The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 4

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The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 4
By Tao Mori
November 9, 2011 - 15:28

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: November 6, 2011
Rating: M

For those of you not in the know, the Walking Dead is a series about a group of survivors who have banded together (or been stuck together) and are trying to find a way to survive. One of the group Carol, has lost her daughter, which the group are attempting to find. The son of the main character Rick was accidentally shot, but he's survived surgery and is fine now.

The episode starts as the crew decide how to go about looking for the missing girl, Sophie. Shane and Rick are both not in good shape after the last episode so Daryl goes out on his own to find her. Why can't the women go out and look for her? Just because they can't use guns, they're useless? That makes no sense. They finally start talking about training everyone how to use guns, but still Carol and Andrea could easily go out and look for Sophie too if they wanted to. Glenn could've gone too, but he had more important things to do such as look for medicine. Medicine is important, but I would think that Sophie would have a higher priority considering that they still haven't found her yet.

An irksome moment for me was when Daryl finds the house that Sophie was probably staying in and he doesn't shout at all, until the very end. He could've left a note to stay there instead of just leaving, but no he just leaves. This makes no sense. Maybe Sophie would've returned to the house, he could've written a sign to stay put and that he would check back again soon. Man after all my previous reviews that have praised Daryl, I'm a little disappointed with him. Also is he purposefully flirting with Carol? Why? Does he like Carol? Carol is not the best of the limited options that are available, though Andrea does seem to have a hard on for Shane right now. Maybe that's good, maybe Shane won't go crazy. No if you saw his eyes last week then you know he's going to go crazy. His discussion about turning off a switch to cut off your emotions so you can kill people is another sign of the fact that he is indeed going crazy.

I also found the scenes with Hershel to be some strange mixed messages, which sort of get cleared up by the end of the episode, but not really. They wanted to make the character more religious, which I get, but at the same time he's not very charitable. In the comic he was also reluctant to let Rick and the others stay with him, but he had more reasons to be resistant to having them stay with him as he had a larger family to look out for. All that's left at Hershel's house is his daughter and Otis's wife. How does he expect his daughter to have any kind of life once he passes on. He's condemning her to being alone, which is something she doesn't like as she explains to Glenn later in the episode. It makes sense for Hershel to want to work with the others, but he's resistant and his reasons for being resistant don't make sense. There's a sense of ownership there, which I get, as the farm has been his family's. Still he could suggest Rick and the others move into an adjacent farm and they could set up a little community, or something along those lines. Also how does Hershel plan on managing the farm with only his daughter around? The practicalities of it all, make no sense to me.

Ah the well scene, what a sanfu that was. Their hearts were in the right place trying to help out old Hershel by cleaning out his well, unfortunately zombies don't bend very well and tend to snap and half. Did you see the maggots? That was fantastic gory detail, but still pretty nasty. This just goes to show how much effort these guys put into the makeup to make it look all real. Though the zombie's skin looked like it was a shirt and it was naked at the same time. Then they mentioned something about gills, which sounded a little odd, I didn't see any gills either. Why would he need gills he's standing up? That was all a little confusing and unnecessary. I usually eat lunch when I watch this show too, what is wrong with me?

Now the last issue I should mention comes at the end of the episode (spoiler alert) when Lori does her pregnancy. I think it's way to early to tell if she's pregnant with a certain crazy man's baby. I sat down and counted all the days that we've seen in the the show, which are about 11-13 in total, these are the actual days and nights that we've seen in the 10 episodes so far. This means that only two weeks have passed at the most since Rick met up with his family. Granted Rick may have been in the hospital for a long time before the zombie apocalypse hit and Shane started boffing his wife, but it was suggested to us that it only started once they left for Atlanta. Rick could've only been alone in that hospital for a week, which means that only 3 weeks have passed since Shane and Lori got it on. I don't think she would know if she was pregnant that quickly. I guess you can know if you're pregnant within 2 weeks, but still that's right down to the wire people. AMC, you didn't need to rush that.

Glenn got the girl. Haha good job buddy. Those of you who have been following my reviews on this know that I have been on the fence as to whether or not he'd get the girl. The last episode made he think that he would, so I'm glad there was some follow through on that. Though Glenn looked hurt when she said that it was a one time deal. You could just see his little heart break when she said that. Megan's so mean! It's okay I'm sure she'll come around, or at least I hope she will. Glenn's awkwardness in that scene was rather spectacular too, he sold his embarrassment so well. So far in the series I've been impressed with Steven Yuen's portrayal of Glenn, he's done a great job and he sells his emotional reactions well. Give that guy an emmy or some TV award for being good.

All in all, another great episode. I've pointed out a few things that I have issues with. I still rate this episode high pretty high despite my concerns as this is still a great show. See you all next week.

Rating: 8.5/10