Still (The Walking Dead): Difference between revisions

"Still" is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead; it aired on AMC on March 2, 2014. In this episode — written by Angela Kang and directed by Julius Ramsay — Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) explore the woods, coming across a country club and an old cabin Daryl had previously discovered, where they drink moonshine and learn more personal information about each other.

Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Beth (Emily Kinney) find an abandoned car on the side of a road. They climb in and spend the night inside it as a large herd of walkers pass. The next morning, they climb out of the car and scavenge it for supplies before moving out. Later, Daryl hunts for food while Beth makes a fire at a camp that they have set up. After failing to catch a squirrel, Daryl manages to kill a large snake. He brings it back to the camp, where he and Beth cook and eat it. After she is finished, Beth tells Daryl she wants a drink of alcohol, explaining that Hershel had never let her have any. When Daryl doesn't respond, she angrily takes her knife and leaves. As Beth is walking, walkers appear and she is forced to hide. She successfully attempts to trick the walkers by tossing a stone into some nearby brush, distracting them. Daryl then arrives and leads her back to the camp, much to her anger.

After yelling at Daryl, telling him she can take care of herself, and flipping him off, Beth and Daryl leave the camp. They stumble onto a golf course as a group of walkers emerge from the woods, and Beth decides to go to the country club at the edge of the golf course, believing that it will have alcohol. Once inside, they find three walkers hanging from the ceiling by their necks while bodies of people with gunshots in the head are scattered on the floor. As Beth looks for alcohol, Daryl begins collecting money that has been scattered across the floor. The walkers from the golf course attempt to enter the room, forcing Daryl and Beth to seek refuge deeper inside the club.

As they work their way deeper into the building, Beth manages to find an unopened bottle of alcohol. However, a walker attacks her from the shadows, and she is forced to smash the bottle to try to use it as a makeshift weapon. When this doesn't work, she manages to get her knife and use it to kill the walker. She sees Daryl watching and sarcastically thanks him for his help. Daryl simply replies by reminding her that she had said she could take care of herself. Beth notices a writing on the wall saying "Welcome to the dogtrot" and more bodies.

They find a shop further inside the building. Daryl attempts to loot the cash register, and begins taking anything that might have had monetary value before the plague, then noticing half of a female corpse with an opened shirt and a sign reading "rich bitch" pinned over mannequin legs. Beth, meanwhile, finds clean shirts and puts one on. As they continue searching, a grandfather clock that they had passed earlier begins to chime, attracting all of the walkers left in the club house. Daryl and Beth attempt to run, and, when faced with a dead end, Daryl begins dispatching the walkers using his crossbow, then using a golf club and his knife to dispose of them and finally savagely beating the last one with the golf club, ruining Beth's shirt in the process.

They then find the club house's bar, and Beth proceeds to search it for alcohol, while Daryl continues collecting things. Beth finds a half-empty bottle of alcohol, and asks Daryl, who is now playing darts with the photos of what appears to be the club's presidents, if "peach schnapps" is any good, to which he replies "no". After not being able to find a clean glass, Beth begins to break down in tears. Daryl angrily walks to where she is sitting and takes the bottle, smashing it on the floor, and telling her that her first drink will be from something better.

He then takes her to a rundown shack that he claimed to have found with Michonne. He enters the house with Beth and retrieves crates of moonshine from it. He then pours Beth a glass. Beth drinks the moonshine, then offers Daryl a drink, but he refuses, saying that someone needs to have their wits about them.

Beth then convinces Daryl to play Never have I ever, during which Daryl becomes intoxicated. One of the questions Beth asks Daryl offends him and Daryl becomes upset and he urinates on one of the walls. He then forcefully takes Beth outside to where a walker has been attracted to the house, to teach her how to use his crossbow. He shoots the walker in the chest, pinning it to a tree, and tries to force Beth to kill it with his crossbow. She refuses, and instead stabs it in the head with her knife. They then begin arguing, during which Daryl yells at Beth for being lost on the road, and only wanting to have a drink like a "dumb college girl", and Beth accuses Daryl of not caring about anyone. Daryl breaks down, feeling directly responsible for Hershel's death; he tells Beth how he had had a shot at The Governor, but hadn't taken it, and that if only he kept looking with Michonne maybe then they could have saved Hershel's life. Beth then embraces him as he continues to cry.

Later, in the night, Daryl and Beth share stories of their respective families, during which Beth tells Daryl that he will ultimately be the last person standing after everything is over. She then suggests that they burn down the house they found the moonshine in. Daryl smiles, and tells her they will need more alcohol. They empty all of the moonshine all over the house, and prepare to light it. Daryl offers Beth the matches, and she lights the money that Daryl had collected earlier, throwing it into the house. The house begins to burn, and Beth and Daryl both flip off the house while watching it burn before turning and leaving.

"Still" was written by producer Angela Kang and directed by series editor Julius Ramsay, marking his directorial debut.

This episode focuses entirely on the characters of Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Beth Greene (Emily Kinney). This episode is the first to feature just two series regulars. Andrew Lincoln (Rick), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Chandler Riggs (Carl), and Melissa McBride (Carol) are all credited but do not appear. Chad L. Coleman (Tyreese), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha) and Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. (Bob) are also absent but are credited as "also starring".

Upon airing, the episode was watched by 12.61 million American viewers, receiving an 18–49 rating of 6.4.^[1] This presented a slight decrease in ratings from the previous episode,^[2] but still presented strong ratings. The show placed first overall in cable television viewing.^[1]

Roth Cornet of IGN gave the episode a positive review, mainly praising the character development of Daryl and Beth, and gave the episode a score of 8.5 out of 10. She commented that the episode featured "some of the most grounded and engaging character moments of the season" and praised the horror elements, particularly the opening sequence, calling it "evocative" and "very satisfyingly, creepy."^[3]

Zack Hanlden of The A.V. Club rated the episode a "B". He noted the episode's slower pace, with no advancement of plot, but enjoyed the character development. He positively commented on the opening sequence, as well as the concluding scene. Overall, he wrote, the episode "has its moments, but the lack of forward progress, and the failure to turn authorly ambition into effective results, keeps it from being a success."^[4]

idiotbox had mixed opinions on the episode. They praised the script and performances of Norman Reedus and Emily Kinney but felt that the pace of the season has slowed and the lack of the ensemble is damaging the show as a whole^[5]

• "Still" at AMC
• "Still" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode