Violet recaps Season 4, Episode 2 of The Walking Dead, titled Infected, where there’s an airborne virus causing walkers within the prison, and someone is feeding rats to the walkers at the fence! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
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The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 2: Infected Recap Overview
Need a quick Walking Dead episode recap of Season 4 Episode 2 titled Infected? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed Walking Dead episode recap for Infected if you need more information!
- Patrick, now a walker, creates a chain reaction of walkers within the prison
- Michonne has a close call upon her return. Rick enters to chaos in the prison, then helps Daryl and Glenn kill the walkers. They realize there’s an airborne virus.
- A bitten father asks Carol to take care of his daughters. His daughter, Lizzie, volunteers to knife him before he turns, but chickens out.
- The Council decides to separate the exposed. Carol criticizes Lizzie for being weak.
- The fence begins to fall under the weight of the walkers. Carol asks Carl not to tell Rick about her knife training class. Someone has been feeding rats to the walkers.
- Michonne has an issue with holding Judith. Rick lures the walkers away from the fence by feeding the pigs to them.
- Rick burns the pig pen, while Carl tells him about Carol. Rick gives Carl back his gun, and straps his own gun back on
- Tyreese discovers the burned bodies of Karen and another prison resident
The Walking Dead Episode Recap: Infected, the Details
Patrick’s First Meal
The episode starts off with someone we can’t see shining a flashlight and feeding a live rat to a walker at the fence. Meanwhile, Karen and Tyreese are sharing some alone time while everyone else is sleeping. He asks her to crash at his place, but she says no. They kiss goodnight, and she walks off alone. She stops at the sink, then hears a sound and investigates by pushing a shower curtain out of the way, but doesn’t find anything, and walks back to her cell.
Patrick, now a walker, emerges from behind another shower curtain and starts to follow Karen. It looks like he is about to go into Karen’s cell, when he hears a cough. He heads toward the sound, and makes a meal out of a man who is sleeping, then moves on when the man turns into a walker.
Outside, Glenn and Maggie are up in a guard tower, and Glenn takes a picture of Maggie, who is sleeping. The sound wakes her up. The camera instantly prints out the picture. Glenn heads out, leaving Maggie to stand guard.
Michonne Nearly Becomes a Meal, Chaos Ensues in the Prison, a Virus is Discovered
Meanwhile, Michonne starts heading out on her horse for supplies, and Rick and Carl do some farming, then feed the pigs. They hear gunshots, and people run outside. Rick runs inside to investigate, and Michonne heads back to the prison, as Carl rushes to open the gate for her. Two walkers attack Michonne on her way in, and she trips and falls. But Carl grabs a gun and shoots one, and Maggie shoots the other.
Inside the prison, it’s chaos, with walkers attacking people and making more walkers. Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and others are able to kill all the walkers and get things under control. They realize that one of the walkers was Patrick. Then they go around making sure all the walkers are dead. Rick uses a knife instead of a gun. There’s a man locked inside a cell who was turned. They examine him and don’t find any bite marks or wounds. A doctor examines the body, and they conclude there must be an airborne virus that killed him. Rick tells them about the sick pig. They realize they have all been exposed to the virus.
Carol’s Knife Training In Action… Or Not
In the chaos, Carol had rescued a man who was bit on the arm, and prepared to amputate, but then realized he was also bit on the neck. The man asks Carol to take care of his kids like they were her own, and she agrees. She brings in his daughters, Lizzie and Mika, to say goodbye. He dies and Carol brings them off to the side, but Lizzie volunteers to be the one to knife her dad before he turns. However, she chickens out at the last second, and Carol takes over, knifing him through the head, while the girls turn away. But Lizzie looks back right as Carol plunges the knife through.
The Council Makes a Decision, Carol is Harsh With Lizzie
Rick goes outside and tells Carl, Michonne, and Maggie what happened. He warns them not to get too close to anyone who might have been exposed. Meanwhile, the Council meets, the members of which are Carol, Daryl, Sasha, Glenn, and Hershel. They discuss where to move those who have been exposed, and settle on Cell Block A – Death Row. Karen and Tyreese pass by, and Karen is coughing. They tell Karen she needs to be separated from the others.
Carol goes out to talk to Lizzie and Mika, who are outside by the fence. Carol criticizes Lizzie for being weak and losing her nerve. Lizzie cries and runs off, while Mika tells Carol that Lizzie is “messed up,” not weak.
Walkers Crowd the Fence, Carol Corners Carl
Meanwhile, Daryl is outside digging some graves. Rick regrets not being much use without his gun during the walker attack. Maggie runs out and calls to them, and they see that the walkers are crowding toward one section of the fence, which is starting to give. They go and stab the walkers through the head.
Back inside, Beth is bandaging Michonne, while Judith is playing on the floor. Judith starts crying, and Michonne winces. Beth picks her up and carries her outside of the cell.
While killing the walkers, Sasha notices several dead rats by the fence, and thinks someone was feeding the walkers. The fence begins to collapse under the weight of so many walkers, and Rick says he has a plan.
Carol asks Carl if he told his dad what he saw in the library, and he says no, so she asks if he’s going to tell him, but he doesn’t answer. She defends her actions, saying that she has to keep teaching the kids to survive. When Carl asks, she admits she didn’t tell their parents, and that if she did, they might not understand, and she doesn’t want to take that risk. Carl says he doesn’t want to lie to his dad, and Carol says she’s not asking him to lie, she’s just asking him not to say anything.
Michonne Holds Judith, Rick Distracts the Walkers
Beth walks Judith back and forth and sings to her, but then Judith pukes on her, so she asks Michonne to hold her. Michonne refuses at first, but gives in, initially keeping the baby at a distance, but then hugging her close, and crying.
Daryl drives the Jeep out into the field of walkers, while Rick rides in the flatbed trailer attached to it, along with a big box. Daryl stops, and Rick takes a squealing pig out of the box, slices it with a knife, and the walkers swarm to eat the pig. Daryl drives a little further, and Rick does this two more times, creating a trail, effectively luring the walkers away from the deteriorating section of fence. Meanwhile, Glenn and Sasha put up beams to support the weakened area of the fence.
Later, Lizzie and Mika are standing at the fence, watching the walkers. Carol sympathizes with Lizzie for losing her father.
Carl Confesses to Rick about Carol, Rick and Carl Take Up Arms
Rick goes out to the pig pen and starts to break it down. He tells Carl they should stay away from Judy awhile so she doesn’t get sick. Carl then tells Rick about Carol teaching the kids how to use weapons and how to kill, the fact that their parents don’t know, and that she doesn’t want Rick to know. Carl suggests that Rick let her. Rick says he won’t stop her, and won’t say anything. Then he lights the pig pen on fire. Rick then gives Carl back his gun, then straps on his holster and puts his own gun in it. Rick removes his bloody shirt and throws it into the fire.
Tyreese Discovers Karen’s Burned Body
Tyreese brings a bouquet of flowers to Karen’s cell, but she’s not there. Instead he finds a streak of blood leading outside — to two bodies that have been burned to a crisp. He recognizes Karen’s bracelet on one of the bodies.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 2 of The Walking Dead: Infected
This episode had some good parts, but also some annoyingly dumb aspects to it as well. I enjoyed Rick’s story and the symbolism involved with it, as he reluctantly lets go of the innocent, peaceful life that he was working so hard to achieve, when he realizes that it is not a realistic possibility for the world in which he lives. Not using a gun during the walker attack on the prison made him realize that he is much more useful with a gun in hand, and that it is a virtual necessity not only for his survival, but in order for him to effectively protect the prison residents he took in who are unable to protect themselves. You can see the pain and regret in his eyes as he kills the pigs, burns the pig pen, and burns his shirt with the pig blood on it, representing the death of his pacifist life, and the rebirth of his old, violent life as he and Carl again don their guns.
On the other hand, I hated Carol’s storyline. I get that she wants to teach the kids how to survive, but that was a little harsh, not only encouraging Lizzie to knife her own father as her first kill, but then criticizing her when she was unable to follow through. Come on Carol, she’s a child who just lost her father, and you’re going to immediately give her a hard time, rather than comfort her? I understand that it’s a hard world that they live in, and that at some point they’re going to find themselves having to kill someone they know and love in order to protect themselves, but using their own father as their very first lesson in how to make a kill? Way to traumatize them, Carol. I also felt like she was a bit careless in bringing the girls in to see their father in the first place. She let them get close and linger just a little too long. I felt like he was going to turn at any second and take a bite of one of his daughters.
The whole handling of the airborne virus seemed a little unorganized. They claimed to be trying to separate the exposed from the unexposed, but it seems to me like pretty much everyone got exposed at some point. Rick was in the prison killing the walkers, where he could have picked up the virus. He came outside, and Carl hugged him, at which time he could have spread the virus to Carl. Then Carl returned to help Maggie and Michonne, and could have spread it to them. Then Michonne went to Beth’s cell and held Judith, and could have spread it to both of them. They don’t know just how contagious this airborne virus is. It seems like they should have been a little more careful.
Will there be more prison residents who get infected with the virus and turn into walkers? And who burned Karen and the the other guy? Is it the same person that was feeding the rats to the walkers? What’s Michonne’s deal? It seems like she may have lost a child. Will we get some backstory on that? Hopefully we’ll get some answers in the next episode!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 2: Infected
So it looks like the prison has a possible epidemic on its hands! I think that it is time to impose a rule that people need to go anywhere in groups of two, that way if one person dies, the others can warn the group about it. I thought that although it seemed a little odd how long it took for the zombies to make it around the prison, it was creepy watching how it all would play out.
I felt really sorry for Rick this episode. Clearly he has a problem with hurting or killing even zombies now, as when he is trying to clear the fence, he has difficulty looking at them before he acts. When he comes up with the pig killing solution you can tell that he has almost given up on his attempt to simply be a farmer, and seems to just now suddenly realize: the world has changed around him more than he thought it would, or at the very least, more than he hoped it would. I hope that Rick continues being the moral compass for the group though. Despite the “weaknesses” his emotions have given Rick, I believe his thoughtful approach to how he processes how to move forward keeps the humanity in humans intact.
Now for the big mystery. Who is leading zombies to the fence? I fought long and hard to think of a person. My theory has come to believe that the little girls are the people using the mice. Considering their fascination with naming the zombies, and lack of fully understanding them, I think they may have been feeding them, almost as if they were pets.
As for the murderer of the group that scorched the two potentially sick people, I have a feeling this is Bob, the medic. (Credit to my sisters for bringing up this suspect). I think it makes sense story wise, and with how the story has progressed so far, it seems logical. We know that Bob is a little “off” with how he handled the alcohol in the store. Why did he feel he had to hide the alcohol? Is no one allowed to drink or does he know that he is not the best person to have a drink? Also, with him being from the army, who knows what sort of combat he has seen, and he has probably learned how quickly illnesses can spread in poor environments, and wanted to stop the spread as soon as possible. Worst case scenario, is Bob (or someone else) could be working for the Governor to cause inter grief among the prison, weakening them from the inside.
So far, I am really enjoying this season, with the exception of Carol’s odd scenes where she tries to get the little girl to kill her first zombie, that is the little girl’s father. She then calls her weak for being unable to do it. It almost came off like a kid trying to bully another kid, rather than an adult figure trying to mentor a child, which kind of bothered me. Perhaps it was the show’s way of attempting to have Carol go a little crazy considering her losses in her own personal life.
I am excited for the episode tonight! It will be on soon for you East Coasters!
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 3: Isolation
Here are scenes from the next Walking Dead episode, titled Isolation:
What did you think of The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 2: Infected? Let us know in the comments below!
I never caught on to who was feeding rats to walkers until it was revealed later on. I had a theory, but it was wrong. This was a good episode though. Nice to see conflict since there’s way too much peace before this.
Looks like someone was on the right track on who was feeding the walkers, and basically for that exact reason. She flat-out did not grasp what the walkers were. Then again she didn’t really grasp reality either. Makes you wonder if she was like that before the outbreak or not.