THE WALKING DEAD: “Pretty Much Dead Already” – RECAP

It comes as no surprise that The Walking Dead would leave its midseason finale in such a dark, somber tone. What was unexpected was the level of coldness it reached. Looking back at the show’s entire 13 episode run, I can safely say The Walking Dead works best when it puts the characters in impossibly sad or dark situations. And those situations have only come up thus far when someone was either dead or dying. From Amy to Jim to Otis, those moments were the standouts. We didn’t even know them that well as characters, but they left a mark, each for different reasons. It’s a tad morbid to say, though it absolutely fits with the type of show we’re dealing with, but death and despair are the fuel that will keep TWD going for years.

So let’s get right down into that last big moment with Sophia. We’ve spent the better part of these first seven episodes searching for this little girl who couldn’t follow simple (in my mind at least) directions and wound up lost in the woods for several days. As Crazy Shane correctly points out, if you can’t find a missing child after the first 48 hours you can pretty much stop looking. As it turns out, Crazy Shane was horribly right, even if he handled it like… well a crazy person. The question on my mind is, “Was the reveal of Sophia’s zombification worth the time spent getting there?” I also wonder if this was Frank Darabont’s original plan for her character before he was fired as showrunner. I guess we’ll never know for sure. Now, was it worth it? I think I want to say yes.

This first half of the season was slow, too slow at times. I can forgive that, as there was some fantastic character development for Dale, Shane, Daryl, Carol, Andrea and Glenn. Sophia’s reveal offered some great contrast to Daryl, who was convinced she was still alive. While many had lost hope, he was vocally in favor of searching for this girl, not giving up on her. Daryl is a guy who’s been left alone most of his life and doesn’t want that for Sophia. His growing relationship with Carol has been one of my favorite aspects of this season. It came out of nowhere, but has been handled appropriately and believably. Daryl doesn’t immediately warm up to her kindness, even displaying a moments of rudeness, yet he’s the one holding Carol at the end when Rick has to put Zombie-Sophia down. That build up couldn’t have happened in a shorter timeframe. The show needed this extended search in order to tell this story.

Similarly, Shane’s boiling point was reached, something that needed the time it was given. The show could have simply had Shane snap, but this slow build up was more effective. Thanks to Lori’s pregnancy acting as a catalyst, Crazy Shane takes securing the farm into his own hands, intending on getting their weapons back. Dale is way ahead of him though, having taken the guns in order to hide them from Crazy Shane’s crazy plans. Unfortunately, Shane’s a better tracker than Dale gives him credit for and soon they’re in a stand off. As with last week’s confrontation between these two, this was a scene soaked in tension. I knew Dale wouldn’t shoot Shane, but at least he realized someone might need to at some point, which may be foreshadowing for Shane’s ultimate fate in this show. Shane told Lori that Rick isn’t cut out for this new world, and Dale correctly asserts Shane is made for it. I wonder how long Shane can go around threatening people like this before the group turns on him.

If there was one thing I didn’t like about “Pretty Much Dead Already” it was everything that happened between Maggie and Glenn. Nothing felt quite right. Glenn gave a good speech explaining why he had to tell the group about the barn, but Maggie’s immediate acceptance followed by a make out session felt too much too fast. Yes, I’m aware their relationship has been fast, but that was an act of desperation. I don’t know what this was, just that it felt off. The one good thing it served was motivating Maggie to go to Hershel and change his mind about forcing the group to leave.

All that’s left now is to wonder where things will go from here. Hershel was close to letting everyone stay, but now things are a mess with Shane having killed every zombie in the barn. And shouldn’t have Hershel realized Sophia was in there? Sadly, we have 11 weeks to wait until Episode 8 makes its way to our TV screens. I’m just happy we were given a great, depressing ending to go out on. The thing is though, just because the show thrives on death doesn’t mean it should start killing everyone left and right. Too much death and it loses its impact. I may not like some characters and wish they were dead, but I would still want their deaths to mean something, have some kind of serious impact. Gratuitous death isn’t the answer, but selective and moving deaths will keep this show on for as long as everyone involved continues to make it.