Movies / Home Theatre

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1

By Tao Mori
October 24, 2011 - 11:40

The Walking Dead returns with Season 2, which takes place right after the events at the end of Season 1. The Walking Dead follows the story of a group of survivors as they try and make their way through the zombie apocalypse.

As the Walking Dead series has returned so too has my reviews! So much to say, where to begin. Well first off I'm glad that the story picks up right after the events of the last episode of Season 1, especially as the importance of this story is to show the progression of the characters' lives. If we were to jump out of it, we'd be wondering what happened and what's going on. I hate when shows have flashblacks to events that we as the audience have never seen before but we should have because the events occurred within the timeline of the show. Flashbacks that go beyond the timeline of the show before we got to know the characters is okay though.

I kind of feel like the writers may have read my reviews, as one of the most spectacular moments for me was when they across the abandoned cars and they began to loot everything that wasn't nailed down. It was just fantastic. From finding all of the water, to that guy siphoning off gas and then to the kid finding all those new tools, yeah as a closet looter, I was very happy. Maybe I'm not a closet looter when I announce how they should loot everything that isn't nailed down. I think that's one of the things about the apocalypse that appeal to most people in that looting is perfectly legitimate as everyone is now dead.

I'm a bit surprised that when the roamer zombies came upon the abandoned cars that they couldn't find the humans. Sure they were quiet and they hid, but that just seemed to easy. Most of the group hid under cars or in the case of Daryl and T-Dog hid under dead bodies. If zombies can be so easily fooled, why aren't they doing this more often? I always thought zombies could detect their prey by smell as we saw from last season. Are the cars so overpowering in their smell that they can conceal humans from zombies?

What also got my attention was how much T-Dog bled out when he scratched himself. I'm surprised he didn't keel over and die considering how much blood he lost. At least they didn't make him go out and look for the girl later, but man that was a lot of blood. Get that man a cookie.

I'm glad to see that the character Carol (played by Melissa Suzanne McBride) is starting to play a larger role in the story. In the last season she seemed like a background character, but now we start to see her play a larger role in the story, which she should considering how important she was in the comic. It's odd to see her butt heads with Lori, but then she's a worried parent, she's going to be upset. Still wondering where that girl went, hopefully we'll find out next episode.

I found this episode to be playing very heavy on tension. The tension of waiting for the zombies to walk by them, there was the wondering if the zombies would find them and get them. There was that close call with Andrea, but she managed to screw drive that zombie to death, probably a good thing her gun wasn't put together otherwise she would've been swarmed. Then there was the tension of trying to find Sophia (the daughter). Then the tension of what was in the zombie's stomach and then later on with the tent. This is all a very tense atmosphere and this all fits in with it very well, but still to me, I found there were a lot of moments where I was holding my breath. I found happiness with the looting, then being on the edge of my seat as I'm wondering what's going to happen in these tense moments. Didn't help either that T-dog is bleeding all over the place. Be careful people there's still sharp objects in the zombie apocalypse.

Another detail I've noticed is how awesome Daryl is. Daryl knows how to do everything! Who said that hicks aren't useful? In the post-apocalypse those guys are going to run the place. Daryl knows how to track things and then when you open up a zombie he can tell what that zombie had to eat. Seriously? Am I the only one who was a little bit blown away by that? To me that all looked like muck, I'm sure the actor who played Daryl thought so too, but the character knew exactly what squirrel bits looked like.  How on earth did the group in the comic book survive without this guy? He's awesome!

So for those of you who had read the comic book I'm sure you've all noticed what I've noticed. Shane is still alive, and he's not as crazy as he was last season. Is he going to run off into the night with Andrea? Maybe? Is Andrea not going to hook up with Dale then, but instead going to hook up with Shane? That would make logical sense in the real world, but then again we're dealing with the zombie apocalypse and not the real world. Since this show has already departed from the comic book in significant ways (I hope they don't find that damn prison that's where everything got bad) I hope that Shane stays and if him and Andrea were to hook up that would solve the tension between Lori and Shane. Unless of course Lori gets jealous and screws everything up, damn humans and your emotions. That could totally happen so don't be surprised if it does, just complain loudly. Can't we all just get along and kill zombies together? No, no we can't that just ain't right.

I probably can't finish up without mentioning Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes as he's kind of the center in the story. Over the break inbetween the season I saw Andrew Lincoln in a British military show called Strike Back where he played an M16 agent and I thought he was rather good in it. Made me appreciate him a lot more considering that he has an accent in that show and has a completely different accent on the Walking Dead. As a character Rick Grimes is slowly becoming the man that the group look up to, but not completely. We can see that Rick is trying to be the hero still and save people he hasn't quit lost a grip on his humanity, but we might see that start to emerge by the end of this season.

I thought that the episode was really great, and sucked me right back into the zombie apocalypse world. I think this show is fantastic, yeah I have a lot of nitpicky things that I have noted, but for the most part the show is great. Now I am a fan of the show departing from the comic book or at least I am now, I can't remember if I was last season for not. Hey if we followed the comic book then we wouldn't have Daryl, and he's like half of the awesome in that show alone. Anyway, good work AMC you guys are producing some great stuff, I hope you'll make the seasons longer with more episodes.

Rating: 9.5 / 10

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 - 16:51