If you want to complain about the direction of “The Walking Dead” this season, you’re more than welcome, but if you tune in specifically to see zombies and zombie kills, you can’t justifiably complain about last night’s bloodbath. The entire first half of the episode was Romero-style, brain-splattering, full-on zombie destruction, and it was phenomenal. Was it absolutely necessary to drag it out that long? Who cares? Zombies got their asses kicked until, of course, they overran the farm by sheer force of numbers.
The death count: Two. Jimmy and Patricia (Otis’ wife), the two least recognizable members of the cast. I had completely forgotten about them until last night, so their loss wasn’t exactly dramatic. I’m sure there’s some 16-year-old girl in Idaho who became fixated on Jimmy who was crushed by his death, but the reaction of most viewers was, “Jimmy? Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that guy.”
The Plot Developments: Once the survivors were overrun by the zombie horde, they reconvened at the highway, minus Andrea, and the truth about the zombie infection came out. Everyone is a carrier, news that Rick had procured from the CDC but kept from everyone. You die, you’re a walker.
Rick also revealed that he killed Shane, which is exactly what Lori wanted right up until that schizophrenic bitch didn’t want it anymore. She is the worst. So, Rick tore the head off the beast, and ultimately, he became the beast himself, forcefully taking leadership of the survivors and establishing a dictatorship, becoming the new Shane. Some stuck with Rick out of loyalty, while others stuck with Rick out of fear.
The two most exciting developments of the episode, however, came in the waning seconds. Just before Andrea was about to be taken down by walkers, a mysterious hooded figure with two armless zombies chained to her shows up and rescues Andrea. I’m not a reader of the graphic novels, so I don’t know what the story is, but her name is Michonne and she’s already my favorite character on the show.
She was onscreen for about 10 seconds, max, and it was like, OH SH*T WHO IS THE BADASS WITH THE JAPANESE SWORD AND CHAINED ZOMBIES? She’s already the reason I’m most excited about season three. That’s not to take anything away from Andrea, who put on a tour de force of zombie killing herself last night. She was a total boss.
The other development: As the episode ended, the camera zoomed out, and in the distance, we saw a prison, which we know will be the next destination for the survivors. Presumably, that’s where they’ll meet the Governor.
That caps season two of “The Walking Dead,” a season that started out sluggishly, shed a few impatient viewers, but then began to pick up momentum in the second half. Ultimately the season ended with an episode that represents everything many of us wanted out of “The Walking Dead,” namely a lot of zombie kills and a little batsh*ttery.
What’d you folks think? Favorite kill of the night? (I liked Glen’s deft use of a shotgun while riding shotgun). Did last night’s episode redeem the season? Are you in for season three?
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It was a good finale. I’m in for season three, but they’ve wasted some really good source material with this shit show of a season. Lori is infuriating.
Lori becomes a zombie, Michonne cuts her arms and mouth off.
PROBLEM = SOLVED
Laurie and Carl are the WORST (old short haired lady sucks too). Crying for the guy that was going to basically execute their husband/father. Other than that, I enjoyed that night of zombie slaughter.
What Tubesteak said. (If I had nickel for every time I said that…..)
Oh boy, do I have thoughts. First half was pretty boss. The night time scenes were shot beautifully, and I always appreciate when a show or movie says it’s cold out and you can see the breath of the characters. That being said, the second half: UGH.
-I know it’s wrong to want to punch a kid, but I want to punch Carl and his dumb pouty face. The second he and Rick arrive on the highway and Lori’s not there, he starts bitching about going back. It’s all your fault, kid.
-I’m not even going to bother with Lori. Michonne and her awesome, awesome ways only increase her irrelevancy.
-Lol at T-Dog’s ditch driving
-Outside of Glenn (and only, like twice), did anyone in the group miss a gun shot?
-Why can’t any character ever say anything right? Instead of calmly explaining things to Lori and the group, by beginning with, “Shane tried to kill me, so I had to retaliate,” Rick instead blurts some shit out about murdering his best friend. They’re all so unlikable and so stupid, that if everyone sans T-Dog, Daryl, maybe Glenn, Andrea (who I like more than most, though she’s better in comics than in the show), and Michonne should die, I wouldn’t care. I’d be happy.
This is my Limbaugh vs. Maher post.
Also: did Hershel’s shotgun have unlimited ammo?
And: WHY’S A BLACK MAN GOTTA DRIVE SOME SKINNY WHITE BITCH AROUND?
Hershel must have been using the unlimited ammo cheat code from Doom 2.
yeah I counted 10 in a row without a reload at one point. Even without a plug I’ve never heard of a pump shotgun holding that many.
Characters not being able to express themselves in any way but to induce melodrama is infuriating. Rick didn’t say a single thing that made any sense once the car ran out of gas.
And one of the so-called emotional climaxes of the episode (him telling Lori about Shane) didn’t introduce anything new to us, the viewer. When you’ve got five minutes left in your season finale, a character shouldn’t be regurgitating old information; it’s a plot stall, there only to fill time.
i was really hoping t-dog would let lori out when she tried to jump out.
okay also I’m not positive but pretty sure Carl lost that awesome Sheriff hat… little prick
Your last point is so spot on. The writers can’t purposely want to make every single character (sans Daryl and T-Dog) so unlikable, can they? It’s kind of remarkable they’re capable of pulling it off.
I for one welcome our new “take no shit from anyone” Rick overlord.
To Josh’s OP :
I’d feel the same about T-Dog if he died, I’d be pretty upset. Which is funny, because he had like 12 lines all season. I guess this is a testament of how terrible the others are when they open their pieholes. Just by shuting the fuck up, T-Dog is automatically 75% better than the rest.
Also, can I take a pole of the people who didn’t scoff when Rick said he killed his “best friend” for the good of the group? Anyone? I mean, if I remember correctly Rick killed Shane in an immediate self-defense situation. Up until that point, he seemed pretty content to let crazy-ass Shane run amuck within the group, short of a scolding here and there. And “best friend”? Really? Maybe they were BFFs before the zombies showed up, but ever since Rick came back from the dead Shane’s been nothing but a big bag of dicks.
*Poll. Ugh.
*amok. ugh.
(I’m sorry)
While you’re right that I had no idea how to correctly spell that word, and thus googled it, freedictionary.com, better known as the original source of the English language, has this to say: [www.thefreedictionary.com].
JoshK, it’s not all about revealing something to us, sometimes drama is characters revealing other things to other characters.
Phrasing, it was not immediate self-defense. Rick knew for some time what Shane was up to and was trying to not let it happen. Also keep in mind that the timeline on the show is much shorter than it seems to us since it’s been going on for almost two years. Rick surely still thinks of Shane as his best friend despite the things he’s done.
I think Rick is speaking from his own sense of shock and guilt. He believes he just killed his best friend, so that is how he blurts it out. This was foreshadowed by Maggie being too much in shock to drive; Glenn realized it and took the wheel.
Yes, Rick could have been more diplomatic and couched what when down in terms that were more objectively true and put himself in a better light. He could have said that it was a plot; that Shane had set him up and Rick had no choice. (Darryl has already figured out as much, and Glenn also knows it to be true.) But all Rick can think of, is that he killed his best friend.
This seems like as appropriate a time as any: bring back Matt!
Did the RV breakdown? Why didn’t Jimmy just drive away once Rick and his little dipshit were on the roof?
they already had broken into the rv, methinks.
Seriously, when “Jimmy” was getting killed I must have said “who the hell even is that?” like 6 times.
I’m glad they all reunited at the Sophia message from the first half of the season though, that kind of made that glacial-paced storyline have some more significance.
Seriously, fuck Lori.
Carol also. Why the hell did she run her mouth and undermine Rick towards the end? None of these characters make any god damn sense.
Not to nitpick the awesomeness, but armless zombies seems pretty impractical to keep chained to yourself.
not if you cut off their arms and mouthes? their smell will keep others away while they cant do you any real harm is what I’m guessing
Yeah, I keep hearing this “it will keep zombies away” theory, but then again zombies seem pretty okay with forming packs.
I guess I was perturbed by the whole aspect, since stealth and mobility are necessities in this world. If you gotta make a getaway, having some useless, stumbling jackasses chained to yourself isn’t going to help.
armless zombies would STILL be better company than Lori and Carl.
Leapin_Lizards wins this thread.
Quite true. “useless, stumbling jackasses” aptly describes Lori and Carl.
According to my brother who reads the books the two zombies are Michonne’s byfriend and his best friend. She apparently holds conversations with her zombie boyfriend on a regular basis. As someone who doesn’t read the books I gotta say I am very much looking forward to this batshit crazy chick.
As someone who also doesn’t read the books, shut-up about what’s in the books, please.
only redeeming thing about carl is that it was quite awesome when he dropped the lighter on zombies. i was hoping he was going to slip when he jumped to the rv with rick, and then get eaten by zombies…
Kill. Off. Lori. And Carl, for good measure.
Her entire arc all season seemed to be dedicated to turning Shane and Rick on one another. Then Rick kills Shane and all of a sudden she can’t bare the thought of looking at him!?!?
I will say with the advent of Michonne, the Governor and the prison, I look forward to a significantly more exciting season 3.
I think Lori might be the worst written character in the last ten years of television.
Oh man, Lori and Carl getting killed would be the BEST.
That’s dangerous ground there, Demo.
Sorry Demosthenes, but had to delete your comment. Too much of a comics spoiler without a warning.
Understood, I tried to tread carefully. In the comic Daryl hasn’t even been introduced and Sophia is still alive, so the knowledge itself is just a wish and not a spoiler. They are two different beasts and I am in no position to know what will actually happen on the show. I won’t mention it again.
Yeah, at least it’s probably the second episode of the show that actually delivered what you’d expect from a zombie tv show (the other one being the pilot).
I’m pretty pissed that neither Lori nor Andrea got killed (tbh Andrea hasn’t been as awful in the second half of the season as she was in the first, and I just want to punch her half as much as before.), and how easily the whole crew gets like 95% of headshots everytime they fire is absolutely ridiculous.
But Michonne will be awesome, and best of all, I haven’t read the comics but read about her profile on wiki, she will probably not talk that much and still be a badass, like the exact opposite of Lori. (Who should probably chain Carl to herself so she doesn’t lose him so much)
I agree. Andrea may have taken herself off my list of characters that need to die yesterday. If she brings her bitchness back next season she’ll be right back on there though.
I think Andreas not sucking as much has to do with Dale dying. He was always pissing her off, and her becoming more likeable seems to coincide with Dale not being around anymore.
You mean a headshot from 30 yards away from a moving vehicle with a shotgun in the dark is hard?
but bro, there was ONE scene of target practice 8 eps ago! you’ll be fine as long as you don’t hold it “all gangster an’ shit.”
It’s going to take a while for me to get the thought of “You shot Darryl in the head!” out of my mind when Andrea was saying she protects the group. This episode helped, but we’re not there yet.
What a satisfying end to an otherwise medicore season. It seems like by stabbing Shane, Rick somehow absorbed his “Shut your mouth and do what I say, you idiots” attitude. I like.
Also, badmouth season 2 as much as you like, but at least one great thing came of it….stupid Dale got eaten.
Lori is terrible, but there has to be a part of her freaked the fuck out about her baby right? If everyone’s infected, does that mean any child they birth will be a walker too, or just have the virus to turn it once it dies? Wish they would have addressed that.
Maybe the virus will make her fetus telepathic and then maybe a werewolf will fall in love with it then maybe… awww crap
Well they didn’t really lay it out, but it was still pretty clear to me that being infected means you rise as a zombie once you’re dead, if you didn’t get your brains blow up. So her baby should be fine, unless it’s a stillborn, and it starts eating Lori from the inside. That would be awesome. Hire me AMC !
Being already infected doesn’t change anything. The end goal is still the same: to not die in the first place.
What if the baby dies during the pregnancy? Would she then get eaten from the inside out by a zombie fetus?
Being infected changes lots of things.
They now know that they have living examples of the virus (or whatever) and can find something that can kill it. They don’t have to experiment on walkers.
They now know that if someone dies, they have to kill them again immediately, like in the bar. This helps stop the spread.
“They now know that they have living examples of the virus (or whatever) and can find something that can kill it. They don’t have to experiment on walkers.”
Who’s they? Did any of the survivors seem like they went to medical school and are gonna brew up a cure in the basement now?
Also, knowing that should make them a little less lenient on strangers who cross them.
I don’t get why Carol is suddenly against Rick. Then within minutes Rick decides to undermine his standing with everyone by declaring himself dictator for life.
The thing where Lori flipped out bugged me too. Weren’t you trying to get him to finish Shane off just a few episodes back?
Needs more T-Dog
Hellze yhea Michone is one of the best characters to come about. She is a no nonsense kinda girl. The prision has its own booring times that parralled the farm as well.
But on the other hand, some way crazier shit goes down in the prison than ever happened at the farm.
I don’t know if this has been brought up, but since the prison was fairly close, does that mean that Randall came from the Governor’s camp?
That’s been a floated theory.
I’m pretty sure that they drove a lot farther away from the camp than Randall’s group would have been. I’m pretty sure he was telling Shane the truth before we got kill as to how close they actually were.
T-Dog says about 5 sentences total this whole season, then when he finally speaks his mind he gets shouted down by some dumb broad. If I were him I would use my once chance to speak to tell everyone to stop calling me T-Dog and start calling me Theodore. How about that for breaking stereotypes.
We should start an internet campaign. It can be similar to ‘six seasons and a movie’, or whatever it is. We can call it ‘kill off Lori and Karl’.
The best weapon to have in the zombie apocalypse is Herchel’s 75 round shotgun.
I thought for sure he put in unlimited ammo cheat codes.
Why did they flip the eff out after the “walking dead” reveal? On the one hand, yeah I don’t see the point of Rick not telling them. On the other hand, it’s not like it changes anything. On the gripping hand, Lori and Carol cannot get eaten soon enough.
“I’ve seen the enemy and he is us”, or something like that. Wouldn’t you be at least a little freaked out if you were fighting against something and found out it was inside you the whole time?
Season 3 isn’t until October? I’ll tune in just to see Carl a foot taller and with a mustache.
WAAAAAAALLLLLT!
You just gave a perfect description of Gordito from Dr. McNinja.
Not to get off on a tangent, but I think this show is a great example of how stupid people are who watch popular TV.
Last night, Twitter was exploding with people going “OMGZ, The Walking Dead was AMAZING! Best show I’ve ever seen since Lost went off the air!” How can anyone with any brain cells watch this show and think that this is better than all the other great stuff on?
I watch this show every week, and every week I enjoy the zombie killing, enjoy Glenn and Daryl, but holy God do I want Carl and Lori to die with their entrails being dragged behind them.
I think comments like that are a statement about how much godawful crap is on television right now. Other than a handful of top-shelf shows (Game of Thrones, Justified, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy)…are there really many dramas better than Walking Dead?
You know people don’t like a character when they want her dead even though she is pregnant.
Ohh ohh stillborn zombie fetus!
“I’ve ever seen” = “What they have seen”, not “Everything on TV”. Maybe they only watch Gilligan’s Island reruns.
I hope the Governor isn’t in the Prison. That would sort of be an unwelcome thing to me. I hope it’s more like the comic in that aspect because the prison is my favorite setting, with prisoners still alive and messing around like OZ but with zombies.
It’s that part of the comics that had me reading it for good.
I can’t blame Rick for getting all angry at the end. I’d be the same way if I was dealing with a bitchy ass wife and a bunch of morons.
Lori and Carl need to die horrifically painful deaths. My god that woman is fucking terrible. She basically goaded the two alphas to fight over her shit then gets all freaked out when they actually did? I honestly think the actress is completely ruined forever because if I see her in something else I will still think she is a terrible cunt.
That’s because the wrong alpha won. Looks like Lori had the hots for Shane. Rick, hope you’re having fun with your whore wife and evil brat son.
Who else thought having T-Dogg drive instead of shoot during the drive by was a total waste of talent? Just me and my racism? Oh… Okay.
T-Dogg could have shown off his “drive by” abilities.
Have we decided the Stupid Character Moment of the episode, yet? Because I want to nominate Jimmy.
Hey, Jim, the whole RV Rooftop Rescue thing has a few DOs and DON’Ts:
DO drive toward the people on the roof and stop within jumping distance.
DO wait for them to jump or step onto the roof safely.
Once they are on the roof,
DO drive away, taking the opportunity to run over a bunch of zombies on the way.
I can’t stress this next part enough:
DON’T open the door to let in the swarm of zombies, who really are terrible guests because of how they eat all of the human flesh in the RV, spill blood all over the furniture and then take forever to leave.
Yeah. That was just stupid. The rescue part was good and fine. But once they’re on the roof, drive away. Don’t leave the steering wheel. Don’t open the RV door.
This show is extra fake because people this dumb would not have survived the high peak of the zombie wave. I didn’t watch the show with 100% attention, but what I gathered is that Rick killed Shane and absorbed his powers. Rick has Shane’s powers now. Oh, and someone in zombie Georgia finally had sense enough to find a katana – the best anti zombie weapon invented.
Actually, I’d say a spear would be the best zombie weapon. It has a greater reach and can punch straight through the face into the brain.
That being said, Katana wielding Michonne has pulled me in for another season. All the other idiots are running around with a machete or a screwdriver.
Important question:
If a zombie gets beheaded, does the disembodied head still go on trying to chomp on things? Because that would be both disturbing and awesome.
yes.
Its a little known and surprising fact that if a zombie is decapitated it will cease trying to chomp on things and will instinctively start to whistle either Sweet Georgia Brown or the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show.
Yup. This happened in Season One and Daryl put an arrow through a disembodied chomping head.
Let’s be sure to remember the highlight of the episode though: Daryl making fun of Glenn’s asian driving.
He really should have followed up with a ME SO SOLLY and perhaps a flapping dickie.
The brilliant arrival of the sword-wielding zombie wrangler (a girl? Cool) highlighted just how good this show could have been if only the creators had a little more ambition and had thrown in a hint ofWorld War Z, i.e. given us the story of multiple characters’ survival in multiple locations. Fuck the punching above their place in the food chain assholes we’ve been stuck with for two series. Give me the adventures of katana girl.
And fuck Carl. His whiny shittiness is more enraging than Joffrey’s bratty sadism.
So the show could have been good if it were a completely different show?
Yes.
I have been referring to Lori as “Hitler’s Cunt” all season long and then ol’ Ricky decides to name himself Hitler last night. Full circle indeed.
I can’t believe the farm they were on the entire time wasn’t in the 1800′s like we all thought. God damn you M. Night.
lol
Probably the best episode of the season, minus:
1. the reaction from everyone to the “we’re all infected” thing–who gives a crap? That doesn’t change anything at all, and doesn’t matter.
2. Lori’s reaction to Rick killing Shane–didn’t she essentially tell him to do it 2 episodes ago?
3. Are you telling me that Carl just happened to miss the most important part of Rick killing Shane….i.e. Rick killing shane? That kid is the worst–all he does is show up at inopportune times and whine.
4. they should have killed Sophia’s mom. No one else who died in that episode mattered.
Kid’s got it right
I like the opening. The helicopter zombie flashback was a good way of showing how that massive herd came about. It also tied the massacre in with the pilot. That was nicely handled.
Sure, a single helicopter caused a Zombie stampede across Georgia to reach our survivors just in time for the big Rick-Shane showdown. Totally works.
It was at least an attempt at an explanation as opposed to hundreds of walkers being just there doing nothing. It also showed the explanation used in the comics for herds: one hears something and starts following the sound, that gathers more walkers, and it they keep going and going well after the original impetus has disappeared while gathering more and more walkers.
why the fuck don’t they just run over walkers with the many trucks they have? this is infuriating.
Fuckin’ A.
Insurance rates?
I think the last thing they want to do is get a zombie stuck up in their undercarriage and have the car break down. Also I thought T-Dawg started running them over when he realized they were low on ammo
I wish you all could have seen how erect this episode made me.
Stiff?
They should attach some robot arms to those chained up zombies.
the episode was pretty awesome, but I find it a bit amazing that all these normal folk are such a good shot. It seems like only a few episodes ago Andrea didn’t know how to hold a gun in the right direction, now she’s Billy the fucking Kid. And Glenn seems like a skinny little kid to not get thrown out of the car after shooting a shotgun while hanging out the window.
Then again, it’s a show about zombies, so I can’t really argue about it not being ‘realistic’.
Spolier
Can’t wait for Lori to die now, should be end of Season three if its anything like the comics. Also in the comics its kinda shown that Andrea is a born natural marksman (markswoman???) Also did anyone else notice that Hershel had like never ending ammo in his shotgun. He shot like 20 zombies before reloading lol
As nice as the Zombie killing was, I didn’t really get the idea behind what they were doing. Like, either make a stand or drive away, but why drive around in circles and shoot only to have everyone end up separated and encircled by Zombies?
Also makes it completely pointless that they boarded up the farm house last episode. They didn’t do that all season yet last episode decided it was necessary and then no one took advantage of it anyway. Good writing.
I think they didn’t immediately bail because Hershel of wanting to save his farm and also waiting for Rick and Shane.
It was pretty clear what they were doing. Before they get in the cars someone says that they’ll gather them up and lead them off the farm. Then when driving around Andrea says that the plan isn’t working and they aren’t as easy to “corral up”.
The plan was to make the Walkers follow the cars but their plan sucked.
“Not enough action or zombie killing! Too much talking!”
Finale airs.
“What…we’re supposed to believe these guys are good at shooting? This show is ridiculous”
I think a a decent amount of the complainers are now just looking to complain about things.
Gotta admit, once Shane got it, I was interested again. The show was too sluggish for far too long on the Rich/ Shane BS. Now that Rick has started to become serious about keeping his band of idiots alive, its gonna get serious and it will get messy. I’m on for season 3.