Recap: The Walking Dead 504 “Slabtown”
*SPOILERS AHEAD!*
It seems like this show lives on cliffhangers. This week’s episode of The Walking Dead answered a few questions but still left us staring at the screen like this:
Last week’s episode left us wondering who was behind Daryl, where was Carol (was she behind him?) and the question some have been wondering since the end of season 4: where the hell was Beth?
This episode was a break from the gore and action that season 5 has been giving us for the past 3 episodes. I think many can agree that Beth’s storyline hasn’t been shown since her first appearance in season 2. Maggie managed to find her way as a strong member of the group and the late Herschel was a wonderful voice of reason and the group’s steady moral compass. Beth usually stood in the sideline with her doe-eyes and babysitter role and it wasn’t until this episode where we actually saw her stand up for herself. This was the first standalone episode for Beth without scenes of Rick and the gang.
The episode begins with Beth waking up in a tidy hospital room in Atlanta. Picking up from where she was left off in season 4, it’s revealed that she was rescued by cops and brought back to Grady Memorial Hospital.
FUN FACT: Grady Memorial is a real public hospital in Atlanta that was built on the city’s old red-light district. It was referred to as Slabtown because of the concrete slabs used during construction.
But things aren’t all what they seem at the hospital, which Beth and the viewers quickly find out. She meets Dr. Steven Edwards and Dawn, the hospital’s only physician and a cop, respectively. Dawn seems to be the one in charge in rescuing survivors and making the work off their “debts” to keep the hospital running as smoothly as possible. Long story short, it’s a glorified prison.
Joan (played by Keisha Castle-Hughes) , a patient, tries to make an attempt to escape but is caught by cops who bring her back inside. During her escape attempt, she finds herself bitten in the arm by a walker and said arm is amputated against her will. FUN! As Beth starts tending to her, Joan reveals that the male officers have been (in not to many words) sexually harassing her and Dawn is letting them continue their behaviour to keep the officers happy. When Beth confronts Dawn, the latter explains that, “every sacrifice we make needs to be for the greater good.”. This is sounding a lot like Terminus; survival at any cost and as long as you’re the butcher and not the cattle, you’ll be fine.
While Beth finds Dr. Edwards comforting and even sympathetic to others, it doesn’t take that long to find out he’s just as much of a self-serving coward as Dawn, fooling Beth into killing another survivor because he was a doctor. If Dawn has another doctor, what would she possibly need help with from Edwards?
Throughout the episode, several characters attempt to talk Beth out of leaving by showing her how weak she can be out there. Dawn even goes as far as pointing out her self-inflicted scars that Beth gave herself in episode 2.10. But what these guys don’t know is that Beth had a class in Daryl Dixon 101.
The one person aside from Beth who kept us glued to the screen was a fellow patient named Noah. Because of their cowardice and self-serving attitude, the cops “chose to save” Noah rather than his father because the latter was stronger and bigger and would’ve fought back against the tyrants that ran the hospital. Their shared desire to leave Grady hatched their plan to finally escape once and for all. While the two got out of the walker-infested elevator shaft, Beth was quickly captured by Dawn’s cops while Noah escaped.
The old Beth might have just given up but this Beth won’t stop. Before she tried to make another break for it, she finds an unconscious Carol being wheeled in on a stretcher. But it might all be for show since Carol’s become a complete badass. If there’s one person to fake their way into high-traffic areas and create mayhem, it’s our girl Carol.
Anyone hoping for answers for last week didn’t really get any this episode since there were no scenes of Rick & Co.
We can all admit the episodes centred around Beth were a bore saved by Daryl of course, but “Slabtown” showed some serious character development. Still, there are a lot of other characters that are being underwritten – Michonne and even Abe and gang, where did you guys come from? AMC might do a lot better if they didn’t give the show a full season order. With 20-24 episodes per season, this leaves a lot of dull and underwritten stories that just become filler episodes until the next week. Who knows, maybe next week we’ll finally feel some satisfaction.
What did you guys think of the episode? Let us know below!
