Monday, October 31, 2011

The Walking Dead Season Two Episode Three: Save the Last One

This episode begins with Shane and Otis running from the walkers and Rick and Lori sitting vigil over Carl's sick bed.

In the trailer Carol is crying, as Andrea sits at a table trying to assemble a weapon.  Darryl clearly cannot sleep with the noise and so he gets up taking his clip from Andrea, saying that he is going to walk the road to look for Sophia.  Dale questions whether or not this is a good idea, because it is still dark but Andrea quickly cuts him off.  I thought this was a nasty thing for Andrea to do and Dale did have a point about safety issues.

When Andrea questions whether or not Sophia is alive, Darryl tells her that when he got lost as a child while his father was in prison, and his brother Meryl didn't even know he was gone.  He believes that Sophia has an advantage, because she has people looking for her.  When they run across a man who tried to hang himself to escape, but became a walker because he didn't know enough to shoot himself, Darryl asks her if she wants to live, Andrea answers that she does not know.  To keep his promise he shoots the walker with an arrow, and then complains about it being a waste of an arrow.  Is it me, or does Darryl not have a history of taking back his arrows after he uses them?  How is it a waste when he could have removed it from the walkers body?

It looks to me like they are setting up Andrea and Darryl for a romance, which is actually quite sad.  If you have read the comics, you know that Andrea and Dale really loved each other.  Their relationship was good even though Dale had insecurities regarding the large age difference between them.  Does anyone prefer Andrea with Darryl over Dale?

Back at the school, Shane crawls through a window and falls from about two stories to the ground hurting his leg. Even though IMBD says that Shane is going to be in all of the episodes this season, I kept hoping that he would fall on his head. No such luck, and Shane lives on.


When T-Dog and Glenn arrive at the farm, T-dog tells him that niceties are gone.  When Maggie notices the wound on T-Dogs arm he tells her that he not been bitten only cut himself. Alone on the porch Glenn tries to pray for the very first time, but Maggie tells him that a lot of prayers have gone unanswered recently. 

Herschel tells Lori and Rick that if Shane and Otis don't return soon, that they have a decision to make regarding operating on Carl without a respirator. Lori tells Rick that maybe this isn't a world for children anymore.  She wants to know why they want Carl to live in this world, so that he can see people ripped apart right in front of him. So that he can run and run and even if does survive, the end result is that  he doesn't know anything except survival. Rick points out that Jenner offered them away out and he wants to know what changed.  Lori tells Rick that she realized that Jacqui's death means that Jacqui does not have to be afraid anymore.  Rick being Rick, saw what happened as surrender. When Lori wants to know why they shouldn't give up, he does not have an answer. It is not until Carl briefly wakes from his coma to talk about the deer, that Rick realizes that the reason to live is that there is still beauty in this world.

The very idea that Jacqui is better off dead disturbs me to no end.  She was the last remaining woman of colour on the show.  Even when she was there last season, she did not have a large role to play and now her death has been turned into a cheap plot point.  What does that tell us about the value of people of color on The Walking Dead?

Alone at the camper, Carol and Dale talk.  Carol tells Dale that he does not have to worry about Andrea because she is with Darryl, but he goes off to look for her anyway. Funny how last week, Dale ridiculed T-Dog when he questioned Darryl's position on race, but somehow now that he is off in the dark with a White woman, Dale can manage to be concerned. When they get back, Dale gives Andrea back her gun, acknowledging that he made a choice for her.  He asks her not to make him regret giving her back the gun.  She walks away saying that she will take watch, but Dale stops her to ask if she forgives him and she simply answers I'm trying.

I don't know about you, but when Shane came back, I was certain that he had thrown Otis to the wolves so to speak.  The unhusband and I talked about this and he feels it came down to the survival of the fittest, but I believe that if they lose their humanity, and do things like Shane did, why are they struggling to stay away from the walkers in the first place.  What do you think of what Shane did?