Is it Time to Bury THE WALKING DEAD?

Season 2, episode 8: “Nebraska”

[Main image: Russell Kaye/AMC]

Timothy: Aaaaaaand we’re back. Welcome again to Dustin Adair and my weekly adventure of pondering the trials and tribulations of Team Zombie, as they make their way through the horrifically changed world of AMC’s “The Walking Dead”. We’ve been away for the mid-season break, and as you can clearly tell – ahem – we’re off to a slow start on the new episodes. We apologize profusely, and plead that, um, well, we’ve both been busy this week. We’ll do better. Honest.

So, once again joined by the sweet Tweet stylings of Mr. Curtis Smith, we ask ourselves one very important question: Will the writing of this second half of the season be as erratic and illogical as the first? SPOILERS and general inappropriateness lie ahead… you have been warned.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
Gawd I can’t remember anybody’s name now. @walking_dead @scifi4me

Dustin, why don’t you start us off?

Dustin: Previously on TWD everyone was boring and terrible.  
Rick shot Zombie Sofia.
Shane was all forehead.
Daryl was the Mary Sue.
Andrea equal parts useless and competent.

Nicely put. And can we also say that we have another moment talking about the non-search for Sophia in the intro?

No. Save that, you’ll want to use it later. We can say that we start literally seconds after the last episode ended, with everyone standing in front of the barn staring dumbfounded at the newly re-killed zombies. The Greene Farmers are still clueless,  so clueless in fact, that Cannon Fodder’s girlfriend – one of the nameless Greene Daughters – runs right up to the body of her mom and gets immediately attacked by her. Luckily, Theodore and Andrea are there to take her out.

There is a sentence I never thought I would write.

Yeah, not so sure that Andrea’s use of the scythe there was the safest of all their options. I mean, we’ve got a LOT of guns about, don’t we? Surely someone could have just pushed in close and popped one in Mom’s forehead there… um. There is much wrong with that sentence isn’t there? Anyway, using the blade on the end of a 5/6 ft pole and swinging it into a group of people is clearly the best of all possible choices.

The Greene Farmers all head back to the house with Shane trailing behind being a belligerent jerk. Shane is all angry because he thinks that the Greene Farmers had to have known Sophia was in the barn. Well, yeah. I would jump to that conclusion too. I really can’t blame him.

Another sentence that fought me all the way out.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
They totally knew. @walking_dead @scifi4me

According to Hershel, Otis put them people in the barn before his “unfortunate accident.” Shane believes this as much as I do, frankly. Suddenly Maggie is mad at Team Zombie? Way to turn on a dime, girly. Now, you wanted to say something about the search?

Yeah, so Shane, while berating Hershel and Co., lets loose this line:

“We’ve been out, we’ve been combing these woods looking for her…”

Ahem. How do I put this? Ah yes.

NO YOU BLOODY HAVEN’T.

There is one good thing to say about the death and zombification of Sophia, and that is that the horrible, horrible, horrible recurring sight of someone in Team Zombie saying “Let’s go look for Sophia, the poor little girl lost in the zombie infested woods, before something terrible happens to her”, and then promptly NOT doing it, for episode after episode, is over. Yes, I know, it’s a valid complaint on Shane’s part, in-story, on everyone in TZ’s part, but it’s just been so… so… so…

Bad writing?

Yes.

Feel better?

Little bit, yes.

Good. Can we move on? ‘Cause we’re only 3 minutes into the episode.

Yeah. Anyway, Hershel goes back to “Get off my land”, and Maggie scores a nice slap on Shane.

Then Rick and Shane yell their way across the yard to Team Zombie’s camp, where they have a jerky conversation where Rick is wrong and Shane is right. And I HATE IT when Shane is right.

Oh Rick. Really? You’ve just seen the barn full of zombies, that Hershel and his family have been feeding, and you’re still defending Hershel? And I still don’t see how the Greenes missed the little girl Zombie after all this time.

Meanwhile, the wind is blowing as Andrea cleans up dead bodies. She cries because she is a woman and that is her go-to emotion. Carol is all catatonic and Daryl tries to help her, but it’s kind of a lost cause. I’m still all fingers crossed for a Damaged Person’s Romance between the two of them.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
I miss Merle. @walking_dead @scifi4me

Glen confronts Maggie (in his way) about whether or not she knew Sophia was in the barn. Maggie is a little insulted, but because she wants to hit that again, she says she didn’t, and Glenn believes her. I believe her too, so there’s that. Glenn is all relieved that they can finally stop looking for Sophia and “move on.” Maggie fixates on the ‘move on’ part of the conversation. I don’t know if he means literally or figuratively, and I don’t think Maggie does either. They talk about burying the dead.

You know, of all the writing that’s been bothering me this season, Glenn and Maggie’s little story has been pretty good.

Lori sits with Carl, and he tells her that he thought he would be the one to find Sophia, and that he thinks his Dad did the right thing by shooting her. He also says that he would have done the same thing, which makes Lori less than thrilled.

Rick and Shane walk up and survey the damage. Team Zombie confers to discuss what they should do about all the bodies. Hey! Cannon Fodder is there! Looks like we have our first defector from the Greene farmers to Team Zombie. And I thought it would be Maggie.
Theodore says they should start digging. Lori takes over, yelling at everyone about where to go and what to do. Cannon Fodder asks about what they are going to do with the other bodies. Andrea says they only bury the ones they love, the rest are burned.
Lori and Rick talk about how awful Rick is and how all his decisions are wrong in the most spectacular way. He walks away to make it all about him.

Only it kinda is, isn’t it? Rick’s decisions, well-meaning though they have been, have brought them here. Well, that and some contrived storytelling.

Shane goes to get the truck to move the bodies, but Dale is standing there giving him the stink eye. So Shane goes to confront a 70 year-old man. Shane kind of loses it at him, while Dale is all googly eyes.

And look! Shane thinks it’s all about him!

Everyone has a grave digging party. Lori looks around being stupid. Does she ever actually DO anything?  

Carol and Daryl are sitting in silence in the RV, when Lori, apparently doing something, comes and tells them it’s time for the service. Carol says she’s not going, because the body isn’t her little girl. She had been worrying that Sophia had been lost, alone and frightened, but knows now that she died a long time ago. Her eerie calm and resignation leave Daryl speechless.

I think he’s sad.
In the house, Hershel packs up his wife’s clothes  and finds a flask. Are we supposed to feel bad for these people? I really don’t know anymore. The funeral is silent and unseen. Everyone walks off in different directions.

Alone, Carol picks Cherokee Roses, and flails around in anger and pain.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
Carol’s got gardenin’ to do. @walking_dead @scifi4me

While clearing up bodies, Theodore, Andrea, Dale and Rick talk about the moral quandary Shane caused. This is going to last forever, isn’t it?
After they get all the bodies on the truck, Andrea jumps in the back with them and the truck heads off to the burn pile. They lose an arm and Andrea goes to get it. I think I see what they are doing. They are stripping Andrea of all her feminine qualities so they can make her useful. I think the writers hate women.  

Maggie asks Glenn if Team Zombie will leave now that they have found Sophia. He says he doesn’t know. She asks whether he would stay or not. Glenn hems and haws. Suddenly, Cannon Fodder’s girlfriend falls over in the kitchen. Also: Hershel is missing.
Shane and Rick turn cop as they look for clues in Hershel’s room. It nice to see this glimpse into what they were like before the world went to hell. Maggie says Hershel is more than likely at the bar. Rick is going to get him.
Glenn volunteers to go with Rick to get Hershel. But of course, being an irrational woman, Maggie doesn’t see the point of having the best tracker go help find her father. She gets stompy.

Lori doesn’t think Rick should go after Hershel without talking about it with her, and Shane thinks that they should just let Hershel go to hell. Lori tells Rick about Carl saying that he would have shot Sophia, and that she’s worried that he’s getting cold and needs his father around, not running around trying to solve everybody’s problems. Rick points out that they have a baby on the way and that he thinks they need Hershel, so he’s going.

When Rick goes to the truck, he sees Maggie and Glenn having a touching moment on the porch.

Meanwhile, out at the pump, Shane rinses his hot head in the fountain. Just then Carol comes walking out of the woods all dazed. Shane shows he has some humanity left by rinsing her arms and apologizing for causing the barn ruckus. He says he had no idea Sophia was in the barn. But then he turns it around and makes Carol’s dead pre-teen all about him.

Wow. Yeah, Shane almost had me going there for a second. He really did seem to be just being kind, but no, he turns it into a self-justification session. Ah well.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
I can’t wait for Shane to get his. And I hope the goblins do it.

Dale and Lori talk about how dangerous Shane is. Dale tells Lori that he thinks Shane kills Otis. Lori is really slow on the uptake. Dale has to spell it out for her. Dale describes the murder like he was there.  Lori’s eyes bug and Dale walks away.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
Shane is TOTALLY a murderer. @walking_dead @scifi4me

On the ride to the bar, Glenn tells Rick that Maggie said that he loves him. Glenn worries that it’s too soon, Rick tells him to stop being a loser and love her back.  Glenn is being a total jerk and Rick loves living in the past.
Glenn confesses about getting Lori the pills. Rick is like, ‘no duh.’

Heh. Oh I think it’s cute. Glenn all uncertain and trying to figure out how he’s feeling. And for someone who keeps making questionable choices, Rick has been reading the people around him pretty well. Of course, his telling Glenn that it’s ok because he was just trying to do what’s right, even though it was wrong? Is that really about Glenn?

Meanwhile, Daughter Fodder is all sick. No one suggests looking for a bite since she did go a round with momma walker.
Lori goes to ask Daryl to go get Rick, Glenn, and Hershel, but he says he’s done looking for lost people and tells her to go to hell. (He also calls her ‘Olive Oil’… it’s a little priceless.)

Ok, didn’t Rick and Glenn just leave? Why, exactly are we not waiting for, I don’t know, a few minutes or something for them to find Hershel? Isn’t Daughter Fodder one of the reasons that they went to find him anyway?

Rick and Glenn arrive at the bar, Hershel asks if Glenn was sent by Maggie and Rick says no. Hershel is drunk. Hershel soliloquies about how blind he was. Rick is an idiot.
Why do I watch this show? Now they are talking about the nature of hope and… God, how I wish I was watching The Grammys. THE GRAMMYS!!
Hershel has lost all hope. He says he was a fool and I have no choice but to agree.  Let him get drunk.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
Hope schmope. @walking_dead @scifi4me

Actually, I like how we finally get to see Hershel display some remorse and pain and uncertainty. That and the fact that he points out that all of this pain is Team Zombies fault, so thanks for that guys.

Meanwhile. Lori is going onto town to get her husband from the bar, but she has no idea where she is going, so she has to read the map while driving. She hits a walker and then she wrecks and dies. Or I hope she dies. Either way, the men folks are gonna have to go save her. I imagine that it will take the rest of the season to find her.

Oh my dear and fuzzy lord. Remember the first part of the season? Remember the times when zombies would appear out of nowhere to attack our heroes? So Lori is driving along, down the road, the paved, ordinary road. No other cars to block her view or anything. In the distance, we can see a zombie walking into the road. Lori doesn’t, ok, that seems kinda dumb, but ok, but flipping the car? Seriously? Dear writers: Oh come on! Try a little subtlety for a change will you? The only reason she wrecked was because you decided you wanted her to, but could you make it a little less obvious? Gah!

At the bar, Hershel is terrible, but even he recognizes that Team Zombie is a plague.  I’m not even covering this part. I have fried chicken to eat.

You’re welcome for the chicken. Yes, Hershel is terrible here, but he’s right to a point. His world has been destroyed by Rick and Shane and the others, and the hope he was holding onto has been destroyed by their arrival. But that life and hope were lies he was telling himself, and he sees that now. But his despair isn’t going to be cured at the bottom of a bottle.

Back at the farm, Shane and Theodore are building a zombie pyre in blissful silence.

Just when Rick is finally getting through to Hershel that he’s needed, we get an old joke brought to life… “Two men walk into a bar…”

And interrupt Rick and Hershel’s momentous terribleness. The strangers are Dave and Tony and they are from Philadelphia. Dave (the skinny one) raises a toast to the dead and shows off his gun. Rick’s cop senses go off. He can tell these are not good guys. So, of course, he tells them that he used to be a cop. Everyone is really on edge.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
New people! Yay! I hope they are evil. @walking_dead @scifi4me

Dave and Tony have driven all over the country looking for a safe place, they tell Rick, Hershel and Glenn all sorts of stuff, including the fact that Fort Benning is overrun.
Dave tries to get information out of them about where the Greene Farm is, but Rick is so much more… not… telling them… than they want? I’m really not sure what is going on here. But it sounds a hell of a lot like how Rick and Hershel first met.

It is exactly like Hershel and Rick met, and I don’t think that’s lost on either of them. Or at least it is until the tension in the room gets even thicker. Rick makes it clear that because they don’t know the new arrivals they aren’t about to welcome them with open arms, and Dave makes it clear that he’s willing to do anything to be safer. It’s a fine line here, with Dave appearing wary but reasonable at first, but more and more, even as his words sound a LOT like Rick’s, you can see that he’s more like Shane. And when he hops behind the bar, putting a barrier between him and Rick, you know he’s doing it to provide cover for when the bullets start flying.

And when Dave and Tony makes their move, Rick is faster. With no hesitation, he kills them both.

Curtis Smith @Creepy_Curtis
Rick rules. Let the goblins bear witness. @walking_dead @scifi4me

At the farm, Shane, Theodore and Andrea burn the dead.

Honestly? Dustin and I actually liked this one for the most part. Solid beginning, rocky middle, excellent ending. Shane being a bastard, Lori being a plot point, and Glenn and Maggie being cute. Hershel coming apart and pulling himself together, and Rick getting his own words thrown back at him by Dave, a man who sounds like Rick but seemed a LOT like what Shane is becoming. It’s still got the usual problems this second season has been plagued with, most heavily personified in Lori this episode, but it wasn’t bad. Now that we’re past the godawful Sophia storyline, one can, dare I say it, hope.

Oh yes, our lesson for today. Speed kills? Hmmm. Drink only in moderation? Maybe. Oh, I know! When the zombies rise and feast on the living? Don’t keep them in the barn. It only leads to heartbreak. Go and share that wisdom with the world, and we’ll see you next week!

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