The Walking Dead Episode Recap, Season 5 Episode 4: Slabtown

Episode Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 4: Slabtown

This episode focuses on Beth, and what has happened to her from the time that she was taken. She awakens in a hospital bed, discovers she is locked in the room, and Dr. Steven Edwards and Officer Dawn Lerner respond to her banging on the door and screaming. They explain that she is in Grady Hospital in Atlanta. Dawn says that her officers found Beth on the side of the road and saved her — and that now she owes them.

Dr. Edwards brings Beth with him on his rounds, and he takes a patient off life support because he hasn’t been showing signs of improvement. Then he stabs the man through the temple. Beth accompanies Dr. Edwards as he brings the body and drops it down an elevator shaft to the basement.

Beth encounters Officer Gorman in the dining hall as she is loading up a plate of food. He was one of the officers who saved her, and he isn’t very happy about the fact that she doesn’t seem all that grateful to him. She says she was fighting off a walker, then everything went black. He threatens to write down all the food she’s taking, so she stops. She brings the tray of food to Dr. Edwards, who complains of being bored, and is listening to music from a record player. He shares some of his guinea pig with her, and shows off his painting to her.

Just then, a new patient is brought in. At first, Dr. Edwards tries to say that it’s not worth the resources to save him, but Dawn insists. Dr. Edwards is able to stabilize him, but he isn’t sure if he can ultimately save the man. Dawn gets angry and slaps Beth, then storms out.

Dr. Edwards doctors up the cut Dawn opened on Beth’s face when she slapped her. He leaves a clean shirt for her to change into, and she finds a green lollipop in the pocket.

Officers bring back a young woman named Joan who tried to escape, but was attacked by walkers. She refuses anesthesia, and Dr. Edwards has Beth help hold her down while he cuts off the woman’s arm above where she was bit.

Beth goes to the laundry room and meets Noah, who gave her the lollipop. She asks if Joan had stayed and worked for awhile, whether she could have left. However, Noah says he hasn’t seen it work like that in the year that he’s been there. When they saved him and his dad, they said they could only take one. Noah now realizes they were lying, and just didn’t want trouble from his dad, who was bigger. He’s biding his time until he can find the right moment to get out of there.

Later, Dawn goes and talks to Beth, and tries to convince her to look at the good they’re doing, reminding Beth that they saved her life. Dawn tells Beth to keep working off what she owes, and she’ll be out of here in no time — but that she needs to eat in order to heal up and do her job.

Joan wakes up as Beth is mopping up the blood in her room. Beth is about to go get Dr. Edwards, but Joan insists on Beth staying instead. Beth asks what “he” did to her (referring to Gorman), and Joan says it doesn’t matter, and that it’s easy to make a deal with the devil as long as you’re not the one paying the price.

Later, when Beth is alone in her room, she tries to find the lollipop she hid under her mattress, but it’s gone. Just then, Gorman comes in, and it turns out he took it. He opens it and licks it, then shoves is in Beth’s mouth. However, Dr. Edwards comes by and tells Gorman to leave her alone. Gorman says that Beth should have been his, and that he’s going to get Joan back. But Dr. Edwards says he’s going to stop him, threatening to withhold his medical skills if Gorman is ever in need. But Dawn comes in and calls Gorman away.

Beth asks Dr. Edwards why he stays there, and he brings her down to the ground floor of the hospital, showing her there isn’t really a way out, because the place is surrounded by walkers. He then brings her up to the roof and tells her his story. When everything started, Dawn worked for a guy named Hanson. They were supposed to clear the hospital and move everyone to Butler Park, though Dr. Edwards was still at the hospital. But the city was bombed as the officers were doing one last sweep, and everyone they had evacuated was gone. They all kept to themselves, until they ran out of food and had to start going on runs. Then they struck a deal, that he would use what he could to heal the people brought in, and Hanson would compensate them for those resources for service. Eventually, Hanson cracked and made some calls that got people killed, and Dawn took over. Dr. Edwards says that as bad as it gets, it’s better than it is down there.

When Beth says she should get back, he asks her to look in on Mr. Trevitt, the man that was just brought in, and give him 75mg of clozapine. After the injects him, he starts convulsing, and dies. Dawn comes in and stabs the man in the head. Noah, who had happened to stop by the room right before this happened, makes up an excuse to take the blame, saying that he accidentally tripped and unplugged the machine for a moment. An angry Dawn has Gorman take Noah to her office, where she beats him. Beth tells Dr. Edwards what really happened, and he claims that he told Beth to give Mr. Trevitt clonazepam, not clozapine.

Later, Dawn confronts Beth in her room, and knows that Noah lied. Dawn says that they need to be working toward the greater good, but that Beth isn’t the greater good, that she’s not strong enough. Beth insists that she is strong enough. However, Dawn points out how many people had to risk their lives to save Beth, and that out there, Beth is just somebody’s burden, pointing out the scars on Beth’s wrist. Dawn says some people just aren’t meant for this life, and that’s okay as long as they don’t take advantage of the ones who are.

Beth tells Noah that she’s going with him when he tries to escape. He says that the basement is the fastest way out. They come up with a plan for him to distract Dawn while Beth goes into her office to retrieve the spare elevator key. While in the office, Beth finds a wallet, and sees an ID card inside of it for St. Ignatius Hospital. She also finds Joan dead on the floor, having killed herself with a pair of scissors. Finally, Beth finds the key — but Gorman catches her. He says that maybe Dawn doesn’t have to know about this, that maybe there’s another solution, and comes onto her. She smashes him in the head with the lollipop jar, and when he falls to the floor, a newly animated walker Joan talks a bite out of him. She takes his gun and calmly leaves.

Beth walks down the hall, and tells Dawn that Joan was looking for her, and that she and Gorman were headed toward her office. Then Beth and Noah head to the elevator shaft. He has made a rope made out of towels tied together, and he ties it around Beth’s waist and lowers her down. Then he climbs down. But halfway down, a walker tries to attack him from partially open elevator doors, and he falls the rest of the way into the basement, onto the dead bodies that have been dropped down there.

They fight their way past the walkers that are down there, and Beth uses the gun to shoot a couple. They make it outside and run, though Noah lags behind because of his hurt leg. A horde of walkers comes towards them, and Beth shoots a few. Noah is able to make it past them and slips through the crack in the chained gate, as Dawn shoots a couple of the walkers, saving Beth. But one of the officers apprehends Beth, and handcuffs her.

Back in Dawn’s office, we see 3 dead bodies. Beth explains that Gorman attacked her, just like he attacked Joan. She accuses Dawn of knowing what was happening, but letting it happen anyway. Dawn claims it was so that they make it, but Beth emphasizes that no one is coming, and that she let this happen for nothing. It seems to hit Dawn that what Beth is saying is true, but then Dawn gets angry, picks up a broken picture frame, and hits Beth in the face with it.

Dr. Edwards patches up Beth. She has figured out that Dr. Edwards knew Mr. Trevitt was a doctor, and that’s why he told her to give him the wrong medication to kill him — because if there was another doctor, then Dawn wouldn’t need Dr. Edwards, and wouldn’t protect him. She asks how he knew Trevitt was a doctor. Dr. Edwards says that Trevitt was an oncologist at St. Ignatius, and that he knew him. He defends his actions saying that they would have kicked him out, maybe even killed him, so he didn’t have a choice.

Beth is walking down the hallway, concealing a sharp object, when a new patient is brought in on a stretcher — it’s Carol.