The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 4: Slabtown
Gene Page/AMC

Beth is back! Everyone has been restlessly waiting for her return, and we finally know about her whereabouts.

This Sunday night’s The Walking Dead episode opens up with Beth at a hospital. She wakes up with a gush under her eye and overlooks the destroyed city of Atlanta through a window. Who is she with?

Beth has been saved by a group of vicious, untrustworthy people. The hospital is run by Dr. Edwards and a handful of police officers. The leader of the place is a woman named Dawn. She somehow has control over everyone at the hospital and runs a forceful system that disinterests Beth.

The place is known for taking in weak people, curing them, and then enslaving them. In other words, Beth has been kidnapped and is trapped in this hospital, where she is abused by Dawn and a fellow named Gorman.

Gorman is apparently the one who “saved” Beth, and he has some kind of creepy attraction to her. During the episode, he abuses her couple of times, but Beth gets him killed towards the end when Gorman forces himself onto her. Dr. Edwards is the only one who respects Beth and treats her generously, but we find out that he is untrustworthy as well.

Beth also runs into a kind, young gentleman named Noah. He’s the one who fills Beth with information about the hospital and the “system.” He tells Beth that they did not save his father because he was a resilient and powerful man, so they saved Noah instead because he is weaker and more vulnerable. Noah also informs Beth that he plans to escape, and Beth joins him.

Together, the two come up with a brilliant plan to escape the hospital but, in the end, Beth gets caught while Noah escapes.

Beth is recaptured and taken back up to the hospital where Dawn strikes her on the head and knocks her out. When Beth gains consciousness, she grabs a pair of scissors and creeps up on Dr. Edwards in what looks like an attempt to murder him, but she stops when she sees a woman being carted into a hospital room. The woman happens to be Carol.

So the question is what’s going on? How has Carol been captured? Here is this author’s speculation.

First, let’s back track to the previous episode where Daryl appears in the woods without Carol, and Michonne asks about her. Daryl says “come on out” to somebody who is with him. Who is that person?

Obviously, we now know that it is not Carol. It could be Noah.

See, here is what probably happened. When Noah escaped the hospital, he ran into Daryl and Carol, and the two probably questioned Noah about the place and asked him if Beth was held captive in there. Noah possibly filled them in with everything they need to know to rescue Beth. He probably told them that they take in weak people. Therefore, Carol purposely let herself be captured, since she looks to be the weaker one between herself and Daryl. She is probably going to help Beth escape from the inside, while Daryl goes back to the group to get reinforcement to help from the outside.

It would be a genius plan, and it could work. With Daryl getting help from Rick and the others, they could very easily save Beth and then join Abraham Ford and his crew on their mission to Washington D.C.

However, we may have to wait two weeks to see if Beth gets rescued as the next episode seems to be focused on Abraham and his group. Nonetheless, this was yet another suspenseful episode with an unexpected ending. Though, it did only focus on Beth.

Episode 4 – Overall Grade: 7/10                                                                                                                                                                          

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