I am not often impressed by single camera shots, but the one above — from this week’s episode of The Walking Dead (via Reddit, and click on the image to see the quietly animated GIF) — absolutely blows me away. I’ve already discussed the episode itself, but this single shot encapsulates so much of what was so impressive about “Clear,” perhaps the best episode since the pilot. Tricia Brock directed it, her first for the series (she’s a regular television series director).
It’s such a quiet yet revealing image. We see Carl resting against the door of an old restaurant containing mayhem and death within. It’s a brilliant juxtaposition of the serene and the end-of-the-world, and reflects Carl’s casual indifference to the constant threat posed by the walkers. It’s just another day that ends in Y to Carl, who betrays absolutely no fear that the shambling, undead menaces behind the door might crash through the glass and infect him. Death and walkers and ruin have become so commonplace in this world that a 13-year-old kid can listlessly lean against a door, separated from a fate worse than death by 3 inches of hardwood, and wait for his friend, Michonne, to return from the inside with a framed photograph.
It is stunning.
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/4006/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/378267_509181035812548_2064978860_n-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/cosplay-tmnt-michelangelo-bodypaint-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/WALKINGDEAD-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/04/Screen-Shot-2013-04-29-at-11.23.10-AM-150x150.png)
I guess I’m the only one that found this episode really stale? Not much happened at all, but I guess it did look nice.
I thought it was the opposite of stale. Instead of wasting another episode before the final battle between Woodbury and the Prison having everyone shuffle around the prison, do pretty much nothing to advance the story, and in no way explore the environment around them….they explored the environment. Got to see how the apocalypse has developed back with Morgan. Hopefully in the future if they want to do a bottle episode they do something like this and get away from the main plot and do some character development and exploration.
completely opposite of stale. That episode was amazing.
I didn’t see much character development, nothing important happened with Morgan and Michonne said a few more lines and that’s it. No back story on her or anything.
michonne opened up and showed a little character, helped carl and a sense of humor. she’s finally becoming the interesting character the fans of the comic already know her to be. and how could you say that nothing happened with morgan? That was some of the best acting in the entire series. he turned his life into a purpentual attonment machine for getting his son killed by the wife he couldn’t kill! that’s insane and amazing.
Yeh that was decent acting coming from Morgan but their reunion was really anticlimactic. It didn’t really add anything to the main story and didn’t need to be dragged out into a whole episode. This and the last episode just feel like total filler that are prolonging the main story between the prison and woodbury. At least most of this season has been a lot more eventful than season 2.
You call almost getting stabbed to death by the guy who just saved your life awhile back anticlimatic?
I think the episode it helped develop Michonne some more, and perhaps helped Rick put his own crazy in perspective.
Yeah there wasn’t a whole lot of walker-killing action, and it didn’t leave you hanging on the edge of your seat, but it helped push along the character development.
What’s the point of going forward in a story with characters you can’t feel for because you don’t know who they are or where they are, psychologically speaking?
Shun the nonbeliever. Shuuuuuuunnnn.
Trolling is a art.
was the inside of that place supposed to look like the layout of The Winchester from “Shawn of the Dead”? For a second i thought Karl was going after the rifle over the bar that may or may not have been deactivated. Depends if you believe Big John or not.
He also says that dogs can’t look up. T-Dogs.
All bars pretty much look the same.
it’s like it’s carl’s job in life to keep those zombies in that restaurant throughout the entirety of the apocalypse.
Child actors be child actin’.
[youtu.be]
“Bar B Que”. Maybe that’s acceptable in America, but right now I’m glad most of the population of that town got eaten by zombies.
This shot and the calmness that Rick, Michonne, and Carl displayed surrounded in the car were the best parts of this entire season. This is the new normal.
Am I an asshole/idiot, or is this the improper use of the word “betray”?
In this context, its use implies that he is feeling fear but managing not to show it. If he was looking frightened, but claiming he wasn’t scared, we could say his face was betraying his true feelings.
portrays maybe..
Just FYI…it’s high enough quality to make a decent desktop wallpaper. I just wish I could figure out how to animate it.
I don’t recall ever really noticing a particular frame of a show, but when they wide-angled this shot, I immediately thought it looked really cool.
This was IMHO the best episode of the show so far. The thing that Walking Dead really sucks at is setting tone.
This episode delivered in nuanced ways. From the opening scenes where they chose to ignore the pleas of the backpacker, to Rick finding out what happened to an abandoned friend & finally bringing Michonne into the fold, this episode was successful by dealing with the psychological realities of those stuck in a post-apocalyptic world.
Yeh it’s pretty smart of them to leave that backpacker. It’s not like they need any help defending the prison or anything.
Trollers be trollin’
Ha I’m pretty sure calling someone a troll for having a different opinion is in itself trolling. I’m glad you all enjoyed this episode so much but I did not.
I liked the episode, but I too thought the backpacker part was particularly short-sighted and/or cold. (Of course, so was sending Tyreese’s group away, but whatever.) Having said that, I didn’t blink when they stopped and picked up his backpack on the way out. To me, if you’ve gotta kill for meat, wear the fur.