Tag: Zombie Series

Triggerfinger starts with Lori, unconscious and hurt after her car rolled over. A walker is doing its best to get to her. She looks like an easy late night snack. At least until she wakes up starts to fight.

Rick, Glen, and Hershel are hiding in the bar where they were last seen at the end of Episode 8. More newcomers show up, looking for their friends, who Rick just put down last episode.

Rick tries to defuse the situation, but the newcomers shoot out the windows in reply. Rick’s plan is to have Glen run for the car as Hershel covers him, and Rick holds the front entrance. We then get to see that Hershel may not like guns, but he does know how to use one. Glen is not dealing with the stress well and has frozen, but luckily for him the newcomers flee. They don’t know how many people are in the bar. But they do know they’ve already lost at least three of their own. Unfortunately for one of the newcomers, his buddies leave him behind when they flee. He jumps down off the roof and ends up speared on a cast iron fence.

This is one of those scenes that I just don’t get. This guy, or kid as Rick puts it, just tried to shoot them from a roof. Put a bullet in the kid’s head and get back to the farm! Instead, Rick convinces Hershel to amputate the leg. This leads to them being surrounded before Rick eventually just rips the dude’s leg up off the spike.

Out on the road Shane finds Lori, and lies to her that Rick has returned to the farm to get her into the car. When they show up Shane drops the pregnancy news publicly. Now Carl and everyone else knows. When Shane get’s her alone she tells him that Rick knows, that she told her husband what happened. Shane tries to convince her it was “okay”, that what they did was a good thing, but Lori isn’t buying it. If only she’d been so strong a week after she thought her husband was dead.

We then see a horribly emotional scene between Daryl and Carol as she tries to let him know he’s part of their group. He rages at her, saying horrible and cruel things. She just takes it, knowing he needs to vent. DId her previous life of abuse giving her the ability to take it? It’s sad, but also sweet that she cares enough about Daryl to take his pain.

With Rick, Hershel, and Glen missing, Shane, Daryl, and Andrea are about to go on a search mission. As soon as Maggie sees Glen she runs to him, bypassing her dead in a sad snub.

Once inside Maggie pulls Glen aside and he tells her that her dad saved him, and then Rick saved them all, but that he froze. He froze because he was scared of losing her, and now he feels guilty.

Triggerfinger ends with Lori telling Rick that Shane believes her baby is his (it probably is) and that Shane is telling others that Rick is going to get them all killed with his bad decisions.

Triggerfinger Scoring

I’m giving Triggerfinger a 76/100, making it Worth Your Time. There isn’t a lot of Zombie action, which cost it some points.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Days Gone Bye	100
1	2	Guts	100
1	3	Tell It To The Frogs	95
1	4	Vatos	94
1	5	Wildfire	95
1	6	TS-19	99
2	1	What Lies Ahead	95
2	2	Bloodletting	91
2	3	Save The Last One	83
2	4	Cherokee Rose	94
2	5	Chupacabra	97
2	6	Secrets	85
2	7	Pretty Much Dead Already	100
2	8	Nebraska	88
2	9	Triggerfinger	76
2	10	Miles Out	90
2	11	Judge, Jury, Executioner	70
2	12	Better Angels	75
2	13	Beside the Dying Fire	100

Pretty Much Dead Already opens with tension. Rick and Lori are dealing with the fallout of her unable to keep her legs closed for Shane, while Glen keeps looking over at Maggie who is standing on the porch. He’s decided he doesn’t have a choice, to keep the secret any longer, and drops the bomb on Team Rick that the barn is full of walkers.

The barn full of walker ignites the group. Shane wants to leave while Rick and Daryl want to stay and find Sophia.

With the secret out Glen begs Maggie to talk, but she just breaks an egg over his head, not ready to make nice. While Maggie is taking her anger out on Glen, Daryl is stubbornly trying to go back out, wounded, to search for Sophia. When Carol stops him, he loses it.

As everyone is dealing with their sh*t, Rick goes to talk to Hershel.

Rick wants to talk about the barn. Hershel just tells Rick he wants his group to move on by the end of the week. He doesn’t want to talk about the barn. Rick tells Hershel that forcing them to leave would mean putting everyone at risk, including his pregnant wife. Hershel doesn’t want to hear it.

A little later Hershel tells Maggie that he gave Rick the order to leave, and Maggie uses his faith to show him what the bible would have said. Hershel struggles with what Maggie is saying but he gets pulled away when he’s told “its happened again”.

Hershel bring Rick with him to the creek. The bottom of the stream is soft and silty, and walkers get stuck there. Maggie must have an impact on Hershel, even though they didn’t really finish their conversation. Hershel asks Rick if he can stop killing the walkers.

Rick asks Hershel what they are going to do when the Barn gets full but Hershel doesn’t answer as they wrangle the two Zombies away from the stream.

Back at the farm Glen confronts Maggie, telling her he never wants to see her in danger again, and the words made Maggie realize he does really care about her – and smooching commenced.

While Maggie and Glen are making up, Dale and Shane are having it out. Shane wants the guns that Dale is trying to stash, and it almost comes to blows.

Shane is pissed, and that anger overflows onto rick and Hershel when he sees them coming back with the two restrained Zombies. This leads to Shane screaming about how a sick person couldn’t take multiple gunshot wounds to the chest – before he finally puts the walker down with a headshot.

It’s still not enough for Shane though, and he lets loose the barn zombies in a fit of rage, which leads to one of the iconic moments of The Walking Dead universe. After the team puts down the other zombies, the last walker out the gate is revealed. The team has found Sophia.

Pretty Much Dead Already Scoring

Pretty Much Dead Already is one of those episodes that you will remember for years to come. I still remember this episode when it was on the air the first time. I remember sitting on the couch with my older boys, and we all gasped when we saw Sophia. Pretty Much Dead Already scores a 100/100. It is a master class in suspense and character development.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Days Gone Bye	100
1	2	Guts	100
1	3	Tell It To The Frogs	95
1	4	Vatos	94
1	5	Wildfire	95
1	6	TS-19	99
2	1	What Lies Ahead	95
2	2	Bloodletting	91
2	3	Save The Last One	83
2	4	Cherokee Rose	94
2	5	Chupacabra	97
2	6	Secrets	85
2	7	Pretty Much Dead Already	100
2	8	Nebraska	88
2	9	Triggerfinger	76
2	10	Miles Out	90
2	11	Judge, Jury, Executioner	70
2	12	Better Angels	75
2	13	Beside the Dying Fire	100

After how Chupacabra ended with Glen finding the walkers in Hershel’s barn, I guess Secrets is the perfect name for Episode 6.

Secrets opens with Carl back on his feet, feeding the chickens with Lori. Which leads to one of Hershel’s daughters collecting some of those chickens to feed to the walkers in the barn.

Which leads to Maggie bribing Glen to be quiet. Apparently she doesn’t know how to bribe a guy? Food?

After Maggie gives Glen his basket of food, we get to see Andrea apologize to Daryl for winging him with a rifle. Daryl is cool with it though, he knows she thought he was a Zombie. Such a good guy.

Glen then gets into Lori’s business in an unwelcome way, telling her she has a medical condition because she’s preggo. Needless to say Lori hasn’t told anyone, and Glenn doesn’t understand why it might be an issue because he doesn’t know she’s a few weeks in – a few weeks longer than Rick has been back maybe?

We then get one of those silly moments. Carl wants to learn to shoot, and Lori is against it. It’s the Zombie Apocalypse for god’s sake, give your kid the tools to survive woman!!!

Glen then does exactly what Maggie asked him not to do, and tells Dale about the walkers, and about Lori’s pregnancy. Dale covers for Glen and tells Hershel he discovered the barn while out for a walk.

We then get our second dose of silliness in the season. Hershel is keeping the walkers because he believes they are still people. His wife and stepson are in there.

While talking to Hershel Lori finds out that the invitation to stay on the farm has an expiration date, and then realizes that her secret is out when Dale tries to comfort her after she gets nauseous when he’s cooking. Lori is not happy to have her secret out, which leads Lori to ask Glen to make another pharmacy run.

This in turn shows us Maggie’s mad face.

She is pissed, and her attitude doesn’t get much better when Glen hands her his shopping list. He might not know what the meds are, but I think she does.

Unfortunately for Maggie, there is a walker in the pharmacy. Luckily for her Glen is there to take care of business, which also exposes her to just how dangerous walkers are.

While saving Maggie may have put Glen back in her Maggie’s good graces, Maggie is still pissed, she’s just mad at Lori now for making Glen go into town for the morning after pill. This also leads to Maggie telling Glen that she does see who he is, and that she does care for him, she just can’t bear the thought of losing anyone else she cares about.

We then cut over to Shane and Andrea making a run into a nearby housing development to look for Sophia, but all they find is a neighborhood full of walkers. This leads to Shane showing off his shooting skills:

While also giving Andrea the moment she needs to find her shooting mojo against walker targets. Shane forces her to clear her weapon and take care of the walker coming at her, which does seem to help her.

Andrea in turn thanks Shane for teaching her by grabbing his crotch on the way back to the farm. The camera pulls back to the car stopped on the road. We hear a horn and then cut away as Shane and Andrea get busy.

Back at the farm, Lori decides to take the morning after pill, then sticks her finger down her throat, unable to do it.

Dale is there when Shane comes back with Andrea, and he is very perceptive. He knows that something happened between Shane and Andrea and Dale basically tells Shane to get in his car and leave. Dale saw Shane aim at Rick in the woods, and he doesn’t trust him. Dale shares a bit too much with Shane though, and gets threatened in return.

Back in the Grimes tent Rick finds the morning after pill which leads him to go and confront Lori. She tells him she’s pregnant, and he asks if she still is, and she admits to puking up the pills. Rick is pissed that she was keeping it secret, but he is also convinced they can make it work.

This leads to Rick asking Lori if there is anything else he needs to know, and Lori admits that she and Shane were bang buddies. Of course she puts it in less graphic terms.

Rick takes this way to well in my opinion. He basically puts words in her mouth about how she thought he was dead. Am I just nuts or would he be a little more pissed – especially since she’s preggo? Can he be sure its his? He couldn’t have survived for long on that hospital bed with no care, which means she had to jump into the sack with Shane pretty quick – and or was already in the sack with Shane. Shane is a ladies man, he was even banging a teacher in highs chool, and Rick and Lori were having issues. Is it so hard to believe they were playing tag long before the apocalypse?

I’m giving Secrets an 85/100. The points are coming off because of the silly, counter intuitive logic used in several of the situations. Still Worth Your Time, but there are times when Secrets left me scratching my head.

Carl’s Questionable Decisions

• Season 2, Episode 1, What Lies Ahead (29:15) – Carl scavenges a bag of edged weapons from a car without any adult supervision. Sure it turned out to be someone who was dead dead, but he had no idea.
• Season 2, Episode 6, Secrets(7:45) – Carl gets caught with a revolver he stole from the RV. I get the motivation, but he should have asked first.
• Season 2, Episode 11, Judge, Jury, Executioner(10:35) – Carl decides he should approach the prisoner in the barn and chat with him.
• Season 2, Episode 11, Judge, Jury, Executioner(19:35) – Carl steels a 45 from Daryl’s motorcycle. Haven’t we been down this gun path before?

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Days Gone Bye	100
1	2	Guts	100
1	3	Tell It To The Frogs	95
1	4	Vatos	94
1	5	Wildfire	95
1	6	TS-19	99
2	1	What Lies Ahead	95
2	2	Bloodletting	91
2	3	Save The Last One	83
2	4	Cherokee Rose	94
2	5	Chupacabra	97
2	6	Secrets	85
2	7	Pretty Much Dead Already	100
2	8	Nebraska	88
2	9	Triggerfinger	76
2	10	Miles Out	90
2	11	Judge, Jury, Executioner	70
2	12	Better Angels	75
2	13	Beside the Dying Fire	100

Cherokee Rose opens with Carl waking up. He’s survived the surgery and his fever has gone down. Sadly, his first question when he wakes up is about Sophia. Just after Carl falls back asleep the rest of Team Rick pulls up on Hershel’s front lawn.

Shortly after, Hershel holds a service for Otis, and they ask Shane to say a few words. Otis’s wife twists the knife, begging Shane to tell her what happened, that Otis’s death had meaning.

In the next scene Maggie provides maps, and the team is figuring out how to search for Sophia when Hershel asks Rick and his people not to carry guns. Hershel doesn’t think they are necessary. Come on! Its the Zombie Apocalypse!

When then get to see Rick playing matchmaker when Maggie says she wants to make a supply run. Glen should go with her – to keep her safe. I love how Glen can barely talk to Maggie. He then watches her coming down the road, clearly appreciating what he’s seeing.

Glen’s interrupted by Lori, coming over to ask him to get something discreetly, something form the feminine hygiene section.

Just before Maggie and Glenn head into town Dale and T-Dog find a bloated Zombie in the well. They have no choice but to try and get it out so it doesn’t contaminate the water supply.

Glen almost gets bit on their first attempt to get the Zombie out of the well before they are able to use a horse to get it out of the well, or at least halfway out of the well.

With the well taken care of, Maggie and Glen head into town.

This leads to an awesome interaction between Maggie and Glen. Glen is trying to get Lori her secret pregnancy test when Maggie comes over and Glen fumbles to hide it. He’s standing there holding a box of condoms when she asks him what’s going on.

I love how Glen is so shook by Maggie. He’s clearly infatuated, and is about to be shocked at how forward Maggie can be. I also loved his reaction when she takes her shirt off and he’s just like “Wow”.

On the way back to town Glen is glowing, at least until Maggie tells him not to spoil it, it was a one time thing. Except we all know that now that she’s enjoyed some time with Glen she’s not going to be able to resist.

When Daryl gets back from searching for Sophia, we hear the story of the Cherokee Rose, and we get to see Daryl’s emotional side as he gives Carol just what she needed.

Back inside the house Rick and Carl bond over both having survived gunshots, which spurs Rick to give Carl his cowboy hat.

Cherokee Rose ends with Lori and Rick having a quiet moment before Lori heads outside to use the pregnancy test that Glen retrieved for her.

I also appreciate how thorough the closed captions are.

Cherokee Rose ends with Lori looking down at the positive pregnancy test with a sob, crouching in the dark.

Cherokee Rose scored a 94/100. It was a powerful episode and is Worth Your Time.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Days Gone Bye	100
1	2	Guts	100
1	3	Tell It To The Frogs	95
1	4	Vatos	94
1	5	Wildfire	95
1	6	TS-19	99
2	1	What Lies Ahead	95
2	2	Bloodletting	91
2	3	Save The Last One	83
2	4	Cherokee Rose	94
2	5	Chupacabra	97
2	6	Secrets	85
2	7	Pretty Much Dead Already	100
2	8	Nebraska	88
2	9	Triggerfinger	76
2	10	Miles Out	90
2	11	Judge, Jury, Executioner	70
2	12	Better Angels	75
2	13	Beside the Dying Fire	100

Save the Last One opens with Shane giving himself a buzz cut as the bathroom steams up. At the end of the last episode, Bloodletting, he was trapped in the school with Otis. So we know he made it back, hopefully with the tools and meds to save Carl. After the opening credits we cut to Shane and Otis fleeing through the school. A horde hot on their heals as Rick is telling Lori a story about Shane stealing their principle’s car in a voice over.

Spoilers Below

As Rick tells Lori about how Shane destroyed their principal’s car, Shane and Otis are on the run. We know he made it back, but I guess we are about to find out how.

Meanwhile Daryl and Andrea go out into the woods to look for Sophia. Carol’s balling her eyes out in the RV, struck down with grief. While out on the hunt Andrea and Daryl share a few touching moments. We get to see Daryl’s human side as well as some backstory. Daryl’s had a tougher than average childhood.

We then flash back to Shane and Otis in the school. They are trapped on top of the bleachers, a horde reaching up for them.

They have a plan, but it requires they split up. Otis is too big to fit through the upper windows. Shane covers Otis long enough for the big man to make it into the gym. Shane then makes it to the upper windows of the gym where he is able to drop/fall to the ground outside. Unfortunately for Shane, he hurt his leg in the fall and is now a bit gimpy.

T-Dog Gets Some Stitches

Back at Hershel’s farm Glenn and the wounded T-Dog have found their way to the front stoop. Maggie sees he’s wounded and goes to get her dad to look at the injury. Inside Hershel tells Rick and Lori time is running out. If Shane and Otis don’t get back they may have to operate without a respirator. Carl’s belly is filling up with blood. After T-Dog gets some stitches, Maggie and Glen have a heart to heart on the porch. Such a small moment, but so important to both of them.

Back on the hunt for medical supplies, Shane is in trouble. He’s running out of shotgun shells and he’s got a lot of walkers at his back. Lucky for him, Otis also made it out of the locker room and is there to give Shane a hand. It’s not long before Shane and Otis realize they are in trouble.

Its a slow moving hunt, but Shane is wounded and Otis is a big boy. The horde is slowly catching up.

We then cut back to “current time” and Shane has showed up in the pickup with the supplies. But Otis didn’t make it. Hershel tells them not to tell Otis’s wife, he needs her to help with the surgery. Rick hugs Shane, and Shane tells them that Otis was covering him. Shane breaks up a bit as he tells Rick that Otis was pulled down.

Inside Maggie is crying. Losing Otis reminds her of all the others they have lost. Glen does his best to listen and give Maggie comfort.

Otis

Outside Hershel has come out to tell Rick and Lori the surgery has been successful and Carl has stabilized. Now Hershel has to tell Otis’s wife he didn’t make it.

Back inside Maggie gives Shane some clothes, clothes that used to belong to Otis. Shane takes a long look in the mirror before beginning to shave his head. His eyes are full of darkness as he remembers exactly how Otis died.

Shane and Otis were struggling to stay in front of the horde. With Shane’s wounded leg, he is barely able to stay ahead of the horde. It is time for Shane to show just how brutal life in there world is. Shane uses his last round to shoot Otis in the leg before beating him until he lets go of the medical bag.

Otis is left on the ground to be devoured as Shane escapes.

The episode closes with Shane staring into a foggy mirror, his eyes hard and haunted.

Save the Last One Scoring

Save the Last One is intense, but it is more of a psychological intensity than a Zombie intensity, which resulted in this episode scoring an 83/100, making it Worth Your Time.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Days Gone Bye	100
1	2	Guts	100
1	3	Tell It To The Frogs	95
1	4	Vatos	94
1	5	Wildfire	95
1	6	TS-19	99
2	1	What Lies Ahead	95
2	2	Bloodletting	91
2	3	Save The Last One	83
2	4	Cherokee Rose	94
2	5	Chupacabra	97
2	6	Secrets	85
2	7	Pretty Much Dead Already	100
2	8	Nebraska	88
2	9	Triggerfinger	76
2	10	Miles Out	90
2	11	Judge, Jury, Executioner	70
2	12	Better Angels	75
2	13	Beside the Dying Fire	100

Bloodletting begins with a short flashback. Lori is remembering the day that Shane came to tell her that Rick has been shot in the line of duty. Just before Shane arrived she’s telling a girlfriend that her and Rick had a fight, and she was not being reasonable. Rick responds to her anger with coolness, and that makes her even madder. The way Lori responds when Shane pulls up is just heartbreaking. How does a police wife respond when her husbands partner shows up without him?

Spoilers Below

Shane tells Lori that its his fault. The call said there were two men in the car, but there was a third. The third man got the drop on them. Lori has to tell Carl that his dad has been shot.

When we come back from the first break, Rick, Shane, and Otis (the man who shoots Carl while hunting deer) are running for the farm. Otis told them that Hershel will be able to help them. This does raise some interesting questions about how well supplied Hershel’s camp is, because, well, Otis is a big boy – which is slowing them down a bit.

We are then to meet a newcomer. This newcomer will become one of the major characters for multiple seasons. Please let me introduce Maggie. Maggie sees Rick running, and alerts her father, Hershel. When Rick gets to the porch the first thing Hershel asks is whether Carl was bit. Once they confirm Carl was shot, not bit, the Hershel Emergency medical team goes into action.

Back in the woods, Team Daryl is leading the rest of the group on their continued search for Sophia. They heard the shot in the distance that hit Carl, but have no idea what actually happened – yet.

Back at Hershel’s house, we see Carl struggling, screaming as Hershel removes the bullet fragments. At least until he passes out from the pain. Lucky for Carl, him and his father have the same blood type.

How To Save Carl

Hershel has stabilized Carl, but he needs to open his belly to stop a bleeder. The local hospital burnt down, but FEMA opened a shelter at the local high school and there are medical supplies there. Rick can’t leave, he has to be there to give Carl blood. This leaves the medical supply mission up to Shane and Otis, while Maggie goes to get Lori, on a f*cking horse!!!

Back at Hershel’s farm, Rick and Hershel are having a heart to heart, at least until Maggie returns with Lori and she’s faced with seeing her son on the brink of death, pale and unresponsive from his wounds.

We then get an awesome back and forth between Lori and Hershel as he tells her he’s a vet, and not a combat vet, a vet as in a veterinarian.

The High School

Meanwhile Shane and Otis have reached the FEMA site at the local high school, and things do not look so great. There are a lot of Zombies about.

With so many Zombies about, Shane is forced to wait until nightfall when he can use road flares liberated from one of the cop cars to create a distraction to get the Zombies away from the FEMA trailer.

The distraction gives Shane and Otis the time they need to collect the medical supplies, but the horde is hot on their trail as they leave the trailer. This is one of the reasons that The Walking Dead is so awesome, the Zombie hordes are just so well done:

With hordes coming at them from every side, Shane and Otis are forced to take shelter inside the school, at least as long as the gate will hold.

Bloodletting Scoring

Bloodletting was another episode of The Walking Dead that kept me glued to the screen. It scored a 91/100, and is Worth Your Time. What cost it 9 points? Mostly very minor things. The first is that a lot of time bullet fragments are left in patients unless they are causing issues. So while the surgery is still necessary for the bleeder, going after the fragments is just asking for trouble. The other minor thing is the Zombies are heavy in the last few minutes, but you can never have enough Zombie kills, and there was really just one good kill when Daryl kills the Zombie that was menacing Andrea before Maggie shows up on her stead to save her.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Days Gone Bye	100
1	2	Guts	100
1	3	Tell It To The Frogs	95
1	4	Vatos	94
1	5	Wildfire	95
1	6	TS-19	99
2	1	What Lies Ahead	95
2	2	Bloodletting	91
2	3	Save The Last One	83
2	4	Cherokee Rose	94
2	5	Chupacabra	97
2	6	Secrets	85
2	7	Pretty Much Dead Already	100
2	8	Nebraska	88
2	9	Triggerfinger	76
2	10	Miles Out	90
2	11	Judge, Jury, Executioner	70
2	12	Better Angels	75
2	13	Beside the Dying Fire	100