Alright group of The Walking Dead enthusiasts, we have a new member joining your ranks today.
Everyone, please welcome Andrea to the group. Andrea, welcome to the group of television characters who used to annoy me but managed to turn a new more colorful leaf.
This week’s The Walking Dead episode ‘Secrets’ was a return to what we loved about this show in Season One. It isn’t the zombies; it was never about the zombies, but about the characters. After weeks of boring, drawn out narrative that seemed to be going nowhere and adding absolutely nothing to the mythos of this once great television show, we have a single episode that returns it back to form and propels it to the edge of a great mid-winter finale.
The secrets of Lori’s pregnancy and the Walkers in the barn both come to a head bringing about even larger secrets that have the scope to forever change the landscape of the group and the show. Glenn has a hard time being stuck with all the secrets and confides to Dale, who in turn confronts both Hershel and Lori about their respective skeletons (Hershel’s almost literally).
When Lori has Glenn go back into town, Maggie joins him and is almost taken out by a Walker. Glenn saves her in a brutal way and their bond grows even tighter. When they get back, Maggie confronts Lori, throwing her requested set of pills in her face… her ABORTION pills. Lori is apparently having second thoughts which trace back to her debate with Rick about healing Carl just for him to live a short and scary life ending in being eaten by a Walker. When Rick discovers the empty Morning After pill boxes, he catches up with Lori just after she threw them all up. His raw anger and hurt expressed as he flips his lid on her is the most emotion he’s expressed since Carl first got shot. But it was the look on his face after Lori tells him about her and Shane that was probably the most powerful.
Speaking of Shane, he gives Andrea some one-on-one gun training, insults her by bringing up her dead sister as motivation, then makes it up to her by bringing her along with him to search some of the surrounding neighborhoods for Sophia. Yeah, we’re still looking for her.
She’s not there, but you know what is? A huge collection of Walkers. Shane goes cherry picking and pops them one by one in the head, then pulls back, allowing one to close in on Andrea. For a second I was wondering if he was going to pull an Otis on her, but maybe that was the writers’ intention. Ever since the thing with Otis, we’ll be wondering that whenever Shane gets into a pinch.
After some tense seconds tick by and the Walker closes in, Andrea finally puts a bullet right in its cranium. The switch that Shane talked about a couple of episodes is instantly fully flicked on in Andrea’s head. Something snaps into place with her and she goes on a Call of Duty-like sniper fest with a pistol. It doesn’t stop there, though. She’s on such a high that, on the way back to the farm, she grabs Shane’s gun… and not the one in the holster.
When they get back, Dale sees a change in Andrea and a swagger in Shane. He basically plays the concerned conservative father and tells Shane to be on his way. Shane’s response completely typifies his character post-Otis. Dale pushes Shane about what happened with Otis, saying how vague he’s been about the whole thing. You get the feeling that Dale isn’t as naïve as everyone else seems to be about what Shane had done. Shane counters with a classic, “if I would do that to someone I don’t even know, what do you think I would do to you?” response, which is a good point. Shane is worse than a loose cannon now; he’s a complete sociopath on a downward spiral.
‘Secrets’ was a fantastic return to form for The Walking Dead. I can only hope that the next episode stays the course and keeps the momentum into the Winter hiatus.
– James Zappie
