The Walking Dead - "Beside the Dying Fire"

Something. That's what finally happens on The Walking Dead Season 2 finale, "Beside the Dying Fire." After a season that was littered with wasted time on conversations that never went anywhere and solved nothing, the surviving group, led by Rick Grimes faces a giant zombie horde. The horde, it seems, comes all the way from Atlanta, following a helicopter that we never get a follow-up on, but will certainly play an integral part in Season 3. We hope. The helicopter could be nothing, but it is a sign that there are survivors out there, and that they have access to fuel for such a machine, so that, in itself, seems promising, at least on a cursory level. The opening scene, all zombies, all traveling, all over, is well shot and pristine. Especially when the horde pushes through a fence marked "Trespass, it's your ass." The clear implication is that fences don't mean anything when there's a force that cannot be stopped. But then, that's what is always so terrifying about this concept of the undead. They don't stop. They have no interest in self-preservation. They have no self. And an enemy without any concept of self simply won't tire, simply won't be dissuaded, and simply won't stop.

When Rick and Carl throw themselves into the barn, and the horde tears the door down, no doubt rending the dead flesh on their hands in the process, they don't stop. That builds tension. And real tension is what this show needs, and needed, all along. Rick and Carl are having a father-son moment when they realize the horde is coming. Carl wants to know when Shane got bit, but Rick can't tell him. And the zombies provide a quality reason to delay that reveal. Instead, they run, burn the zombies by burning the barn, and everyone on the farm battles in true siege fashion. The downside, the stakes are emptied because none of the people we care about are ever in true risk. Only two characters die. And both were people in Hershel's group we had seen once or twice, but never had a real affinity for. To make these deaths count, as I stated in the last review, the writers need to show these people as somehow valuable and interesting. These two weren't, and while Jimmy and Patricia had names, they didn't have characters, so their deaths, while gruesome, mean little.

After the siege, the episode slows down. Glenn tells Maggie he loves her, and that it had been true for a long time. Time in this show is confusing. Sometimes it's a string of days per season, other times, we're meant to believe that there's been a greater passage. Everyone else ultimately rendezvous at the highway, where the season started with Sophia's running away. The show tries to put a lot of weight on that, but it only works a little. Really, like at the end of Season 1, we are right back where we started. There's out with the old and in with the new, but not too much else. Excepting two key incidents:

1. Andrea gets left behind, runs away, and is about to be killed when a mysterious veiled samurai beheads the zombie that's afflicting her. We don't find out who that is, though, the character's name appears to be Michonne. And the character appears to be an effective bad ass. Also, Andrea is confirmed as a bad ass here too. She fights hard and while she would have died without intervention, her marksmanship and strength are impressive. Plus, now she has a reason to mistrust the others because they left her. Who knows what psychological drama will occur as a result.

2. Rick's admissions to the group. When he tells Lori that he killed Shane, she freaks, characteristically uncharacteristic as her character always is. It doesn't make sense because she wanted Shane dead. And it makes sense because right after that, she didn't. Lori is a messy character. But, Rick tells the group three tidbits after that mean the most. First, that he killed Shane, that he had to, and that he was bad for the group. They are all fearful after that, but will come around. Second, they are all infected. He reveals that Dr. Jenner told him that before the CDC blew up in Season 1. It doesn't seem to be an issue as long as no one dies, but everyone becomes very agitated by it. Why does it matter? We don't know yet... though if Lori miscarries that baby... holy shit that would be some gory zombie fetus action. Oh, and then Rick says that it's not a democracy anymore. He's in charge. Fuck all the debate. They want to survive, he'll help them, if not, he's out.

"Beside the Dying Fire" is this season's best episode, and while still by no means perfect, it gives us a feeling of dread that many of the others did not. Especially with the large prison standing tall over the landscape just beyond their camp. It's a place they can hold up, but they'll have to clear it out first. And even then, nothing is that easy. But, hey, maybe it will call into effective question whether prisons are meant to keep the bad people in, or the good people out. Or vice versa. I'll get back with this next year, more than likely. Thanks The Walking Dead for another season of ups and downs. May you always improve.

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The Walking Dead - "Better Angels"

After last week's strangely affecting episode of AMC's The Walking Dead, we get "Better Angels" to continue the full-steam-ahead vibe that's beginning the serve the series very well. "Better Angels" is a strong episode, but in what appear to be attempts to tie up loose ends and maintain some emotional core to the show, there are moments that don't really work, or for that matter, make a lot of sense. The big news, if you don't already know please turn your head now, is that Rick stabs Shane, not in cold blood, but not in self-defense entirely either. It's a killing in lukewarm blood, but it also seemed otherwise completely unavoidable. The way that the episode closes, or nearly closes, on this brutal moment, sets a solid contrast to Rick's plea that the group come together and maintain their humanity as Dale wanted... to be un-broken and to stay together because they'd honor his memory. The problem is that Rick never loses his humanity completely. The twist, or rather the turn of the knife, isn't nearly as big because we know that Rick knows better. The problem is that Carl witnesses it. Or at least sees his father looming over Shane's body. And in that moment, the innocence is all gone for the young man.

Elsewhere and earlier, Rick's original plea to honor Dale could easily be a pact made by the writers of the show. Rick essentially tells the team not to be whining, philosophical, sad-sacks anymore. And if the writers are hinting that they'll take the show in a non-AMC hyper-dramatic direction, then I'm all for it. Of course, they don't make immediate good on this demand... although Lori inexplicably does. She turns to Shane, just episodes (but days in show time) from his outrageous claims and attempts to beat Rick to death, to tell him that she's sorry, that she (hints) loved him at least for a minute there, and that he's a good guy. She says it's because Dale died and that makes her question all her notions, but that's stupid if only because Lori and Dale never seemed to talk or have fun or anything. It's problematic to make a character like Dale, who becomes the whining tattletale and unwanted conscience to the audience and the group on screen, and then pretend that everyone's completely heartbroken at his passing. If the writers took 7 minutes from the philosophy aspect of the show and put it into showing a bond and a love among the characters, even if it's just an instant, then these deaths would mean more. And revelatory reactions would seem more reasonable.

Sure, we liked Dale. But we didn't love him. And when Lori opens up to the man she wanted dead two weeks ago. And when Glenn gets all sappy about the Winnebago, it seems trite, like an acknowledgement that they're SUPPOSED to have a bond that they never show. It would be one thing to say, "Oh shit! Another one is dead. This is out of hand. I'm scared." But to put weight on Sophia and Dale when no one talks about Otis or Amy or the countless other people who have already died is hollow. Carl blames himself, and has the most compelling side story option, but it goes nowhere, other than to show some warmth in Shane's heart so that we'll feel worse when Rick rips it out (necessarily) a few scenes later. And that's okay. Because Shane rises, and Carl shoots him. After, of course, Shane takes matters with their captive into his own hands and kills him too. The web is tangled. Shane went crazy. But like Darth Vader, there was still good left. And now he's dead, and Rick will have to try to explain it.

Oh yeah, and a group of zombies were bearing down on the farm from the forest, apparently fulfilling the "we have cows so we're sitting ducks" foreshadowing that was so deftly implanted at the beginning of the show. One more for Season Two. Will they make it good? I think they will. They're getting better. Plus, the visuals, especially the at-dusk showdown between Rick and Shane was beautifully shot. Stay tuned.

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The Walking Dead - What Lies Ahead

Alright, folks. Here we are again. Another season of blood-curdling, spine popping, heart-stopping, organ-grinding (monkey not included) zombie action with AMC's The Walking Dead. Last season, we were introduced to the post-zombie outbreak world in seamlessly amazing style, and then the rest of the season of was a little too up-and-down. Enough so that I considered whether I should resurrect (get it?) these reviews at all. There were some substantial ups last year, though, excepting the bland bait-and-switch of thugs tending to a hospital/rest-home and a somewhat chemistry-less romantic/cheating subplot that has yet to rear its head. But, hell, over the off-season, they shook the show up, getting almost an entirely new staff of writers to try the whole thing again. What we get, luckily, is a great product in "What Lies Ahead," even if it hasn't completely abandoned some of the overwrought melodramatic parts of last year.

"What Lies Ahead" has one obvious literary vibe right there in the title. It's the season premiere, so yeah, what DOES lie ahead? But also, what lies, as in un-truths, are up ahead too? It seems like Shane and Andrea have some incentive to become anti-heroes. And then there's Lori... and all that business with Rick's not-being-dead-but-her-needing-a-little-lovin'-anyway. So, we get a little wink-wink, nudge-nudge here. The conflict upcoming will more than likely stem not only from the undead hordes, but from good ol' fashioned human fucked-upped-ness. Hurray, right? The episode opens with Rick making a probably fruitless transmission over that walkie-talkie. This serves to catch up the audience as much as anything, and while Rick may have really given a summary like this, saying things somewhat like "once we were many, now we're few" (allowing for some convenient montage images of the people from the group who have been lost, many, again, of whom we didn't like or didn't really care about), but that seems a little unlikely. Essentially, the opening 5 minutes are pretty fucking contrived. That doesn't mean they're without emotional effect, but well...

After the hand-holding opening minutes (I almost chose to go with "hand job") to cater to the new influx audience, "What Lies Ahead" gets right into the action. The group is divided among three vehicles, leaving the CDC area, taking the highway, presumably to heaven rather than hell. No one looks very happy. Andrea still wears depression on her face. Dale is quiet. Rick and Lori seem to be in the best shape. But still, no one is high-spirited. This is a group of sadsacks. And who wouldn't be when confronted with the end of humanity? Well, the gang rolls up on a traffic jam, actually a car graveyard, that they try to navigate, but then, oh man, the radiator hose on the RV breaks... again. It's a well to which the show has gone two times previously, and it's a little tired. So, instead of going somewhere unique, the gang is stranded again. The group splits up to loot the vehicles and corpses, and Shane even finds an essentially boundless source of freshwater in the form of a water delivery truck. Oh the joy of it! Oh nothing could possibly go wrong! Things are looking up. And that's when the zombies show up.

Obviously.

Everyone hides and the zombies move through, no prob, Bob. But then Sophia, daughter of the formerly abused wife Carol (her asshole husband was eaten, so there's some karma), gets caught up with a straggling walker. Start up the banjo chase music!! Rick, of course, goes after Sophia, finds her and tells her that he'll distract the now two walkers while she runs to safety, but Sophia doesn't make it back to everyone. Nope. She just disappears. And this is where the tension gets interesting. Daryl and Rick begin a search, even gutting a zombie to determine if he may have eaten the little girl, but it turns up nothing. And meanwhile, Andrea wants a gun, but the misogynistic menfolk won't let her have one. Dale is at the forefront because he doesn't want her to off herself. And she doesn't much like being coddled. That's the key to "What Lies Ahead." Andrea is turning into the bad guy here. She's rapidly making a The Stand style turn from good group to bad group. And she's keen on breaking Shane away from the group too. And he's being less and less kind to Carl and Lori. Bottom line, the group is fracturing. And now there's a little girl lost.

More searching happens. They don't find Sophia, not yet at least. But there's a spiritual moment. And we also find out that Dale fixed the radiator way faster than he said. He wants everyone to regroup and he's being a little bit of an ass about it. The kind of ass that might get people eaten. "What Lies Ahead" sets an interesting stage. The Walking Dead is a soap opera with zombie set pieces, and it may still develop into something essential. This season shows that the gore is still top-notch, and that these remaining characters have a lot of drama yet to plumb, but the writing needs to get a little more inventive. This is not a video game. There's not enough interactivity for bad things to just keep happening in the same contrived way. And it could've used a little more build up to some of the emotional issues. But. BUT! I'll be watching next week. And I will be hoping that this show turns itself around. It can't live forever on Andrew Lincoln's sad, strong glances.

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