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I was left a bit surprised at the CDC Doctor’s attitude towards survival as he sounded so resigned. It’s hard to tell what kind of damage living by yourself for a month could do, but if was so dedicated in trying to solve the problem that his wife had left for him, I would think that he would continue to look for an answer. The issue of hope was a major theme in this episode because they all knew that it required a lot of effort to be hopeful in the world that they were now in. I felt that the CDC Doctor was being short sighted, because he wasn’t willing to make an effort to make the world better. Dale by far, expresses my attitudes towards such an apocalyptic situation, when he says that they now have the opportunity to remake the world as they see fit, and that is exactly the opportunity that these people have. These are my personal frustrations, of course, and its easy to judge from the safety of my home, but if the world really fell apart its hard to really know how one would react.
What I also found surprising was this doctor’s willingness to let them in, but now reveal to them the situation that this facility was in. If informed the people of the fuel shortage, they could have gone out and collected more fuel. They could have done a lot of things. The doctor must have realized that introducing people into this facility was going to drain his resources much faster, sentencing these people to death. Why he wouldn’t warn them about that, is bizarre. Granted he may have lost some of his social niceties in the time he had spent by himself. He lets them out anyway, creating this fake tension, where we think he’s evil sentencing these people to death without allowing them to decide that for themselves. This whole episode sets up this deck of cards that come crashing down by the end of it. At the beginning they have a doctor, hot showers (finally), electricity, books, a safe place to sleep, and by the end of the episode, they lose everything. How much weapons and supplies could have been salvaged if the CDC doctor had explained to them that the place was destined to blow up after a certain amount of time? That whole situation I found to be exceptionally frustrating, but then I’ve made my stand on looting very clear.
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Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed this episode, and I think that they broke good ground into the Dale-Andrea relationship, which makes it feel more realistic than it did in the comic book. We can see how Andrea is reluctantly forced into caring about Dale even though she doesn’t want to, because she knows how much it hurts to lose someone that she cares about. The Shane-Lori relationship reached an emotional climax and I find it hard to imagine Shane approaching her again. It felt like this scene was him hitting rock bottom, and I’m glad that we got to see some flashbacks to when Rick was still in the hospital. Shane may not have realized that Rick was still alive at the time, but he did block the door to his room with the stretcher, which may have saved his life, so its kind of hard to be completely against Shane. In the comic I felt no sympathy for Shane, but the show has done a good job of establishing Shane as sympathetic. The ratio of males to females has increased in this episode as they lost the African American woman, who was not in the comic book series. This decreases the amount of sexual partners available for the men, which could lead to conflict. Carol is the only unattached woman in the group (I would classify Andrea as attached because I believe they are leading into the Dale-Andrea relationship) and what we know of Carol she is dependent on others (especially in the comic), the question is who is the series going to pair her up with. So far there’s been no hint as to who that’s going to be. The Alpha males of the group have been Rick, Shane and Daryl, so this may be a showdown between Shane and Daryl if Shane decides to give up on Lori.
This leads into my thoughts about predictions into the next season. The situation in the last episode never was in the comic book, and whether or not this means that the group will now leave Atlanta is up to speculation. They may go back to their camp, even though they already deemed it unsafe. In the original comic book they did stay at their campsite until winter, and so far we have not seen any snow, so winter might still be awhile away. Prior to this episode I had expected there to be a showdown between Rick and Shane, but now I’m not so sure. Their might not be a showdown at all, maybe they’ll get along. Yeah I doubt it, too, but you never know. I have heard that the got picked up for Season 2 with 13, which isn’t a surprise considering what a hit it’s been. Will they leave Atlanta or go elsewhere? Will we see the deceptive Hispanic gang again? I hope so. I do hope that they will meet the farmer from the comic book, the one with the large family. If the group plans on travelling a far distance, then it’s likely that they might bump into him on the way.
Hey we finally got our big explosion, about time too, I was waiting for the stunning moment where you say "now that is a big explosion." All and all the visual effects of the show have been done rather well. I mentioned the makeup on the zombies, which was of course, stellar. The show maintained the darkness of the show with their lens. The special effects of combat were also well done, especially the over gushy zombies who explode into blood when beaten. Careful now, don't get any zombie on yourself. I hope you all enjoyed my review series on this show, I hope to do another show soon since the Walking Dead won't returning for a little while yet.
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