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Well, that was pretty unexpected.
The Walking Dead has proven to be both great and inconsistant during its short run and more than any previous episode, this one was an excellent example of both. Fair warning, this review will have fairly big spoilers for some of the broader, long-term elements of the comic book.
The final act of last nights episode took a turn which, depending on how it plays out, could be another interesting diversion or an entirely new direction for the series. For now, I'm betting on the former, but I wouldn't rule the latter out entirely. But before we get to that, there's still the first two-thirds of the episode to discuss.
Beginning the morning after the zombie attack of the previous episode, this episode opens with the camp picking up the pieces and deciding what to do next. Three major plot threads are followed here: Andrea grieving over Amy's corpse, the revelation that Jim is infected and his subsequent sickness, and a confrontation between Rick and Shane about what their next move should be.
My favorite of these three plotlines was the Andrea/Amy one. Despite mine and my roommates annoyance at the idea that Andrea (one of the savviest characters from the comics) would be dumb enough to be huddled over the corpse of a soon-to-be zombie without having taken the necessary precautions, it ended up being a worthwhile set-up to one of my favorite sequences in the show so far. The analogous scene in the book plays out over three or four panels, but Andrea's irrational grief subsumes the entire episode as she threatens the other survivors at gunpoint when they attempt to remove Amy's body. The horror fully kicks in, however, when Amy begins to take short raspy breaths and her hands begin to twitch and tremble. What follows is as harrowing as it is touching and provides yet another example of how the show does a great job of providing the necessary beats of a zombie story with room to breathe and grow beyond what they would be in a film.
The Jim storyline functions in a similar manner, if not with the same degree of success. Jim succumbing to the sickness is fairly by the numbers, but his final fate is a nicely subdued change of pace from how similar situations play out in other zombie stories. It's faithful to the comic and with good reason.
The Rick and Shane plotline utilizes elements of the comic, but at this point it seems as though Shane will be sticking around in the show for a bit longer than he did in the comic. The scene in the comic where Shane considers shooting Rick comes to a much less ambiguous conclusion than it did here, but the strong portrayal of Shane by Jon Bernthal and the added wrinkle of Dale growing suspicious of Shane's dark intentions holds promise for a bigger payoff down the line.
Following all this, the group make the collective decision to leave the camp and attempt to locate the CDC, which they believe may provide a safe haven from the plague. Their leaving of the camp, complete with musical montage, felt very much like the end of an episode, both thematically and aesthetically, so it was a bit odd when the episode continued on for another 15 minutes. Pacing is not really one of this shows strengths.
Odder still is what followed: we are treated to video diary of a lone scientist (played by talented character actor Noah Emmerich) working with human brain tissue in the CDC. His choppy video recording speaks of a contagin-code named "Wildfire" and his attempts to find a cure. He slips into suicidal despair when an accident in the lab destroys most of his samples and is only shaken out of it when Rick and the others arrive seeking shelter.
I had pretty mixed feelings about this whole development. One the one hand, it seems obvious that they would check out the CDC during a zombie apocalypse, since it is actually right outside Atlanta. This is never even brought up in the comics and in retrospect it seems like it should have been. So it's some nice ret-conning on the shows part in that regard.
On the other hand, depending on how it plays out, it may cause some major diversions from the comic. The video log from the scientists perspective was jarring because in the comic, we never see, know or experience anything that isn't from the perspective of Rick and the other survivors (except one issue that I can think of). Furthermore, the comic book has yet to (and may never) give us any insight into what caused the plague, whether the government had attempted to cure it or anything like that. I always found this to be a smart move on Kirkman's part, since any plausible explanation he could think of would have almost certainly been done in a previous zombie story, and the characters ignorance of the situation on a global level goes a long way toward maintaining the realism of the comic. As I said earlier, this could just end up being a one episode diversion before they get back on track to the main plot of the comic, but given that next week is the season finale, I feel like the easiest way to generate a cliffhanger will involve taking this in completely new direction. Not that that's a bad thing. I just hope the scientist actually tells them what he knows. I don't need this to be Lost all over again. His introduction was weirdly Desmond-ish.
Stray observations:
- Although Melissa McBride is making Carol more interesting than I ever found her in the comic, the scene of her taking a pick-ax to Ed to keep him from reanimating was a bit over the top. I get that it was supposed to be cathartic, but the amount of gore they used made it come off as goofy when it was supposed to be emotional.
- So I guess we're going to have to wait til next season for some resolution with Merle? Doesn't seem likely that they'll squeeze him into the last episode. However, my roommate heard a theory online that Merle may end up becoming The Governor. If you're a fan of the comic, let that roll around in your head a bit. It makes a shocking amount of sense.
- I found it weird that Noah Emmerich was the only guy left in the CDC. The place wasn't destroyed or anything so I assume it was never overrun at any point. Where did everyone else go?
- Carl really needs more to do than cry. He's really lagging in terms of the characterization he's given in the comic, even at this early stage.
- So long, boring Hispanic family. I don't think we'll really miss you.
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