This week’s episode of The Walking Dead is all about the characters, with the plot only inching forward ever so slightly. Some people will inevitably be upset with this, saying how there is so much story to tell, and yet we just focus on personal relationships for most of the hour. However, this is exactly the episode that the show needed, to give us a chance to focus on the characters, their motivations, and what the collective goals of the group are at this point in their existence.
Click through for a spoiler-free review (and if you aren’t watching the show, good God, please go watch it).
The search for Sophia continues this week, with Daryl going out solo with his crossbow, while Andrea and Dale take Carol back to the highway to see if Sophia has wandered back yet. Although it feels like a year, it has only been three days since Sophia’s disappearance, but some of the characters are starting to debate the merits of continuing the search. The theme of “the good of the many versus the good of the individual” is a major theme in this show, and we have seen that, so far, the only exception to putting the group first is children; the search for Sophia has already gone on far longer than it would for any adult that wandered off.
The other child that has had much sacrificed on his behalf is Carl, who is through his surgery and resting up. There is a beautiful scene between Carl and Rick, where they discuss both being in the “been shot” club, and you can truly see the love between them. Although Andrew Lincoln’s accent is uneven at best, he does a really nice job with the emotional notes his character hits. Who doesn’t do so well with emotion is Sarah Wayne Callies, whose only emotion is “bug-eyed.” I think she is perhaps the weakest actor on the show, and it is evident at the end of this episode just how limited her range is.
This episode wasn’t totally bereft of action, as there was a truly terrifying scene involving a walker who has fallen into a well. We get this season’s first look at Glenn the daredevil, and, because this is a spoiler-free review, I can only say that we get one of the seasons scariest, and grossest, scenes so far.
This episode continues last week’s trend of having two characters talk about God without either really saying anything. This week’s contributors are Hershel and Rick. The less said about this the better.
Glenn and Maggie have perhaps the most important scenes of this episode together, even if no major revelations occur during them, nor are they exactly action packed. But they are important for this reason: we begin to see people crossing over from their original camps and developing relationships and friendships that might cause them to turn against or abandon their loyalties. The seeds are planted for some conflict, even as Hershel and Rick try and come to an agreement about the long term future of their, adoptive or real, families.
Shane continues to brood and hang on the edge of losing his shit vis a vis Otis. I think Jon Bernthal has been one of the biggest surprises this season; his character has some of the most complex emotions of any of the survivors, and he manages to explore them all without appear manic or overdoing any one of them.
The end of the episode features Laurie at a crossroads, and one that presents many, many questions from all angles. I am interested to see how the show will handle this, versus how the comic did. We have seen so far that the show is not afraid to go in different directions, and I have a feeling this won’t proceed the same way the book did.
Regardless, this was another strong episode in what is a surprisingly strong season. I think many people, myself included, expected a weaker season after the departure of the writing staff and executive producer/show runner Frank Darabont. However, if anything, this season has been stronger than last. Whether that will continue throughout the season is another question, but so far, I am loving just about every minute of Season 2.
