After

"After" is the ninth episode and the mid-season premiere of Season 4 of AMC's The Walking Dead. It aired on AMC at 9/8c on February 9, 2014, and on Fox at 9pm on February 10, 2014.

Plot Synopsis
The episode starts at the destroyed prison, with walkers surrouding the tank. Then, the corpse of The Governor, and Flame's devoured corpse are shown, with Michonne outside the fences. She uses her katana to kill approaching walkers and takes cover behind the gate's spikes. Then, she uses her old technique of camouflage and uses two trapped walkers as protection by tying them with ropes and cutting their jaws and arms. As she walks, she encounters Hershel's zombified head and puts it down with her katana, leaving the prison shaken by the experience.

Carl and Rick walk on a country road with Carl walking ahead of Rick who struggles to keep up due to his injuries from the previous battles. At first, they stop by in a barbecue restaurant which seems to be looted already. A single walker is barricaded by some pieces of furnitures. Rick wants to put it down with his axe, saving their bullets, but is too weak to make a finishing blow forcing Carl to shoot it in the head despite Rick's pleas not to. On the floor, Carl notices a note left by the walker's son, who couldn't bring himself to kill his father. They continue walking until they take shelter in an abandoned house. Carl loudly bangs and curses to draw walkers out, but Rick is angry at him for doing so. As they secure the door, they argue over whether a knot is enough or to push the couch against the door. Carl angrily snaps that his knot is a good one and verbally slaps Rick, mentioning that Shane taught him it.

Michone and her two pet walkers came across the same road Carl and Rick had walked before and she notices their foot prints in the mud. However, she decides to move further on her own.

In the house, Rick is unconcious due to fatigue and his injuries. Carl tries to wake him up but when Rick doesn't respond, Carl starts yelling alerting two walkers outside. He lures the walkers away from the front door to kill them somewhere away from the house, but is nearly surprised by a third walker coming up from behind. However, he manages to kill all three walkers unscathed. When Carl returns to the house, he becomes angry at his father, saying he failed protecting the prison group and Judith. Carl never forgot how to survive, not even when Rick wanted to 'play farmer.' When Rick, who is still unconcious, does not respond, Carl says he doesn't need him anymore and he wouldn't care if he died.

Michonne wakes up from a dream of her young son, her boyfriend, Mike, and his best friend. At the start of the dream, they are having a happy life in Atlanta before it progresses to the beginning of the apocalypse and later we see both Mike and his friend with their arms cut off, like we saw them at the end of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3. Michonne wakes up screaming and horrified. She continues walking with her pet walkers until she walks along with a herd of walkers. She hallucinates one of them as a zombified version of herself.

Carl goes on another supply trip in a nearby house. Upstairs, he opens a door with a walker behind it. After a struggle, in which he missed the walker with his gun, he is nearly bitten on his leg but manages to get loose when the walker pulls one shoe off his foot. Carl shuts the door locking the walker in the room, writing WALKER INSIDE GOT MY SHOE DIDN'T GET ME. Outside, he is eating a can of chocolate pudding with the walker grasping out of the window. He returns to an unconsious Rick, who begins to move and groan, making Carl believe that he is a walker. Carl grabs Rick's gun, but can't bring himself to shoot Rick, saying that he does need him. Rick manages to groan out Carl's name.

The next morning, Rick cautions Carl against going out on his own, and reveals that the reason he spent the time trying to be a farmer and build a community was for Carl and Judith's sake, but he now realizes that Carl is a man and ready to face the world they live in. He also congragulates Carl on retrieving more supplies. They then share a laugh on how Carl ate 112 ounces of pudding.

Michonne, still walking along with the herd, cannot stand it anymore and decides to kill the complete herd, including the two pet walkers and the female walker resembling herself. She returns to the country road and decides to follow Rick and Carl's footprints. She finds the note that Carl saw, and briefly talks to herself, mentioning that she missed Mike, and she realizes that she can't keep shutting people out for the fear of losing them. Continuing to search for Rick and Carl, she discovers the can of pudding. Once she manages to get to the house, she sees them together safely and almost starts to cry in joy. When she knocks on the door, Rick looks to the peephole and starts to laugh, telling Carl it is for him.

Uncredited

 * Unknown as Michonne's Son.
 * Chase as Flame.

Deaths

 * Flame (Confirmed Fate)
 * Hershel Greene (Zombified)
 * Joe Sr. (Zombified)

Trivia

 * Last appearance of Hershel Greene. (Zombified)
 * Last appearance of The Governor. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Clara. (Zombified)
 * Last appearance of Flame. (Corpse)
 * First (and last) appearance of Joe Sr. (Zombified)
 * The episode name refers to the aftermath of the prison assault.
 * This is the first episode of Season 4 where no living character dies.
 * This is the eighth episode where the majority of the cast does not appear, along with "18 Miles Out", "Walk With Me", "Clear", "Prey", "Indifference", "Live Bait" and "Dead Weight".
 * This episode had multiple scenes adapted from the ninth volume of the Comic Series, "Here We Remain".
 * At the start of the episode, Michonne kills an undead decapitated Hershel outside the prison, the same way she killed Tyreese at the very beginning of Issue 49.
 * Carl luring the two walkers away from the house, shooting them all including the one coming from behind him, resulting him to vomit afterwards.
 * Carl scolds off an unconscious Rick about his past mistakes and blames him for the deaths of their beloved group members.
 * Rick, still frail, moans and groans to Carl making him believe Rick has turned, and is forced to put him down, but couldn't bring himself to do so. Carl apologies, and after realizing Rick is still alive, he timidly says "I'm scared".
 * This episode was leaked a day early on Xbox Video.
 * In the original script, when Carl is tying the door shut with the T.V wire, He was supposed to say "Dale taught me" However it was later decided to have Carl say "Shane taught me" to create an even bigger tension between Rick and Carl.
 * One of the actors/zombies that piled on Carl was the same actor/zombie whose fingers were seen reaching for Rick through the "Don't open, Dead Inside" Door in "Days Gone Bye". Another Actor/Zombie that piled on Carl was the one that attacked Dale in "Judge, Jury, Executioner".
 * The sign beside the chocolate pudding says "Fredag". Fredag is the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish word for Friday.