And for fans of the comic series, the first true 'you don't know shit' moment!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
They are off the rails at this point from the books. I can see the broad strokes still out there, but everything else is up for grabs.
I love it that way!!!
Great episode and the last couple minutes were just beyond anything I could have hoped for. The only thing that would have floored me more was if Carl had gotten up and done the deed.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Okay, do they deal with the fact that Herschel (at least) had an idea that Sophia was in the barn?
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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He's not entirely wrong. The first two episodes were great and last night's episode was really good, but the middle four episodes took way too much time to cover the ground they did, with very little to show for it. With few exceptions, character development has been stunted, or at least slowed to a crawl, and the plot floundered. In retrospect, we see it's so the reveal of Sophia would have more impact, but if that's the case they should have factored more into narrative structure other than episode after episode of "holding pattern" while they got there.
It was a good, dramatic episode, but it was at the expense of what could have been a stronger first half of the season.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
The show recapper (not Ken Tucker) calls it the best epsiode since the Season 1 premiere.
I myself found season 2 part 1 as a whole to be pretty good overall... there was a long period set in a peaceful setting, with subplots (Carl- shot... missing Sophia of course... walkers in the barn... Maggie/Glenn... Lori PG!, Shane going postal), that built to an exciting finale.
What more can people want? Every episode can't be zombie armageddon.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Oddly enough, I actually thought there was too much zombie stuff this half-season. It seemed like each ep. had the token zombie encounter, and they seemed kind of less menacing. Last season it seemed like whenever there was a zombie encounter, it was a huge deal. Maybe it's just that no one actually got zombie bit except the incredibly predictable fat guy, at least up until the last minute reveal.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
The EW reviewer calls the last scene a role-reversal, turning the HUMANS into the monsters... They were never in any real danger... the chain on the barn door ensured only 1-2 zombies could stumble out at a time once Shane smashed into it...
So there go our humans, being judge, jury and executioners while the man to whom they owed their safe heaven could do nothing but look on in horror.
Yeah, our guys-- totally the villains in that moment... excepting Glenn, who DID seek permission from Maggie... Maggie is going to kick ASS on this show it seems.
Anyway, I think the last scene drove home Herschel's point of view exquisitely!!
Herschel fascinates me. I think he is an excellent character.
posted
Other than I thought that the Sophia mystery was dragged out over the seven episodes, I thought that the first seven episodes went well.
There were Zombies in each episode, but a lot of them were isolated to characters away from the farm. Shane and Otis, Darryl, Shane and Andrea, Glenn and Maggie.
Sure there was the herd in the first episode, and a few walkers around after that until they hit the farm. But then aside from the well zombie, the ones om the barn...there were only the two that Rick, the kid and Herschel caught.
To me, a nice reminder about the dangers of the world they live in is a good thing, and will prevent some watchers of the show from complaining about there being no zombies. Not saying anyone here, but there are those out there that would complain about it one way or another.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by evil MLLASH tot: The EW reviewer calls the last scene a role-reversal, turning the HUMANS into the monsters... They were never in any real danger... the chain on the barn door ensured only 1-2 zombies could stumble out at a time once Shane smashed into it...
So there go our humans, being judge, jury and executioners while the man to whom they owed their safe heaven could do nothing but look on in horror.
Yeah, our guys-- totally the villains in that moment... excepting Glenn, who DID seek permission from Maggie... Maggie is going to kick ASS on this show it seems.
Anyway, I think the last scene drove home Herschel's point of view exquisitely!!
Herschel fascinates me. I think he is an excellent character.
I'm loving this show.
I don't think that they majority of the characters did anything that any of us would not have done. Shane forced the issue, but once the zeds were out in the open...what would you have done?
I thought the Maggie / Glenn part of that was awesome.
The rest were doing what they thought they had to given the situation they were forced into.
Herschel having such a view of the Zeds is an interesting one, but ultimately flawed. Shane showed that by shooting the one repeatedly with it continuing to come after him as best it could. People would not come back from decomposition like that. And as was pointed out to him several times...he has had no real idea of what life was like outside his farm. His encounters have been limited to a dozen or so walkers that have wandered onto the farm. Maggie held the same views until she was attacked and saw one get up with its head hanging to the side, all but detached from it's body.
Shane is the "villain" of the piece...the rest are guilty of non-action in trying to stop him if anything. I'm also sure that any of them would have thought that Shane would have had no problem shooting anyone that had tried to stop him...or force them to shoot him.
One thing that I find compelling is that for all his bravado, Shane did not have the balls to pull the trigger on Sophia when she emerged. The others I give a pass...hell, Andrea shot her own sister in the head when she turned. It took Rick, who up until then had stood back like a someone who had lost complete control. With that one action though, he may very well have regained control from Shane.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out...we're not completely done with the farm yet. The fallout has to be dealt with. Then we have them eventually leave the farm and find their next home.
Rick, Glenn (who got the okay - which could be a discussion in and of itself), Dale, Lori and Carl are the only ones that did not participate in the barn thing. Rick only stepped in when the others froze in their tracks.
The other thing is...it's an inevitability that they would have eventually gotten out of the barn on their own. The more in there would have eventually given them enough force to make a break for the human buffet sleeping a little ways away.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
No prob, I love a little back and forth on something I know we both like so much!
Now... nothing you say is untrue and I agree with many of your points, particularly singling Shane as the REAL villain of that scene.
Putting myself in Herschel's shoes, I would be ENRAGED at what Shane has done. The Otis thing was bad enough (and I still contend was unnecessary as the walkers would have gotten him anyway). Shane has in fact now occupied Herschel's home... that was not his choice to make.
Whatever Shane might have coming to him... I now think he fully deserves, whereas previously I was not convinced.
Putting myself in Herschel's shoes, I would be ENRAGED at what Shane has done. The Otis thing was bad enough (and I still contend was unnecessary as the walkers would have gotten him anyway).
Actually Shane was more hurt/limping than Otis. If it was really a "only one of us gets out of here" scenario, Otis was the logical choice to keep trucking while Shane slowed them down. But Shane was in "it's him or me" mode at that point.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Despite my misgivings, the last scene WAS a brilliant reversal, as it showed beautifully how both Herschel and Shane were wrong.
Shane, pretty cruelly, demonstrated the "reality" of the walkers to Herschel, but then Sophia brought Herschel's point back equally hard on Shane. Shane had no problem getting his hate on and blowing away faceless walkers without any compassion, as they weren't Herschel's family to him, but "things". Then Sophia turns up, the shoe's suddenly on the other foot and Shane's frozen out and the group falls apart.
Rick's the only one to man up and put Sophia down, not because he wants to or because he's filled with hate, but because it's what needs to be done. It was a perfect echo of the scene with the crawling walker in the very first episode ("I'm sorry this happened to you..."). Rick has compassion and respects who the Walker's used to be. It's not a casual thing to dispatch them, but it is necessary. That empathy is what sets him above Shane.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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