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Minicap: The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead
Monday, March 12, 2012
4:35 pm
25 Comments
Hello and welcome to the minicap for The Walking Dead s2e12, “Better Angels”.
Last week ended with the tragic death of Dale at the hands of a zombie. Now, the group puts everything on hold so they can bury Dale and pay their last respects. Rick gives a eulogy that is FULL of subtext: To honor Dale the group show live by Dale’s example, meaning, they should still live morally even though the world is falling apart. We’ve just had a season’s worth of conflict between Rick and Shane on this very subject, so now it looks like their differences are irreconcilable.
And we don’t have to wait very long for this to play out, because the group still has to take care of the Randall situation. Last week Rick was prepared to give up on his high-mindedness and execute Randall, not let him go. Now he’s reversed course. They are going with their ORIGINAL plan, which is to cut Randall loose far away from the farm. And to show just how serious he is, Rick is going to take Daryl with him to do the job and leave Shane back at the farm. Snub.
Rick and Daryl are going to leave with Randall TODAY, so Shane is out of time. He manages to delay Rick for a few moments so he can come up with a hasty plan to deal with Randall his own way. He’s totally gonna kill the poor bastard, but he knows he can’t just shoot him right there in the shed because that would probably poison Lori and Carl against him forever. Instead he has to make it look like he had cause to kill Randall. He decides to go with the ol’ “The prisoner escaped so I had to kill him” routine.
Warning: this next part may not make much sense, but remember, I’m describing the plans of a desperate man with no time. It doesn’t really make sense no matter what. So here goes. First, Shane takes Randall out of the shed and leaves the handcuffs so it looks like Randall slipped out of them. Then he takes Randall into the woods and breaks the guy’s neck. (You’re right, that’s really stupid…if you can break a fleeing prisoner’s neck, why not just tackle the prisoner and take him back to jail instead?). Then Shane breaks his own nose on a tree trunk and ditches his gun in the woods to gin up the “Randall overpowered me and took my gun” story and returns to the farm just as Rick and the gang are realizing Randall is missing.
At first Rick and the gang believe Shane’s ridiculous story, so Rick and Shane take Glen and Daryl into the woods with the intention of tracking Randall down. Eventually they split up into pairs, Glen and Daryl going one way and Rick and Shane another. We follow Glen and Daryl first, and eventually they realize Shane is full of shit when they come upon a zombiefied version of Randall and kill it. Sure, a fleeing Randall might have run into a zombie and become zombiefied on his own, but that doesn’t explain why Zombie Randall’s neck is broken. The jig is up.
(Wait, Randall is a ZOMBIE?! What the fuck?! You’re right, it’s crazy. Daryl confirms that Randall was never bitten, so how in the hell did he become a zombie? We don’t know, but most likely it’s because the Wildfire disease that causes zombiehood has changed somehow. More on this in the full recap).
Meanwhile, while Rick and Shane conduct their own search, Rick obviously knows Shane murdered Randall, so he starts pointing out all the hugely obvious holes in Shane’s story: how could Randall, who weighs maybe 125 lbs and is starving, exhausted, and recovering from a horrible leg wound, overpower Shane, a cop and large man? Another hole: if Randall escaped from the shed, why was the shed door still locked? Also Shane has wanted to kill Randall all along and it’s way too convenient that he’s the last person to have seen Randall alive.
But Shane never really intended for the group to believe his story. He just needed a way to lure Rick away from the group, and he’s done just that. Rick and Shane’s manhunt finds them alone in a field. It’s time for the final showdown.
Shane raises his gun. Rick refuses to draw his revolver. He is forcing Shane to gun him down in cold blood. To Shane, this is just more proof that Rick is weak-willed and unwilling to do what it takes to protect his family. And maybe we’re thinking that too…until Rick whips out a knife and stabs Shane in the heart. What a fucked up thing to do, killing your best friend. Rick is clearly distraught, but it did have to be done, and Rick did it. Goodbye Shane.
So that’s over with. Carl somehow finds his way to this field just as Rick pulls the knife out of Shane’s chest, and he thinks his Dad murdered Shane. He takes out his own gun and aims it at his father while Rick pleads with him to understand why he did it…but behind Rick, Shane gets back up. He’s a zombie, too! Carl shoots Zombie Shane down. (WTF AGAIN! Again, more on this in the full recap)
Oh, and the gunshot has attracted a full-blown zombie horde which is headed straight for the farmhouse. I guess we know what next week’s episode is gonna be about.
Full recap Tuesday!
Brains,
SCOA
TV Social
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25 Comments
Loved this episode! I also loved the fact that Shane died twice this episode as well. Can’t wait for the full recap to be up and to read what others thought of this episode as well.
I wondered several things. Shane was having mental issues for a while now. Did he know he was sick? Did he purposely antagonize Rick so Rick would kill him? Is Shane’s infection the result of him cutting himself with the contaminated knife (2 episodes ago)?
What will the fallout be for Carl, having to shoot his secondary dad figure?
I did love seeing Shane killed…twice. But he is another original castmember to bite the dust. How many more of those will they kill off? Will the whole cast turn over by the end of next season? (It would keep the costs down…)
Looking forward to the full recap.
Also, I thought Carl was always pointing the gun past his dad, but Rick misinterpreted it.
Well, took them 80 percent of the season, but things are finally moving along. Even though a lot of the scenes still drag on for longer than they’re worth — especially the many pointless conversations.
I accidentally got spoiled for the change in the Wildfire outbreak, too bad for me!
Two deaths in two weeks and neither is stupid, annoying CARL.
You know they’re going to have to kill him off at some point, because eventually we’ll look at him and be all, “Ok, it’s only been 8 months since the outbreak, so why is it that Carl is old enough to shave? WAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTT!”
They might as well get it over with and put us all out of our misery.
In the comics, Wildfire has gone airborne – rumors are that this is what Jenner told Rick when he whispered in his ear – remember the cops that Shane & Rick found when they tried to take Randall away the first time – those were zombies & they couldn’t find any bites. This means the disease can be transferred through a bite, or if when a person dies, it takes death to reanimate them.
I think Shane was losing it, I think the talk with Lori was the last straw. She was thanking him & telling him sorry & I believe he interpreted that as things could be repaired between them…if Rick was out of the way. Add to that that Rick didn’t execute Randall like Shane wanted him to (& I do believe Rick was probably relieved to be able to use Dale’s death to get out of it, I don’t think he was ever on board with executing him – he was just trying to prove to Shane that he was “worthy” of leading the group).
It was a super interesting episode, & I totally had zombie nightmares on Monday night. Can’t wait for the Season Finale!
Well, if that’s what it is “in the Comic”, then it’s all spoiled and I’ve got no more reason to watch this and think “I thought this show had zombies in it? All I see are people talking and walking around and realizing someone’s gone and then telling everyone about it and talking about their absence and what somebody else should do about it…”
That’s not the spoiler I’ve read, NWMTV. The one I’ve read is a far cooler idea.
But yeah, people who’ve read the book need to be careful about revealing info in the comments thread — I haven’t read the books and I prefer to watch the show on its own merits (or lack of them).
Although from what I gather, the show isn’t following the books all that closely.
BamA told me that the whole cast was actually dead, and the zombie apocalypse is actually Purgatory, and every zombie they kill (or talk to death) is one sin being ritually atoned for.
But now I think BamA may have been pulling my chain.
lol….ah, snark. I don’t think it will ever cease to make me chuckle. Thanks NWMTV.
Hey guys. Change of plans. Full recap will be up Wednesday.
Sorry, I got called in to do a special top secret job for the President.
Ha! I hate Carl too!
Can we pleaseeee not talk about the comic book here. We had this problem for the first half of the second season. Straight show talk, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
What I got from this episode is that Shane is king of the zombies. When he turned into one, it’s like these other milling around the farm woke up. I think he had zombie tendencies before this. It’s like he had wildfire but it took much longer to develop.
I’m sad Dale is dead.
yeah I agree……let’s not talk about the comic here. Theories, plots, etc from the comic can be serious spoilers for the TV show.
It’s one thing to talk about a book or comics while on a movie message board, it’s another to talk about it during a continuing TV show.
That said….poor Dale….but yay! Shane’s dunzo.
When’s it Carl’s turn?
Yes, PLEASE no comic spoilers! I was spoiled for this (like itchy) months ago and didn’t go ruining things for other people. If I can hold back, so can anyone.
I am so very glad I won’t have to put up with Shane’s insulting version of a Southern accent anymore.
@Pegster – Lol @ WALLLLLTTT.
I actually don’t think Jenner said that about Wildfire to Rick, because I think then Rick would have gone ahead and told that first man and son (don’t remember their names) over the walkies instead of holding back and I think he would have killed Shane in the head if he thought that. I think whatever Jenner said was more personal. But honestly, who knows.
I actually think it was Rick that undid Shane. I think Shane was actually trying one last time to be a “good” guy after Lori’s talk and that’s why he decided to talk to Rick about Carl. But Rick so easily and angrily brushing him off was just too much for him. That was when he realized there really was no turning back.
My own personal theory on the no-bite-zombie thing is that they actually are all already infected, and that death just activates it (or being bitten, which could really just cause the death that triggers the zombification). I will admit (and I stole this from elsewhere on the internets) that it was weird that there are like a bazillion zombies close by Hershel’s farm in the middle of nowhere all of a sudden. Though I assume they were attracted by the gunshots (which I think is why Rick gutted Shane instead of shooting him), that was an awful big group that was fairly close by already.
I don’t think Rick was responsible for Shane’s downfall. I think Shane went over the edge into psychodom when he abandoned Otis. Shane made it clear from the beginning that all he cared about was Lori and Carl. The central conflict was between his way of protecting them and Rick’s way of looking out for the whole group. We were supposed to see that Shane’s way progressed from murdering a stranger to murdering his best friend — no way could he let Rick go on living after Lori admitted that the baby could be his (Shane’s). That was the trigger. I think we were supposed to identify with Lori and kind of dither between which one of them we thought was right, but the whole thing was so hamfistedly handled that I just wanted to strangle Lori every time she said she supported Rick and then went whining to Shane.
Having one of the characters go insane from the pressure is one of the few moments when this show has made any sense.
I hate hate hate that Lori had a heart to heart with Shane. Three days before that, she couldn’t even stand to look at him.
I was spoiled for Shane’s death…by the company that put out the DVD of this season and started advertising it several weeks ago with the line, “And a special feature on Shane’s last scenes!”
Idiots.
I’ve just remembered that Rick looked as confused as Shane about those nonbitten zombies. If Jenner whispered anything to him about what’s going on with Wildfire he must have forgotten it!
And I TOTALLY agree, Plockeness. Sometimes I think the writers are a group of very serious 15 year-old boys.
Having never read the comics, and not even seeing season one until a marathon the day season two started, I had no expectations. I just always assumed that Wildfire was the reanimation of the dead. Not just those that had been bitten, but anyone who died.
Sorry, I thought I had a deep thought, but by the time I typed that – it was gone.
Oh, but it’ll be back!