A Hunt With No End [The Walking Dead Dissection]

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…