1601

One other thing - the farmhouse definitely has electricity. What’s up with that?

1602

Windmill?

1603

Maybe. 'Cause you never know when a troubled pretty boy with nice pecs and abs will need to do some post-sacrifice manscaping with an electric trimmer. :)

1604

That was badass. Shane is fast becoming someone I love to hate.

1605

Hate? You really think they were getting back to the farmhouse with the ventilator if Shane didn’t do that?

Are the women poorly written in the comics or does this show just not have a single female writer on staff?

1606

Best episode of the season. You could see it coming a mile away but it still hit like a brick when you saw it.

1607

When I first started reading the comics I did so partly because it was supposed to be one of the best written(that and it had zombies). I was shocked at how poorly written the female characters were. It’s like reading some high school kid’s version of women.

I was dismayed to see that carried over to the tv show.

Meanwhile, once again poor direction ruins a good scene. If zombies are right on them and it’s time for desperate measures, how do they have time to fight on the ground?

Also, both of them jumped from high places and got hurt. But the 500lb guy is the one who walks it off?!?

One thing though, I wish Terra Nova had as much dinosaur action as this show has zombie action. Seeing that feast was awesome.

1608

Well, Shane’s injury seems due to him having to react to getting attacked the moment he was preparing to jump down. He basically landed unprepared.

The zombies are close enough that Shane panics. If he wants to make sure he lives, then what he does makes sense. He probably feels justified knowing that he’s only in that situation because of a loyalty to a family he couldn’t have, and that this fat hunter put him in that situation in the first place.

1609

I didn’t think the end was so dark, he sort of deserved it on one hand and on the other it definitely seemed like someone had to do that or volunteer. This episode wasn’t bad but honestly almost nothing happened. It felt like they put filler and stretched a 5 min sequence into the whole show.

1610

Yeah, I agree. It was obvious Otis was going to die one way or another.

I thought he was going to sacrifice himself. But when Shane came driving into the farm with the pickup truck alone it was pretty clear to me what happened.

1611

I havent read the comic.


Does the Shane / Otis double cross occur in the comics?

1612

Otis/Shane in the comics

Not at all. In the comics, Shane is a very minor part of the story, which I won’t spoil unless you want that spoiler. Otis does shoot Carl, but not fatally, and that is of course the way that the survivors end up at Hershel’s farm house. There is no need to search for supplies after the shooting. Since Shane is a pretty big focus in the TV show, I think the show’s writers wanted to continue him down a grim path, and so they set up this situation. In general I think they’re handling the balance between what they want out of TV drama and grabbing from the source material fairly well, though as I said before I dislike this focus on Rick’s family instead of giving some more airtime to the other survivors.

1613

What does thinking I knew what happened before it was shown have to do with my feelings towards the character? When Shane drove up without Otis, it was pretty obvious what happened. Am I supposed to feel good that Shane shot a guy and left him to get swarmed?

Remind me not to buddy up with you during the zombipacalypse.

1614

One interesting theme that recurred through the episode is the question of what’s humane. Were Daryl and Andrea being humane by killing the zombie hanging from the tree? What does “humane” even mean when applied to the undead - do they know the difference? Or was that act only done because Andrea didn’t like seeing it thrash in the tree?

And was Shane not just calculating but inhumane not to kill Otis instead of maiming him? Was it necessary to leave him there as live bait rather than as a fresh kill?

Once the characters become inhumane, they start down the road to inhuman, IMO.

1615

It was like the old saying goes: “I don’t have to run faster than the bear, I just have to run faster than you.”

I think that if it has been someone he was closer to instead of a stranger, he might have tried to make it, but this was some guy he barely knew, who’d shot someone really close to him who needed saving, so I think he made those choices in that light. I definitely think it did put him down a dark path, hence the whole Heart of Darkness shower scene.

Did anyone else get bothered that he was wasting water while he was shaving his head?

1616

Not just water but hot water.

1617

Interesting you say that. I think Shane is just another normal human. The main character sherrif (what’s his name, the father) is just as human but he has a moral compass in the “old world” (pre-zombie). The producer was saying that Shane is just as human but he lacks the moral compass of the “old world” and Shane feels that he is one of the few that has the “stones” to survive in the “new world”. The producer also alluded that Shane thinks he would serve as a better provider to Sarah (from Prison Break) and her son than the main character sheriff guy.

So, if anything, in Shane’s mind he is more human and this new world order needs humans like him, not softies like the main character guy.

Although, we all like the main character guy over Shane anyday.

And, man, Shane is BUFFED for a guy over 40. So +1 for Shane.

No Hallowe’en candy for me tonight after seeing Shane nekkid top up.

1618

That shit totally bothers me. As well as when my wife leaves all the lights on in the house!

What’s with women and leaving all the lights on??

1619

This is the walking dead, where women serve no purpose apart from being emotional basket cases and threatening suicide and/or contemplating letting their children die.

1620

I think they mentioned earlier in the previous episode about having a generator at the farmhouse. When they showed them using the lights and the fridge I just assumed that was the case.

Shane’s decision was a turning point for me with the character. Up until that moment I thought Shane was getting a pretty raw deal and that he was generally a likeable guy who was just trying to sort out everything that happened in the past 3 monhts since Rick was shot. After Otis though… I can understand the reasoning, but that doesn’t make it right. It also really bothered me that Shane intentionally shot Otis in the leg instead of in the head or heart. It’s point blank, and he’s well trained with firearms, so why leave a live Otis behind to be horrifically torn to pieces when a freshly dead Otis would have served just as well? It’s not like the zombies prefer their meat wiggling and screaming, as was evidenced by the fact that they apparently had no qualms about feasting on the dead hanging guys legs before he came back. Shane crossed a line, even if it was to save Carl’s life. Honestly, I’m having a hard time liking any of the characters remaining. Maybe Glenn, if only because he’s as yet fairly undeveloped.

Also, this episode only reinforced my opinion that zombie speed is compeltely relational to dramatic tension required and has no basis in reality. I’m OK with it though.