Monday, November 14, 2011

The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode 5: Chupacabra

There was a lot going on this week: flashbacks, hallucinations, brewing distrust between Rick's and Hershel's groups, shoe-gnawing zombies and a revelation about the barn.

Spoilers!

• Ha! Last week when I saw Merle in the previews, I said I bet we'd see him in a flashback instead of in real time. Well, I was close. He appeared courtesy of his brother Daryl's injury-fueled hallucination. Man, Michael Rooker is really good at playing assholes, isn't he?

I really liked the scene where Merle was dragging Daryl by the feet and then morphed into a zombie trying to eat his foot.

• Sigh... another week without a resolution to the Sophia storyline. Even some of the characters in the show are getting tired of this subplot. We're getting closer though; last week Darryl found where she'd been staying, now this week he found her doll. Hopefully next week he'll find her.

Here's a thought: maybe Sophia doesn't want to be found. Maybe as she was wandering through the woods she found a better group that wasn't such a magnet for zombies and she went off with them.

I'm trying to figure out why I hate this subplot so much. I think it's because her disappearance is keeping the rest of the characters from moving on until they find her. That makes it feel like the series has ground to a halt as well. Supposedly the show's going to take a break after episode 7. I have a bad feeling Sophia won't be found until then.

UPDATE: Two days after I posted this, creator Robert Kirkman confirmed in an interview that we wouldn't learn Sophia's fate until episode 7. Sigh...

• Geez, the show's getting their money's worth from that traffic jam "set." They even used it in the LOST-style flashback at the beginning. Fortunately they had the foresight to film that scene before Shane shaved his head.

• Andrea finally starts to show the beginnings of her sharpshooter skills, which is a very prominent part of her character in the comic. Luckily for Darryl TV Andrea isn't as good a shot (yet) as Comic Andrea.

• I really liked the scene in the RV between Dale and Glen, in which Glen puts forth his theory about menstrual synchronization.

• We see Herschel filling up his generator, which explains why his remote farmhouse still has electricity. Nice to see the writers are paying attention and answering (some of) our questions.

• And finally we get to see what's inside Herschel's barn, and why he wants Rick's crew to stay away from it. So far this plotline is playing out exactly as it did in the comic. Next week we'll no doubt find out why Herschel's playing zombie rancher.

4 comments:

  1. Excellent wrap up as always. You should be the shows official blogger. I agree with you on finding Sophia. At this point they could find her and I would have forgotten who she is. Even her mom was happily hanging out the wash. I loved the scene in the RV between Glen and Dale as well :D

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  2. Sadly, Glen's level of knowledge about female "cycles" is typical of Earth's male population.

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  3. Hi, im probably to late in commenting on this episode (we are just over a week behind you in England!) one thing that's bothering me is Daryl's lack of arrows, he is now down to just one! which brings me to my point, that arrow has been in more dead people than a necrophiliac, so why does Daryl not get infected from being stabbed by it! or does wiping on his shirt,leg or zombies clothing steralize it?

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  4. RobS:

    That's a good point about the arrows. I also wondered where he was going to get more arrows. Maybe he had a few extra back at the camp?

    The contagiousness of the arrows is another story though. A possible answer: if I remember right, in the comic book it was revealed that everyone already has the zombie bug inside them, because a couple of people were shot (without being bitten) and turned. They theorized that it wasn't the zombie bite that turned you, but the resulting massive infection that would cause you to die. Then the zombie bug would take over.

    I don't think they've addressed this on the show yet, but maybe that's what's happening here. After all, Rick and Glen smeared zombie blood and guts all over themselves in Season 1 and didn't get infected (surely at least one of them had a small cut after living on the road for weeks).

    Also, if you don't want to be a week behind, there are many legal sites out there that show full episodes.

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