The Walking Dead – The return

Confrontation … confrontation … confrontation … confrontation … confrontation … find.

This episode was nothing but a powder keg just waiting to go off. Knowing it was full of gun powder, someone decided the best way to dispose of it was to mount it over an open flame until it got so hot … *ka-boom*

Is that the way you felt watching this episode of The Walking Dead? It was exactly how I felt.

Shane, the catalyst, and his raging demons ran wild. The thing is … the demons? They lie to you. They whisper in your ear. I said it in the second episode of this season, “Bloodletting“: “And then there’s Shane. While historically twitchy about things, filled with conflict and with the aforementioned strife running through him … He’ll revert to his old ways … I’m certain of it.” I said it in the third episode of this season, “Save The Last One“: “As if he wasn’t a ball of uneasy nervousness filled with misgivings already, we’re going to see his character ramped up a couple more notches. It ain’t gonna be pretty.” And I said it in the fourth, “Cherokee Rose“: “The downward spiral Shane is in — the continued degradation of his mind and justification of his actions — may be weighing heavily on him and he’s wrestling those demons the best he can.”

Did it happen? Did those demons run wild? In spades, my friends … in spades. Shane exploded.

But … with a twist. A twist I didn’t see coming. I didn’t see the surprise appearance of that one final walker coming out of the barn after the massacre: Sophia.

Sophia is finally found. The mystery comes full circle. There is no longer any need for the search parties. There is no longer any need for the angst Carol is feeling over her lost daughter. There isn’t any need for Rick’s continued worry over whether or not what he did was right when it comes to his decision to leave Sophia to ward her from the threat of the walkers just before she disappeared. Because it just doesn’t matter any more: Sophia is found.

She fell to the walkers. And she became one of them.

The Cherokee Roses Daryl originally found were lies … as were the second ones he discovered, in this episode. Neither time did they portend the finding of Sophia alive and well. The found roses simply signified Sophia would be found. And that is all. Not necessarily alive, not necessarily well.

It was easy for Shane to get everyone worked up over the walkers in the barn. And then, with the appearance of Hershel, and Rick returning from the swamp back to the farm with walkers in tow, all that did was fuel Shane’s fire. What better situation in which to prove his point? “If they’re alive, how can they take three bullets and still keep coming?” he yelled at Hershel, after firing on the female walker Hershel had lassoed before nipping her in the head, dead for good. Talk about your confrontation.

But … wow. When it came to Sophia coming out of the barn after the walker massacre, my only question right then and there was “Who is going to put her out of her down?”

The only one who could, of course: Rick.

In the end, questions — huge ones — still linger. With the killing of the family and friends who were in the barn, what will Hershel do now about Rick’s group? If commanded to leave in the aftermath of the massacre, will they? (One question I wanted to know — How did Sophia end up in the barn? — got answered by Robert Kirkman on Talking Dead: Otis captured her and tossed her in the barn with the others.)

If there had to be a “mid-season finale” this was definitely the one I wanted to see. Super episode to leave us hanging … until February when The Walking Dead returns.

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Nov 28, 2011 @ 09:39 EST5EDT