Is killing wrong?

The verse, “Thou shalt not kill” comes to mind (in the King James, no less), but yet if we explore the scriptures, we will also find countless examples of capital punishment to protect the weak and take care of murderers. (for example, Duet 19: 11-13)

So if someone is going to kill your baby, is it okay to kill them?

This week’s The Walking Dead episode was ripe with discussions about situational ethics. In the first 10 minutes, Carol and Mika duked it out about morality

“It’s not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18)

We’re 13 episodes into Season 4, five episodes since the great schism, when the prison was attacked and all our favorite characters fled the prison in different directions with no rendezvous point (mental note… always set a rally point).

The episode title is “Alone,” and when we are offered a glimpse into Bob’s backstory, we begin to understand his motivation to stick together as a group. Bob knows alone and he doesn’t want to experience it again.

In the flashback to Bob’s past, we see Daryl and Glenn use their zombie apocalypse litmus test on Bob, asking him the “three questions” revealed in episode one of this season:

How many walkers have you killed?

How many people have you killed?

Why?

Bob answers honestly, and reveals his desperation to join any group—anything to avoid being alone. Apparently Bob didn’t

Overcoming your past, dealing with grief, graduating to adulthood… all important issues provoked by this episode of The Walking Dead.

At a glance, some people might say this is episode is about drinking. After all, Beth embarks on a quest to get her first drink now that her father is gone and she’s having to grow up and survive life on her own as an adult. Sure, the episode realistically portrayed what this rite of passage might look like during the zombie apocalypse. No fake ID’s required… just a lookout to make sure you aren’t killed while your guard is down. But this episode goes far deeper than Beth’s first sip of hooch, and her true-to-life reaction: “That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted.”

This episode is about moving on.

Loved the opening shot of this episode, a trio of haphazard zombies reaching up for a dangling deflated mylar balloon flapping in the wind. Purposeless beings, grasping aimlessly for the most accessible distraction.

But the episode quickly digressed with too many “Really?” moments, much like last week’s episode. I love this show, but for four seasons, despite its fictional premise, it has maintained a respectable realism. Sadly, the last two weeks contained several moments where audiences were obliged to check their brains at the door

Yes, I’m a huge fan of this show, and the writing is usually way above par—one of the more creative and thought provoking shows on TV. That being said, it seemed as if this episode and the next had quite a few, “Really?” moments.

Allow me to rant about a few elements:

• This week’s episode, titled Inmates, began with Beth’s voice-over, an apparent diary entry from way back when. I thought it a creative way to introduce the episode, but… they never did anything with it? We see a casual glimpse of it in her back pocket, and that’s it. Did they intend to return to that creative plot element, creating nice bookends to the story, perhaps ending the episode with her making another entry and tossing the diary in her bag? I guess

Got a teenager in your house? Then you probably recognized the extremely emotional, highly irrational, and characteristically overconfident teenager who stole all the screen time in this past weekend’s episode of The Walking Dead.

The word “overconfidence” might be a good descriptor of many teens today during this transitional period of adolescence where they are beginning to make decisions on their own. Learning to make good choices is a good thing, but