The Walking Dead’s Season 2.5 open has been…uninspiring. Two episodes in, and I’m still desperate for some good storytelling and SHANE TO DIE. Did either of those things happen last night, on this week’s episode “18 Miles Out.”
Find out after the jump, as I share five thoughts on this week’s episode.
It opens with excitement, and that only leads into more excitement. And by excitement, I mean zombie violence! I’m not going to say all I want is for this show to just be killing zombies, but come on, pretty much everyone wants more zombie killing and less speeches. This delivered that in spades, whether you’re talking about Rick going for the trifecta on zombies on top of him, Shane knifing them on a bus in savvy way, or Randall taking them out even with his hands tied. It was pretty badass and extremely enjoyable.
2. Shane and Rick talk things out a bit – thank god!
By the end of the episode, I actually felt like things were starting to get sorted out a little bit. Save a rather brutal and exciting fight between Shane and Rick, things were actually somewhat reasonable between the two of them (Shane didn’t even yell that much!) and by the end, I kind of felt like Rick had reestablished his dominance over Shane. In fact, it felt like the hierarchy of the show finally was starting to align properly for once.
Of course, based on the preview for next week, it looks like Shane is back to his conspiratorial jackass ways. Huzzah. At least we got one.
3. Andrea rightly calls out Lori…
Lori has been sort of a backseat driver on Rick and Shane throughout the whole series to date, and she’s heavy on the condemnation of everyone else without even being accountable for her own horribleness. I enjoyed Andrea calling her out, because god only knows someone has to.
4. But then acts like a horrible person for the rest of the episode
It’s good that Andrea was not horrible for half a scene, because she was awful for the rest. For such an engaging character from the comic, what we’ve gotten is basically a sick monster of a character who is effectively a female version of Shane. When I was watching this episode, where she offered to watch Beth (potential suicide girl) for Maggie and then immediately left because she wanted to let her have the choice of killing herself if she wanted to, I couldn’t help but think of last episode where Andrea explained to Shane about how she has the right idea but bad delivery. It was basically the same thing. The writing for Andrea is reprehensible, and the delivery of those ideas isn’t much better. I just can’t stand the character as it stands.
5. This was the best episode yet
And by that, I mean the best episode this season. Granted, the bar is crazy low so far, but man, this actually had a) two interesting stories and b) zombie violence. Was it perfect? No way. Was it highly enjoyable? Sure was. I think a big part of this was the fact that the character list was kept down. With a cast of millions that has all kinds of drama flowing between them at all times, it’s hard to find a balance. This episode took away the need for that by just focusing on a small list of characters. Here’s hoping they keep that up, but to be honest, I don’t have a lot of hope. I saw the previews for next week and it seems like we’re back to same old, same old.
