Tag Archives: Rick Grimes

Feb 11 2012

Secrets And Death In The Walking Dead

 

shot daryl

Episode Five: The pre-credits scene of The Walking Dead’s season two’s fifth episode, “Chuapacabra”, opens with a flashback that takes place during the time when Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) was in a coma and presumed dead. In a nighttime traffic jam, teeming with refugees, his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) waits with their son Carl (Chandler Riggs). Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) flips the radio dial, searching for news about the refugee center, but is frustrated by recorded messages and uselessly repeated emergency broadcasts. Suddenly an air convoy flies overhead, and as the stunned crowd watches, napalms nearby Atlanta. Lori breaks down into Shane’s arms…

atlanta

Post-credits, we return to the present. Camped out on Hershel’s farm, the survivors have settled into a routine. While doing laundry, Carol (Melissa McBride) confesses to Lori that she needs to keep her mind off her still-missing daughter, Sophie (Madison Lintz), and suggest that they cook dinner for Hershel (Scott Wilson) and his family. Lori agrees.

An eager Glenn (Steven Yeun) confronts Maggie (Lauren Cohan) in continuing their tryst. Maggie spurns his offer, and mocks their lovemaking as a waste of time. Glenn is left hurt…

Rick maps out new ways to search for Sophie, and the search parties arm themselves and split up. While searching out in the woods, Rick and Shane share a little private time between old buddies. What starts out as good-natured “guy talk” of sexual prowess and high school conquests turns ugly. Shane, angered, feels that Sophie must be dead by now, and that the sane thing to do is to head for Fort Benning; Rick disagrees.

Daryl (Norman Reedus), on Hershel’s horse (taken without permission), heads out by himself. From a ledge, the experienced tracker scans a river below and notices a doll lying limply in the water. Wading in to retrieve it, and assuming Sofia must be nearby, he calls out for her. With no response, he heads back to the trail with the doll. A snake startles the jittery horse, who throws him. Daryl slips and rolls down the steep rocky hill, but not before one of his arrows pierces him in the side. Bleeding and in pain, he uses his torn shirt as a tourniquet and begins the herculean task of climbing back up the mountain, but he slips and falls back down. episode-5-merle-daryl-walking-dead-gene-page[1]Laying in the river banks, a dazed Daryl hallucinates that his brother Merle (Michael Rooker) – not seen since the early episodes of The Walking Dead – approaches him and mercilessly taunts him into showing his resilience. Merle’s final words and vision fade out as a walker tries chewing on Daryl’s booted feet. Daryl snaps to consciousness and beats the walker to death, ripping out the arrow in his side just in time to use it to kill a second walker. Daryl sets out again, and after Merle’s vision re-appears, he scales the hill successfully. Later, as he approaches Hershel’s farm, a trigger-happy Andrea (Laurie Holden) mistakes a bloody Daryl for a walker and shoots him…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading Episode Five

 

walkers in the street ep six

Episode Six: The pre-credits scene of episode six of The Walking Dead’s second season, “Secrets”, shows Patricia (Jane McNeill) entering the farm’s henhouse. Grabbing a few chickens, she breaks their legs as they squawk in pain. Quietly entering the barn, she throws the helpless birds into the walkers’ pit. The snarling creatures scramble hungrily after their food…

Post-credits, Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) – the latter shot by Andrea (Laurie Holden) in the previous episode after being mistakenly for a walker – are recuperating. Glenn (Steven Yeun) – the only one in Rick’s group that is aware of the hidden and captive walkers – confronts Maggie (Lauren Cohan) about this gruesome development. Maggie reveals nothing but asks Glenn for secrecy. Later, Glenn confronts Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) about her pregnancy, offering to go on another run for vitamins and other needed pregnancy supplies. Lori – like Maggie – asks only for secrecy.

practice

As Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), Jimmy (James Allen McCune), and Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) pore over maps in their search for the missing Sophia (Madison Lintz), Patricia and Beth (Emily Kinney) request shooting lessons, explaining that they have Hershel’s consent. Carl, with his mother Lori’s grudging permission, joins. Shane and Rick take them and Andrea to a makeshift shooting range for instruction. Andrea turns out to be a natural shooter, hitting a stationary target with ease, but finds it difficult to hit moving targets. Shane presses her into bearing down harder, but angers her by mentioning her murdered sister, Amy. episode-6-andrea-walkers-gene-page[1]After calming down, the two go to look for missing Sophia in a nearby suburb. Paralyzed by the horrific sights – they find decaying and charred bodies scattered throughout the upscale homes – hordes of walkers appear in the streets, alerted to their presence…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading Episode Six

 

dead walkers

Episode Seven: The pre-credits scene of episode seven, “Pretty Much Dead Already” shows the survivors early in the morning, eating breakfast in their outside camp. The sky is overcast and the overall mood is glum, as the group silently munches on pancakes prepared on the makeshift stove. Glenn (Steven Yeun) suddenly stammers the truth about the walker-filled barn as the survivors stare at him, shocked. Approaching the barn warily, they stay at a safe distance as Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) peeks in through the cracks and sees the creatures shuffle aimlessly in the dark. Shane gets ticked off, demanding that the survivors clear out the barn or leave Hershel’s farm; Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) objects, reminding him that they are Hershel’s (Scott Wilson) guests and need to stay and find Sophia (Madison Lintz). In the ensuing argument, Shane and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) almost come to blows until Rick steps in. The noise alerts their presence to the walkers, who suddenly strain against the barn door from the inside. The survivors reel back in shock…

Post-credits, Shane later returns, fixated on the barn. After gingerly testing the lock and chains, the aroused walkers push suddenly against at the barn door. An ominous glimpse inside the barn shows the hungry creatures watching Shane, waiting…

Hershel’s daughter Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is upset with Glenn’s open revelation of the trusted secret and expresses her displeasure by smashing a raw egg on his head. Meanwhile, Carol (Melissa McBride) confronts a recovering Daryl as he saddles up to search for Sophia. Warning him that he can worsen his injuries, even she begins to openly express doubts about the search. Daryl, angry, curses Carol and storms off. After calming down somewhat, he takes her to a pond, showing her another Cherokee rose, a symbol of Sophia’s imminent safe return. Her spirits are lifted somewhat.

rick and hershelAs Hershel is eating a quiet lunch alone, Rick comes by and reveals that they discovered the barn and captive walkers, raising Hershel’s ire. In a curt, assertive tone, the country vet demands that the survivors leave at the end of the week. Rick argues that the world is different now and begs Hershel not to send them out there again, arguing that his wife is pregnant and they need the safe refuge that Hershel can provide. Rick storms out and finds Shane, still watching the barn and brooding about clearing it out. They argue and as Rick walks away, he tells Shane all about Lori’s pregnancy…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading Episode Seven

Evan Rothfeld

Nov 13 2011

The Walking Dead March On, Part II

Episode Three: The pre-credits scene of episode three of the second season of The Walking Dead, “Save the Last One”, shows Shane (Jon Bernthal) running water for the shower and shaving his head with electric clippers. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he seems disturbed and somewhat uneasy…

episode-3-shane-otis-hallway-gp[1]Post-credits, in a nightmarish sequence, Shane Walsh and Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) run for their lives from walkers in the school hallway. The walkers –looking Hammer-film ghoulish in the dark, slow-motion scene – chase them into the gymnasium. Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) conversation with his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) – at their son Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) bedside – provides the narration. Telling of Shane’s icy prowess in getting any job done, he recounts the time Shane stole the high school principal’s car out of the teacher’s lot in the middle of a lesson…

Back in the RV, Carol (Melissa McBride) cries in her sleep, almost certainly over her missing daughter. Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), sleepless, goes on a night search for the girl. Andrea (Laurie Holden) agrees to join, and grabbing flashlights, they set off into the dark, silent woods. Daryl casually reveals his survival skills, telling Andrea of the time he was lost in the woods as a child, alone, for nine days before finding his way home. Their vain search yields only a bite victim who unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree, turning into a walker in the process. After reading his rhyming, darkly humorous suicide note, Daryl – although initially reluctant to waste arrows –kills the gurgling walker. Andrea reveals a morbid outlook, unsure of whether she wants to live or die…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading about Episode Three

funeral

Episode Four: The pre-credits scene of episode four of season two of The Walking Dead, “Cherokee Rose”, shows the survivors re-grouping at the farm, as Hershel (Scott Wilson) tends to a recovering Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs). Later, Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is buried and eulogized in a solemn ceremony. Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) grows visibly uncomfortable as the unknowing Hershel waxes heroic, and has flashbacks to Otis’ final moments. Patricia (Jane McNeill), Otis’ surviving girlfriend, wants Shane to say a few words. Shane initially protests but stammers his way through a falsified version of the fatal event, designed to heroize the dead man’s actions…

Post-credits, the survivors study a map of the area to analyze where to search for the missing Sophia (Madison Lintz). Hershel advises Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Shane that they are medically unfit to participate in the search, so Daryl (Norman Reedus) goes alone. Hershel states his directive that no one carries guns on his property, objecting to an “armed camp.” Despite reservations, Rick and Shane comply, although Hershel permits an armed lookout. Additionally, Hershel breaks the news to Rick that as soon as Carl has recovered fully, and Sophia is found, the survivors are to leave his property, stating that “we don’t normally take in strangers.”

episode-4-glenn-well-gp[1]

Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) and a lucid, recovered T-Dog (IronE Singleton) find a grotesque, swollen, misshapen walker trapped at the bottom of one of five wells on Hershel’s property, sarcastically calling it a swimmer (as opposed to a walker). The survivors want to shoot it, but don’t want to contaminate the well water. Finally, in order to remove it, they resort to lowering in a nervous Glenn (Steven Yeun) as live bait to harness it to a rope and the pull it out. Unfortunately, the bearings holding the tied rope loosen, dropping Glen sharply downward almost within the monster’s grasp. The group succeeds in pulling the screaming, panicky Glenn out of the well. After another try, they pull the swimmer out, this time using a horse for an anchor. As the gurgling swimmer is halfway out, his soft, bloated, squishy body snaps in two. His top half quivers on the ground, spraying blood and intestines while his lower half falls back into the well. A disgusted T-Dog bludgeons the swimmer’s head…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading about Episode Four

Evan Rothfeld

Nov 7 2011

The Walking Dead March On, Part I

cast photo

The first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman’s hit comic book gore fest of the same name, cleaned up in the ratings and kept fans biting their nails on the edge of their sofas.

Developed by veteran director Frank Darabont, together with Kirkman, the highly anticipated first season premiered on AMC to universal acclaim in October 2010, setting a record audience for a cable show premiere. Albeit way too short (a paltry six episodes, eliciting a collective groan from fans and critics alike) the not-for-the-squeamish show jumped right into the action. Initially sticking close to the comic, it developed characters, themes, and storylines made only for the TV version. episode-1-rick-3[1]The show follows Rick Grimes, a lion-hearted sheriff’s deputy from Georgia, as he got shot in the line of duty, then awakened from a coma in an abandoned hospital. He found his family and then led them and a small band of survivors to safety through the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. The Walking Dead delivered the goods: coming in the wake of Lost, the show helped satisfy fans’ craving for a diverse group (old, young, pre-teen, black, Asian, blonde, redneck, etc.), each with his or her own backdrop story to tell, struggling their way out of a helpless situation. The survivors dealt with infighting, romance, the daily grind of scrounging for food and weapons, and most of all, well…zombies.

male-walker-760[1]Where Lost had the villainous “Others,” The Walking Dead upped the ante and put forth the most horrifyingly evil and dangerous cast of villains ever shown on TV: shuffling masses of brainless, gut-chomping, intestine-ripping “walkers” (called so for their habit of endlessly wandering and being incapable of physically tiring). With outstretched arms seeking live flesh, they are slow, nameless, and deadly. As it seems, a bite from a walker turns a victim into a walker himself.  Over the six episodes, aired back-to-back, the show raised the bar for gore-splattering special effects and makeup as we watched the walkers, in varying stages of decay, feast, or get killed from head-bursting gunshots and blood-spraying decapitations.

By the last episode in season one (“TS-19”), the survivors’ ranks were thinning out due to walkers and suicide. Trapped in Atlanta’s Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) – where they arrived in a futile attempt to find a cure for the zombie plague – the group used a grenade to blast their way out of the fortress-like government center before it self-destructed. They fled Atlanta to begin a nervous, uncertain pilgrimage to Fort Benning in the hopes of finding a safe zone.

Thankfully, for season two, the top-notch main cast signed on to continue. Among them are native Englishman Andrew Lincoln (who should win an award just doing such a marvelously convincing American accent) as the take-charge Rick; Sarah Wayne Callies as his pretty wife Lori; Jon Bernthal as his best friend and co-deputy Shane Walsh (who had an affair with Lori before Rick turned up alive); Steven Yeun as Glenn, the delivery boy turned resourceful street rat; Laurie Holden as despairing Andrea; Jeffrey DeMunn as the elderly and life-experienced Dale; IronE Singleton as T-Dog, an amiable, stocky black guy;  Melissa McBride and Madison Lintz as gentle widow Carol and her pre-teen daughter Sophia, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, a redneck alpha male archer and already a fan favorite; plus Chandler Riggs as Rick and Lori’s pre-teen son Carl.

Please click on the following links to Deadloggers to read more on Episodes One and Two of the second season of The Walking Dead

Evan Rothfeld