A Hunt With No End [The Walking Dead Dissection]
Posted by Justin on November 15th, 2011
Like a zombie whose brain has been cleaved in twain by a last minute arrow, this episode of The Walking Dead was of two minds. The first, let’s continue to put our characters on the path of the most boring, pointless plot arc in history. The second, let’s continue to give the audience slight glimmers of the promise that this show once found bursting out of every seem.
Also, Michael Rooker is back. Or is he.
Find it all, AFTER THE JUMP…
REALLY?!?!? WITH THE SOPHIA HUNT STILL?
“Sophia? She only matters to the degree she drags the rest of us down.”
-Shane
As if Shane was not already my favorite character.
I’ve come to grips with the fact that part of the reason I think Rick should die on the show is that he is forcing us to continue on this pointless, boring needle-in-a-haystack nonsense festival. You want to know the worst part? There is NO WAY the Sophia hunt ends in a satisfactory way.
Here are our options:
A) She’s dead and everyone feels sad/blames each other
B) She’s alive and everyone feels happy/blames each other
C) She’s alive and was found by some other random survivors and all along we’ve had to deal with six (and counting) episodes of filler so we could introduce new characters.
I have a great way to introduce a new character, make them walk down a random Georgia road because their life has been destroyed in zombie apocalypse.
The audience knows when they are in for a terrible pay off. ABORT! ABORT!
By the way, remember that awesome character that also went missing on the show? Yeah the racist guy who sawed his hand off! Why don’t we find him!
Merle’s “Back”
Daryl Dixon has a new lead in the Sophia Slog thanks to his abandoned house discovery last week. To best explore it, he borrows a horse from the stables only for the beast to get spooked by a snaked named Plot Device. This sends Daryl down into a ravine having punctured himself with his own arrow.
There is also a bit of foreshadowing before his terrible tumble where Daryle puts an arrow through a squirrel only to get skewered himself seconds later. This only shows that the writers have as much contempt for poor Daryl as they would a squirrel in the zombie apocalypse.
What a terrible way to treat Daryl, pretty much the most resourceful character on the show. HOWEVER, we give it a pass since it provides for a Merle Dixon fever dream cameo when America’s Favorite mentally abusive, racist coke addict goes on a monologue about how big of a puss Daryl is for being in this situation and how all the other survivors snicker behind his back.
He also uses the n-bomb. Because that’s kind of his thing.
Look at this behind the scenes feature-ette:
WHY IS MERLE DIXON NOT ON THIS SHOW! Seriously, give me one good reason? Imagine if an angry Merle were still part of the surviving pack or stalking the woods trying to kill T-Dog and Rick?
Just watch him last year. Has there been anything that exciting this season? Huh? Mr. Yo?
Touchstones
Score one for team “YOU KNOW, IN THE BOOOOOOOK!” as the classic comic “SOMEONE JUST GOT SHOT IN THE FACE, OH WAIT IT GRAZED THEIR HEAD!” jump scare is employed here for little apparent reason since there are no consequences to Andrea shooting a haggard Daryl in the dome piece.
Meanwhile, a classic shot from the pilot is recreated when a barricaded door begins to get jostle against the weight of a barn full of undead.
Speaking of the Barn
There are zombies in there. However, since we are all pretty sure that Herschel’s a nice guy I am sure there is a reasonable explanation for this. Heaven forbid the old man be portrayed as creepy or sinister so as to gin up a little drama. God, that would suck
Where are we now?
Merle isn’t back on the show. Rick and Shane argue about leaving Sophia behind. The entire planet agrees with Shane.
What’s next?
A look at Shane’s Shootin’ School Fer Ladies…
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November 15th, 2011 at 11:20 am
There’s a fourth way the Sophia arc could end in a more interesting way:
D.) She’s found as a walker, which could very well drive her mother insane.
Why is Merle not on this show? They sure made a point of aiming the camera at that hand he was supposed to lose. Are there any other characters who lost an appendage and was full of mad rage that Merle could emulate? Maybe someone who held a de facto political position, like councilman or mayor or governor?
The Dead-Eye Andrea scene served two purposes, both of which could have been handled more gracefully. For one (and my favorite), it gives Daryl that great line when he asks Rick why he doesn’t just shoot him in the head, and after he gets grazed manages to say “I was kidding.” Daryl could be the Han Solo of the Zombie Apocalypse.
But it also established Andrea as the budding crack shot she becomes in the book. Granted, if she was all that good, Daryl wouldn’t be talking. Like I said, it wasn’t handled gracefully.
What I’m curious about is that flashback at the beginning, where a city gets napalmed. What’s that prepping us for? There was a poll on The Talking Dead a week or two ago asking people how they think the whole megillah began, and ‘government test gone wrong’ was on that list. If it was some kind of failed test, then maybe the orange crush was a pre-planned containment strategy.
That dinner seemed to epitomize their story arc so far — everybody sitting on their hands, doing little and saying less, which just bores the 20-somethings into stunt-nookie.
I may change my beagle’s name to Plot Device.
November 15th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Remember when Andrea was on the X-Files?
November 15th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Ive been trying to play devils advocate with this whole Sophia story ark, but, damnit, it just gets harder and harder with each episode. I’ve mentioned before that I’m sure this whole search for Sophia is just a plot device to make them spend some time in dystopia. But at this point, it’s trying my patients more so than the gang is doing to Herschel.
By the by, Herschel needs to pull out a gun and tell them to get the hell of his property in the next episode or two. Otherwise I may just give up trying to convince myself of any amount of realism.
Also, am I the only person who is hoping for Baltar-esque regular visits from everybody’s favorite imaginary bigot?
November 15th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
What if Sophia’s mom offs herself five minutes before Sophia returns. That would make it worth it for me. The only thing I hate more than this endless search for Sophia is her stupid mother.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
I totaly agree. That idiot kid got her self into this mess when she got out from under the car in the first place, which led to her being chased into the forest. Let her die. Her mom is getting on my nerves. Now clear some thing up for me. After daryle comes too from his little dream after falling off the cliff for the second time, did that walker bite him or not!? That was this seasons horse attack in the city. I was screaming! God he is so hot. I cant belive that andrea shot him. I hate her now.