What happened?
The group keep their prisoner, Randall, locked up whilst they debate whether to execute him. Dale is at first a lone voice crying out for civilised understanding and tolerance but eventually finds an ally only in Andrea, who also agrees it would be wrong to execute the prisoner. Majority rules, however, and Rick, Shane and Daryl go to end things. Rick is stopped when he sees Carl appear to watch, to urge him to kill.
Dale’s screaming alerts the group. Caught alone in a field he is attacked by a zombie, that Carl had earlier provoked, and is subsequently killed.
Thoughts
Well, Lori can take a backseat for an episode as the most irritating character on The Walking Dead. No, for this episode, that honour goes to her son, Carl. Now I’m not going to outright blame him for killing Dale (on balance Carl’s inadvertent encouragement to kill Randall saved his life so if he’s to blame for one he saved another!) but his rank stupidity with the zombie in the swamp got on my nerves in a way that only Lori or Andrea usually manages!
Of course, the question should be asked about how it is a kid like that gets to wander off unnoticed and unattended to by the adults, least of all his mother and father, considering the situation the world is in. You would have thought that the loss of Sofia would have embedded in Lori and Rick a near-paranoid, overbearing necessity to never let their boy out of sight. And yet there he is wandering off alone, stealing Daryl’s gun and taunting a stuck zombie that turned out to be not quite so stuck.
The main issue of this episode was the matter of justice within the farm – and mostly it came down to a matter of moral imperative rather than anything to do with legality. Legality is a foundation of a fully-functioning society. The world of The Walking Dead has had to backstep to a more primitive means of existence but, in the likes of Dale, there is still a sense of requirement that they not also allow their morals and sense of right and wrong to fall away as well. Whilst at first Dale’s crusading appeal for the hearts and minds of the people was irksome he did eventually win me around to see that the fundamental things he was battling for actually did matter.
I honestly didn’t think I’d believe that, too. Whilst I recognised it was brutal I did, like the majority of the people on the farm, figure that Randall was too much of a liability to be left alive. Especially in consideration of the fact that he’d been taking sniper killshots at Rick, Glenn and Hershal then this wasn’t a pure as the driven snow innocent we were dealing with. They saved him, and gave him a chance at being cut loose – but then he went and announced that he knew Maggie and suddenly he retained his potential to crop up as a threat in the future. When the world has gone to hell and danger lurks at the end of every minute then inviting in new potential dangers isn’t a wise move.
So I did fall down on the idea that killing Randall was, for practical purposes, the smartest move. That thinking does put me in the Shane mentality, of course. And that’s a mentality that forgoes the moral and humanitarian aspects of such a ruthless decision. Dale was there to counter the argument that there were worse things they could become, and new precedents they could set for themselves, if they went down the route of cold-blooded murder just to eliminate a potential problem. Ironically it was Shane that was one of the few people willing to go along with Dale’s ideas if he could convince other people. Andrea was the sole voice in agreement with Dale, another unlikely ally. At least she, out of everyone, won’t have a sense of guilt to go along with their grief following Dale’s death.
Dale’s death did feel untimely. I didn’t get the sense that his character was one that had run its course. In fact it was that very fact that he was really a lone voice of moral righteousness that will really open up the biggest hole in the group. Without his dissenting voice, who will step up to argue the alternative reasoning?
Dale’s death was also a tad annoying in how one solitary walker managed to completely take him by surprise in a wide open field. Sure, it was dark, but Dale was stood in a quiet, open field and had just encountered an eviscerated cow. Once more I’m surprised by how the characters that really ought to be on high alert are so easily taken down. In a world infested by the walking dead and having just come across a freshly killed cow I’d like to think I’d have had my eyes everywhere, and every sense keen. Not so Dale, who not only got physically bested by a walker but then had his guts torn open (in a feat of very improbable strength – a regular person would struggle to do such a thing to another person, let alone a rotting, muscle-atrophied walking corpse perform such an horrific act!).
Certainly a death that won’t be forgotten easily, though, and for a character of Dale’s standing in the show then that’s only right and proper.
So by the episode’s end the matter of what to do with Randall was still unresolved. His chances of being executed are surely a lot less now, however. Not only did Rick change his mind but killing Randall would surely be an affront to the memory of Dale and what he stood for. They might just choose to risk keeping Randall alive as a legacy of Dale’s life. Naturally I don’t expect Shane to see it that way. Whilst he was willing to go along with keeping Randall alive if the group wanted it there’s no question he wanted Randall dead and, since that was what the group decided I imagine he’s going to push Rick to see it through.
Friction between those two is surely set to continue – although I suspect if it wasn’t about Randall then Shane would find a bone of contention over something else to beef with Rick over. Hostilities might have been abated for a while at present, but it’s a situation that cannot last.
Another great episode of The Walking Dead. It was one that featured a whole lot of talking and, briefly, threatened to be one where not a lot happened. But the great thing about this show is that every episode delivers something defining or remarkable or shocking to make it worth tuning in for. It has definitely confirmed itself as one of the best shows around at the moment, and is easily the one I am most excited about seeing the next episode of. It’s a shame that this season is nearly over, but I’ll happily take these shorter season runs for the quality I’ve been treated to.
What was the best part?
Really it ought to have been Dale’s death scene, but the manner by which he got caught out rather got on my nerves. So the best scene for me was that escalation in events when Rick, Shane and Daryl set about performing the execution of Randall. As it was playing out I couldn’t see there being anything that was going to stop the grisly act from occurring and I thought I was simply going to be confronted by the horrible reality of what it is to kill a man in cold blood. As it turned out Carl arrived, urging the kill, and Rick instantly realised what he was in danger of becoming himself and what his son was already at risk of turning into. Execution aborted.
What do I think will happen next?
Well, I’ve been banging on for episode after episode about how certain I am that the group are going to have to hit the road soon and leave the farm behind. And episode after episode that has continued to not happen. Yet I see no reason to not keep talking about how that surely must happen soon since, otherwise, The Walking Dead is just going to become like some kind of undead version of The Waltons! Realistically, the matter of what to do with Randall still hangs over the group and, as mentioned, I just don’t see Shane letting that slide without it going his way. Conflict will ensue.
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