As Rick is driving back to the prison, glancing at the watch Carol gave him – and passing a couple of dogs, feeding on a walker – Hershel, Glenn and Sasha are doing their best to keep those infected with the virus alive.   They’re inserting a breathing tube into one man and Hershel makes a joke about finding some spaghetti to eat for his new wish – to have spaghetti dinners every Tuesday night.   It’s a grim scene, with more than a few of the residents dying off.  Hershel doesn’t want the others in the sick ward to see the final zombie destroying ritual and has Glenn get a gurney to take the dead – and soon-to-be zombified – out back.  Lizzie happens to walk in and Hershel tells her to go get his copy of Tom Sawyer and finish it before morning.

Maggie talks to Hershel through the glass that separates the sick bay from the rest of the prison and she’s worried about Glenn.  Hershel tells her that he’s okay and is resting.  Glenn is just around the corner and thanks Hershel for not telling her the truth.  Hershel says he didn’t lie, that Glenn is going to make it.  He’s also assured his daughter that they’re all going to make it and asks her to please believe that.   Hershel is such a good man and if anything happens to him, well, it’s going to be even worse than losing Carol, in my opinion.

Maggie goes outside to let Rick through the gate and he asks about Carl and Judith.  She says that they’re both fine and asks him where Carol is.  He tells her that Carol was the one who killed Karen and David, trying to stop the virus from spreading, but that he didn’t think it would be a good idea for her to be here anymore, especially when Tyreese gets back.  He wants to make sure that Maggie only tells her father about Carol – no one else should know right now.  He also asks her if she would have done the same thing – send Carol away – and she says that she would have.  For the moment, Rick has the affirmation he needs.   We’ll see if the others agree when they find out.

Hershel leaves Glenn tending for the intubated guy (he has a real name, but when they come and go as fast as this poor soul did, it isn’t even worth looking it up) and goes off to make his rounds.  He checks in on Dr. S – Caleb – and he isn’t looking so good.  Caleb tells Hershel that end stage is the point which no one comes back from and shows Hershel a shotgun he’s brought with him.   As Hershel leaves him, Caleb tells him to make sure that all of their cell doors are shut.  Going from patient to patient, Hershel finds that another has died.  He has Sasha help him with the gurney, then, after covering the man’s face with a sheet, stabs him.  Rick is watching and Hershel tells him that they’ve been taking the bodies out back and burning them.  The dear vet has been making sure that the others haven’t seen what they’ve had to do.  As he puts it,  “A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.”   Rick tells him that what the others see is Hershel, how he keeps going even when it seems there is no hope.  They both acknowledge that nothing is going to be the same in the aftermath of the virus.  Hershel believes there has to be a plan, a reason, because life is always a test.   Rick tells him that he wants to talk about Carol.

Rick leaves, and Hershel finds Sasha passed out on the floor.  As he starts to work on her, a zombie comes to life.  Maggie and Rick are outside, trying to reinforces the fence.  Sasha is weak from dehydration and tells Hershel that she thought that his locking himself in the ward with the sick was stupid.  She says that she doesn’t believe in magic or luck but she’s here because he was stupid.  Hershel chuckles and says he’ll take that as a compliment.   Glenn can’t keep bagging the guy because he can’t control his own coughing.  Just then, Lizzie spots a walker headed right for Hershel.  Another one of the men in the cell block also sees the walker who’s attacking Hershel and shoots him.  That man is attacked and bitten by another walker.  Lizzie draws a walker away by calling to it like it’s a dog.   When she trips and falls, Hershel hoists the zombie up and over a railing to the floor below.  Carl and Rick, both of whom are working on that flimsy fence, hear the gunshot but don’t really panic over it.  They stay behind while Maggie goes in to check on her father.  Hershel puts Lizzie in a cell and goes to Glenn, who’s in very bad shape, gasping for breath.    Hershel is grabbed by a walker, Caleb, breaks his arm and kills him.

Rick and Carl’s repairs are futile and the zombies break the fence down.   The father and son run to get some guns and begin firing at the massive horde that’s chasing them.  Hershel gets Caleb’s shotgun and begins firing at the walkers inside the cell block.  Maggie can’t find a way in to help her dad and shoots out a window, giving her access to the cell block.  Hershel is trying to save Glenn and, with Maggie’s help, uses the bag he retrieved from the now dead zombie.  He tells his daughter that he didn’t want her in there, but she, like him, had to be.

Rick and Carl are finishing off the zombies when they see Daryl, Bob, Tyreese and Michonne returning with the medicine.   Ty goes to see Sasha and Bob helps Maggie with Glenn.  Hershel goes to his own cell, begins reading from the Bible and begins to weep.

The next morning, Michonne is piling up the zombies onto the back of a truck for removal.  Carl catches up with his dad who says that he has to talk to Daryl about Carol.  When Carl asks if he has to do it right now, Rick says no, but soon.   Hershel can’t thank Daryl enough for what he went through to get the antibiotics and calls him a tough son of a bitch.  Daryl says that the tough son of a bitch – or, in redneck vernacular, “sumbitch” – is Hershel.  The vet then tells Daryl that he should go to talk to Rick about Carol.

In the wood, watching it all, is the Governor.  And just when Michonne thought she was through with him.  We knew he was still out there somewhere, but sheesh, these folks can’t buy a break.

Empress