Shane

The Walking Dead – Season 2 Episode 12

Because of conflicting TV shows Sunday night, I was only able to watch the most recent episode tonight and it was REALLY worth the wait. The wife and I have multiple shows we like that are on different nights so we alternate to keep things fair. Next week is going to be the finale so I have to watch it real time. FYI, mucho grande spoiler alert if you have not yet seen the episode.

This episode starts off with the burial of Dale and four of the more aggressive characters (except T-Dog) going out and taking their aggressions on some harmless flesh eating zombies. The episode moves along and for a while it’s just some background character story with Lori telling Shane how much she cares for him and how thankful she is for what he did for them. Also, Carl confides in him about seeing the zombie that killed Dale in the mud and how he couldn’t shoot him. And then finally, Shane confronts the kid in the barn and is conflicted on how to kill or get rid of him. After dwelling on it, smacking himself around trying to figure it out, he decides to let him go. Well, not really. Instead he concocts a plan to make it look like he escaped by smacking his face on a tree and get the group riled up to go after him. You don’t really know it yet but once it’s all over you can see how the writers were ramping up the Shane character only to kill him off. What is it about T-Dog that makes him such a background character, he’s almost a non character.

Moving right along we find Shane, Rick, Daryl and Glenn going after the kid who “escaped”. Daryl and Glenn eventually stumble on to him and he is now a zombie. However, he is a zombie without being bit. For as backwoodsy and redneckish as Daryl is, he’s smart and he notices things. Not to mention he figures things our very quickly and formulates plans effectively. Back with Rick and Shane, they are going out farther and farther away from everyone. As time passes Rick figures it out and realizes Shane is going to make his play and try to get rid of him. What I don’t know is how Carl gets out that far without anyone else knowing he’s gone and more directly, how did he track them?

Anyway, things happen, plans unfold and Shane decides he is going to Kill Rick. Blah blah blah, they talk back and forth and finally Rick is able to pull a knife and stab him. Carl meanwhile sees this all unfold from afar and pulls his gun. The screen has weird zombie flashes that don’t make much sense to me until they flash to Shane with his eyes glassed over and very subtly twitching. What they were trying to portray was the Zombification of of Shane due to dying and not just being bit. While walking and talking to Carl Rick does not see or hear Shane get up and start walking towards them. Carl being the “crackshot” that he is shoots Shane in the head thereby killing him…again.

Final scene is a hoard of zombies walking over the foggy meadow towards the farm. Ok, don’t get me wrong as I love this show…however, some things don’t always make the the most sense to me. This time for instance is the whole Carl making his way out there and shooting Shane in the head concept. 1. He is a kid and can’t have that good of aim yet. 2. He in no way could track them that well. 3. how did his mother let him out of her sight long enough for him to get there when there is supposedly a crazy kid on the loose who could get the jump on Shane and run loose.

The entire time I am watching the episode unfold I am on the edge of my seat. I’ve become so invested in the characters that I felt horrible when Dale was gutted and they had to shoot him. Not to mention I sort of felt bad for the kid they had locked up because he may have been a product of his environment. And, the whole background story between Glenn and Maggie is quite touching and give the show a bit of hope for new romance. So you can see I am a fan and the show itself has me engaged enough to blog about it. What I think happened was they need to edit it in to the right length for an episode and ended up editing too much. Or, they did not think through how Rick ends up killing Shane twice. Since it is about zombies, or walkers, and end of days type stuff you have to think they would get a bit hokey. As long as people are watching, talking, blogging, tweeting and discussing it, they must be doing something right. Especially since I cannot miss an episode.

Regardless, I really do love this show and for as much as I am trying to rationalize a world full of zombies, the writing is top notch. How are they going to replace a main character like Shane? Are they going to promote Daryl or T-Dog to be a more prominent part of the team? Will they pick up another person along the way? How will the Shane/Zombie story effect Lori and Carl and their relationship with Rick? How are they going to survive the next episode with tons of walkers coming after them, making it through the barb fence and attacking them all? And most importantly what is up with the the dead characters becoming zombies without being bit? Has the virus mutated? Is it airborne or in the water or food supply? Are their carriers who and not infected until their heart stops and then it manifests? So many questions and I have so few answers.

So I leave you with this image…RIP Dale.

Tell me what you think…I am dying to hear it.

The Walking Dead Season Premiere

My sister came over today and watched the season 2 premiere with my wife and I tonight. She loves the show, turned me on to it and is a zombie freak. As the season begins the survivors are driving away from the now destroyed CDC in Atlanta, moving on towards the next place. The cityscape wasteland is always exciting to see as they walk and drive along from place to place. The highways leading towards and/or away from the city are littered with abandoned vehicles, except for whatever road they are on…until they get to an area that looks like and auto graveyard.

As the crew is driving the RV radiator blows, yet again, and they have to stop and fix it. While all this is happening (out of thin air) maybe a hundred zombies wander towards them…Oh my! A herd of Zombies is approaching! Surprise! Everyone then has to hide under and in different vehicles and for some reason, they cannot smell the live people. Could it be from the smell of heat and asphalt? Could it be from the smell or dead rotting flesh from the bodies in the abandoned cars or could it be the smell of their own rotting dead flesh? Whatever the reason, they continue to wander by with the crew luckily hidden away.

While siphoning gas from the vehicles T-Dog somehow, while trying to hide, slices the hell out of his forearm. Blood begins pouring out all over the place and two unbelievable things happen. 1. the zombies don’t smell him and 2. he doesn’t bleed out! I was completely distracted by this fact and someone needs to help explain to me why he is not laying somewhere needing a transfusion or about 100 stitches. The way the arm sliced open and squirted blood it looked like the wound was about 12 inches long and REALLY deep. Could it be the accident was planned but not well thought out? Regardless, a few minutes go by and there he is walking towards everyone with a small bandage on his arm. I need that explained to me please so if anyone out there reading this understands it please tell me.

So anyway, the zombies are almost completely past and…wait for it…yes, you guessed it the little girl who was hiding decided to get out and she gets caught by the last two wandering by. She screams and runs away over the guard rail and in to the woods off to the side. Rick, the lead character (the cop) runs off after her and tries to save her from the walking dead. Another question pops up during this episode which is, how do these two zombies run so quickly? How can they get through the forest, avoiding trees, rocks, dips in the ground and a stream? I always thought they were mindless bodies slowly trudging on after the living.

More things happen, they follow for a while and eventually Rick kills them. Afterwards he goes back looking for the little girl and shes gone. All she had to do was stand there and wait for him to come back, but no she runs off and gets lost. It absolutely figures that they now have to go find her in the woods while there are walkers everywhere.

I do not want to give the entire episode away; I know, I’ve been doing a good job so far, but the ending was really good. You may think because of how I’ve been writing that I think the show is bad, quite the contrary, I think this show is awesome. The acting, the characters, the plot, the cinematography, directing, makeup and just about everything is great. I am not saying the acting is the best, but it is much better than many other shows I’ve seen. It seems I am going to have to get the graphic novel(s) so I can see how the storyline was meant to be. Ugh…yet again, I give the show a good rating…let’s say 4.5 out of 5 stars. You have to see it and if you do not have cable you can watch it online here.