Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 7 "Pretty Much Dead Already"

The cold open got me really excited. The secrets out the zombies are banging on the doors. We’re gonna have an action heavy episode! Credits roll, and whole middle of the episode was just the same as last week’s. the pot is boiling but not boiled over yet and I thought we’d have to wait another week until the lid finally blows off (I am really committed to this pot on a burner analogy and I have no idea why) But then, the last nine minutes. Oh. My. God. Yes.

But let’s slow my rolls here and talk about the other stuff first. Glenn’s revelation about the barn moves the dynamic between Hershel’s and Rick’s people from somewhat strained to an all-out conflict. And conflict is good. It also brings the series main dichotomy (Rick versus Shane) to the forefront in the most successful way the show has so far. Glenn’s news gets Shane super angry because it gives him something to focus his rage on. ON the other hand, it gives Rick another opportunity to play the diplomat with Doc. Shane is shouting about how they’ve got to “take care of the problem before the problem takes care of [them]” and Rick is getting more and more desperate in his conversations with Doc. You can see that Rick has gotten more and more strained, and his wife’s pregnancy isn’t helping that strain. Rick is getting close to the edge, and while I know he won’t turn into Shane any time soon (or ever), I’m still nervous about what’s gonna happen when he reaches that edge. And speaking of edges, Shane’s confrontation with Dale in the woods serves to bring Shane to the edge of his rope too. (Do ropes have edges? I guess it would be the end of his rope. Rope? Vines. Vines?)

The series is pitting Rick against Shane (now more with (a little) subtlety but eventually it has to lead to a head-on conflict); humanitarian versus brute force survival. Shane’s intensity, which comes across as bad-assness and aggression, is really just a way for him to deny responsibility for his actions. As long as he tells himself there are lines he won’t cross, he can justify his behavior as it being necessity. Conversely, the more lines he does cross, the easier it will be to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. And so for once, Rick’s desperate attempts to hang on to some of the ways of the old world don’t seem quite so sadly misguided and useless. It’s the only way left to avoid becoming a monster. But we aren’t done yet.

This escalates with Shane and the others all having guns. (and notably none of Hershel’s people have any.) And while I, like season3 Gustavo Fring, don’t believe violence to be a positive motivator, an argument can only really go one way when one side has a gun. And if Shane wasn’t angry and hell-bent enough at that point, he turns around to see Rick helping Doc bring two zombies back to the farm. If Shane were a large, sassy, African American woman, this would be the moment where he would say “oh HEEEEELLL no! Somebody hold my earrings.”

Leading to the fantastic final scene (I LOVE shouting) where Shane unleashes the zombies and him, Andrea, T-Dog, Daryl, and Glenn do what they have to do, while Hershel and the others watch as their family and friends get gunned downed mercilessly (though hopefully now Hershel got the message that they aren’t human anymore, thanks to Shane’s demonstration of how bullets affect living people). All goes quiet for almost long enough where you would expect the arguing to ensue again or for the episode to just end. But no. Sophia creeps her way out of the barn. She’s of course a zombie, and probably has been for a while. This is a classic reveal, an unexpected punch in the gut. Besides that, it makes me feel bad for shitting on the writers, because they apparently had this in mind and weren’t just stalling with this Sophia plot for seven episodes. Sophia is the last piece of proof that will shatter Hershel’s delusions of cures. More than that, this shows that Rick’s fervent determination to keep the ways of the old world alive is almost as much of a delusion as Hershel’s. In the old world (our current world, thank God), you look for a missing child for as long as you can. You believe they’re alive, maintain hope, and that hope is considered right and noble. This is something Rick believes, something Shane has been struggling with. But when Little Miss Gut Punch walks out of the barn, Shane is just as frozen as Andrea and everyone else. Fittingly, it’s Rick that does what has to be done.  

Other thoughts:

-some nice stuff between Glenn and Maggie this week. Loved that Glenn manned up and told her that he wasn’t sorry about telling everyone and that he would rather she hate him and be alive than be dead. And that beautiful moment at the barn when Glenn’s about to help shoot the Walkers but first looks at Maggie, and she, with tears in her eyes, nods yes and lets him do what must be done.

-also, loved the cinematography in this episode. It’s been pretty good overall, but I noticed a lot more fun stuff in this ep, like the eyeball-close shot into the crack in the barn, the camera creeping up and over the top of the barn as Shane looks around. Also many of the shots during the final scene had some beautiful angles. I want to make one my wallpaper.