This week’s The Walking Dead installment focused less on the Walkers and running and more on the reality of the dire situation, and where or not living was worth the price. Shane makes an extremely tough decision in the name of survival, but if you ask me it was the complete opposite. Lori and Rick become polarized as to whether or not to operate on Carl without the respirator. Glen searches for some faith and instead finds a farmer’s daughter. And Otis… well.
‘Save the Last One’ bookends with a shot inside a bathroom. Shane is shaving his head and with the gaze he gives to the mirror, you know something bad has happened. The idea of shaving the head as a moment of transition has been done numerous times before from The Wall to Fight Club, and a whole mess before and after. It isn’t that hair length has anything to do with intensity, but rather the drastic nature of such a cut that shows intense seriousness and can elicit shock, awe, and fear.
Rick and Lori, still waiting for Shane and Otis to come back, watch over their bedridden son and Rick recounts a story of when he, Lori, and Shane were all in high school together. The story serves a couple of purposes. It gives Shane’s decision to look after Lori and Carl after Rick’s apparent death a little more depth and meaning to go along with a little more backstory. Also, it shows Rick’s undying faith. Even through all of the uncertainty and pain around him, and everything he has seen; Rick still has faith.
The storytelling also brings Rick in direct conflict with Lori’s current state of mind. Herschel comes to them and says that, respirator or no respirator, they’re going to have to decide whether to operate for a chance at saving Carl, or to let him go. Rick, of course, wants to save Carl at all costs, but Lori is a little more apprehensive.
Her point does have some validity. Why would you want to continue to subject your child to such a hopeless and dire situation for the rest of their lives? At the same time, Rick’s point calls to man’s need to survive and maintain hope within hopelessness.
At the end of the day, they both agree to do the surgery because when all is said and done Carl is their child and no one wants to see their child taken from them no matter what.
Back at the RV, Carol is having a really hard time without Sophia which prompts Daryl to go look for her. Andrea tags along and the two open up to each other about their pasts, or rather Andrea delves into Daryl’s.
One of the things I like about TWD is that the writers didn’t expose everything about each character in the first couple of episodes. Exposition has been drawn out naturally, almost as if you’re right there along with them. Without the constant threat of getting eaten alive, of course.
They don’t find Sophia, but they do find a hanging Walker who, as it turns out, was a person trying to end their life before they turned. This person failed to realize that hanging themselves just made them a dangling hot dog for the rest of the Walkers.
When they get back to the RV, Andrea and Dale have some back and forth with Dale apologizing, giving her the gun back, and then asking for forgiveness. Andrea doesn’t give it to him. I’m going to reiterate my past feelings about Andrea and say that I hope she’s the next to bite the dust. Her story is played out and we’re far enough removed from the loss of her sister that her drama is now borderline annoying, and usually she crosses that border.
When we left our doomed duo of Shane and Otis last week, they were stuck in a school facing a horde of Walkers with limited ammo and bags of medical equipment/supplies on their backs. This week they end up running through the halls, the gym, a parking lot, and basically everywhere they can trying to get back to the truck.
With only one bullet a piece left and no hope in sight, Shane fires a bullet into Otis’ leg, wrestles the equipment off of him, and leaves him as Walker food to slow the horde down. This is the exact opposite of what he tells the gang back at the farmhouse when he sees them (which in the episode timeline happens before we see what really happened).
This shocking event could be interpreted as an evil turn for Shane. After all, Otis was a very likable character (and yes, despite the views of some who read last week’s review, I did like Otis) and he was trying to make things right after shooting Carl.
However, this was exactly the types of decision that would have to be made given the current situation in The Walking Dead. Shane has two wants: 1) Carl’s safety 2) Life. Otis just didn’t fit into either one. It would be great to be able to save everyone, but that isn’t going to happen. Good people are going to die and bad people are going to live. Maybe not all of them, and certainly not all the time, but the fairy tale endings are not in the cards for these people.
– James Zappie
