The second season of The Walking Dead has been a bit of a drag. A good portion of the episodes have lacked the depth and richness that we had come to expect after the first season. The Search for Sophia, while important in the grand scheme of things, has lingered on and on to the point that I was really hoping she’d just show up dead so we could move on from it. Well, in the mid-season finale ‘Pretty Much Dead Already,’ I kind of got my wish.
In addition to the Sophia hunt, a power play has been brewing between Rick and Shane, especially ever since Shane fed Otis to the zombies to escape with the medical supplies for Carl. When the secret of the barn was revealed to everyone in the group, Shane took action because that is what Shane is good at; reacting.
Rick, on the other hand, wanted to reason because at his heart he isn’t the action-oriented, shoot first kind of person that Shane is. When the group sees Rick guiding a Walker towards the barn, they are shocked. How could this supposed leader of theirs be treating a Walker like a human being after all they had been through and all the loved ones they had lost?
Shane, again, reacts and leads a revolt which culminates in not only letting the barn-Walkers free, but him and the group engaging in a Walker Turkey shoot. When the bodies have all dropped, there stood Shane, adrenaline pumping, gun in hand, showing Rick what a true leader can do.
Then, in one of the most emotional scenes in the series thus far, out comes Sophia. It turns out all of Carol and Daryl’s hopes for Sophia to be found safe and sound were for naught, as she came staggering out in a wonderfully acted bit as a Walker. The group retreats a little, lowering their guns, and even Shane is taken aback. Rick reluctantly walks up, raises the barrel, and fires point blank into little Sophia’s head. And it is in that single act that Rick reasserted himself as the leader of the group. Any petulant child can base their behavior on pure emotion, but it takes courage and maturity to make the tough choices that are needed to be made.
Maggie and Glenn are a wonderful couple, supporting and bringing out the best in each other while Lori, Rick, and Shane have morphed into some weird dysfunctional Maury Povich episode where no one is really a winner.
Dale, I was fully convinced, was going to get offed by Shane. He grabbed the guns and hauled off into the swamp area after he was convinced Shane was going to come for them. There was a beautifully tense moment between the two while Dale raised his rifle to Shane and Shane didn’t even blink as he stepped forward in what was either defiance or a death wish.
I really thought Dale would have been left for Walker food out there, but Shane didn’t act. It is that lack of action that really would worry me if I was around him. It is not just a bit of psychosis, but a complete lack of empathy that Shane is displaying now. A human without empathy is beyond dangerous because there is no limit to the depravity that they will wreak, but they are completely in control at the same time. It will be very interesting to see what comes of Shane after the hiatus. I don’t there is any real retribution left in him, but how far will he sink? And really, how far will the group allow him to before someone does something? Carl, I’m looking in your general direction.
Shane’s defiance, freeing and executing the Walkers, and Sophia’s reveal was a perfect ending to an otherwise bland first half of the season. It ratcheted up the drama and intensity without relying on pure gore. There was shock, not just for shock’s sense but to further the plot and drive the characters forward.
This was the jump start that the series needed and really was almost worth all of the drama that preceded it. Sophia’s reveal at the end was a terrific twist, but it was Rick’s decision that ultimately was the killer ending, no pun intended. Back in the pilot episode, Rick had to do the same thing to a little girl turned Walker that he didn’t know. That was rough to watch, especially for a father, but now he had to do the sympathetic and right decision for someone that we’ve grown to care about and that the other characters had seen as their own child, to some degree.
– James Zappie
