What happened?
Rick is leading the group to Fort Benning where he hopes he will find survivors living in protected safety. However, on the freeway, their transport needs repairs only they are forced to hide when a horde of the walking dead shuffle by. However, when they are seen by a few zombies, little Sophia makes a run for the woods forcing Rick to give chase. He kills the pursuing zombies, but Sophia is missing.
The group then remain searching for Sophia, coming across a church whilst looting cars as the search continues. Shane announces that he is going to be separating from the group as he cannot stand to see Lori and Rick together. He and Rick stick together to continue searching, also with Rick's son. In a potentially tragic turn, however, Rick’s son is shot when walking towards a deer they see by an unknown hunter.
Thoughts
The Walking Dead is back, picking up where it left off with the dwindling survivors heading away from the destroyed CDC building and instead going for Fort Benning. It was good that Rick still continues the discipline of leaving radio messages for the guy he met in the very first episode – whether or not this guy will ever appear again is almost moot as it’s a narrative convention that allows Rick to explain to the watching audience what he is doing, what the plan is, without it being intrusive.
It will be a nice moment if we do ever meet that father and son again, though.
Someone else that lingers from season one is Daryl’s brother, Merle, who cut off his own arm and scarpered with a serious grudge against Rick. He’s another one we can’t really be sure we’ll ever see again, but it’s worth holding on to the memory of him because he feels like a candidate for most-likely-to-return, and I’d expect it to happen right at the most inconvenient moment.
This was a really strong first episode, particularly from the moment the walkers showed up shuffling along the freeway. There was the mild suggestion that there was something odd about them, like they were moving like a herd. Possibly there's ideas being seeded here that the walkers might be being motivated in some way, or operating under more influence than the haphazard, random nature of their shuffling around has previously suggested. Right now it's not an idea I am really going to spend too much time on, but I did think it was interesting. (I also think of the curious manner by which those few zombies were sat in church. Arguably the suggestion is that these undead are acting under the same instinctive behaviour they exhibited in their regular lives - but maybe there's some hint here that there's a semblance of consciousness developing in their undead heads?)
When Rick realised that the approaching herd weren't going to be taken out by a few well aimed sniper shots I’m not sure that getting under cars was the brightest move (why not just head straight into the forest to begin with and hide there at the side, waiting for them to pass?) but it made for a sustained, tense sequence that really got me on edge and hooked me straight back into the atmosphere of the show.
Like that creepy zombie that got into the caravan and started trying to get the suicidal woman Andrea, The Walking Dead makes its living dead look disgusting and fresh, and it’s nice to see that the show hasn’t gone soft on the gore. If they’re not poking zombies through the eyeball there’s Rick slamming them in the head with a rock, and then there’s Daryl gutting one open and slicing into its stomach sac to see if its last meal was a little girl!
Daryl is so cool it’s brilliant. He just about retains that sense of menace about him, that he could turn on the group if it serves his own interests, but whilst he’s on their side he’s a hell of an asset. Stabbing zombies with his crossbow rather than shooting it to save ammo, he’s the coolest and most capable undead killer in the group and I enjoy any scene with him. They do well to keep him used to a minimum – less is more with that guy. If Merle ever did show up then his reaction would be crucial to how well the group manage.
The semi-triangle of love with Rick, Shane and Lori works well, principally because of the performance of Shane. Rick and Lori are rather one-dimensional, but Shane maintains a conflicted, anti-hero quality about him. I don’t like the guy despite all the good he has done and yet I can completely understand his situation, and especially his need to get away from the gang. (That Andrea wants to join him is a tough call – on the one hand she’s kinda hot and might make good company but, on the other hand, she’s also suicidal so not really the type of person you’d wanna get stuck with!)
The mystery at the end of the episode was who fired the shot (surely intended for the deer). Rick’s son is certainly not going to be in good condition, having been hit by a round from a hunting rifle, but I’d be amazed that even a show as brutal as The Walking Dead can be will go so far as to have Rick and Lori lose their son. I have my doubts that Sophia will be found dead. Potentially the show might make the wrench to have her never found, but that will be hard viewing for when the time came to abandon the search and keep moving. As for who fired the shot, I’d have to figure it’s someone we’ve not yet met – perhaps a new character that’s going to be a big part of this season. Whoever it was, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes!
Triumphant return, then. I know this season is double the length of the previous one, so the big question is can the show sustain itself over a longer period? I think it can. I know there’s plenty of source material from the original comic book it is spawned from but, mostly, it’s because The Walking Dead is about the characters. Whilst it may have to work a bit harder to make some of the people that aren’t Rick or Lori or Shane become more vital to proceedings (and, for sure, shading Rick with more self-conflict and Lori with less of a holier-than-thou attitude would do wonders) I’ve got a lot of faith that this is a well-crafted, solid show and it’s going to have to really go off the rails to go stale.
What was the best part?
No question it was the whole sequence from when the zombies appeared on the freeway and caused everyone to go and hide and hope for them to pass. It feels like it’s been a long time since I sat watching a television programme that got my stomach tightening and my senses on red alert. I absolutely loved it. If the show produces anything better in its entire forthcoming season I’ll be overwhelmed!
What do I think will happen next?
I’m not entirely convinced Shane will leave the group – possibly the injuries to Rick’s son will prompt him to have to change his self-centred plans. I imagine the shooter will turn out to be someone we’ve not yet met – for some reason I envisage them as a single person, living by looking after themselves. Rick’s son won’t die. That’s the one thing I am most sure about! I’d also expect them to find Sophia, too. Maybe the shooter will turn out to have found her already and have been keeping her safe – that would be something to ease the hostility he (or she!) is sure to face.
Like that creepy zombie that got into the caravan and started trying to get the suicidal woman Andrea, The Walking Dead makes its living dead look disgusting and fresh, and it’s nice to see that the show hasn’t gone soft on the gore. If they’re not poking zombies through the eyeball there’s Rick slamming them in the head with a rock, and then there’s Daryl gutting one open and slicing into its stomach sac to see if its last meal was a little girl!
Daryl is so cool it’s brilliant. He just about retains that sense of menace about him, that he could turn on the group if it serves his own interests, but whilst he’s on their side he’s a hell of an asset. Stabbing zombies with his crossbow rather than shooting it to save ammo, he’s the coolest and most capable undead killer in the group and I enjoy any scene with him. They do well to keep him used to a minimum – less is more with that guy. If Merle ever did show up then his reaction would be crucial to how well the group manage.
The semi-triangle of love with Rick, Shane and Lori works well, principally because of the performance of Shane. Rick and Lori are rather one-dimensional, but Shane maintains a conflicted, anti-hero quality about him. I don’t like the guy despite all the good he has done and yet I can completely understand his situation, and especially his need to get away from the gang. (That Andrea wants to join him is a tough call – on the one hand she’s kinda hot and might make good company but, on the other hand, she’s also suicidal so not really the type of person you’d wanna get stuck with!)
The mystery at the end of the episode was who fired the shot (surely intended for the deer). Rick’s son is certainly not going to be in good condition, having been hit by a round from a hunting rifle, but I’d be amazed that even a show as brutal as The Walking Dead can be will go so far as to have Rick and Lori lose their son. I have my doubts that Sophia will be found dead. Potentially the show might make the wrench to have her never found, but that will be hard viewing for when the time came to abandon the search and keep moving. As for who fired the shot, I’d have to figure it’s someone we’ve not yet met – perhaps a new character that’s going to be a big part of this season. Whoever it was, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes!
Triumphant return, then. I know this season is double the length of the previous one, so the big question is can the show sustain itself over a longer period? I think it can. I know there’s plenty of source material from the original comic book it is spawned from but, mostly, it’s because The Walking Dead is about the characters. Whilst it may have to work a bit harder to make some of the people that aren’t Rick or Lori or Shane become more vital to proceedings (and, for sure, shading Rick with more self-conflict and Lori with less of a holier-than-thou attitude would do wonders) I’ve got a lot of faith that this is a well-crafted, solid show and it’s going to have to really go off the rails to go stale.
What was the best part?
No question it was the whole sequence from when the zombies appeared on the freeway and caused everyone to go and hide and hope for them to pass. It feels like it’s been a long time since I sat watching a television programme that got my stomach tightening and my senses on red alert. I absolutely loved it. If the show produces anything better in its entire forthcoming season I’ll be overwhelmed!
What do I think will happen next?
I’m not entirely convinced Shane will leave the group – possibly the injuries to Rick’s son will prompt him to have to change his self-centred plans. I imagine the shooter will turn out to be someone we’ve not yet met – for some reason I envisage them as a single person, living by looking after themselves. Rick’s son won’t die. That’s the one thing I am most sure about! I’d also expect them to find Sophia, too. Maybe the shooter will turn out to have found her already and have been keeping her safe – that would be something to ease the hostility he (or she!) is sure to face.
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