The Walking Dead Review: You’ll Try, And You’ll Succeed

Last week’s triumphant, at least by comparison, return of AMC’s zombie apocalypse chronicle The Walking Dead mercifully ushered in a new era of plot development and actual character progression for our sullen survivors, as the emotional impact of the barn massacre left no one, including the writers, anywhere to go but forward, and quickly sent several key characters up varying degrees of shit creek by episode’s end. As Dead is wont to do, Sunday’s installment, “Triggerfinger” (how’s that for metaphorically apt?), picked up seemingly seconds where we left off, once again watching Rick silently assess the aftermath of his titular instincts; this time inside the townie watering hole where Glenn and Hershel just witnessed him lay waste to two unexpected, but not undead, visitors that quickly rendered Sophia an already-distant memory.

Firstly, however, the pre-credits cold open set a marvelously tense tone as we’re reminded of Lori’s completely nonsensical, solitary mission to find Rick that resulted in a rather perfunctory car crash. A murky, tightly framed camera shot pans across the steaming wreckage, identifiable only by the ominous click and intermittent light of the car’s turn signal, illuminating Lori’s unconscious face. Only when the crunch of cracking glass reveals an up close and personal look at this week’s first hungry walker gnashing its way through the windshield do both we and Lori understand the imminent danger in which she’s found herself. A brief burst of her awakening wail of terror is cut short, already establishing anticipation within the viewer regarding her predicament, to check in on Rick, Hershel and Glenn at the bar.

Dusty beams of moonlight pierce through the cracks in the tavern’s walls, illuminating the eerie silence as our trio looks to one another, offering stiff nods of reluctant approval toward Rick’s defense tactics. Having had enough violence, tragedy, guilt, humility and liquor for one day, Hershel wisely advises they get the hell out of Dodge and back to the farm, but the roar of an approaching vehicle keeps them trapped inside. Hushed voices not only reveal that the town is crawling with walkers, but also indicate that Dave and Tony have comrades looking for them. As Rick, Hershel and Glenn keep mum mere steps away from the duo’s bullet-logged bodies, it’s clear another saloon standoff is brewing. When Glenn blocks the bar door and the voices demand to know who’s inside, Rick is forced to break his group’s silence and confirm Dave and Tony’s death.

His confession, while unmistakable, offers little sympathy as he focuses on the world’s regressive shift in survival necessities as his main defense. “They drew on us!” he shouts, and Hershel’s spectacular face palm upon this declaration is one of the few wryly comedic touches this show has gotten right, or even offered at all. “We had no choice!” Rick continues. “It’s like that now. You know that.” The unseen assailants respond with neither the understanding nor affirmation Rick was hoping for, but rather itchy trigger fingers of their own. Rick hisses orders to his allies as the mystery men open fire into the bar, and the miraculous metamorphosis of Hershel Greene comes into full bloom. He slides Tony’s shotgun across the floor to a petrified Glenn with the ease of an experienced heist player, and even knocks Rick down a peg when he suggests his marksman tutorials would have done Hershel some good. “I know how to shoot,” Hershel drawls. “I just don’t like to.” Hershel punctuates this notion by deftly covering an increasingly panicked Glenn and planting a couple rounds square in the chest of one of their aggressors. Hershel’s stoically saddened expression as he watches the man get devoured alive by the creeping herd of walkers solidifies the profound extent of the education he’s received, courtesy of the Rick Grimes school of hard knocks. He knows how to accept the bleak reality unfolding before him, he just doesn’t like to.

Back at the farm, it’s only when Lori doesn’t show up for dinner does anyone take notice of her rather alarming absence. An increasingly disinterested Daryl shrugs and offers a halfhearted quip about refusing her request to go look for Rick earlier that afternoon; upon this news, Shane immediately tears off down the road on a search of his own. Despite her harebrained motives, Lori’s actually fending off the leering zombies with remarkable dexterity, especially for someone knocked out cold in a car wreck seconds earlier. The more solemn post-mortem following the annihilation of the barn walkers left a pointedly noticeable void in the show’s gore quota last week, but this episode’s incredible view of one zombie’s face peeling back as he lurches his head through shards of glass was both hilarious and horrifying. Lori manages to wrestle two makeshift weapons out of random car parts before remembering the six-shooter she packed for her outing, and finally fires a final bullet between the eyes of her second attacker. By the time Shane comes upon the scene of the accident, Lori’s long gone, but he soon finds her staggering down the road and only convinces her to come back to the farm after lying about Rick’s safe return.

When it’s made inevitably clear that Rick, Hershel and Glenn are still unaccounted for, Lori’s seething resentment toward Shane’s deception ignites a long-overdue conversation about their complicated past and Shane’s insistence to assert his place in her life and the baby’s, regardless of Rick. Poor Carl, meanwhile, asks if the baby can be named Sophia. Really. To add insult to injury, Lori responds by announcing to everyone within earshot that she and Rick “forgot” to have “the talk” with their practically teenaged son, as though his nonexistent understanding of sex has any bearing on why Sophia is a terrible, terrible name choice. Even busybody Dale throws up his hands and opts to stay out of this one.

Rick, Hershel and Glenn are still in the thick of it as the looming horde of walkers closes in on them in town. They spy another assailant on a building rooftop across the street, but his remaining buddies abandon him as he tries to jump into their pickup and impales his calf through a pointed gate rod instead, as they drive off.  Yeah, yikes. Our trio is peculiarly overcome with compassion for this stranger as both Rick and Hershel discuss the possibility of somehow saving this kid while the walkers draw nearer. What happened to, “It’s like that now. I thought you knew that,” Rick? Glenn seems to be the only one who finds this rescue mission, however noble, at least a little ridiculous given the flesh-eating humanoids headed directly toward them, but the scene plays out with glorious suspense nonetheless. Hershel once again appears to have the medical confidence of someone with more than a veterinary degree, given his serious consideration of performing a human leg amputation in less than sixty seconds during life-threatening terror, but soon a more drastic decision has to be made and Rick simply yanks the kid’s leg clean off the spike in time to elude the zombies. Yeah, YIKES.

Somehow it takes the crew until the next morning to arrive back at the farm, but such trivialities of continuity are quickly deserted upon their joyous return. In an unprecedented second funny moment (one was shocking enough), Maggie runs seemingly toward her father for a welcome back hug, and then right on past him into Glenn’s weary arms. Heh. When the blindfolded, critically injured stranger is spotted in the backseat, however, glad tidings are muted. The episode’s focus shifts toward the fundamental differences between the two forces striving to assert leadership over the group, and the threats they pose to the future well-being of the budding society being formed at Hershel’s farm. To Shane, his declaration of love for Lori, Carl, and the baby on the way validates the choices he’s made, however reckless, in the same way Rick’s devotion to his family validates his. The differences between these two men, besides the fact that one of them is actually married to Lori, lie deepest in how they react to their similar goals of protecting what they love, or at least claim to.

Shane attributes his anger toward Randall’s surprise arrival to the inevitable conflict it will cause with outsiders. While Dave and Tony’s gang may certainly make a later appearance, the real war brewing is between Rick and Shane. Andrea is the only one who acknowledges that Shane’s actions may come from the right place, but even she admits that he needs to at least soften his approach a bit. Would her allegiance to Shane change if she knew about his ruthless abandonment of Otis? Is Dale right to have alerted Lori about the dangerous measures Shane is capable of taking? The final scene of the episode reveals a Lady Macbeth darkness to Lori’s own motives that suggests she wants Shane out of the picture for good. In what may prove to be The Walking Dead’s most subtly sinister twist, Lori’s own efforts to protect her family may end up bringing both she and Rick to the very depths of depravity so fiercely reviled in Shane.

What do you think about the trajectory of The Walking Dead? Is Lori turning into an evil queen? Will Rick sink to Shane’s level? Is Daryl going to get his mojo back? Is Lori even still pregnant? Will rescuing Randall prove to be a bad idea? Post your thoughts in the comment section below!

Season 2, Episode 9: “Triggerfinger” (original air date February 19, 2012)

For more The Walking Dead, check out our other reviews.

The Walking Dead airs Sunday night at 9 p.m. on AMC.

Images courtesy of Gene Page and AMC.