There were mighty concerns at the end of last season. After a strong start, it seemed the show veered off into some odd writer-debacle ditch, felled by its own popularity and novelty. There were plot holes and too much fodder. By the end of the season, Rick and his band of survivors were lost, not just on the show, but in the mounting drama embroiling behind the scenes.
Now with a new season, despite some lingering AMC issues, were they able to produce something worth watching amid the drama onscreen and off?
We open with what appears to be Rick’s captain’s log report to Morgan the man who saved his life in the first episode of the first season. It was good to know that Morgan and his son Dwayne haven’t been forgotten as we start the second season. The despair-ridden report serves as an update for us where we get a small mention of Jackie who decided to perish at the CDC along with useless asshole Dr. Jenner. We also find out the next destination for our group of survivors. Next up is Fort Benning. We don’t know what they’re hoping to find out there, but as always in a zombie apocalypse, it’s best to find out if the military has any ideas, or if you know, they’re now a bunch of flesh-eating monsters, six of one.
In Rick’s hopeful message to Morgan he emphasizes the need to stick together and look out for one another, and as we see shots of Shane “Deputy Dickface”, who’ll you’ll remember left Rick in the hospital and then co-opted his wife and son, just to have him return and ruin his little family, we wonder if Shane is really on the same page with Rick with all this “Let’s stick together” talk.
As we watch everyone pack up and move out, our team of vehicles now consists of crossbow wielding Daryl Dixon on his Harley, who also seems to be the scout of the group; Dale’s camper, and a stolen SUV driven by Sheriff Rick. In the SUV, Rick, wife Lori, and son Carl start off talking about an old family trip to the Grand Canyon which turns into a surreal moment that belies the horror in which they all live. It speaks to wanting a return to a simpler time when all they had to worry about was planning a family vacation and not how to navigate a world full of hungry zombies. Even Carol’s daughter, Sophia, gets caught up in the moment and states that she too would like to go to the Grand Canyon. Rick of course says they would take them, but the spell is broken as everyone remembers just what they’re all doing there together. Sobering.
Poor, destroyed, Shane is having a moment with Andrea in the RV. They’re discussing guns because if he ain’t trying to bed a lady, he wants to shoot with one, naturally. As he cleans his gun, Andrea, who last season lost her sister to a zombie attack, is lamenting the need for her father’s gun. A necessary evil in the current world. This is the first intimate moment Shane and Andrea have shared, and in doing so we wonder if this isn’t a bit of foreshadowing. Deputy Dickface always looking for the vulnerable and newly grieving. Dick.
The group then pulls up to what appears to be a full on traffic jam, but is really some sort of aftermath of a multi-car pile up and the ensuing zombie blitz. The death toll in the cars is high. The group doesn’t know if they can get around the disaster. Daryl riding ahead says there is a path through, but as the camper attempts, it blows a gasket and now they’re stuck. Yeah, stuck in a zombie utopia. Observant Dale says they’re stopping in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…and then realizes the error of his comment. Yawr, Dale, everywhere is now the middle of nowhere with no real hope of survival. Perceptive! You guys are all potential zombie snacks! So best stock up now! You’ll need the energy for all the runnin’, screamin’, and fightin’ you’ll have to do. Carbs. Have at ’em! Everyone gets to work securing food, water, a few fancy dresses, maybe a gun and a machete or two. It’s like a Cemetery Supermarket and Lori tells everyone so. She reminds everyone that this is a graveyard. And now we’re faced with our first moral dilemma of the season. Do you steal from the dead? Damn right we do! It’s called survival. You’re not at the cannibal level yet, Lori, so relax and take the canned goods and firearms. You’ll need them…uh, shortly.
Right on cue, the tension music starts, just as if this were a video game. Dale from his perch on top the RV, and Rick with his rifle scope, see a lone walker a few feet away from the group. As Rick takes aim, one becomes two, and two becomes a dozen and then a dozen becomes an unholy herd or horde, or gaggle, or pack, a fuck load, or pay dirt of zombies! Just undead flesh mongers everywhere! With little else to do, Rick tells everyone to get under the cars, and the slow shufflers descend upon them.
Andrea, still in the RV looks up and notices, “Holy Shit Zombies En Masse” and crouches in the back of the RV. T-Dog, attempting to hide, slits open his forearm and is now dripping a delectable blood soup onto the ground. I must admit the scene is heart stopping chilling. In only the best way a horror movie can be. And it’s a great throwback to the creepiness of the slow walking zombie. In this moment, as you watch the slow shuffle of those feet, and as they pause and lurch, you feel the heightened tension, and know that any second one of them will find someone. This was really brilliantly done.
One such walker finds its way into the camper. Andrea thinking quickly takes her father’s dissembled gun and hides in the Camper’s bathroom. And of course just as Farmer Ted Walker is leaving she drops a piece of the gun, Boo! and attacks. Dale seeing what happens throws Andrea a screwdriver, and simultaneously T-Dog, who has lost a lot of blood and is rapidly losing consciousness, gets the attention of a lone walker. Daryl gets the drop on him with a stab to the back of the brain as Andrea puts a Screwdriver through the eye socket of her zombie. Daryl in a bit of quick thinking puts the walker he just stabbed over T-Dog, and finds a corpse for himself. Nice. Quick thinking there Daryl. He’s quickly becoming one of the best things about this show.
Just when we think it’s over and it’s safe to come out, a walker sees little Sophia, and he and a buddy set off to get her through a chase in the woods. Rick immediately goes after her. He catches up and tells her to hide in some tree brambles while he leads them away, and when he’s far enough, he tells her to go back to the highway keeping the sun over her left shoulder. This is a lot of instruction for a scared, lost little girl, but there was really no other option, since it was just the two of them. Rick manages to take out both walkers with a good old rock smash to the cranium. I just wonder with all this blood splatter going around, isn’t anyone afraid of infection? Seriously, is it just the bite that infects, because it seems any mixing of fluids should result in zombification, but then I’m not a doctor, and my expert zombie license notes there may be alterations to original theory.
Later, Sophia hasn’t returned to the highway, and Daryl our favorite hunter-tracker tracks her off the main path. Rick and Daryl set off to continue looking. Back at the camp, Carl finds a bag of knives and other sharp, pointy things. He then tries to tell Shane, who blows him off. Shane Deputy Dickface, all angry about losing his stolen family, in a huff tells Lori that he’s leaving. Okay, dude. Fantabulous. We don’t want you around anyway, you rapey fartbag! Just get to moseying along, Mr. Wolf Ears! Have you seen his ears? He looks like a half-turned werewolf. There’s only so much paranormal we can take, right? Right. Get’s to steppin, dude.
Back on the path, Rick and Daryl find a Walker and they’re unsure if he’s seen or basically eaten Sophia, so after killing him, they set about doing a zombie autopsy. Makes sense, right? Definitely. Rick decides to use his small knife, and badass Daryl, who says his knife is bigger and sharper, because apparently knife measurement is akin to a pissing contest, or a locker room moment with a ruler, does the honors of gutting the thing, complete with meaty sounds, sloshing, and all manner of putridness. There are rotten entrails, bulbous things with the white meat showing, all different types of decayed gore and mushed zombie stomach stew. And if that wasn’t enough…THEN we find the gut bag…Yay! Yum! A sack full of even more death-mash. Hork! Daryl looks and remarks that “Hoss” has had a big meal, and as we’re preparing for what…a Hello Kitty t-shirt or some other gruesome identifier to come out, it ends up being a woodchuck. “At least we know. At least we know” is what each says to the other. I applauded the whole scene. That’s what a zombie show should be about, bitches!
Back at the highway, it’s getting dark and still no sign of Sophia, so now’s the perfect time for Andrea to pitch a bitch about wanting her gun back. Dale looks at her and says, “Yeah, um, no.” Not knowing the reason for Dale’s opposition, Shane, a dickface and an interloper, backs Dale up and says that there just shouldn’t be too many guns around, which yeah, if we’re talking about a poker game in Dale’s basement no, but a fuck load of undead face eaters around every fooking corner…nah, give me a gun, Wolverine. Andrea, who sees through Dale’s protectiveness gives him the dressing down of his life as she says, “Yeah, I’m suicidal, have you looked around? And you really didn’t do me any favors saving me. You want my gratitude? How about my condolences, you meddling old man. Let me make my own choice of when to check out of this nightmare.” It’s obvious Andrea is going to be the “check out” conscious of this season, and rightfully so, you need someone who’s going to be real about the amount of hell they’re living. This was some of the best dialogue of the entire seven episodes shown so far.
As night approaches, Carol distraught, blames Rick for leaving her daughter alone. Rick and Daryl swear to go back out in the morning, but we can tell that Carol’s words have shaken Rick as he recounts what he did to save the girl, and if he could have done anything differently. We know that there was nothing else he could have done, and in doing anything at all is commendable, but we get the sense that we’re going to see more questions regarding if every action is the right action and if the “leaders” always know what’s best.
The next morning the team decides to search for Sophia as a group, leaving Dale and T-dog to watch the vehicles and continue fixing the RV. We learn that Dale fixed the RV the day before and has been pantomiming fixing it from that time on. That sly old fox. He reasons that he wants to give Rick more time and take having a working vehicle off the table as a point of contention. Interesting. Seems to me Dale is still acting in loco parentis here and making decisions for the group. I’m thinking this way about him may get him in more trouble later and may put him at odds with the group.
The search team comes upon a tent and we see the first real pangs of hope for Sophia. It seems like the place a little girl would hide. As they approach slowly, we’re back with the tense music. Our brains are going wild with possibilities. Are there zombies in there? Or maybe it’s a family hiding out in the tent. Personally, I would have cheered a family of zombies camping out on vacation from all the shuffling and woodchuck eating. You know, because zombies need to get away too. What we find is a lone man who “opted out” as Daryl puts it and no Sophia.
Suddenly out of nowhere we hear church bells. The whole team sets off running and they see a church in the distance. Shane insists that it has no steeple therefore no one is actually ringing a bell. Rick throws open the doors of the church and inside three zombies are peacefully having church service. This was hilarious! Everyone sets about beheading, slashing, and basically chopping each zombie. And I found this to be mean! Seriously. These guys weren’t dong anything or harming anyone. They were just kicking it with old JC and listening to those bells. This should have been cause for zombie absolution, but no it’s all SLASH, SLASH, THUNK, THUNK. Zombie murder. How rude. We find that Sophia wasn’t here either.
Feeling a bit disheartened, Rick tells the majority of the group to go back to the highway, but he wants to keep searching. Shane agrees to stay with him, despite telling Lori that he wants to hit the road alone. Andrea the little minx has already sidled up to Shane and asked to go with him when he leaves. I have doubts that will happen, but not about Deputy Dickface using this to his advantage.
While the others head back, Carl begs to stay with his father, and his father figure, and I’m like yeah, it’s okay to let the boy hang outside with various undeadies walking around? Okay, sure. And on the way back to the highway, Lori admonishes everyone for second guessing Rick, saying that he ran after the girl when no one else stepped up. Damn straight.
In the woods, Rick, Shane, and Carl are walking along still searching until they hear a rustling. Firearms cocked they come across a majestic deer, one that hasn’t been sucked dry by the walkers. It was a beatific moment. The sun. The trees. The soft jawing of the animal as it ate some grass, and the light footfalls of Carl as he drew close to get a better look at the encouragement of the two men who were both his protector. It was a moment of shining hope and a proclamation that the world had not in fact ended…and then ::Spoiler:: a shot rang out cutting through the deer and landing right into Carl’s young body. YOWZA! Didn’t. see. that. coming. at. all. First episode…done.
The Walking Dead has just decided that this is definitely not your grandma’s Dark Shadows. It is coming for your network television shows like nothing else, bringing drama, and cinema not seen before. And when a television show can make you hold your breath and yell at the screen…yeah, they’re doing something right.
Welcome back.
