking Dead

For a show about a zombie apocalypse, “The Walking Dead” is seriously introspective.

At least half of each episode’s 42-minute running time is dedicated to wordless storytelling. Without any dialogue, Michonne lures two walkers into a trap and assembles them as her personal zombie bodyguards.

Young Carl perches on the roof of an empty home, eating chocolate pudding while a trapped zombie reaches out an open window behind him. It’s a thing of beauty to see an action-driven show dial it down a few notches and remember how subtlety plays into the medium.

As the show’s fourth season returns for its last eight episodes, everyone is separated and — as per usual — no one is safe. Former police sheriff Rick Grimes and his son, Carl, hole themselves up in a vacant home so Rick can recover from his wounds sustained in the midseason finale confrontation with the Governor and his crew. Michonne is haunted by ghosts from her past as she desperately searches for her missing comrades.

But it’s the younger Grimes who takes the lead this time around. As a teenager forced to grow up far too quickly in a vastly changed world, Carl has always been one of the show’s more fascinating characters. Instead of growing up playing with friends his own age and getting angry at his father for giving him a curfew, Carl is avoiding becoming zombie bait and bemoaning his father for not letting him use a gun.

Carl’s forced maturation is never so obvious than during this episode when he discovers a teenager’s abandoned room, full of music posters, Xbox games and a flat screen television. But instead of being able to sit down and play, Carl rips the cords out of the wall to bind the door shut. It’s a haunting reminder of how our world dictates our purpose and choices in life.

This episode’s focus on Carl, Michonne and Rick also highlights another of “The Walking Dead’s” strengths —its commitment to taking an ensemble cast and focusing individual episodes to just a few characters.

Earlier this season, two episodes focused solely on the Governor, and they were stunning. This episode isn’t as strong on its own, but it effectively communicates the mentality of loneliness and the vast unknown that has separated the show’s core group.

Subsequent episodes will focus on characters like Glen, Maggie and the other surviving members, and we can only hope our motley crew of zombie slayers will once again be reunited.

But let’s remember, this is “The Walking Dead.” And there can’t be any happy endings when zombies have enslaved the earth.