1981

I don’t see the point of that. Approval? What, was there a chance she’s going to say “Nah, don’t do it”?

They had just finished wiping out Herschel’s against his will, but they’re going to seek her approval first? She’s one of them remember? The people who know them as walkers and not human. I think the only reason Rick would have to look her way first is to see if she wanted to do the honors herself, but all things considered I think we can agree EVERYONE knows that wasn’t going to happen.

1982

Shane was totally out of line. But I did love him filling the one walker with holes in the heart and lungs to prove they are not human before he finally puts her to the ground…

Also. This has been in my head forever. But the makeup person on this show is still having way too much fun with the zombie look. It is awe inspiring

1983

He came damned close to hitting Herschel while he was doing it.

1984

I know this will get me lumped in with the internet 'spergy jerks, but I think Shane taking the Gordian Knot solution to the barn problem was probably the only real answer in the world they have. What else do you do? Let the insane farmer keep a barn full of undead?

1985

My solution, and I’m surprised a character didn’t bring this up:

Reinforce barn security, a wall around the barn, something like that. That way Herschel keeps his pets and Rick’s group feels secure. Instead they went with our way or your way, with no compromise. However, I think part of that was due to Herschel insisting they just leave, which kind of rules out compromising.

The risk Shane took is that someone from Herschel’s group, maybe Herschel himself, wouldn’t snap when seeing their family members put down and start attacking Rick’s group. If it were me and I was going to go that route, I’d want to do it out of sight of Herschel’s group and clear the bodies before they visited the barn area again. That way it’d lessen the impact and hopefully keep them from getting more upset than they need to be.

1986

I think part of the problem was everyone just going along with Herschel and mollycoddling his delusion. Shane’s answer not only forced the issue for Herschel, but made everyone at the farm really see the zombies for what they were and how wrong Herschel was about it. I think the daughter’s tearful nod was confirmation of that. She was giving Glenn approval to do what needed to be done.

Sure, you could build a wall around the barn, but why bother with that? It’s a waste of time and resources and it reinforces Herschel’s nuttiness.

1987

This was my absolute favorite part of that whole scene. And it did more for legitimizing and building Glenn and Maggie’s relationship than most of the conversations and scenes in the last couple episodes.

1988

The group actually talked about this very situation earlier in the season. Well, not the barn, but what to do if they found her bitten.

1989

Leave? Nor was he insane - he simply had a different view of the zombies and hoped that somehow a cure could be found. It was his profession to try and cure things. I’d say that he was overly optimistic that he could keep them in a rickety barn forever, however.

The only insane thing is in thinking that that they would ever be safe there. Walkers were clearly roaming nearby - a large migration in the night and that would be the end of them. It isn’t a defensible position. It’s a temporary haven at best.

Now their choices are to leave anyway, or stay unwelcome. Yes, they got rid of the potential danger inherent in a mass breakout from the barn, and undoubtedly did Hershel and company a favor whether he liked it or not, but they are still in an uncomfortable position.

But from a dramatic standpoint, it was all great. The inherent pull between Shane and Rick on a number of levels, Hershel trying to cling to hope and being crushed, the agony of seeing Sophia as a zombie and being obligated to finish her off along with Hershel’s friends and relatives.

1990

Dude, i agree… Hershell isn’t insane. He has a different view point which is totally reasonable since they don’t have the information they need.

Hershell’s actions are better justified in the comic book I feel.

1991

1992

If Herschel was some yokel I wouldn’t think he’s crazy, just ignorant.

But he’s an educated man. He knows those ‘people’ are not curable. They are missing chunks of their bodies. They’ve been mutilated, living by eating human corpses or whatever else. Their flesh is rotted. No ‘cure’ is going to fix that, there is no shot to give them that will wipe away the zombie virus and somehow patch up their damaged bodies too.

He knows this yet still acted like all he needed was the government to send out a medical team with a vaccine or something.

I understand why the others supported him in this. They got a relatively safe place to live, food, shelter and all. Why not coddle the old man if that’s what it takes?

1993

No, there’s some definite denial going on there. It’s pretty clear that some of the walkers in the barn are not just sick, never mind the one in the well who got ripped in half. He doesn’t see that because he doesn’t want to see.

1994

Hope. When everything else is gone, in the face of all logic, people cling to it. He just wasn’t ready to believe that the people he loved were dead.

1995

But they were definitely not safe. Sure the barn had locks but it was also an old wooden barn with what looked like weak wood, old wood and one good push could take down a wall. They were all gonna wake up some night with a house full of flesh hungry zombies and that would have been the end of them.

I vote he is totally crazy. Or at least this whole thing put him if not over the deep end, definitely teetering on the edge.

Oddly I figured that he knew Sophia was in the barn…if he didn’t someone certainly did since they were feeding them and probably knew all of them by name- and I would assume they would tell Hershell at some point? (I understand that the comic states otherwise but I haven’t read it and sadly now I can’t :( )

And what a totally epic ending to a fantastic episode.

1996

He’s not criminally or gibbering insane, but keeping a barn full of reanimated dead people because you think that someday there will be a shot or something that will “cure” them is all kinds of nuts. They are clearly dead, rotting, and dangerous. These things aren’t just violent 28 Days Later infected people. They are zombies.

Keeping them around is a sign that something has snapped in your mind. It’s not just a different viewpoint, unless by “different” you meant “dangerous and crazy.”

1997

At the very least, somebody should’ve noticed that there was a little girl in the barn who hadn’t been there before and wasn’t one of their neighbours. That part is kind of weak. I also would like to know how they supposedly were able to get new zombies in safely, especially when it was just Otis. Make them climb the ladder?

1998

The episode shows that they collect walkers as they find them. I don’t think you can assume they knew them all.

1999

He’s a “scientist” but he is clearly also a devout Christian. He may have been waiting for a miracle and/or seeing the whole thing as a test of faith ala Job.

Whether waiting for miracle qualifies as crazy, who knows.

2000

I see Herschel’s attitude as analogous to maybe having a loved one in an incurable state on a ventilator and not wanting to let them go, common sense to the contrary, because you think they might get better. Or keeping around someone you care about who you know can hurt you but thinking you can fix them somehow.

I wouldn’t call him insane, but he’s irrational, and we’ve all been there.