Welcome back to Comic Booked’s full episode reviews of the Walking Dead Season Two. Last episode we were shocked by the death of Shane at Rick’s hand and then the killing of walker Shane at the end of Carl’s gun. Still unanswered is the question that has been posed several times now, “How could they become walkers if there are no bites?” Will we get an answer? All I can say is it is time to batten down the hatches and prepare for an all out walker invasion as the mass of undead move toward the farmhouse.
Season Two: Episode Thirteen – Beside the Dying Fire
This episode sets us back in Atlanta, walkers filling the streets and eating anything they can find. As a helicopter passes overhead, they all look up, then slowly follow the sound out of town. As they begin to move, this is just like a wave. Not that these walkers are intelligent or are moving by any type of instinct, they just seem to be going with the flow, leaving the town and spreading over the countryside. More and more join the original small group until a massive army is formed moving across fields and country roads.
The fences built to keep animals in are of little consequence to the pressure of hordes of walkers as more and more pile againsrt them, breaking boards and continuing to flow like molasses through the woods. Shambling along, minor grunts and groans, the horde moves until, the report of a pistol shatters the night. We know this to be the shot fired by Carl Grimes that killed Shane after he turned into a walker.
The final scene before the credits roll is of the horde heading for another fenceline. On the other side of that line, walking toward the barn, Rick and Carl silently and sadly head home unaware of the coming battle.
In the farmhouse, Daryl and Glenn return and tell what they found, Randall turned and now dead again and Shane and Randall’s tracks right on top of each other showing that they were together and not chasing each other. Meanwhile, Rick and Carl are talking about what happened. Carl asks if they were attacked. Rick takes a deep breath and prepares to tell carl the truth when the sound of approaching walkers catches their attention, they both start, turn, and run toward the house.
Andrea, Daryl, and Glenn are on the porch, watching the approaching horde and seeing Carl and Rick running toward them. Hershel tells Patricia to turn the lights off. Glenn says that maybe going inside, they can all just hide and the horde will pass by like on the highway. Daryl’s response: “Not unless there’s a tunnel downstairs I don’t know about.”
Rick and Carl are separated from the house by the group of walkers and not sure what to do now. They lock themselves in the barn, in interesting juxtaposition from earlier in the season when the walkers were the ones locked inside. Still, there are so many that the father and son team cannot be safe in there for long. This will definitely be a last stand kind of thing if they don’t think of something.
Up at the farmhouse, Hershel, Maggie, and the rest of the survivors are getting loaded… Their guns, I mean. The plan seems to be to shoot as many as they can, then use the cars to lead them off the farm. Hershel says, “This is my farm. I’ll die here.” Daryl responds with, “All right. It’s as good a night as any.”
Rick and Carl decide to douse the barn with gasoline, lure the walkers into the barn, then light them up. Carl is to drop the lighter when Rick tells him. Rick runs to the door, yelling to get the already rambunctious walkers even more riled up. He opens the doors, and leads them into the middle of the barn, then he rushes up the ladder and signals to Carl to drop the lighter. The flames erupt, engulfing the walkers caught in the middle. Problem is that the barn is now on fire and Rick and Carl are up in the hayloft.
Daryl rides his motorcycle over towards the barn, shooting walkers as he goes. Andrea shoots from the truck as T-Dog drives. Glen is in the other car with Maggie, blasting walkers with a shotgun. Jimmy is driving the RV, picking off walkers. Rick and Carl head out the doors on the roof of the barn. Jimmy pulls the RV around the side of the barn to retrieve the two, but the walkers bust into the RV and eat him. His blood splatters the inside of the windshield and Rick and Carl run by, headed towards the rest of the group.
Andra realizes that they can’t corral the walkers. So, T-Dog just starts running them down with the truck. Carl and Rick head for the woods. Hershel stands in his front yard just taking down walker after walker. Lori is very worried because she has no idea where Carl ended up. He was upstairs and she does not know that he is with Rick. Hershel continues to shoot as Lori, Beth, Carol, and Patricia run out the back door of the house.
They no sooner step into the front yard than a walker grabs Patricia from behind. Several walkers actually, eating her as Beth continues to hold onto her arm. In a way, Patricia serves a similar purpose to her husband, keeping the walkers occupied eater her while the others get away.
Carol was backed against a shed while Andrea gets out of the truck to go find her. She takes out the two walkers coming for Carol, but when the third is shot and falls on top of her, the others think that she has been killed and they leave. Maggie and Glenn see them and decide to follow.
Hershel is still standing in the yard shooting walkers. They just keep coming. As he reloads, a walker comes up behind, but just before it gets him, Rick shoots it in the head, splattering the back of Hershel’s head with gooey brains. He asks after Lori, but Hershel does not know where she is. Rick tells him they have to go, but Hershel syas “This is my farm!” Rick yells at him, “Not anymore!” they both turn and run.
Only Andrea is left behind, she grabs the gun bag and takes off. Carol is still running from the walkers and Daryl swoops in to save her. “Come on, I ain’t got all day.” The others are driving off the farm. Will they catch up with each other? Sadness fills Hershel’s eyes as Rick drives away from the farm and he watches through the rear window as his home fades away in the distance, infested with walkers. The barn burns and falls as another chapter of their lives is left behind. With the humans moving on, the walkers also shamble off.
Daryl and Carol head off on the motorcycle, dodging walkers and heading into the fog, hoping to find the other survivors. Glenn and Maggie are driving through the woods as well, not sure where they are going. Maggie is freaking out no knowing who made it and who didn’t. Glenn takes over driving. He knows they need a cool head in this and Maggie needs to cry it out. Glenn finally tells her that he loves her. This is something he should have said a long time ago, and hopefully he is saying it because he means it and not just because he knows it will help her settle down. I think he is sincere. “We’re gonna be all right.”
Rick, Carl, and Hershel make it to the highway where they left the supplies for Sophia. Lori is not there. Carl wants them to go looking for her. Hershel tells them to go and get to safety and he will wait for the others. Rick says they should wait and that Hershel needs to have a little faith.
“I can’t profess to understand God’s plan. Christ promised a resurrection of the dead. I just thought he had something a little different in mind.”
T-Dog, Beth, and Lori are driving East, but Lori says that they need to head back to the Highway. T-Dog says no, but Lori just wants to get out. She needs to find her family. With Lori threatening to jump, T-Dog finally capitulates and agrees to return to the highway. “You out’a your damn mind.”
Rick, Carl, and Hershel hide on the highway, dodging the walkers as they shamble along the roadway. Hershel believes they just need to get to safety, but Rick insists they wait. Just as Rick begins to tell Carl that they need to leave, that they have no other option, they hear the motorcycle, then the truck approach, and finally Maggie and Glenn. Andrea is still lost.
They take inventory of who is left. They agree to head East, maybe find some safe place. As they drive away, the camera focuses on the writing on the windshield, a fading memory of the hope they once had of finding Sophia.
Andrea is running through the woods, chased by a horde of walkers. She reloads as best she can. Pulls what she can from the heavy gun bag. One walker comes after her and she kicks it to death. She runs again, shooting some walkers, but she seems to see the futility in what she is trying to do.
After a period of driving. Rick honks so the caravan stops. They are out of gas. They decide to setup camp for the night. Duties are assigned, finding a place to camp, collecting firewood, looking for food. Rick knows that there has to be a place they can find to be safe, to make a life.
Daryl mentions that he found Randall and he was turned but he never got bit. So, the questions are directed to Rick, how can this be? Rick has something that he has to tell, but you can see on his face that it is the last thing he wants to do to this group, the last secret that he felt he must keep from them.
“We’re all infected.” Dr. Jenner had told him, that little whisper in his ear at the end of Season One, that, whatever this is, they all carry it. “I thought it best if people didn’t know.”
What can they possibly benefit from knowing this? It is a shot, not only to their overall dismally low morale, but to their trust in Rick. What other things has he not told? That is short lived, as he tells Lori that he killed Shane. He explains the whole scheme of Shane’s to kill him and how he “gave him every chance” to turn back, but Shane just kept going, kept leading him out away from the farmhouse, to kill him. In the end, Rick admits that “I just wanted it over. I wanted him dead.”
Lori has a very hard time with this, but it is when Rick tells her how Shane died and then turned and that Carl put him down, she just seems to break. She turns and practically runs from Rick, like she does not understand how he could do such a thing. I am not really sure that I understand Lori’s reaction at this point, unless because she felt she was reconciling with Shane, or she still had feelings for him… Not really clear at this time.
Night is falling and Andrea is still making her way through the woods, but she is down to just one gun and a few bullets. She has three walkers trailing her, but she is exhausted. She shoots one, stabs the other, but the third jumps on her and she fights it off, but there is little she can do, nothing but death awaits. Just then, the flash of a katana and the walkers head falls to the side. There stands a hooded figure with two walkers on chains like pets beside her. Who is this mysterious figure and how will she play into next season?
Back at the camp, a fire is built and T-Dog stands watch. The cold winds blow and every huddles up for warmth. Rick is feeling the burden of leadership, and his facade of strength is crumbling. Carol is telling Daryl that he doesn’t need Rick. Maggie wants her and Glenn to leave and take their chances. Rick says “I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ’s sake!” Rick wants them to understand what happened and what he did.
Rick tells them to go, take their chances, leave. “No takers?” Rick says, “But get one thing straight, if you’re staying this isn’t a democracy anymore.” Everyone is uneasy as Rick walks out of the circle. As the camera moves away from the group and pans across the landscape and, just over the river, we see a prison, perhaps the safe place they have been looking for?
That’s it for Season Two. Be sure to stay tuned for the Official Comic Booked Scorecard for the Walking Dead season Two to see who joined, left, and is left in the group of survivors this last season. Season Three reviews start soon as we continue the countdown to October 12.
