The Story: The survivors leave tent-ville, and head out onto the road.
[NOTE: SPOILER WARNING!]
What’s Good: This is the kind of show that TWD really should be. Lots of good relationship stuff in this episode that was best summarized by Rick and Lori’s discussion about “next steps.” Neither of them knows what they should do next. Staying in the camp could be a bad idea, but heading out onto the road could be a disaster. It’s kinda like trying to pick a lane in stop-and-go traffic… Only if you guess wrong, zombies devour you and your family alive.
Speaking of families, we get very emotional scenes with other survivors. The Andrea/Amy scene was incredibly uncomfortable (in a good way). I was literally squirming in my seat as we see Amy rise again, while trying to calm myself with the rationalization that “Andrea is one of the major ongoing character in the comic.” The scene of Carol bludgeoning her dead husband was really grim. It even made Darryl wince! And how about Jim… In a scene pried straight from the comics, Jim decides he wants to go be with his family, but in a very different way.
The Shane/Rick conflict got turned back towards high too. The creators of this show have made Shane a much more interesting character than the one-note ass he was in the comic. And, in the first of two big departures from the comic, we see the set up of Rick & Shane going into the forest with guns, but the resolution is very different because they both come out alive. I kinda expected this when they got an actor I recognized for the role of Shane, but it still surprised me. I also loved Dale’s reaction to Shane and Dale’s overall role as the conscence of the group.
But how about the big reveal in the end ?! The survivors get to the CDC and there is a singular insane scientist there who lets them all into the facility. I actually fast-forwarded through the first part of this scene and then assumed that the part showing the guy doing science in the lab must be some sort of specially created commercial for the show. I was literally waiting for the cells in the microscope to for the Coca-Cola logo or something. That’s because THIS is nowhere in the comics. In this one scene we’ve learned more about he duration and nature of the plague than in 79 issues of the comic series. We’ll have to see how this plays out, but the comics have shown us that bands of survivors can live in RV’s and abandoned houses. Doesn’t it make sense that the government could hold out in fortified bunkers?
The one-two punch of Shane surviving and the CDC makes it clear than having read the comics is NOT going to guide us. We’ll see bits and pieces from the comics (like the scene with Jim), but we really don’t know what to expect.
What’s Not So Good: One big thing that bugs me is that they haven’t used Carl (Rick’s son) much at all. I suppose some of it is the typical child-actor problem. The entirety of the comic series has consumed ~18 months of fictional time, but has spanned 6 years of real time. By that time, a child actor will be grown up. It looks like the creators of this show are just going to have Carl be window dressing. That’s a shame because Carl has been one of the all-star characters of the comics as he has shown us what can happen to a kid who is forced to mature in this horrid environment. Someday, I’d like to see a TV show try to get a new 10-year old every year, force the audience to adapt for an episode, but continue to tell more linear stories with the kids because TWD will miss out on some awesome events if Carl is just a helpless kid.
As much as I enjoyed the CDC scene, it does raise some eyebrows. Why is that Japser dude in there alone? Did everyone else die? Did he get there first and lock the doors? And why does the CDC control room look like something from NASA? More practically, does this mean that we’re going to skip the scenes from Herschel’s farm and the prison? I guess you could toss those elements in randomly down the road, but Herschel’s farm is going to lose some emotional impact.
Conclusion: A strong episode. I wish this wasn’t only going to be a 6-issue season. It’s hard enough to get a “hit” TV show without screwing up the forecasting; and now they have their biggest hit ever and it’s about to go on hiatus for almost a year… Way to maintain momentum! But seriously, this was a very good episode and also a strong reason to read the comics– or the “graphic novels” if you prefer the more adult term.
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion