The Walking Dead; 2.07 "Pretty Much Dead Already" (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
21

I hate it when you’re looking for something all over creation and find out it was right under your nose the whole time.

I actually thought for a second Dale was going to cap Shane, especially this being mid-season finale and all.

Poor Carol is heartbreaking. She really has nothing to live for anymore. Her husband is dead, but on the down side so are her kids and unlike in the world before, when it would still be an inconsolable loss, it’s not like she can throw herself into her career or anything like it; she’s still having to scramble for survival and all. I’m hoping Daryl will at least console her, or failing Daryl maybe Hershel will decide he needs a new wife since now he’s a widower by anybody’s definition.

I also like the degree to which they’re going away from the books because it means you don’t know for certain somebody is safe (or dead) because of how they end up in the books.

22

Watching the second repeat, upon the second viewing;

Shane’s rant, while necessary to slap some sense of reality into those who saw the Walkers as “people”, definitely seemed a bit over the top and close to the edge, Shane’s sense of sanity and what is right and wrong is on even more tenuous ground, I’d say he’s closer to snapping and losing it than anyone else on the Motley Crew (I think I’ve coined a convenient term for our merry dysfunctional band of survivors :wink: )

OTOH, Rick, being finally confronted by the results of his failure, the Zombified Sophia, and him finally having to confront the end results, and re-kill her, may have actually solidified his grip on the world he now lives in

as mentioned above, it was interesting how “Zombieslayer” Shane completely froze when confronted by Zombie Sophia

Then again, I think that the reason Rick finally manned up and put Sophia out of her misery, is he thought that since it was “his fault” Sophia got lost and ended up a Zombie, that he had to “fix” the problem and put her down

On a technical note, as a shooter myself…

1; the CGI muzzleflashes on all the firearms looked incredibly fake, the worst being Andrea’s Beretta, and the “flaming” shotgun blast… besides, under broad daylight, 9mm, 12 gauge, .38 Spl, .45 ACP and .308/.30-06 don’t have visible muzzle flashes, the only firearm that might have a visible muzzle flash is a .357 Magnum, a short barrel (3" to 4") model, a long barrel Colt Python like Rick’s would likely not have a visible muzzle flash under broad daylight

2; many of the shooting stances look very uncomfortable, most likely they were held that way so the camera would have unobstructed sight-lines to the actor’s face

3; Rick’s grip on his Colt Python revolver, with a high cylinder line and low muzzle position looks horribly inaccurate, it almost looks like he’s not even using the Python’s sights, almost every shot of Rick pointing his Python at someone/the camera have him using the “high-low” grip, as with my point #2 , it was probably positioned this way so as not to have the gun block his face on camera

23

Ugh I assumed she had to be bitten and escaped for that same reason. Which just is horrible to think about, at least for me. The thought of that little girl being bitten and having to endure the fever and slowly dying, all alone. I know it’s just a show, but being a mom, that kind of stuff just rips my heart up.

Overall, great ep but I was really hoping for a better end for the poor girl than that :frowning:

24

Regarding Glenn and Maggie - is she bi-polar or what? She goes hot and cold in microseconds. When she and Glenn are together, I keep thinking about that saying about sticking your dick in the crazy.

25

This is exactly what happened per Kirkman on The Talking Dead tonight. His wag is that it is karmically Shane’s fault that conversation didn’t take place. Now, if Kirkman wanted 90% of the audience to string all of that together, he should have had Herschel say something like, “Otis never told me.”

This episode needed a denouement. It’s cheaply manipulative to hold it off until the next episode, and I think that’s weak story telling. The comic pulls this move consistently, and it is unnecessary. It’s as if the writer/s think that forgoing the denouement equals a cliffhanger, but it just doesn’t. It simply leaves the episode or issue incomplete.

26

I really hate the concept of cliffhangers. If I could go back in time I’d shoot the writers who came up with the idea on “Dallas”

Well, not really shoot them, but threaten them really bad!:stuck_out_tongue:

27

Interesting–I just assumed she had found the barn on the first night and had gone in there to hide. She got bit but was able to climb on to something to keep from being eaten, but wasn’t able to get out.

28

I think she came when she smelled the broken legged chickens but got bitten.

29

When none of the guns recoil at all, not even the shotguns, you can hold them however you want.

30

just not gangsta style -

31

Well, Daryl was right. They did find her.

32

I dunno. They weren’t just carrying the Idiot Ball in this episode, they were full-on passing it back and forth and running touchdowns with it. I’m pretty sure my brain isn’t rated for this much stupidity.

33

I really enjoyed this episode (But really, Dale? Hiding all the guns out in the woods? I mean, it’s not like they’ve ever been needed RIGHT NOW before…). I had a feeling Sophie was gonna be a zombie, but to have her walk out of the barn…didn’t see it coming, and it was a very nice touch.

34

Not bad. Not bad at all.

When Shane confronted Dale in the woods I desperately wanted Dale to give Shane the satchel of guns. And then bludgeon him to death with a rock and weight him down in the swamp. I was becoming very impatient with this Shane character.

Then he moved this show along faster than it has ever moved before! I suspected zombie Sophia was in the barn and I was worried that they would pull a poorly-executed cliff hanger out of their tiny fanny pack of tricks. I was wrong. They resolved just enough to keep me from giving up on this show, but not so much that I won’t sit here for the next 3 months playing out different scenarios in my head.

I think that next mini-season’s finale they’ll off one of the living survivors. I hope it’s Dale or Andrea.

So it will be Daryl for sure.

35

Well It’s about damn time.

Finally an episode where something actually happens and the characters really grow. Rick and Herschel will now have to fully confront the reality of the world they are in. Shane just shot his wad and showed his ass to the group, no more hiding for him. Dale revealed that he probably doesn’t have the balls to get the dirty work done when necessary. We wrapped up the whole Sophia problem, and it seems that the Motley Crew might either pick up Maggie or lose Glenn. On that note, good for Glenn for facing reality as well.

On the whole, I think Rick played the situation correctly enough with Hershel, though I would have been a bit firmer with him from the beginning. In the Zombpocalypse a safe haven is not something to be given up lightly. When there are issues about actually supporting the number of people this becomes more intense, but the farm can easily support the MC, and they can be of use in return. If anything Herschel is rather lucky it’s the MC that showed up at his farm and not a group led by a more pragmatic leader.

36

Best, as in most meaningful, ep of the season by a wide margin. Could have done this one six episodes ago, but whatever.

Aside from the zombie shoot, which I found remarkably emotionally wrenching, in several ways, Shane’s buildup to his meltdown was well handled, and realistic. That character’s at least as scary as the walkers, if not more so. Meanwhile, if this show stays on the path of emotional realism, there is simply no patching things up between Rick’s group and Herschel’s crew. Plenty of tension on that front to explore in the next set of episodes, I reckon.

37

Best episode this season. I still don’t buy that it is so IMPORTANT that they stay at this farm. It’s not magically protected from the outside world, although Rick implies that it is in his kitchen conversation with Herschel. Herschel says his neighbor’s farms are over-run or burnt down (?) but there are unlimited other options outside the neighborhood. Of course, getting to them is problematic but not impossible. The group may be slow learners, but they’ve gained some skills at getting around. I realize that it is cheaper to keep the show at one location but it is less interesting to me.

And how cool is it that Alice Cooper called in to Talking Dead?

38

He did, huh. Sounds pretty scripted to me.

39

Aren’t several of the characters in the same boat, having lost all their loved ones? The only difference with Carol is we saw it happen on screen.

40

In the sneak preview of the next episode that they showed during Hell on Wheels he said exactly that. Otis was in charge of zombie wrangling, and Herschel didn’t know he’d found Sophia.

I really haven’t liked the actor they have playing Herschel up till last night. His reaction while the group slaughtered the zombies was brilliantly played. Kinda wish zombie Sophia had eaten Andrea’s face before they popped her, but there’s always next time I suppose.

Final note: Psychosis and all, Shane is hot. I worry that that says something unpleasant about me.