Wiley Taylor
11/28/2011
Last night was The Walking Dead midseason finale, which had the right amount of suspense that many viewers were dying for. This episode yet again was a bit slow from the start and had emotions flying everywhere. At the end, everything came together and certain questions were finally answered.
The midseason finale opened up with Glenn nervously telling the group that “there are walkers in the barn” and the whole group had the same facial expression as that of a fan witnessing the downfall of their favorite team at the Super Bowl. The group goes to check it out and Shane is the first one to start freaking out.
Although he was a bit harsh and rude in his reasoning, he did have good choices: He suggested that they should leave or neutralize the situation. This was a major hazard for the group since they all sleep outside near the barn every night. Rick shoots down both ideas of leaving and killing the walkers because they are still searching for Sophia and also that it is Hershel’s land. Shane finally snaps and tells everyone that searching for her at this point is pointless because the likelihood is that she is dead or a walker. As usual, Rick wanted to calm everyone down and go talk to Hershel to straighten things out. If you saw last week's episode, anyone could tell that discussion with Hershel wasn’t going to go well.
Surprisingly, I noticed how easily everyone in the group seems to forget how they were ambushed by stealthy walkers at night when Rick went to search for guns. Also, in the timeline of the episode, Sophia has been gone for more than 4-5 days. The chances for her being fine are slim to none since she is just a young girl who probably never experienced being out in the wilderness and zombies are after her. My final issue is why Shane is the only one seeing the danger of this. For all we know, if Hershel gets upset with the group, he could easily set the walkers on them while they're asleep.
Rick walks into the house calmly while Hershel is reading a book over lunch. Just like Dale, Rick reiterates that the world is not like it was before and these “people” are already dead: They are simply dangerous vessels of who they use to be. He admits to him that he is also changing from the man he used to be before the epidemic. Yet, Hershel stands his ground and still wants them off his land. Rick goes as far as to drop his ace up his sleeve: He tells Hershel that his wife is pregnant. At first, Hershel's face suggests that he might reconsider, but he denies them their stay and he wants them gone by the end of the week. Rick storms out and informs Shane about the talk with Hershel and that his wife is pregnant. Shane's only response is “Congratulations” and a look of panic.
In an adrenaline-filled rampage, Shane confronts Lori and tells her that the baby is most likely his and that Rick isn’t fit for this world. He tells her that Rick is the enemy and that he can sniff out who doesn’t belong in this world. He drops his harmless threat about him leaving the group to save Carl’s life, which made him a hero again. Shane also saved Lori’s life four times, but she tries to say that Rick saved her once at the zombie ambush the night they ate fish fry and he then bursts her bubble that it was actually him that saved her. In the end, he believes that the baby is his and she promises it isn’t nor will ever be his. Man, talk about being cold blooded and still not accepting the obvious.
Dale again warns Andrea of Shane as being bad news and that she should stay away. Mildly annoyed, she tells him that she is doing okay and “things are different” for her. Dale then wanders off with the guns and Shane quickly becomes wise to his plan and catches up with him. The men get heated with each other while Dale, pointing the rifle at his group member, expresses his accusations of Shane killing Otis. Shane, unafraid and still making threats, tells him: “You’re pretty much already dead.” Dale lowers his weapon and Shane walks off with the guns.
Meanwhile, Hershel initiates Rick into the ideals of his group by having him help them wrangle up some “sick neighbors” out in the woods near the farm. Of course, he goes with Hershel because of the situation at hand. The group snares the walkers with snare poles to the barn in order to restore them. Rick's only question at this point is what will happen when the barn is full of walkers, but Hershel never answers.
At this time, Shane assumes leadership of the group when the group is lacking focus. He gives everyone a gun who can shoot a gun and gets ready to take care of the barn situation. Once Shane sees Rick going through the motions of being initiated into Hershel's group, he storms down the hill to stop the madness. To get everyone focused, he tells them that the walkers are the ones that killed Amy and everyone else they loved. He fires a couple shots at the walker snared by Hershel and explains to the old man that these “people” aren’t people at all. He finally shoots the zombie in the head and Hershel drops to his knees in shock. Quickly, he breaks open the door and the walkers start crawling out. It’s shooting practice for the group, until a special someone comes walking out.
After all the zombies come out and are dead on the ground. Sophia comes distraughtly walking out and it's apparent that she has been a walker for some time, probably ever since the first day. Everyone is in shock and can’t believe that they have been searching for her everywhere but the barn. For the episode’s climatic end, Rick walks up to the little girl and shoots her in the head without any remorse or hesitation to exemplify the rule that once one of the members of the group is a walker, they are not the loved one anymore.
Now that the show has reached its midseason, we will have to wait until February to see the rest of this slow-paced season. Let’s just hope that watching season 1 will bear me over until the new episodes air. This is going to be a long 76 days.
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