As our doe-eyed Beth (Emily Kinney) awakes, we realize something familiar about the city view she’s staring at from outside her hospital window. Wait, hospital? Surely those aren’t still operating-not even in Atlanta, where we suddenly realize we’re in. A man in a doctor’s coat and a woman who appears to be an officer enters the room-they introduce themselves as Dr. Edwards (Erik Jenson) and Officer Dawn Lerner (Christine Woods). They tell Beth she’s at Grady Memorial Hospital, all the way down in Atlanta. Officer Lerner tells her she’s lucky to be alive, and that she owes them now.
Grady Memorial is now run by a handful of officers and recovering patients who are pulling their weight to make things run smoothly. That’s Dawn Lerner’s code of conduct. She wants things done a certain way, and her motivation to keep a hospital building secure and functioning are actually completely admirable intentions-except for her nasty attitude and her hankering to swat people across the face whenever they cross her. Beth breezes past Dawn’s room where she’s seen on an exercise machine, instructing someone we later meet as Noah, to wash and press her uniform. It’s a stark contrast between the scenes we’ve grown familiar with-everyone looks polished, showered, well slept, well-fed. It’s luxury. Have we seen electricity like this since the gang took hot showers at the CDC? Beth finds the cafeteria, where they’ve wrangled up guinea pig and strawberries for breakfast. She meets Gorman (Ricky Wayne), the guy who apparently “saved her life” and drove her away in that black car with the white cross. He too seems to think Beth owes him something, but his stance is pervy and off-putting, so she looks on at him blankly and steps out of the room without so much as a thank you.
In Dr. Edward’s office, he’s playing a record and offers Beth a seat at his desk. His disarray reminds me of the Governor, but his demeanor is softer and seems genuine, for now. They start talking about art-he has a painting he rescued from the “High,” the Atlanta High Museum. And the painting is The Denial of St. Peter. He tells Beth he’s “bored-another indulgence, she notes. And we have to remember that at one point, prissy little Beth had no interest in fighting, getting dirty, or acting tough. This setting is giving her a glimpse at her true self for the first time-her true strength. “Art is not about survival, it’s about transcendence,” Dr. Edwards says.
A new patient is wheeled in just then and this guy is badly injured. He fell from a building and he’s suffering internal bleeding. His name is Mr. Trevitt and Dawn seems to know this, but we don’t know how just yet. The smart thing would be to let him go and not waste resources, but Officer Lerner insists they try, followed by an unnecessary slap to Beth’s face after she realizes the efforts were all in vain. Beth takes it like a trooper, but she doesn’t get what Dawn’s deal is. Dr. Edwards tells her she has bad days on the regular, but it has yet to be determined if Dawn Lerner is a few things: an actual cop, good or evil, or simply determined to keep things a certain way. We see that fire and instinct emerge when another injured victim comes in to the hospital, flailing, and they explain they have to cut off her arm to save her, or else she’ll turn. In a flash, we see Dawn is the one that wants to make sure that people are saved, and we see the desperation for preservation of life in her eyes, but why? Who has she lost along the way? Rick is a cop, and sure, his “cop mentality” kicks in from time to time, but he’s not still trying to wear his uniform or even wear that title-it’s dangerous for the taking. Isn’t that what being a guest at Grady Memorial is all about? You take something, you give something back. Dawn’s stance is that she gives back life, shelter, food, protection-but Dawn Lerner is not Grady Memorial.
The woman who came in flailing must have her arm cut off. Oh, shit. After the gruesome arm sawing, Beth meets Noah (Tyler James Williams), the guy we saw getting bossed around by Lerner. He’s laundry room duty-ironing and starching scrubs. He happily explains he’s part of the “lollipop guild,” when Beth got fresh scrubs, she was surprised to see a green lollipop sticking out of its pocket. Is this all just too good to be true? Where did these people come from and why are they being so generous when they don’t have to be? Noah says they think he’s scrawny and weak, but he’s going to get out soon and get back home to Richmond, Virginia, where he’s originally from. Beth wants to help him find a way out, because she wants out, too.
Dawn wants to give Beth a little bit more background-expressing her belief that the world will be saved, that people will come and rescue them and this nightmare will end. But we’ve heard that fantasy-talk before. Noah says he’s been at the hospital for a year. In The Walking Dead, two things happen after a long period of isolation: Supplies run out and people turn on each other. The latter seems to be happening with little effort.
Gorman tries to get alone time with Beth after she denied him a proper thank you for his rescue. He suggestively motions that green lollipop Beth got from Noah up to his lips and then offers it to her, forcing it into her mouth. Suddenly, Dr. Edwards and Officer Lerner are at the doorway to stop him. Gorman tries to tell them that Beth is “his.” FYI, Gore, a weapons-run and rescue does not equate rape and ownership of the blonde in question. You’re the real sour apple here. What I don’t like is Dawn’s weird ongoing conversation with Beth about doing what needs to be done to keep things running from the inside, especially after this incident. I feel like Dawn was either subjected to Gorman’s perversions in the past, or worse.
The ground floor of Grady Memorial is riddled with walkers. Dr. Edwards takes Beth down there to give her some perspective. Another important factor she hasn’t really considered is that Atlanta is a mecca for walkers by now, lest we forgot Rick’s close encounter on horseback in Season One when he was trying to find a way through the city. So, Dr. Edwards showed her the ground floor, and now he’ll show her the roof. Up there, we can see the decrepit city-and Dr. Edwards asks that she go give Mr. Trevitt a dose of some medicine. Poor Beth. She thinks she’s just doing her job, but the patient has a fatal reaction to the injection and dies. Noah is at the door when this happens and takes responsibility, even though Beth fights to tell the truth. As it turns out, Dr. Edwards tries to make Beth feel like she mixed up the medicine and it was all her fault. But we know she had it right. He told her clozapine! But why?
Noah is beaten for his lies, and later Dawn confronts Beth in her room-now questioning Beth’s strength and if she can hack being the kind of person who survives in this world. Beth just stares on, wide-eyed as usual, and for the first time, I think to myself, “Girl’s in control.” She’s got excellent poker face. And anyway, I can’t stop staring at Dawn’s tight bun in her hair, her sharp uniform adorned with pins she’s won, and I begin to imagine she’s simply gone mental. Maybe Beth sees that too. When she reunites with a badly wounded Noah, hopped up on pain pills, they iron out a plan to escape. She’ll get a key from Lerner’s office while he distracts her.
Only problem is Beth isn’t alone in Lerner’s office. The patient who had her arm cut off has either killed herself or was killed with a pair of scissors. She lies on the floor as Beth ransacks the office looking for the key. She finally finds it, but that’s when curious Gorman walks in, because of course he does. He starts to make a deal with Beth. Yeah, this sounds like a great one: He’ll rape her, and in return, he won’t tattle tell to Dawn about any key. Beth plays along, but she knows One Arm is about to turn into a walker at any second. She smashes something from the desk over Gorman’s head and throws him to the newly turned walker. Later, Gore.
Now that Beth and Noah can enact their escape, they head to the abandoned elevator shaft, a convenient dumping area for bodies. Beth goes down first, via a long rope made of rags and sheets. (This really reminds me of that terrifying scene from The Ring.) What will she find down there? Noah comes down next, but he slips and falls. That’s OK; Beth is about to show her true prowess. She begins to shoots down walkers as they emerge through the dark out into the parking lot. We can see the black car with the white cross that was used to pick up Beth, along with other cars emblazoned with white crosses across the back. One by one, Beth picks off walker after walker, shooting out their brains (making Daryl the proudest man south of the Mason-Dixon line.) Only problem is, Noah doesn’t seem to want to do much of the work and he scurries ahead through the crowd and escapes without her. A few officers apprehend Beth, but she’s smiling at the thought of Noah’s freedom.
Sadly, Noah will probably only make it a block. Had Rick, Michonne and the rest of the gang been involved in this escape plan, they would’ve surely instructed Noah to have some kind of weapon on him. Alas, Beth ends up back in her prison-er-I mean, hospital. As Dr. Edwards tends to her wounds, she confronts him about the medicine mix-up. It turns out Trevitt was a fellow doctor. She theorizes Edwards wanted him dead so that he could continue to have the upper hand there. With two doctors on staff, he could easily become persona non grata. Dr. Edwards admits it’s true, and that he even knew the doctor-he was an oncologist. Just when it seemed Beth had a new friend and ally, I have to wonder about Dr. Edwards’ motives, and what he’s capable of. He looks on at his painting, saying that when Christ was arrested, Peter denied being one of his disciples, because he knew he’d be killed, too. How fitting he was able to scamper across town into the hospital with a giant painting to that serves the purpose of this very moment.
A new patient is wheeled in just then, and as Beth trails behind Dr. Edwards, she holds a long needle in her hand-is she planning on picking off everyone in charge now? Is Dr. Edwards next? Daryl and Rick and everyone have taught her the most important rule, and she’s taking serious note: Trust no one. Before she has a chance, she spots the person on the stretcher-a badly wounded woman. IT’S CAROL! I want to take a second to explain how strange it is that these officers manning a hospital in Atlanta have the good will, the need, and the GAS, to make it all the way into northern Georgia where Rick and company have now found themselves. They’d have to be hours and hours outside of the city to find Carol. Why risk that? And now, the biggest question of all: What will happen when Carol wakes up?
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