‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ Season 1 Episode 4 Recap – “Amy/Dr. Everett”

The opening of AMC’s Tales of the Walking Dead season one episode four is like something straight out of a nature documentary…but with zombies. Dr. Charles Everett (Anthony Edwards) narrates while all sorts of animals and reptiles fill the screen. The animals give way to what he refers to as “Homo Mortuus” (also known as walkers and a variety of other names). Charles has spent years tracking the migration pattern of the dead including specific zombies that he’s given names.

After coming across headless zombie bodies, Charles is more concerned that humans are being vile and hunting zombies for sport than with zombies killing humans. He uses a drone to track the person he believes just beheaded these zombies and that’s when we meet the episode title’s “Amy.”

Amy (Poppy Liu) spots the drone and yells for help. While doing so she falls down an embankment. She begins to fight as she’s surrounded by zombies while Charles watches from a short distance away.

Amy’s on the ground tussling with a zombie wearing a tracker and is just about to stab it with her makeshift hand when Charles finally steps in. He stops her from killing the zombie and helps her escape.

Dr. Everett isn’t into small talk or pleasantries. He walks away as Amy tries to introduce herself and explain that she’s lost and got separated from her group. While following him, she admits she doesn’t feel good; her head and stomach are killing her. Amy assures Charles she didn’t get bit and asks for painkillers, but her taciturn savior continues to ignore her.

Amy grows frustrated and says she’s not going to rob him. His only response is, “I don’t work with humans.”

Despite his bad attitude, Amy continues to follow Dr. Everett through the woods as he sets up cameras for his zombie studies. He leaves her behind yet even though she’s sick, she makes it to his door and pounds on it.

Amy begs for a minute of his time, but he doesn’t respond. She’s starting to attract a small herd of zombies when she figures out a way to climb his ladder. She’s safe for now but still outside when she asks what the point of rescuing her was if he’s just going to leave her there as bait.

She apologizes in advance if she takes a chunk out of his neck after dying from her stomach illness. He finally opens the door.

He whips up a concoction for her to drink and then goes through her things. He finds nightshade berries which are poisonous if they’re not fully ripe. She’s basically slowly killing herself by eating them. He hands her a bucket and warns, “The next 24 hours is going to be unpleasant for the both of us – but mostly you.” She gets to drinking.

Amy’s feeling much better the next morning and thanks him for his help. She asks where he went in the middle of the night because she woke up and he was gone. A man of few words, he tells her he had stuff to do. She complains the poison felt like her butt got sucked up through her esophagus. He corrects her. As a doctor, he knows that’s not physically possible. (Dr. Everett doesn’t have a sense of humor.)

Amy’s a chatterbox and asks what he’s doing. Charles becomes frustrated because he needs to finish his work. She ignores his frustration and continues to talk. She explains she found books at an old school on biology and algebra. She likes the bird section. Amy changes the subject and asks if he’s trigger-happy with the “chompers” – her name for zombies – and he reveals he’s found Homo Mortuus’ with their heads chopped off. He wants to know if she’s responsible and she claims she’s not.

Dr. Everett doesn’t believe humans belong in this area; that’s the point of the trench. She wonders if he’s seen just how bad it is on the other side of the trench. Amy then confesses the skull hunters are helping her group cross the trench, and that angers Charles. He insists that’s the problem with homo sapiens; all they do is take and when nature corrects it, they do it all over again.

Amy admits she’s confused and asks if he’s rooting for the chompers.

They argue and he finally orders Amy to leave. Before she does, she notices he has a lot of photos of specimen 21. That zombie is the only one he hasn’t named that he’s studying. Amy’s curious if he knows that zombie and he responds by telling her to leave again.

But then he changes his mind and reveals he’s studying their behavioral psychology and migration patterns. He insists that’s all specimen 21 is to him. She thinks that’s ridiculous. Chompers just walk around and kill people. Period.

Dr. Everett recalls specimen 21 killing a wild dog and instead of taking it all for himself, he left it behind for the rest of the herd. Specimen 21’s done this twice and that leads him to believe even in this state he is a protector. She still thinks the zombie’s someone he knew. Maybe he’s studying him hoping there’s more in there than just dead brains.

He insists science is everything and that’s all this is for him. He blames her for damaging 21’s tag and that’s why he lost track of him. He needs to find him and retag him. Amy suddenly realizes Charles wasn’t really saving her yesterday; he was saving 21.

His parting words are, “Bye. Don’t come back.”

Amy sets off through the woods and encounters specimen 21. She begins to track it by marking the trees.

Charles collects the arm of a zombie and returns home to find Amy waiting for him. She informs him she found his friend. She could tell him 21’s location but thinks it would be nice if he helps her find her group in exchange.

Before giving her an answer, he wants to know if she’s thought about what he said – that she doesn’t want to live there because it’s dangerous. She thinks she could just as easily die there as she could on the other side of the trench. She assures him her people are kind, and they’re just trying to find somewhere to live. Her community means everything to her.

He agrees they’ll leave tomorrow.

The next morning, she explains that she marked trees while tracking 21. His surprise that she thought of doing that is an insult, but she lets it go. She asks, again, why he’s studying zombies and what he’s getting out of it. In response, he shows her videos of all types of animals that have escaped from zoos and are now thriving on this side of the trench. He adds that the animals are growing bigger because humans don’t exist in this area.

Dr. Everett was part of a group studying the environment since the shift but there were disagreements that fractured their group. He gave up his life for this and plans to see it through. He thinks Homo Mortuus are a part of all of this.

Charles explains he’s been observing some of these zombies for seven years and never interferes. Amy points out he did when she almost killed one of his specimens. She also reminds him that human connections are all they have. Charles insists humans can connect on the other side of the trench, not there.

They carry on an actual friendly conversation, and he explains the Homo Mortuus don’t bother him because he’s wearing a jacket made of their skin. He knows she like poetry and offers to let her borrow a poetry book. She wonders what will happen to the zombies if all the humans die. They can’t reproduce. He thinks that’s an astute observation.

She comes across a bird that’s on the verge of extinction and that brings a smile to her face until it joins its flock and flies away. Charles has changed his opinion of his traveling companion and offers her a position as his assistant. He won’t live forever and when he dies, she could take over the research.

She has a counteroffer: he should join her people and teach them about the animals and his research. He thinks it’s not that simple.

He finally reveals that after his research team split up, he found a colleague living where he now lives. They continued their research together for a while, but then his colleague died from cancer. Before he passed on, he asked Dr. Everett to study him after he turns. That colleague is specimen 21.

They’re still searching for specimen 21 when they come across a headless zombie. Charles becomes angry, aware that she lied to him about her group. Amy explains the skull collectors offered to help them cross the trench if they helped them collect heads.

Just then Amy hears one of her people screaming and runs in that direction.

One of her friends is already dead and a zombie’s feasting on him. The other friend is still alive and being attacked when Amy tries to help her out. Dr. Everett grabs Amy, insisting she let nature take its course. Humans are part of the food chain.

Amy begins to scream to draw the zombies away from her friend. Dr. Everett quickly covers her mouth. She bites him and gets away.

Amy stabs one of the zombies and her friend kicks the other one down an embankment. Dr. Everett realizes that one is specimen 21. He sheds his gear to chase after it as it starts to float away down the creek. Before he can get too far, he trips and falls. His head is bleeding as he begs Amy to help him save 21. She refuses because he left her friends to die.

Dr. Everett insists he’s sorry and knows he’s selfish. He assures her he will do anything she wants him to. He tries to get up and go after 21 by himself but falls again. Still, he’s able to grab a rope and snag it on the floating debris 21’s on. He begins to pull it in while assuring 21 he’s going to be okay.

Suddenly, an alligator appears and grabs 21. Dr. Everett refuses to let go of the rope and is being dragged closer to the water when Amy cuts the rope. She screams at him for not helping her friends and for just making up his own rules.

He sees a flock of birds and points out that her group is in the way of the zombies’ migration route. None of her people are going to make it out alive. She wants to warn them but he’s sure it’s too late. He reminds her that this area’s dangerous. If she goes to her friends’ location, she will meet the same fate.

Amy says she’d rather die than end up like him. With that, she leaves.

Amy runs through a pack of zombies and finds her people.

Dr. Everett makes it back home and is able to verify on video that Amy made it through the herd.

After the herd’s moved on, Dr. Everett reaches Amy’s friends’ camp. The aftermath of a zombie attack is evident, and he wanders through the camp reciting his favorite Emily Dickson poem. He climbs into the back of a truck and discovers trunks full of zombie heads.

He looks around the camp again and tags one zombie. His eyes are then drawn to another one. Amy has turned and he holds her off while attempting to place a tracker on her.

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