The The survivors are finally accepting their dark new world wont change anytime soon. The cliffhanger and next issue teaser promise a higher body count next issue. This is a good thing for readers, because it keeps us coming back for more. Read Full Review

Rick comes back from his cathartic Shane trip only to be greeted with an extraordinarily depressing string of bad news. Susie and Rachel have been beheaded, and oh yeah, we kind of lost Tyreese too. If it weren’t so tragic, it would almost be kind of be funny. Rick leaves this group for like a little over a day, and three people die. Things simply fall apart when Rick is not there to oversee everything. This is both a compliment to Rick as a leader and an acknowledgment of the momentous burden that leadership must be to him at times. However, a group that is often so paralyzed without its leader clearly has a lot of potentially fatal kinks that need to be ironed out.

When it comes to the quartet of prisoners, the reveal of who the guilty killer was felt somewhat like a Scooby-Doo episode. It’s always the one you would least expect, right? Dexter is a self-professed murderer, Andrew deals in drugs, and Axel committed armed robbery (and is a bit of a peeping Tom as Lori and Carol found out). Thomas Richards was arrested for . . . tax fraud. This is obviously a lie, as it is revealed in the end that he is a deranged serial killer with a fetish for decapitating females. In a series where even the most dastardly of villains can at times garner at least a small amount of sympathy, Thomas Richards is unique in that he is purely and simply evil. He hides between a dorky exterior, false kindness, and a warm smile, but the evil is there, and something needs to be done about it. Thankfully, his decision to screw with Andrea at the end will likely be a very dumb move on his part.

The one gleam of hope amidst all the despair is that Tyreese survives! To be honest, his “death scene” last issue was a bit too “Glenn under the dumpster” (TV show fans will get this reference) for me to take it seriously. In this series you must see a mutilated body before someone is definitely dead. I’m glad Tyreese lives, but his admission to Rick that they really are all dead sent a shiver up my spine. He just lost his daughter and is clearly grieving more than he is letting on, but living like one is dead is not indicative of a healthy mindset in the zombie apocalypse. Nothing matters, and that include any grounding of morality. When people essentially declare that they are “the walking dead,” one of two things usually happens. A lot of people die, or a lot of monsters are created from the discarded husks of what used to be good people. The prison was supposed to be a place where life could flourish again for this weary and battered group of survivors. So far, however, the prison has proved every much a curse as it has a blessing. Only time will tell if this changes in time for its potential as a paradise to be realized. more