Episode 411: Claimed-Recap and Discussion

Last week we ended with the entrance of Abraham, who is VERY well known amongst comic fans, but not so much to the television audience. Will this week help out? Leeeet’s find out:

At the outset, Glenn’s just waking up in the back of Abraham’s truck. He frantically quizzes Tara about the school bus. They passed it (and the destruction there) three hours ago. He screams at Abraham to stop the truck as we go to the opening credits.

Carl and Michonne sit down to breakfast, where it’s fairly jovial until Carl brings up Judith and stops mid-sentence, realizing she’s dead (or at least as far as he knows). Michonne goes into the kitchen and Rick thanks her for making Carl laugh. Rick says that they’re going to stay for a bit while they figure things out. Rick stays at the house while Michonne and Carl go out for supplies.

Rick bandages up and finally puts on a clean shirt (seriously his shirt was getting NASTY) and settles down for a nap.

While Rick gets some shut-eye, Michonne tries to get through to a surly, down Carl. Not even his love of processed cheese in a can is able to break him out of his funk. As they enter the next house, Michonne finally tells Carl that she had a son. This raises all sorts of questions from Carl. Michonne promises to answer one question for each room they clear.

As they go through the house, Rick is asleep back their temporary home. He hears voices and people entering the house. A guy is begging to stay with the group and we hear the group beating him. Rick manages to hide his stuff and get under the bed right before one of the group enters the bedroom. It’s a tense few moments as the guy checks the room and then lies on the bed, right above Rick.

Back to Michonne and Carl on their supply run, Michonne answers Carl’s first question: her son’s name was Andre Anthony. That’s going to be a trivia question at some point.

Michonne is treating the house like a gallery, taking in all the artwork. She answers Carl’s second question: she just had one child. And after he brings her a painting, she answers number three: her son died after the outbreak. Bonus answer: She has not told Rick or anyone else.

Michonne heads down the hallway and finds a toddler’s play room. She goes into the connecting room and finds two beds, two corpses on each, carefully laid out, shot through the head. It looks like two younger girls on one and two older girls on the other (I think they’re girls, I think they’re older—it’s a little hard to tell). A copy of Skybound’s Super Dinosaur is resting on the chest of one of them. As Michonne places a talking teddy bear onto the bed she realizes there’s another corpse in the room. It looks to be the mother in a rocking chair. Dead from a gunshot to the head. Michonne is disturbed.

She leaves the room and finds Carl. Carl guesses “There’s a baby in there.” Michonne counters by saying “It’s a dog.” Carl looks down and reveals that Rick let him name Judith. They head back to their house which is where…

Rick is currently squished under the bed. Another stranger comes into the room and tries to lay claim to the bed. The two men come to blows. One of them crashes to the floor and sees Rick but he’s choked to death before he gives Rick away. The victor takes his turn on the bed, and Rick is still stuck underneath.

We cut all the way back to Glenn, who’s gotten Abraham to stop the truck. As Glenn tries to walk back to the school bus, Abraham stops him. He introduces himself and his two companions: mulleted Eugene, and non-mulleted Rosita. Abraham reveals that Eugene knows what caused this whole thing (!!!) and he needs to get Eugene to Washington. When Glenn asks what it was, Eugene says it’s classified. Glenn leaves anyway and Tara offers to show him the way back to the bus.

Abraham goes after Glenn, and tries to convince him to come with them by saying that Maggie is almost certainly dead. Glenn reacts by punching him. Abraham tackles Glenn and they tussle. While they’re busy, Eugene sees a walker come out of the woods and then more come out of the corn. Eugene being Eugene, he loses control of his rifle and sprays bullets everywhere. Abraham, Tara, Glenn, and Rosita all open fire on the walkers. When the firing stops, the walkers are dead and so is the truck. Good work, Euge.

Back to Rick who slowly pulls himself out from under the bed. As he looks for a way out of the house we can hear the guys downstairs saying that a woman has been staying there, and they’re planning on raping her when she gets back and they laugh and argue over who gets to go first.

When one of the strangers heads back upstairs, Rick slips into a bathroom only to find it occupied. He’s forced to choke the man to death before slipping out a window, dropping to the ground, and crouching on the side of the house.

While this is going down, Abraham’s working on the truck, declaring it officially dead. Glenn leaves them, Tara follows, Rosita follows, and Eugene convinces Abraham to go with them as well. As they head through a town Abraham tries to convince Tara that getting to Washington needs to be the priority. They argue about their moral character, and both imply that there might be more to them than it seems.

Rick spots Michonne and Carl approaching the house. Just as he’s about to pull his gun on one of the strangers, there’s yelling inside the house. Rick uses the distraction to run off with Michonne and Carl.

The last scene of the episode is Rick, Carl, and Michonne on the train tracks. They come across a sheet telling them about Terminus. They follow the tracks.

WHEW. Tense times for Rick this episode.
What do you guys make of this group that invaded the house? Bad news, huh? (Robert talks about whether we’ll see them again or not in our chat this week)
How do you feel about Abraham and his crew so far? Comic fans, are you feeling Cudlitz as Sgt Abraham Ford, yet?
And–WAIT WAIT WAIT–Did Eugene say he knows what caused this?!?!

COMIC FANS, LET’S NOT SPOIL THIS! I want this to play out for people that don’t read the comic. Also, if you don’t read the comic, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? The apocalypse?

Other 411 articles:
Robert discusses the episode.
Cudlitz interview part 2, which talks about 411.
Panel to screen comparison.
Kirkman brand Easy Cheeze hilarity.