The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 13: Beside the Dying Fire
Ah, well, after the show had two strong main character deaths in Shane (which was really well done) and Dale (not so much, though it was impactful), I guess it's time to trim out the lesser characters. So this episode we've got Jimmy, Patricia, Dale's RV and the Barn become casualties of the huge zombie attack. And the last two are definitely side-characters that I will miss.
It's definitely a strong episode and a grand season finale, though, as the status quo of them hanging out in the relative safety farm and talking ends up getting torn to the ground somewhat fierce. We get the explanation that a helicopter (the same one from season 1?) attracted the zombies in Atlanta towards the direction of Hershel's farm, which was why Carl's gunshot attracted so many zombies.
What followed is a pretty awesome and hectic action scene. We've got vehicles running around with Andrea shooting zombies from within moving vehicles, we've got Carl and Rick setting up a fiery trap for a horde of zombies, we've got the two of them hopping form a burning barn to an RV, we've got Hershel's one-man-stand against a horde of zombies with naught but a shotgun with unrealistically unlimited shells, we've got Andrea going all close up and personal... it's great, cool and pretty awesome. Throw in the gory deaths of some of the lesser characters...
Jimmy driving the RV and then getting overwhelmed and ripped apart within minutes of the little war starting is a stark reminder that, hey, this was the same show that killed off Dale with a random zombie attack. Jimmy's hardly shown up after he asked to be taught how to shoot, and I don't think he even appeared in the latest few episodes, and I actually mistook him for Carol when the zombie swarm overwhelmed him... yeah. Let's just put it this way. If Beth didn't go "Jimmy is my boyfriend for a couple of months" when she was doing her suicide rant, I wouldn't even remember there was a Jimmy.
Hershel seemed to be the obvious one to die, he had that emotional moment with passing down his pocketwatch to Glenn a couple episodes back, and he's quite obstinate about the farm being his home, and he was doing a heroic last stand with his shotgun, he's kind of a nihilist after the whole barn incident... except, y'know, he ends up pulling himself together and finds new purpose protecting Carl.
Patricia died, though. I fully thought it was Beth since they're both long-blonde-hair, but nope, it was Patricia. Otis's girlfriend. Who, like Jimmy, had less personality than Dale's RV. Which was also a casualty and was overrun and blood-stained by the zombies. Jimmy, you have failed the RV.
Andrea being left behind... twice... by two vehicles who simply didn't notice her was kinda hilarious in a morbid way. I was honestly sure that she was going to die when that zombie jumped her, and Carol seemed to be an obvious one too considering, y'know, I already thought she died in the RV when it was overrun but nope Jimmy.
And then the Sophia meeting point, as faded-off as the message on the car window for Sophia (a nice poignant shot) may be, ends up being an impromptu rendezvous point for the group. Rick was definitely ready to give up, giving Lori up for dead so long as he can get Carl to safety, but nope. Convoy! And then come the questioning of leadership, of course. Daryl, surprisingly, goes all "Rick's done no wrong by me" and is one of the more supportive ones of Rick's new dictatorship. I guess a bit of Shane rubbed off on him? Rick's definitely not in a stable mental state, after surviving a zombie attack and most definitely after the murder attempt by Shane and being forced to kill his best friend. Thus, "this is not a democracy". I mean, Carol is kind of being an asshole by basically trying to undermine Rick's dictatorship and trying to push Daryl to taking over for no good reason other than them hanging around waiting for Andrea for a bit and they're low on fuel. Carol... did you miss half the fucking season when Rick fought for the group to wait for your daughter?
And this vote of non-confidence from Carol (and briefly from the others) stems from Rick keeping Jenner's magic whisper a secret, which is that everyone is already infected, and the virus or whatever apparently just doesn't take root on the survivors until they die, hence Randall and Shane immediately becoming zombies upon death. It's odd that Rick kept this information from them, but honestly, like Rick said, it doesn't matter.
Lori's the only thing that really didn't work at all in this episode. She started off well enough, just doing her own thing during the zombie escape and getting a glorious reunion with her family near the end... and when Rick starts to talk about the events of last episode... she goes more and more shocked, and, uh, straight-up furious and refuses to be touched by Rick? What in the actual hell? Did you miss the part where Shane killed another man in an elaborate ruse to get Rick alone to be killed? Or the whole possessiveness thing? Hell, Lori was even the one that told Rick to watch out for Shane a couple of episodes back! Character conflict that makes sense, driven by something that I can understand even if I don't support -- like Shane and Rick last episode, or Dale and Shane two episodes ago -- are great. This one? This is just drama inserted for the sake of drama and it makes jack shit sense.
Andrea rungs through the jungle and gets saved by an awesome hooded person with a anime samurai knife. Fuck yea. And she's got two armless zombies chained up behind her. Whoever the hell she is, she looks awesome.
So yeah, definitely strong finale. Alongside the previous two episodes it's certainly shaken the status quo. They leave the farm. Rick's an angry dictator. There's some crazy samurai ninja hooded figure running around. We have no idea where Rick's team would go. Randall's big army of rape-happy assholes are still out there. Yeah, this is definitely a far more exciting season finale than this season deserves, considering a good chunk of it is just standing around in a farm talking.
It's definitely a strong episode and a grand season finale, though, as the status quo of them hanging out in the relative safety farm and talking ends up getting torn to the ground somewhat fierce. We get the explanation that a helicopter (the same one from season 1?) attracted the zombies in Atlanta towards the direction of Hershel's farm, which was why Carl's gunshot attracted so many zombies.
What followed is a pretty awesome and hectic action scene. We've got vehicles running around with Andrea shooting zombies from within moving vehicles, we've got Carl and Rick setting up a fiery trap for a horde of zombies, we've got the two of them hopping form a burning barn to an RV, we've got Hershel's one-man-stand against a horde of zombies with naught but a shotgun with unrealistically unlimited shells, we've got Andrea going all close up and personal... it's great, cool and pretty awesome. Throw in the gory deaths of some of the lesser characters...
Jimmy driving the RV and then getting overwhelmed and ripped apart within minutes of the little war starting is a stark reminder that, hey, this was the same show that killed off Dale with a random zombie attack. Jimmy's hardly shown up after he asked to be taught how to shoot, and I don't think he even appeared in the latest few episodes, and I actually mistook him for Carol when the zombie swarm overwhelmed him... yeah. Let's just put it this way. If Beth didn't go "Jimmy is my boyfriend for a couple of months" when she was doing her suicide rant, I wouldn't even remember there was a Jimmy.
Hershel seemed to be the obvious one to die, he had that emotional moment with passing down his pocketwatch to Glenn a couple episodes back, and he's quite obstinate about the farm being his home, and he was doing a heroic last stand with his shotgun, he's kind of a nihilist after the whole barn incident... except, y'know, he ends up pulling himself together and finds new purpose protecting Carl.
Patricia died, though. I fully thought it was Beth since they're both long-blonde-hair, but nope, it was Patricia. Otis's girlfriend. Who, like Jimmy, had less personality than Dale's RV. Which was also a casualty and was overrun and blood-stained by the zombies. Jimmy, you have failed the RV.
Andrea being left behind... twice... by two vehicles who simply didn't notice her was kinda hilarious in a morbid way. I was honestly sure that she was going to die when that zombie jumped her, and Carol seemed to be an obvious one too considering, y'know, I already thought she died in the RV when it was overrun but nope Jimmy.
And then the Sophia meeting point, as faded-off as the message on the car window for Sophia (a nice poignant shot) may be, ends up being an impromptu rendezvous point for the group. Rick was definitely ready to give up, giving Lori up for dead so long as he can get Carl to safety, but nope. Convoy! And then come the questioning of leadership, of course. Daryl, surprisingly, goes all "Rick's done no wrong by me" and is one of the more supportive ones of Rick's new dictatorship. I guess a bit of Shane rubbed off on him? Rick's definitely not in a stable mental state, after surviving a zombie attack and most definitely after the murder attempt by Shane and being forced to kill his best friend. Thus, "this is not a democracy". I mean, Carol is kind of being an asshole by basically trying to undermine Rick's dictatorship and trying to push Daryl to taking over for no good reason other than them hanging around waiting for Andrea for a bit and they're low on fuel. Carol... did you miss half the fucking season when Rick fought for the group to wait for your daughter?
And this vote of non-confidence from Carol (and briefly from the others) stems from Rick keeping Jenner's magic whisper a secret, which is that everyone is already infected, and the virus or whatever apparently just doesn't take root on the survivors until they die, hence Randall and Shane immediately becoming zombies upon death. It's odd that Rick kept this information from them, but honestly, like Rick said, it doesn't matter.
Lori's the only thing that really didn't work at all in this episode. She started off well enough, just doing her own thing during the zombie escape and getting a glorious reunion with her family near the end... and when Rick starts to talk about the events of last episode... she goes more and more shocked, and, uh, straight-up furious and refuses to be touched by Rick? What in the actual hell? Did you miss the part where Shane killed another man in an elaborate ruse to get Rick alone to be killed? Or the whole possessiveness thing? Hell, Lori was even the one that told Rick to watch out for Shane a couple of episodes back! Character conflict that makes sense, driven by something that I can understand even if I don't support -- like Shane and Rick last episode, or Dale and Shane two episodes ago -- are great. This one? This is just drama inserted for the sake of drama and it makes jack shit sense.
Andrea rungs through the jungle and gets saved by an awesome hooded person with a anime samurai knife. Fuck yea. And she's got two armless zombies chained up behind her. Whoever the hell she is, she looks awesome.
So yeah, definitely strong finale. Alongside the previous two episodes it's certainly shaken the status quo. They leave the farm. Rick's an angry dictator. There's some crazy samurai ninja hooded figure running around. We have no idea where Rick's team would go. Randall's big army of rape-happy assholes are still out there. Yeah, this is definitely a far more exciting season finale than this season deserves, considering a good chunk of it is just standing around in a farm talking.
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