Withdrawals like a Walker’s Bite

Withdrawals like a Walker’s Bite

by RC Murphy

Yes, I am well aware that it’s only been a little over a week since the season two finale of The Walking Dead aired. However, that does not change the fact that I sat down in front of my television this past Sunday and whimpered, hoping by some miracle that they managed to write, film, and run the premiere of season three through post-production in a week. No such luck.

So to pass the time, I took a look back through my review notes. These are all from the hand written notes that I took while watching TWD. They reflect, sometimes a little too honestly, my reactions to what’s happening on the screen as it happens.

But, uhm… the zombie bunnies ate the notes from episodes one and two, so we’ll pick up with a couple favorites from episode three.

Episode three:

  • “The only warning I got before watching was from Mom, ‘When Daryl is the sane one, you know things got bad.’” (Yes, my mother is a fan of the show.)
  • “Glenn can’t be a sidekick when the wannabe hero has his head wedged and the actual hero is beyond needing his help.”

Episode four:

  • “Where is God, hidden in the rotting face of a walker?”
  • “Glenn bait! He’s growing into a hero/walker roper!”

Episode five:

  • “Glenn needs wooing lessons. Maybe he can ask Shane, apparently women’s underwear melt around him.”
  • “Daryl’s subconscious kicked up… Merle?”

Episode six:

  • “Let me play poker against Glenn. Cha-ching!”
  • “Andrea and Shane are going to shoot each other… (Scene change) or not. Wow.”

Episode seven:

  • Oops… Apparently episode seven didn’t produce anything amusing note-wise. This may be because I spent all my time yelling at the television and not writing.

Episode eight:

  • “Go Maggie! Slap Shane again!”
  • “Do not trust new people… Holy s— Rick!”

Episode nine:

  • “Rick, honor will get your a– full of buckshot!”
  • “Do not scare my (yes, I wrote a typo) by trying to shoot Glenn!”
  • “Andrea drank Shane’s Flavor-Aid”
  • “Look at big girl Lori using her words…”

Episode ten:

  • “What the heck?” (That one was repeated a few times…)
  • “Meat shield!”

Episode eleven:

  • “Daryl—master of the art of torture.”
  • “Too close, Carl. [censored]!”
  • “Oh my God, Dale!” (After that the notes are gibberish)

Episode twelve:

  • “Yes, Andrea, baby-sit the psychopath.”
  • “Hey, T-Dog can talk. Wow.”
  • The rest is variations of yelling at Shane. None of which I can print here due to language.

Episode thirteen:

  • “Yeah Rick, because the barn is totally walker-proof…”
  • “I ain’t riding with T-Dog. Crazy driver!”
  • “Aww… whatshisname died.”
  • “Jesus promised zombies. Neat!”
  • “What the heck? Pet zombies with ninja slayer?”

 

As you can see, I have a lot of fun while watching amidst all of the really tense, biting-my-fingernails-off moments. Did any of you have moments while watching where you unleashed your inner smart aleck at the television screen? Share your witty commentary below in the comments.

 


Blazing Glory

The Walking Dead 213 “Beside the Dying Fire”

Reviewer: RC Murphy

 

Well, hopefully none of you tried to keep a tally of how many walkers kicked the bucket in the season two finale of The Walking Dead. For about a minute I considered trying to keep track, then realized it’d be impossible without a DVR and a lot, and I mean a lot, of spare time, which is in short supply around here. Hey, who do you think cleans out the zombie bunny cages? It certainly isn’t a magical fairy, I’ll tell you that.

We’re going to tackle this in the order that it happened because otherwise someone will get lost. Two guesses who, the first doesn’t count (hint: the person typing…).

That helicopter is going to give me a migraine. We don’t hear anything about it since the pilot episode, and then suddenly bam! There it is again, taunting us with secrets we can’t figure out. My theory is that whoever owns the helicopter is using it to attract the walkers to a central location. Not sure if it is to kill them or contain them. What I do know is that Shane and Carl’s gunshots distracted the walkers chasing the helicopter. Talk about awful timing. One day later and the herd would be gone—all of that death and destruction could have been avoided. Except for one. Shane sealed his fate weeks ago. He just needed the right variables to put it in motion.

A few characters came into their own during the course of this episode. Daryl stepped up to the plate and is set to be Rick’s second in command if he wants it. Hershel flat-out gave me a heart attack. He was awesome with that shotgun, keeping the zombies away from the house with far more skill than I gave him credit for before now. And Andrea…wow. We knew from her training sessions with Shane that she’d become one of the group’s best assets with a gun. However, she proved that any weapon in her hands can and will be used to kill a walker. She’s also come a long way from waiting to die to fighting tooth and nail to survive—even after running so far for so long that her legs just gave out.

Which brings us to the biggest mystery of the season two finale: who was the hooded figure rocking the katana? Fans of the comic book recognized her right away, no doubt. Michonne plays a vital part in the season to come. She is a character to keep a close eye on, folks. Also, did you see her pet zombies? Why can’t I have pet zombies like that, Juliette? Is it because I use a broadsword instead of a katana? I’ll switch weapons! Ahem… ignore that outburst.

Another huge reveal is the fact that the virus isn’t contracted through swapping bodily fluid with walkers (ew) but thrives within every single living person. The disease activates when a human’s body begins to die. This would explain the vast differences in time from when someone is bitten or severely injured and changes to them dying and coming back. Amy’s turnover time still baffles me. She turned at the pace of a living conversion instead of dead. Probably to draw out Andrea’s misery. The writer’s are evil like that.

The Shane Issue segment may turn into the Lori Issue segment. Her behavior as of late irks me to no end. The topper this week is three-fold. First, she managed to lose her kid…again. Then because she couldn’t keep him in the house, she got mad at Rick after Carl was forced to save his life. The icing on the Lori-is-awful cake came when, instead of admitting her role in Shane’s death, she turned her back on the man that literally walked through hell to get back to her and keep her safe once he was there. Some gratitude, Lori. Really. You should give lessons on how to thank people for their sacrifices. It’d give a whole generation of people the fuel you threw on Rick’s fire to make him lay down the law once and for all.

In the end, is Rick’s declaration of a dictatorship really going to fly? As far as I see it, Shane won. He succeeded in what he tried to do since day one when Rick walked into camp and Lori shoved him aside to resume a life with her husband. The group doesn’t trust him now. Most of all, they don’t respect him, or if they do, it is a respect created from terror that some day if they step out of line, they’ll be the next with Rick’s knife buried between their ribs. Will he go that far to maintain order? It’s hard to tell, but we know that season three promises to be as intense as the last three episodes of season two. If that holds true, we may need to start duct-taping Juliette to her seat before new episodes air.

What did you think of The Walking Dead’s season two finale? Have a favorite moment? Share your opinions in the comments below.


Catching Up with The Walking Dead

Photo © 2011 ZSC, LLC

Season two of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” kicked off with a groan, lurch, and the bang that made viewers jump off their couches. For a show that went through more than a few growing pains during filming of the current season, TWD creators are proving that despite the changes, they are still striving to deliver one of the best-made programs on television. And the proof isn’t in backroom antics; the numbers for the season premiere alone are amazing–7.3 million viewers tuned in to catch the flesh-munching goodness, shattering previous records for a basic cable TV show.

The first episode was light on the bloodshed, but heavy on character focus. We got a serious look at the women who provide the backbone of the survivors. You’ve got the widow finally finding her footing in life after the death of her abusive husband. There’s the woman who has lost everything and everyone she loves and wants nothing more than a way out. And, of course, we have the once-thought widow who is reunited with her husband, but not until after sleeping with his best friend.

There’s a saying, “Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” We were shown in season one that the women handle more than their share of the work in camp. Since leaving the camp, that work has translated to emotional support, and basically the three have become a collective “mommy”–a mommy with a gun and short temper, apparently. The best thing the creators did with that first episode was hit the women where it hurt–their children. One child goes missing in the middle of a zombie attack, and the other…well, remember that bang mentioned before? It wasn’t a happy moment for our survivors.

Episode two carried on with the deep look at the women in camp. Almost instantly, Laurie knew something was wrong. It’s always been a little creepy when a mother does that; how despite distance, she knows her family is in danger. Too many times it has happened in real life to be simply a story mechanism. This story line is really putting the focus on Laurie and when she tells Rick his place is by her side with their son, you knew he’d sit, stay, and do what she wanted.

We’re also introduced to a new group of survivors out on the farm. You don’t take notice of their women until after the men have all taken off to do what men do, risk their necks without a solid plan. But when Maggie decides to make her presence felt, it is a solid blow that snags your attention. As we put it while discussing the episode, Maggie is the face of girl power in The Walking Dead, no doubt.

On this show, the women are a symbol of hope, while the men try to be realists…to a fault. Survivors of any disaster need hope in order to keep putting one foot in front of another. Without it, they’d be like the corpses in the cars on the freeway, laying there waiting for a slow death. Now we just have to wait and see if that hope can survive the horrific situations thrown their way by fate.