The Walking Dead: Season Two Premiere
Reviewed by Dianthrax
*Warning: contains spoilers and mature content. Don't say I didn't warn you.*
This past Sunday the big moment had arrived; all of the hints and web videos and general hubbubaloo came to a head with the 90 minute premier of Season 2 of AMC's hit action/horror TV series The Walking Dead. Personally, I'd been looking forward to it more than the return of any other show- including season 7 of Supernatural, which if you knew me, is truly saying something.
The parts of a movie or comic or TV show that stand out to me are the small things that separate them from the rest of their ilk. You don't need to read a review that tells you about everything that happened during the episode or all the details of each gory, scary part or how hot the really sexy part was- those things people understand perfectly and don't have trouble remembering. What some people might have trouble recalling or connecting are things 
like what we know about Dale that tells us why he will never accept Andrea's choice to die, no matter how much she wants it or howpersuasive an argument she may give him. No matter how much you like the gore its how the show plays with our emotions in so many ways, including the little ones we may not even notice being manipulated, that make The Walking Dead as amazing as it is.
With that in mind, the first thing that I'd like to draw attention to is the hiding-under-the-cars part. That was brilliant mainly because of the acting, particularly the performances of Steven Yeun, Melissa Suzanne McBride, and Laurie Holden-AKA: Glenn, Carol, and Andrea. Steven and Melissa were able to portray the terror of the situation so realistically that it added wonderfully to the tension. The angle of the camera was outstanding, too. Showing from the characters point of view this seemingly endless parade of dirty, rotting feet shuffle past in jerky, sudden steps forward was truly intense. You were holding your breath, waiting along with them & hoping it would work. Though I think by far the most frightening moment in the entire episode was Andrea hiding from and then fighting the walker inside the RV.
The way she slowly looked up and realized a hoard of walkers were already moving past the window right beside her, as if she didn't want to see because she didn't want it to be real, made my arm hairs rise up. The panic you would feel- the "HolyshitwhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo!?" was plain on her face & in her shaking breath. Hiding in that little bathroom & trying to be quiet but for some reason still fiddling with the gun she didn't know how to put back together you just knew she was going to be found. Then the way her terror seemed to turn into rage when she looked up and saw Dale- as though she was telling him with her eyes and face that this was his fault. She was going to die this painful, horrible death and it's because of him. All of that leading up to her screaming and stabbing that super-nasty walker in the face with the screwdriver in one of the best kills ever and collapsing on the floor sobbing, covered in blood with the American flag hanging in the window as a backdrop... Ms. Holden really got to show off in the premier- she was amazing.
Norman Reedus was very busy in this episode as well, proving once again what I've been saying all along: Daryl is awesome & the survivors need him more than he needs them. Starting with the fuel-conserving although very loud motorcycle ride- a motorcycle I am convinced belonged to Merle since it's decorated with white supremacy icons & I don't believe Daryl is actually racist. (Plus he kind of looked like he was riding his big brother's bike, you know? I'm sure it's supposed to look like that but that's just how it felt to me.)
I knew that bike was going to see some action this season somehow. There's no way Norman Reedus plays a character again who has a motorcycle but then never rides it. Season one must've been Hell for the guy; it's no wonder he ended up in a Lady Gaga video! (Which he was excellent in, by the way.) Moving on...
Daryl shanking a walker in the back of the head with an arrow then laying down and covering both of them with corpses in order to save the bleeding T-Dog was another of my favorite moments from this episode. Not only did he actually part with his crossbow without hesitation, he also seemed to forget how to close his mouth when a rotting corpse is on his face. That's gotta be tasty. But what's important is that you see Daryl's true character- the fact that he acted to save someone without hesitation, without weighing the risk to himself, and without considering that a few days ago this man lost the key to the cuffs that had his brother chained to a roof in a walker-infested city. When it comes down to it he does the right thing.
He is also apparently Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive and can track anyone or anything. That makes sense considering he's a hunter, but once again we see that the group needs him and would be totally lost without him. The tracking with Rick was fun to watch both because I kept remembering how Daryl threw his squirrels at him the first time they met, and because it lead to the extremely disgusting "we have to make sure" part with cutting open the walker to eliminate the possibility of him eating the lost Sophia. That was disgusting and awesome and reminded me to never try to eat dinner while watching Walking Dead.
Obviously because of her missing daughter, Carol had an important role in this episode, particularly when it came to her interactions with Rick. The guilt and helplessness she felt and how she projected it on to him; you could feel how burdened he was by it and how that effected the decisions he made for the group. I think he's struggling more than everyone realizes to keep it all together, particularly because I think he knows about Shane and Lori. The prayers by two such different characters in that church were both very significant and told us a lot about Carol and Rick.
For Carol it was like a confession, which for us was also a confirmation of something that at the very least I had always wondered about; whether or not Ed was sexually abusing Sophia.
The day that he died, Ed was lying in his tent and refused to go out to be around the others having just been beaten up by Shane. When Carol made as if to leave with her, Ed suddenly turned and suggested Sophia stay and "keep your daddy company." Carol pulled her away and said with more steel in her voice than I'd ever heard her use with her husband- or anyone for that matter- "She wants to join in" and exits the tent with her.
There was something about how Ed said that and how Carol reacted that always felt wrong to me. Then there's Sophia herself, who seems to be more child-like then she should be for her age. In her prayer, Carol didn't exactly say anything physical ever happened to Sophia, saying instead that she prayed for Ed to be punished "for laying his hands on me and for looking at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growing in his soul." But plenty of damage can be done without anything physical happening, too.
Her prayers and pleading for mercy for her daughter in her soft, quiet voice was so emotional; you can just imagine how it must have ripped up Rick's insides to hear it and to know that it's all basically riding on him. You saw it in the choices he made after that- splitting up the group again and staying behind with Shane and Carl. His prayers inside the church were so ironic it made it hard for me to think that he doesn't know about his wife's affair. He explained that he'd never been very religious because he'd always put his faith elsewhere: his family mostly, his friends, and his job. The three things he put his faith into were the three things that let him down and put him in this position: If he'd never been shot while on the job he'd never have been abandoned in the hospital while his wife was told that he's dead, meaning (hopefully) his best friend would never have betrayed him and had an affair with his wife that he's slowly going crazy over, and his family wouldn't be tearing itself apart because his wife is wracked with guilt over having that affair with her husband's best friend and being the reason why he now feels like he has to leave their group.
(Plus I think she's preggers & its Shane's.)
It's like God wanted to prove exactly how wrong Rick was in putting his faith in these things instead of where they belonged, or that Rick knows these three things are messed up and he's explaining how foolish he feels in putting his faith in them. He also begged God for guidance, asking for some kind of sign that he's doing the right thing.
But you don't have to be in a church for Him to hear you pray! It's not like the acoustics are better inside them so He pays closer attention! I mean, it's bound to be pretty hot and smelly in that place having been all sealed up with those walkers inside. You'd think the survivors would want to spend as little time as possible in it, right?
Also, what kind of tiny-ass church in the middle of nowhere makes sure to hang a sign welcoming bikers and uses battery operated bells set on a timer?? And considering how rural the surrounding area is there was a pretty extensive cemetery that little church sat in the middle of with grass that was still pretty green and lush-looking. Is there a walker gardener who mindlessly takes care of the landscape?
The sign that had the name of the church showed briefly as the group ran by and it had a Biblical chapter and verse on it, which is not uncommon. It's hard for me to decipher but I believe it says: Revelation 16:17, which is "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done."
This refers to the seven vials/bowls containing the seven plagues released by angels upon the earth during Armageddon that will lead to its complete destruction and eventually, the wicked being thrown into the lake of fire and the devout ascending into paradise forever. The final plague is supposed to be terrible storms and earthquakes that destroy cities with huge hail-stones falling from the sky 100lbs a piece. It's so terrible and the destruction so complete that before it could even run its course, a great voice from heaven proclaims that human existence is over.
Cheerful, isn't it?
Clearly the church welcomed bikers but not optimists.
In the woods shortly after Rick's request for a sign while still searching for Sophia, there was the whole thing with spotting the deer. I could see from the clock that the show was winding down and I knew something totally effed up had to happen right as it ended. I wasn't sure what- I thought maybe a walker would bust through the bushes and jump the kid, or maybe the deer itself would do something.
(Don't laugh: people can get messed up by deer. Check out the water deer and its freaking fangs! Not photoshopped- go ahead and Google it.)
What I didn't expect was for both of them to get shot.
Confidentially, my first reaction was "Ohmygosh! The poor deer!" Followed by "Hey! More survivors! Survivors that hunt deer!" Then as Rick and Shane ran to Carl's body on the ground it hit me that there are no hospitals, no doctors, not even sterile bedding. It would take a miracle for this kid not to bite it.
So what do I think about this and the sign Rick prayed for? Patton Oswald said that it means "God is an ironic, hipster dick" and I can't say that I'm not partially on-board with that one. I do think it was a pretty clear message- one that they've all been told before and need to hear despite how painful the delivery may be- which is that they can never let their guard down.
When the group was attacked in season one and lost several people, including Amy, they were all happy because of the fish she and Andrea caught and the fact that they got to eat their fill. They were relaxed and cheerful, drinking beers and sitting around the fire talking and laughing- they completely let their guard down. They knew that with Glenn, Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog gone they were short manpower and weapons, making them weaker and less able to defend themselves. Instead of being more relaxed than usual they should have been more cautious and vigilant. Who was keeping watch? How did the walkers get so far into camp without anyone noticing? You can never let your guard down!
If they had been behaving like they should the damage would have been less and they got a harsh reminder of what happens when you slip and start thinking you can afford to be less vigilant. Maybe the point was to drive that message home then when Rick and the others were near enough to show up and salvage the situation so that they will all be more aware later when their lives depend on being ready for anything? If that's true then Carl being shot is Rick's reminder that he can never drop his guard. He let his kid wander far enough away from him so that if it had been a walker that was following the deer and popped out, he wouldn't be able to get to him in time to do anything. Yes, I know they have guns, but that doesn't mean they could save Carl with them if a walker was on top of him. So perhaps the gunshot was the lesser of the two evils; a possible death instead of an assured one to remind Rick never to take safety for granted.
I'm not quite sure why the church played such a central role in the second half of the episode but my guess would be that it's setting us up for a season thick with moral and ethical issues/arguments. Lori already brought it up when she had objections to scavenging from the cars because she thought of that section of the interstate as "a graveyard." I thought she was being ridiculous and impractical; whereas I was on her side when she argued with Daryl in season one about the logic behind burying rather than burning their dead. There are a lot of moral quandaries being nicely set up for exploration over the season: Lori & Shane and their situation with Rick is an obvious one, Andrea's resentment towards Dale forcing her to leave the CDC and all of it's repercussions, Carol's guilt-ridden soul, the pressure on Rick not to fail as a leader and how far he would go to keep his wife and child safe... Everyone seems lost and looking for some guidance and God is certainly the go-to-guy for the ethically disorientated.
More Season 2 Stills
So grab your moral compasses- I'm thinking we should expect religion/God as one of the main themes for season two.
Until next week, Walking Dead-Heads.
The Eighth Plague,
-Dianthrax
P.S: The button on the dead guy in the tent said "No Excuse for Domestic Violence"
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