In the Season 1 finale, a strange doctor allows Rick and the group access to the CDC, but things are not truly as they seem here.
This is it. This brings us to the season finale of AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard’s “The Walking Dead.” Both mainstream and online media have been falling over each other praising this show, earning “Best New Show” accolades ranging from prestige offerings like The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly and from Internet sensations like sports writer Bill Simmons. The general populace has bought in as well, catapulting this show to by far the highest ratings for any original programming AMC has offered.
But does the first season close with an episode as strong as the five that preceded it? Find out after the jump.
Note: Watch before reading!
For me, the way someone should adapt a comic book, especially one with a serialized history that has run as long as The Walking Dead has, is to take the key elements that make it work, take the characters, and deviate from there as if the story is a what if? from the same starting point. It’s what worked so well for Nolan’s Batman films, and it’s what makes “The Walking Dead” such a remarkably engaging watch both for those familiar with the comic and those that are not.
Those who are readers recognize the main characters as the ones they know and love (i.e. Rick, Shane, Glenn, Andrea, Dale, etc.) as well moments taken directly from the comic (Rick and Glenn covering themselves with guts, Amy’s death and the zombie attack on the camp), but there is a lot to take in that is new. In this episode alone, we’re given important moments with new characters like Jenner, the CDC scientist who lets our motley crew of survivors into his very secure doors, and we’re given entirely new (but logical) ideas and locales that were not present in the comic (the CDC headquarters in Atlanta).
Some lament these changes, but I welcome them entirely. I have to admit, in the comic, it always made sense for Rick and everyone to stop by the CDC given its relation to the situation and proximity to their original camp. For Darabont to assess the situation, come up with the same idea, and go from there in a way that makes perfect sense…well, that’s why you hire a guy like him to craft this show. He’s a stellar filmmaker, and his sense of story and the way that he can change things for the better yet keep the show true to the comic makes it all the better for readers and non-readers alike.
I loved that this episode started with a scene that we could only imagine having happened in the comic. “TS-19” begins with Shane’s frantic attempts to get Rick out of the hospital as the zombies surround them and the military kills anyone who may be infected (which means literally everyone in the hospital). In the comic, we had some good looks at Shane, but ultimately, he was just a guy that eventually was most well known for a) sleeping with Lori, b) impregnating her, and c) getting killed by Carl. While the Shane/Lori dynamic was originally something I found frustrating in the show, the opening of this episode added a layer of power to the Shane/Rick friendship that might have even been missing in the comic, and something that made the Shane/Lori dynamic from the show more palatable in retrospect.
It was without a doubt the best moment of Shane, with both the TV or comic version factored in. Which, given that he’s kind of a callous asshole, isn’t exactly surprising, but I have now come to think Darabont made a brilliant move from a dramatic standpoint by keeping him alive. Can’t wait to see where this goes.
Quick props: I’m not sure who created the title sequence, but holy crap, there is something about it that really gets me on the edge of my seat. It’s an exceptional concoction and the theme from Bear McCreary belongs at the highest echelons of his creations alongside his work on Battlestar Galactica.
Continued belowThe episode from there took off where the last episode left off. The survivors get into the CDC and meet Jenner, the only CDC scientist who remains. This man is obviously haunted given what happened last episode, and the handling of him throughout the episode was perfect by both the writing team and Noah Emmerich, the actor portraying him. Emmerich plays him as brilliant, resolute, and creepy as all hell. You know as soon as they get into the CDC that it isn’t exactly all that it appears to be (hot showers, games, and booze? Sign me up!), but the way they unveil everything escalates the drama in such an organic way that it’s impossible to not get sucked in.
The drama that unfolds gives us a slew of spot-on character moments. Dale and Andrea start developing the relationship they have in the comic in a very natural and touching way. Shane gets drunk and acts a damn fool to Lori (plus he has a rather hysterical gratuitous shower sequence while boozing). Rick confesses his inner most thoughts to Jenner. All of these sections aren’t just well scripted, but very well performed by the ensemble cast that has improved with each passing death (we get another death of an extraneous character in this episode! Yes!).
The emotional highs from this episode though all come from the central conceit of what Kirkman was trying to accomplish with The Walking Dead. The drama from zombie stories should not come from the dead themselves, but the living. All of the biggest moments in the comic series come from the way the living acts towards the living and how even amongst the horror they can still commit atrocities on each other (highlighted by The Governor and Rick’s “We are the Walking Dead!” line), and this episode finds the big moments coming from the living. The revelation of who “TS-19” was, Shane and Lori’s encounter, Dale and Andrea’s moment towards the end, Jenner’s speech about the French, Rick’s confession to Jenner…all of that. These are the moments that make The Walking Dead zombie drama of substance rather than fluff.
Perhaps none of the moments capture this idea better than when a drunk Rick shuffles in to find a crying Lori laying in bed. “We don’t have to be afraid anymore. We’re safe here,” Rick assures his wife, a woman who was nearly raped by her scorned lover just minutes previous. It was a paramount moment of zombie fiction.
This episode wasn’t pure gold of course. The shower sequence was a little ridiculous. As other writers on this site have pointed out, the ending was a strange point to leave us, with the survivors driving away from the burning CDC headquarters. Even with that said, the former moment is a tiny one, and the latter one works from a dramatic standpoint very well even if it isn’t a cliffhanger moment like we’ve been conditioned to expect at the end of seasons.
With the first season concluding with this episode, we have a lot to be excited for coming into the next season (which hopefully should start about the same time next year). The revelation of what Jenner whispered to Rick (I’d wager Jenner may have witnessed Shane’s breakdown), the continual deterioration of the Shane/Lori/Rick dynamic, the continued growth of the Andrea/Dale relationship, finding out where exactly Merle got off to, and a whole lot more. The world is our oyster, and I for one can’t wait for next season already. A superb conclusion, but I do have one request: please god make Norman Reedus a regular. That guy is grade A awesome whenever he’s on the screen. Daryl needs to be a regular.
No less, great work to everyone involved. My hopes were high, and the execution of the first season surpassed by expectations.
