Does it make sense to say that I had forgotten what sweet zombie action was like? I haven’t played a Resident Evil in ages, the zombie-movie trend has dried up and my zombie tv show got gun-shy on us. But tonight reminded me why I like zombie fiction at all and, by extension, the reason I was ever excited about this show in the first place. We had a little chat in the comments last week about how it looks like WD was heading toward the old thematic stand-by of “the real danger in the zombie apocalypse is other people, not the zombies” and that’s all well and good just so long as we never forget that the zombies are threat too.
It feels against my nature to praise something for letting the emotional baggage go in favor of violence. Because the episode leaned so heavily on action, there was some excellent cinematography and a lot of dynamic angels and vibrant, kinnectic camera moves. And the harrowing escape all took place at night, which lent the show some sorely missed drama. I think this is a massive improvement over last week, even though there’s still a fair amount of the characters arguing over Shane’s intentions.
I was worried that we were going to spend the last couple episodes of the season looking for Lori and treating Lori’s injuries and blah, blah, blah. Luckily, we tackle this one straight out the gate. And Lori even manages to win back a few of the points that slipped off the board when tried to drive into town on her own. I’m always impressed when some novel method of zombie trauma is displayed on screen – pushing one’s face through a busted windshield while the cheeks peel back: good one.
Back in town, Rick’s shitty decisions continue and they kill a few more people trying to escape. The base assumption is always that the other people are going to start shit, so our guys start shit first. With this episode and this write-up, I’m going to put that complaint to bed. Look, sometimes you need an impulsive asshole to arbitrarily complicate things and/or move the plot forward. So long as this does keep the plot moving, you won’t hear any more complaints from me; watched LOST for christsake. For example, I previously would have objected to the double anti-logic that lets Rick murder one guy and save another. But this will clearly cause more friction within the group and we get the added bonus of the looming threat of a rescue mission being mounted against them. I’m pro-this-most-recent-development.
The romantic relationships on this show still need some work, though. Why exactly does Glenn blow off Maggie? Because if they love each other then he can’t be as reliable to the people he loves? I’m double-checking the math and NOPE, it doesn’t really work out. He’s not saying that he’s avoiding the relationship because he couldn’t stand losing her (or her losing him), but that he’s somehow less able to survive when he cares about someone.
And then there’s Shane. Possible rumor-related spoilers ahoy! SHANE! There has been some speculation that the character is not going to make it through the season. It looks to me like they’re setting him up to go out with a bang. Please please please let him go out in an ill-advised blaze of glory, hopefully shooting as many of our heroes as possible.
