Drastic
2021
I liked the meta level as Shane becoming the embodiment of all viewer rage at the sheer amount of dithering the group was engaged in. Nice final reveal, and I also don’t buy that Hershel didn’t know. I suppose were I in a jury that reasonable doubt may grudgingly apply, but no due process in the zombie apocalypse! (If we do that, the zombies win.)
I don’t know how Glen managed to last this long without the ability to wash his own hat.
Pogo
2022
Ahhhh… finally opened the barn, and indeed it was the shooting gallery I hoped they would keep in the story, albeit the circumstances for it was a shift. The way they built up to that point was somewhat disappointing before this episode, but I’m glad that it helped give the final scene the gravitas it needed.
I agree that was a really good payoff episode.
What I wanted to know, however, is what the heck Dale was doing in the forest with the guns? Was he just running off to hide all the guns so Hershel would let them stay? As stupid as Shane is acting, to me, Dale is much more annoying. If I was Andrea I’d punch him in the face until he stopped trying to give me advice.
So do they. The scene that showed during Hell on Wheels (if you can call it that - it was a pretty poor teaser) consisted entirely of Rick people saying, “C’mon - how do you NOT know that?” and Herschel saying, “'Cause I’m all stupid and shit.” Except, you know, in their voices and with considerably elevated drama.
jason
2025
He was hiding the guns so that Shane wouldn’t come get some and go kill all the barn zombies.
The person on the show I have the MOST dislike for is Dale. He constantly makes these decisions without talking to anyone because he has this arrogance that he knows what’s best for the group.
Did he talk to anyone about trying to ditch ALL the guns but his own? Did he include anyone in his plans to not give Andrea her gun back? He made the decision to pretend his wrek of an RV was still not functioning when it was. Doling out all these pearls of wisdom to people who should just slap him silly. All this time, smiling to himself thinking he’s “The man with the master plan”.
Shane is suited for a ZA world, I don’t doubt that. I do agree that it had to come to a head to point out to Hershell’s group that the undead are no longer people, but he completely lost it. Shane does know what it takes to survive, but is also untrustworthy. Just ask Otis’ ghost.
Rick is somewhere between Hershell’s complete denial of a ZA, and Shane’s total scorched earth policy on surviving a ZA.
I hope the 2nd half of the season kicks things off in high-gear, and we get out of this slow, going nowhere first half.
I do.
Shane thinks he’s suited for the zombie apocalypse, but I think the point of the ending was to show, when push comes to shove, he ain’t. He talks a big talk about us vs. them, but when confronted with the little girl zombie, he balked. Rick’s the one that faced up to that horrible truth and took care of it.
I have no definitive knowledge, but the show budget and how it’s produced lead me to think that they’re going to be at the farm for a large part of the second half as well. I suspect that they’ll end up back on the road again near the end of the season, but until then I don’t expect the pace to change much (and if they do what I suspect they will in Season 3, let’s just say you should get used to this level of movement, because they’ll settle into a defensible territory that I thought dragged a little even in the comics).
I’m also a little bit afraid that the opening credits and the length of the season will mean that, unlike in the comic, in this show, everybody isn’t necessarily always in danger. I don’t think the show can kill anybody visually incorporated into the title credits (Rick, Shane, Lori…anybody else?) until it gets close to the end of the season, which is unfortunate, because it kind of limits them to Whedoning only characters you would kind of expect to be natural targets for Whedoning. Like Otis.
What I meant was that Shane will do whatever it takes to survive. He is definately not suited mentally to be with a group in a ZA world unless he’s with a like minded group (and he’s not atm). He’s unstable, and untrustworthy.
Rick is stable, and that’s why he’s the “leader”. I remember the season 1 pilot. The first zombie we see is a little girl. Rick puts one between the eyes.
Finally we get back to some of what made this show so compelling in the initial episodes. There was a ton of good stuff in this episode, form Ricks arguments with Herschal to Shane’s breakdown to the capture and herding of walkers to the final scene with the barn. I suspected all along that they’d find what they found, but it still hit me hard nonetheless. Sophia was still “fresh” enough that the impact was there, and Rick’s action was as heartbreaking as it was neccessary.
I loved how the camera panned over all the people during the barn opening. You clearly saw the rage in Shane, Andrea and even Daryl, and the horror on the faces of Herschal’s people. Even Herschal seemed to transform from outraged disbelief to resigned acceptance as the scene went on. Then, when the big reveal happened, it was our gang’s turn to feel the shocked horror of the situation. I thought that was a brilliant turnabout and was conveyed very convincingly.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, but the end result of this episode is that I can’t wait to find out. That’s a feeling that was missing from the last few episodes, so it’s good to have it back. Too bad I have to wait until February to find out.
DT1
2031
I can’t see how they’ll get Herschel to let them stay at this point. So, unless they kill him, my guess is that they’d be on the road again. Dramatically speaking, there’s nothing left to do at the farm.
Well, in the upcoming scenes it indicates…
they spoiled it in the Upcoming Episodes thing at the end
Herschel goes missing at some point. I have no idea whether that’s for just an episode or longer. I believe I also remember hearing the phrase “get that man off my farm,” which indicates to me that Hershey there is parsing between the Rick people he likes and the Rick people he doesn’t like.
But I could easily see Herschel letting everybody but Shane stay at the farm just as things stand. At this point, it’s basically all Shane’s fault that all the dead people are redeaded (he DID bash open the barn and force the issue), and it’s not like Herschel doesn’t have some 'splainin to do about how the entire group just spent an unspecified number of days or weeks beating the bushes for a girl that he theoretically knew was already dead.
That would help ease Rick’s conscience since he failed in his task to save Sophia but at least he gained her mother’s approval.
TWD is not about easing Rick’s conscience. Quite the opposite.
I think there’s a difference between being a leader and a commander. Rick is a leader, different people choose to follow him, from Dale on one end of the scale to Shane on the other. Shane is a commander, he can exert authority over people but he’ll never be able to get a wide range of people choosing to follow him. They’ll follow him only because they feel they have no choice.
DT1
2035
Shane is the main antagonist at this point. My opinion is that they need him around to drive the action. I haven’t read the comics so I have no idea what’s likely to happen, it just feels like the farm storyline has played out to me. Other than waiting for the baby to arrive (if it does), there’s not much left to do there.
Okay. Let’s just get this out of the way. I’ll put it in tags, but I can’t talk about this without admitting that this undoubtedly has to influence my thinking.
From very early in the comics, about the chief departure the TV series has made, and at this point it almost can’t be considered a spoiler
Shane gets shot to death in the sixth issue of the comics, before they even get to Herschel’s Farm.
My sense is that, one way or another, Shane isn’t going to be in the group with Rick after the season. Either he’ll break off on his own, possibly with one or more of the other people, or he’ll end up dead, or some combination of those two. If he’s still with them into Season 3 I think that the constant tension might not be the good kind of tension. I could get tired of it, anyway.
What I suspect is going to happen is…
Also informed by that comics spoiler
…Rick and Shane are going to get into a big fight near the end of the second half of the season. Lots of yelling. Possibly Shane will start thugging in Rick’s general direction. At that point, a heretofore unnoticed Carl will shoot Shane to death. That’s an essential scene from the comic that I think they cannot help but try and capture. The season ends with them on the road, because I imagine that the next season will take place in an entirely different static location from the comics, because shooting in one location is orders of magnitude cheaper than shooting in a lot of different ones.
DT1
2037
Fair enough. I didn’t know those things. I’m less excited about the second half now though! :)
corsair
2039
He was anticipating exactly what happened.
Shane’s character is a very interesting amalgam of passion and insight. For me, his defining moment came in the first season, when he thrashed wife-abuser (I forget his name) to within inches of his life. I doubt anyone would argue that intervening in that situation was wrong, but Shane’s excessive passion took his intervention to extremes, something that keeps happening.
He almost always sees the correct answer (or at least a correct answer) to whatever problem the group is currently facing, but he’s unable to persuade anyone because of his intense anger. This also manifests itself in cruelty, like when he shot Otis in the leg instead of the head. Okay, maybe one of them had to die to escape the school–that’s a defensible though horrible position to take. If so, though, kill Otis cleanly instead of leaving him to be eaten alive.
If it wasn’t for his excessive emotions, he would make a perfect second in command for the group, the kind who can speak truth to power and point out the tough realities even though he lacks the leadership qualities necessary for the number one position. As is, though, he’s far too unstable and dangerous.
