I've been letting the searing, superb Walking Dead mid-season finale - 2.7 - settle in. It was as powerful a presentation of two opposing ways to deal with a potentially deadly situation as ever I've seen on television.
On the one hand, Rick wants to cooperate in any way he can with Herschel, including not only protecting the walkers in the barn - whom Herschel considers not dead but sick (and therefore potentially curable) people - but bringing new walkers into the barn when they turn up. Rick is not happy about this at all. But he thinks he has no other choice. Lori and Carl want to stay on the farm. Lori is pregnant. Taking his family back out into the insane world out there is not acceptable to Rick.
On the other hand, Shane might want to stay, but certainly not with walkers in the barn. The very possibility of that is not only unacceptable, but insane to Shane's way of thinking. Shane's conversation with Lori only intensifies Shane's convictions that the walkers must be destroyed. Shane thinks he's the father of Lori's baby - which she does not really deny as a physical possibility - and he already has something of a fatherly relationship with Carl. Shane risked his own life and sacrificed Otis to save Karl.
So who's right? Although I had sympathy for Rick's approach, I have to side with Shane. The very process of taking the two new walkers back from the water to the barn shows how dangerous they are - all that has happen is Rick or Herschel get too close to one of them, get bitten, and game over.
And although I felt bad for the walkers, and Herschel, when Shane opened the barn and started shooting the zombies in the head as they staggered out the door, he made the right decision. Even Maggie nodded that it was ok for Glenn to join in the shooting.
And the heart-breaking denouement shows Rick pretty much agrees. Everyone is stunned when Sophia dead-walks out of the barn (I hadn't figured she was in the barn, but thought she'd be found a walker in the drugstore), but Rick has the sense and the self-control to shoot her in the head, before she bites any of his family and people he feels responsible for. He chose not to try to put Sophia in a harness and back in the barn.
It was a horrifying but instructive scene. If Shane had been convinced by Rick, and tried peaceful coexistence with the walkers in the barn, what would have happened when Carol discovered her daughter? Would she have been able to live with her daughter in the barn? How about the others?
I suppose Rick's original point of view - Herschel's - could be vindicated if it turns out there is some way out there, now or in the future, to bring the walkers back to full human life. But unless and until that happens, I think you have to give credit to Shane for doing the right thing. And even if a cure is discovered, Shane made the best decision with the information he had at the time.
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The Plot to Save Socrates
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"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
On the one hand, Rick wants to cooperate in any way he can with Herschel, including not only protecting the walkers in the barn - whom Herschel considers not dead but sick (and therefore potentially curable) people - but bringing new walkers into the barn when they turn up. Rick is not happy about this at all. But he thinks he has no other choice. Lori and Carl want to stay on the farm. Lori is pregnant. Taking his family back out into the insane world out there is not acceptable to Rick.
On the other hand, Shane might want to stay, but certainly not with walkers in the barn. The very possibility of that is not only unacceptable, but insane to Shane's way of thinking. Shane's conversation with Lori only intensifies Shane's convictions that the walkers must be destroyed. Shane thinks he's the father of Lori's baby - which she does not really deny as a physical possibility - and he already has something of a fatherly relationship with Carl. Shane risked his own life and sacrificed Otis to save Karl.
So who's right? Although I had sympathy for Rick's approach, I have to side with Shane. The very process of taking the two new walkers back from the water to the barn shows how dangerous they are - all that has happen is Rick or Herschel get too close to one of them, get bitten, and game over.
And although I felt bad for the walkers, and Herschel, when Shane opened the barn and started shooting the zombies in the head as they staggered out the door, he made the right decision. Even Maggie nodded that it was ok for Glenn to join in the shooting.
And the heart-breaking denouement shows Rick pretty much agrees. Everyone is stunned when Sophia dead-walks out of the barn (I hadn't figured she was in the barn, but thought she'd be found a walker in the drugstore), but Rick has the sense and the self-control to shoot her in the head, before she bites any of his family and people he feels responsible for. He chose not to try to put Sophia in a harness and back in the barn.
It was a horrifying but instructive scene. If Shane had been convinced by Rick, and tried peaceful coexistence with the walkers in the barn, what would have happened when Carol discovered her daughter? Would she have been able to live with her daughter in the barn? How about the others?
I suppose Rick's original point of view - Herschel's - could be vindicated if it turns out there is some way out there, now or in the future, to bring the walkers back to full human life. But unless and until that happens, I think you have to give credit to Shane for doing the right thing. And even if a cure is discovered, Shane made the best decision with the information he had at the time.
... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3: Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season
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The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
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7 comments:
As a side effect, the chicken trauma has lessened by an order of magnitude. ;)
Yeah, there's always that :)
I think that Rick already knew that Lori was pregnant. Remember, Dr. Jenner whispered something to Rick just before he left the CDC that completely surprised him. If Lori was pregnant, it would have shown up in the blood test.
Thanks for the comment, Kitty - I agree, and I made that point in my review of the previous episode :)
My bad! ; )
It's ok - and I'm glad to have your comments here in any case :)
Very heart-breaking, gut wrenching episode. Darryl's efforts proved unsuccessful, but showed his character. Shane may have been proven right, but he regretted it. And once again Rick was faced with having to kill a zombiefied child. This time one that he knew personally.
I love this show, Paul. I can't wait for February to come to see where the next chapter leads.
About Jenner though, I'm not so sure what he told Rick had to do with the pregnancy. Reason being, the radio message he sent out for Morgan, if he and his son are still alive. He was getting ready to say what Jenner had told him, but then decided it wasn't important to mention. The reason being, he wanted to keep instilling hope. That was a primary theme in the first episode of the season and Rick was hell bent on doing it. He was already having to tell Morgan Atlanta was gone and the CDC was a dead end, so why make it worse by mentioning whatever Jenner had to say?
Now, obviously that was for plot development, but I believe he was telling him something much worse is coming. If you recall Jenner said, "One day you won't be." This was a response to Rick's expression of gratitude for letting them out of the CDC.
I've heard other theories and have one of my own, among them is that Jenner did in fact say Lori was pregnant. But, I don't think that could have been all for the reaction Rick had to the news. He seemed overwhelmed by Jenner's whisper.
I've heard some say that the test showed all of them were infected. That would make sense as to why Jenner found it so easy to just kill them all off rather than let them leave. But, if that were the case, why haven't any of them turned yet? Could it be that something is in the air that infects humans at a slower rate than the bites do? The Webisode somewhat alludes to a possibility of something airborn in that the woman in the videos wakes up after a car wreck and it seems all hell just broke loose. To be continued on this possibility.
Another thought I had, and this could be part of the reason they might head for Washington, D.C. later, like they do in the comic, is that perhaps the government has something set up as a fail-safe in the event human extinction is at hand because of the zombie outbreak. What I'm talking about is MAD-Mutually Assured Destruction. Jenner called this our extinction event. If the world is going to be nothing but starving, dead corpses walking around when the last human finally goes NSYNC (bye, bye, bye), would it not make since to take as many of them out as possible and hopefully end their presence for future lifeforms? I mean, if we're all dead anyway, certainly wouldn't matter anymore about the radiation that follows.
And there's always the possibility that Jenner told Rick that someone is working on a cure, the people he was attempting to send messages to when we first meet Jenner. But, they haven't succeeded yet and he doesn't know when it will be there, if ever. Maybe Rick was acting overwhelmed to down play Jenner's comments? Maybe that's what motivated him to instill an air of hope for everyone, after what occurred at the CDC?
And maybe Jenner told him he secretly is a cross dresser. I don't know, but I want to!!! Just can't wait for more.
Looper
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