The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 3

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The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 3
By Tao Mori
November 1, 2011 - 12:51

Studios: AMC
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Collins, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey Demunn, Steven Yeun
Directed by: Ernest R. Dickerson, Gwenyth Horder-Payton
Produced by: Frank Darabont
Running Time: 60min
Release Date: October 30 2011
Rating: M

This episode starts off at the end instead of the begin, though at first it might not be obvious. What it tells us, which I can reveal without saying spoilers is that Shane is still alive. Then we go back to see him running past the throng of zombies while Rick does a voice over explaining how Shane had a wild streak in him when he was a kid. I think that's very telling about how Shane is going to change for the worse, which I will get into later. This story telling technique of revealing the ending before demonstrating it can be annoying. In this kind of show, demonstrating that someone is still alive often suggests that someone else might not be, but also it takes away a bit of the tension of wondering if that character will die in the show. If you've seen him already then you know for sure he's not going to die. Not that you automatically think that he's going to die, but because you don't know the outcome, you don't know if they'll survive or not.

This episode felt a lot more like relationship building, at least for all of the other characters other than Shane. While Shane was trying to get away from Zombies, Glenn got to know Maggie a little bit, which suggests that there is hope for them yet. Perhaps I was too hasty in ruling Glenn out, which I hope so cause I think a lot of his character got to grow in the comics from getting to know Maggie. Daryl and Andrea also had some alone time together getting to know one another where Daryl in his infinite wisdom managed to explain to Andrea that suicide is the coward's way out. That's not sarcasm on my part, Daryl truly does get to Andrea that suicide is silly. Perhaps something between the two of them is growing there.

I really think the Dale/Andrea of the comics is a stretch and far more realistic for her to be with someone else who's younger, but then maybe Daryl is too young. His story about running away was rather amusing and he's a lot more hopeful considering the fate of the planet. Then again he's very confident of his own abilities which would explain why he thinks that Sophie should be able to survive with little difficulty on her own.

Lori and Rick have a rather grim conversation about their son later on. I don't remember this conversation from the comic book, but it feels sort of familiar. Lori feels that they should let their son die rather than live in the miserable zombie apocalypse, which to some might be a reasonable consideration. I, however, along with Rick think its rather silly to just give up. Though the world has fallen apart there's still hope as the whole world is not death, some are still living. Right on Rick. Lori eventually comes around to this argument when they hear their son speak later on about the deer he saw. I think its' quite evident that Rick is the optimist in their relationship.

We didn't get to see much expansion into Hershel's character, but I suspect we'll get more of that next week as Carl's surgery goes through okay. Without the crisis of Carl's surgery the dynamic will be focused upon the group and not an internal crisis. Hershel is in a far more difficult position in the show than he ever was in the series. Let's face it, there's only three people in his family. Maggie looks tough, sure, but the three of them are going to have a harder time saying no to helping Rick and the others. Still its a little hard to say what's going to happen next.

Then Shane and Otis do some more running. This leads up to the big part of the episode. Those of you who hate spoilers, should stop reading at this point. We first see Shane come back without Otis, he says that Otis told him to go ahead while he attempted to hold back the zombies, but Otis never caught up to him. Then later we learn that Shane had in fact shot Otis in the leg so that the zombies would be distracted by eating him so that Shane could run away. Shane did say sorry, but then he kicked and punched Otis taking all the medical equipment. Then of course Otis was ripped apart by the zombies. This of course never happened in the comic, so Otis' death was rather a surprise. But what struck me was why Shane did this.

After we learn the truth of what happened to Otis, we then see Shane taking a shower, shaving his head. I think this act is symbolic, in that Shane has realized that the rules of the old world don't apply anymore. So he has become anew and with this new personality he's going to act differently. He now knows that he can get away with things such as killing Otis, which he couldn't before. I had hoped that Shane was becoming a better man, but I think this episode has demonstrated that Shane is bat crazy and will kill anything that gets in his way, including Rick. This is disappointing for me, but I'll survive. Look at his face, he's totally crazy.

I haven't said anything about the special effects of the show. So far its been rather excellent. Dead zombies look like what you would expect them to, they look like walking corpses. There's been a few explosions and the gunshots usually look rather realistic, and not over the top. I prefer more realistic gunshots than the over dramatized ones. The lighting has also been good as things are dark, but not too dark. When its too dark its hard to see what's going on, but so far I haven't found the dark scenes to be lit well enough to see what's going on. If anything it could stand to be a little darker, not seeing those zombies until they're really close up would be freaky.

Another great episode, I rated this one a little less due to my irksome nature with their story telling technique, but really I think this show is coming along great. Where in tarnation is Sophie though? Seriously.

Rating: 9/10