The Walking Dead flashback – pre zombification. Lori is talking to a co-worker about her strained relationship with Rick. It’s one of those conversations that you have and then something bad happens to a person and you think “that’s the last thing I thought about them.” We do get to see a great deal into the relationship between the two pre-apocalypse in this short exchange. Up rides Shane and you know what he is there to tell her.
Here’s the thing about Shane, he isn’t a bad guy, even with the near-rape. He’s a noble guy who cares about Rick and his family and wanted to do the right thing. He’s also a great example that doing the right thing doesn’t always mean a happy ending for you.
Present day – Rick runs balls out to the farmhouse, his limp son in his arms while Shane and Fatty McButterpants follow. There’s a deep sense of desperation and determination in Rick as he struggles to make it to save his son.
It does seem a bit odd that this farmhouse is seemingly untouched by the zombie apocalypse. Almost like the further from the city you get, the safer you are, from the zombies at least. The patriarch of the house, Hershel, immediately starts busting out the medical terminology and the others pull tons of equipment together. This doesn’t look like their first time at this particular rodeo.
There’s a brief shot of Rick as he sees Shane running through the field towards the farmhouse, his shirt is covered in blood, his shoulders slumped forward. It is a wonderful shot that is worth trying to pause at just the right moment. Rick is so vulnerable and defeated at this moment, helpless and exhausted. The fact that neither Rick nor Shane haven’t at least knocked fatty on his ass shows more restraint than I would show. Watching Rick and Shane supporting each other, working together, you can see how their partnership and friendship was at one point. It is going to break Rick’s heart when Shane becomes zombie food (it’s inevitable for almost all of them). Rick starts to crack emotionally when he realizes that Lori doesn’t know.
Back in the woods, the group continues their trek back to the RV, all the while searching for Sophia. I don’t think they would have killed her off yet, but then again, it’s The Walking Dead so you never know.
At the RV, T-Dog and Dale continue stripping the surrounding cars for spare parts when T-Dog starts exhibiting some very worrisome behavior. Dale comes off as just a worried older man, but you can tell in his eyes that he’s ready to act if T-Dog is about to turn. Infectious wound. That’s all, so far.
Alright, 12 minutes and 39 seconds into this episode and if you have kids, there’s an image that will sit with you for a VERY long time. It’s so disturbing, so wrong, and so very TWD.
Rick is back to rethinking every single step he took that led to Carl getting shot, blaming himself, much like Shane blamed himself for Rick getting shot. Carl’s awake, and not good. This is a world without hospitals, without anesthesia. Luckily Carl passes out from shock while Hershel digs out one of the pieces of bullet out of his body.
With Carl needing his blood, Rick can’t travel to get Lori and it is driving him mad. Shane starts to let his guard down and open up to Rick about what it was like when he got shot, but you can tell he’s also letting out his emotions about seeing Carl, someone he has taken a father-son relationship with, lying possibly on his deathbed.
Hershel lays out what they will need to save Carl’s life. The catch is it’s all located at a FEMA shelter that Two Tons of Chunky Funky Fun (we learn his name is Otis) not only knows the location of, but we also learn that he was an EMT.
Rick offers Otis his gun to take with him. This is a very Samurai moment, the honorable warrior offering his weapon as a show of good faith.
Dale lays out his collection of goodies and gifts that he’s plucked from the surrounding vehicles while T-Dog sits and ponders their next move. Not the next move of the group, but of the two of them. His worry and paranoia are overrunning his mind and filling them with doubts. Dale tries his best to keep T-Dog calm, but doesn’t really do that good of a job and when T-Dog suggests taking the RV and hauling off, he knows it’s the infection talking. They better find something to help him out soon or he’s bound to be a goner.
In the woods, bitching-every-five-seconds Andrea gets a little separated from the group and is attacked by a Walker. She almost gets it to, but a woman on a horse (woman from the farmhouse) rides in and saves the day. She grabs Lori and takes her back to Carl. The group makes it back to the RV and gives Dale a quick recap of what happened.
Out on the porch of the farmhouse, Rick and the patriarch have a heart-to-heart where we learn his story. The group isn’t family; in fact he lost his family altogether, but the survivors have banded together and relied on each other, building their own family. The patriarch likens the zombie plague to every other pandemic/epidemic that has befallen mankind over the centuries. He still has hope. Rick does not. Maybe Rick is too pragmatic of a person to continue to have faith in such a dire situation, and yet he never gives up.
Lori seeing Carl is heart wrenching. The family together again, in a situation they never wanted to be in.
Well here’s the reveal no parent would want to hear. Hershel is a vet, and last I checked, Carl was not livestock (although some of the zombies would beg to differ).
The group back at the RV, after some back and forth, decide they’re going to stay, but that they need to get T-Dog to the farmhouse. He is in dire need of antibiotics or not only will that arm need to go, but his head as well. In walks Nurse Redneck to the rescue. Apparently Merle, Daryl’s brother from Season 1, had a variable medicine cabinet that he traveled with. Inside the bag among the ecstasy and meth are the antibiotics T-Dog needs. That’s twice, now, that Daryl has saved T-Dog in two episodes.
I don’t think the irony was lost on the writers as they put zombies in FEMA uniforms.
Shane and Otis fling flares to distract the zombies as they run to get the needed supplies. Apparently zombies really like shiny things as they’re kind of like dogs. If dogs hungered for human flesh and couldn’t be killed save for a shot to the head.
They find everything that they need, but when they open the trailer to leave, well it looks like the flares lost their juice. They’re only recourse? Head for the school.
Along the way, Shane decks a zombie square in the face. That’s kind of a bold move when you think about it. One little cut from a zombie tooth and Shane could be turned. One wrong turn for our duo and the only thing now separating them from a horde of hungry zombies is a single metal pin in a barely holding together gate.
‘Bloodletting’ is a really great follow-up to ‘What Lies Ahead.’ It gave background and depth on most of the major relationships in the show (most notably Rick and Lori’s pre-zombie life) as well as injecting some new life and contrast in the group living in the farmhouse. Anytime there is a farmhouse in a piece of zombie media, George Romero’s ears start to burn a little.
The episode gives us a great cliffhanger as well, one that is almost as intense as last week’s. There are still so many questions left unanswered in The Walking Dead, and still no sign of Sophia. Maybe we’ll see her next week. Maybe she’s hiding in a tree somewhere and can’t get down. Maybe she took a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Maybe she’s with Merle. I like that last one. Maybe she’s with Merle. Michael Rooker is coming back sooner or later.
– James Zappie
