The Grove (The Walking Dead)

Tyreese, Carol, and sisters Lizzie and Mika continue their journey to Terminus along the railroad tracks, while caring for Rick's young daughter Judith. Carol and Tyreese are concerned for the survival of the sisters, as Mika is too gentle and Lizzie appears to not understand what walkers are. They spot a walker get trapped by his legs on the train tracks, and Lizzie pleads with Tyreese to spare it, as it no longer represents a threat. Nearby, they find an abandoned home in a pecan grove, Carol suggesting they may want to rest there a few days. While Tyreese and Carol clear the house of walkers, a walker approaches the sisters; Mika is quick to shoot it in the head, while Lizzie looks on in tears. They secure the perimeter of the house and settle in.

The following day, Carol sees Lizzie attempting to play tag with a walker, and she runs out and kills it. Lizzie becomes upset and yells at Carol for having killed her "friend". Later, Carol takes Mika to hunt in the forest, but Mika finds she cannot bring herself to shoot a deer. When they return, they find Tyreese has managed to get the water pump working, and he suggests they may want to settle here permanently. Later that day, Lizzie and Mika go back to the train tracks, and Lizzie feeds the trapped walker a mouse; she moves in closer, preparing to let the walker bite her, telling Mika that the walkers "want me to change", but a group of walkers suddenly appear and the two flee back to the house. Their screams prompt Carol and Tyreese outside and all four use their guns to eliminate the walkers. Later that evening, Carol talks with Lizzie about why the walkers are dangerous and why it is necessary to kill them. Lizzie says she understands now what she needs to do. Mika says she does not want to "be mean" by killing people and Lizzie tells her you have to, but only sometimes.

Carol and Tyreese leave Judith in the care of the sisters as they go hunt. Upon their return, they find that Lizzie has stabbed Mika with a knife, killing her. Lizzie, looking happy, assures Carol and Tyreese that it's okay because "she'll come back." Lizzie tries to prevent them from interfering by holding a gun on them, insisting that Mika will be okay since she did not stab her brain. Carol calms Lizzie down enough to take the gun away, and asks her to take Judith and go inside with Tyreese while she ties Mika up so she doesn't wander away. Lizzie says she was about to do the same to Judith but Carol calmly points out that, as an infant, she can't even walk yet. Lizzie agrees and goes inside with Tyreese. Carol starts to cry as she mourns over Mika and slowly pulls out her knife to put her down for good. Later, Carol and Tyreese discuss what to do with Lizzie; he reveals Lizzie admitted to luring walkers to the prison fence using rats as bait. It was also Lizzie who made the bizarre splayed rabbit effigy back at the prison. Tyreese wonders if she was the one responsible for killing Karen and David but Carol reasons that Lizzie would have let them turn; however, her uncertain grasp on reality means she still poses a threat to Judith and others. Tyreese offers to take Judith and continue on to Terminus but Carol suggests that it would be unwise to divide their group. They both conclude Lizzie is too dangerous to be around other people. Tyreese says he cannot kill a child, leaving the onerous task to Carol.

The next day, Carol asks Lizzie to come outside to gather some flowers for Mika. Lizzie realizes Carol is upset and thinks it is because she'd pointed a gun at her. Lizzie starts crying and saying she was sorry but Carol, now crying also, insists she look at the flowers. She draws a revolver and shoots Lizzie in the back of the head, and buries the sisters' bodies. She returns to the house and gives the gun to Tyreese, admitting she had killed Karen and David to prevent the spread of an infection at the prison. She tells Tyreese to do whatever he feels he needs to do. Seeing that the taking of another life affects Carol deeply, he says he won't forget but he forgives her because it is not a decision she makes lightly. The next day, Carol, Tyreese and Judith leave the house and continue toward Terminus.

Brighton Sharbino (Lizzie Samuels) and Kyla Kenedy (Mika Samuels) made their last recurring appearances in "The Grove".

"The Grove" was written by executive producer and showrunner Scott M. Gimple, his eighth writing credit for the series, and second of the season after the premiere episode. It was directed by series cinematographer Michael E. Satrazemis, marking his directorial debut.[3]

This episode focuses entirely on the characters of Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman), and recurring characters Lizzie Samuels (Brighton Sharbino), and Mika Samuels (Kyla Kenedy). On Carol's reasons for having to kill Lizzie (reminiscent to Of Mice and Men) and Carol's mindset in the episode, McBride explained:

No, I don't think there was really any other option. There's a lot of nature versus nurture going on in this episode to look at. As much as it broke Carol's heart to have to do this and to realize this had to be done. They were walking toward the flowers in that scene and Lizzie says, "You're mad at me and I'm sorry." You'd think she'd be sorry for stabbing her sister to death, but instead she's sorry for pointing gun at her, so she just doesn't get it. It's not a world that's safe for anyone. The ability to fight isn't a one-size fits all; everybody is different. Thematically, there's a lot said about change. Something I got out of this episode for Carol, too, is that you have to change. The world will change you -- you have to adapt or die. It's about hanging on to that part of yourself: You can change but don't lose yourself. That's what was happening to Carol -- her mindset -- she was so hell-bent on protecting these children that she lost a bit of something, and that was her nurturing aspect. She was missing a lot of stuff because her eyes were so set on survival.[4]

On how the planned deaths of Lizzie and Mika would be shown on screen, Scott Gimple explained:

With Mika’s death, that was something I wanted Carol and Tyreese to discover. I didn’t want to see that happen. And I would love to take credit for an awesome idea, but basically that’s how it happens in the book. It was discovered. It wasn’t shown. It was very effective in the book. It worked on me when I read it and I knew that would be effective that way too. I don’t think we needed to see that part of it. That’s something where the audience’s imagination will be far more horrible that anything we could have done. As far as the gunshot, we did wrestle with the cut of that. We played around with it in a variety of iterations. Initially it was about what we felt was tasteful to show and what we felt was not tasteful to show and figuring that out. I’d say the discovery along the way was the shot where we don’t see it, but we see Carol pull the trigger and we stay on Carol. It’s such a remarkable piece of acting that Melissa does in that moment that I wouldn’t have wanted to cut away anyways, because really in that moment that is all about Carol. The die is kind of cast and this is Carol’s story. This is fulfilling a big part of Carol’s story in a very tragic way. And to see that character feel that moment and feel the gravity of that moment and the impact upon her and even just change her in that very moment — I actually felt Melissa’s portrayal of that moment. I could feel it. So in the end it went towards storytelling anyways.[5]

• "The Grove" at AMC
• "The Grove" at IMDb