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The Walking Dead: Chupacabra (2011)
Mind Merle
This week's episode of The Walking Dead was all about one man, or should I say one redneck, Daryl Dixon. Daryl's relentless quest to find Sofia started off as a horseman of the apocalypse routine with him striding through the woods picking off squirrels with a crossbow. It was nice to see the episode soon flip this back and turn into the near apocalypse of the horseman instead, which really brought this episode to life and gave us more insight into Daryl. The Sofia storyline has been dragging on a little too long for my liking and has really slowed the pace of things back at the farm. Although, the closing scene where Glenn stumbles upon Hershel's prize-winning zombie collection should kick the next episode up a gear.
We also saw the return of Merle in this episode, which may have a few knock-on effects for Daryl in the remainder of the season. Merle in the first season was just awful in every respect, Michael Rooker did the best he could with him but he is too much of a stereotype to really care about. Those of you that were attentive to the opening credits would have noticed Rooker's name appear, therefore robbing you of any surprise when Merle reappeared at the creek.
At first I thought this was going to trash the episode before it really got going but thankfully this wasn't the case. We've never actually seen the two Dixie, sorry Dixon, brother's on screen together so it was always going to be interesting to see how they would interact, especially as they're not in the comics. This was a great way to bring Merle back, having him play a few mind games with Daryl worked well and the two actors had a great chemistry in their scenes. Showing Merle as a projection of Daryl's subconscious may have implanted a few seeds of doubt into his role within the group, which could have a few repercussions later on. Although, Susanne bringing Daryl some food & saying he did more for her daughter than her father ever did may have eliminated this from his mind – hopefully not as this could make for some great viewing.
The opening flashback was great (even with the wife-beating Ed having an input) seeing how the initial group of survivors formed is something we've not caught much of a glimpse of so far. What was also good was the fact that it gave us an impression of how Shane & Lori started to get together as the pair witnessed the napalming of Atlanta. It seems the US government pulled out all the stops to prevent World War Z from happening.
Andrea sniping Daryl was pretty much redundant as it couldn't have been more obvious that they weren't going to kill him off after spending half the episode developing his character. I did chuckle when I saw Suzanne pegging out the washing again, the ridiculous image of her ironing at the camp in Season 1 came flooding back, here's hoping Hershel doesn't have a Corgi trouser press lying around.
And what about poor Glenn, not only is his new relationship with Maggie more like the romance between a moth and a light bulb but he also gets a bunch of flack from Dale about dating the farmer's daughter. To rub even more salt in the wounds when Maggie eventually slips him an invite to a second date of his choice, he chooses a flesh-eating barn dance. It doesn't rain but it pours.
All in all a pretty decent episode that keeps the storyline moving forward, the scene is set for next week's edition and it will be interesting to see how Hershel is going to handle the Q&A about his ranching of the undead. Now all that's left is to give 'Chupacabra' a Google and find out what it actually is.
7.5/10 Scene of the episode – Daryl pulling his own arrow out of his side and firing it straight into the attacking zombie's head – kill of the season so far.
The Walking Dead: Secrets (2011)
Not Giving Much Away
After last week's big reveal that Hershel has been keeping zombies cooped up in his barn, I went into this week's episode thinking things would kick off big time, with the group being exposed to this discovery. However, "Secrets' became very fitting to its title as only Dale learned of this news and things at farm carried on regardless. Instead, the attention in this episode was paid to some pretty awesome character developments and overall made for another well-scripted episode.
To start with, it seems as if Lori and Maggie were playing a game of psychological buckaroo with Glenn, burdening him with the secrets of the zombie barn motel, Lori's pregnancy turned abortion and the fact that she hasn't told Rick yet. After a couple of very poor and obvious awkward scenes Glenn finally kicked the lot and unloaded his secrets to Dale in the most direct way possible "There's walkers in the barn and Lori's pregnant!" – annoying fumbling reveal averted.
This was exciting to see, but what most of us wanted to happen next, didn't, as instead of telling the group, Dale took it upon himself to play the wise old man and spoke to Lori & Hershel independently. Both of these scenes were performed well but were not half as great as the scene between Shane & Dale later on. Hershel did give us some reasoning as to why he would keep walker's in his barn, revealing that he not only had friends in there but also family. His naïve hope for some way of curing them is very plausible given the situation, after all they are in a very remote location and he appears to have contained them well, for now anyway.
Maggie and Glenn's trip to the pharmacy this time around didn't go as well as expected, given the 'success' of the last visit. Maggie's hand getting pulled through the shelving was a real scare and a brilliant sequence, Glenn appeared petrified and somewhat hesitant as he took a moment to choose the perfect weapon to fight the zombie off with. Selecting a piece of shelving was a great choice for a near decapitation but what really quenched our thirst for some zombie slaying was Glenn's beat down afterwards.
What I like most about this scene was that it shows that Glenn can bring it when he needs to and that he isn't just the show's live bait or comic relief. Maggie really made this point hit home after she let loose on Lori, telling Glenn that he's a leader and nobody else sees it or wants to recognize it. This was fantastic and hopefully that seed of doubt will develop later on, especially if Andrea nominates him for some more zombie fishing. Maybe next time instead of making a trip to the pharmacy they should just bring the pharmacy to them, given that they've got two, sorry three, horses now that Daryl's steed has found it's way home – I wonder if he saw Sofia on the way back? A lot of fans would agree that this season might have been better if the group had left Andrea back in the soon-to-explode CDC. Her constant demand for a weapon was becoming increasingly annoying and I'm glad to see it's been answered. During her and Shane's exploration of the deserted community it seems we must have missed the part where she found a PS3, complete with the latest installment of Call of Duty. What other reason could there be for her vast improvement in shooting? 20 minutes beforehand she could barely hit a swinging log and now she's picking zombies off with head-shots. No wonder she was so turned-on returning to base. Shane Walsh – Kill Confirmed.
Finishing off the episode was a brilliant bit of acting from two of the show's leads and the double reveal of both the pregnancy and Lori & Shane's affair was very satisfying. Rick acknowledging her fling with Shane wasn't something to be expected to makes sense in many ways.
As we approach the mid-season finale next week I'm really hoping things escalate quickly. It's a great improvement to see how this season has slowed down and found a consistency compared to the extremes of the first season. It would have been nice to go out with some sort of a bang to make next week's installment more eagerly anticipated but that shouldn't take anything away from this being another solid episode. One thing is for sure though, we all now know the answer to the age-old joke, "why did the chicken cross the road?" – to get the hell away from that barn.
8/10 Scene of the Episode – Dale questioning Shane's story on the night of Otis' death and him pointing the gun at Rick in Season 1 made for fantastic viewing, very dramatic and full of intensity – just what the show's about.
Dexter: Nebraska (2011)
A Waste of Brian
Brian's return at the end of last week's episode signaled what should have been a great installment this week, frustratingly though this wasn't the case and somewhere along the road to Nebraska things took a detour. That isn't to say the episode wasn't good as it still had some brilliant moments, bringing back Jonah from the Trinity storyline was a nice addition and getting Dexter out of Miami helped pushed the envelope for the show. The biggest disappointment for me was seeing Dexter and Brian's bro-mance end before it really had a chance to get going.
Having both Brian and Jonah in for an episode was a great idea but the execution came across unsuccessfully. The finale felt rushed, the characters mostly underused and a lot of loose ends still left untied. My biggest problem with the climax was simply that the set up was fantastic, trapping two killers in a hardware store, after hours, in the middle of Nebraska and then
nothing. What a waste, and furthermore Dexter storming off and leaving Jonah unharmed is very unusual given that he knows who Dexter is and that he killed his father which is in even more contrast to how much Dexter was emphasizing Harry's code before entering the Mitchell's house.
Brian's affect on Dexter was a little strange, given how the two squared off way back in Season 1, I was curious to see how things would continue. At first it seemed that Brian was the blood brother Dexter always wanted and the two started off well but this dynamic turned more comical than sadistic and seemed a little out of the ordinary. Dexter hooking up with the girl in the garage for example, when you think back to how Dexter was when he met Rita it appears as if he's a completely changed person around Brian.
What did work well with Brian's return was his influence on Dexter when he confronted the motel owner. Seeing Brian grab the fork and ram it through the guys chest was delightfully gory and was the kind of raw dark input into Dexter that we wanted to see. Panning round to see Dexter holding the fork gave us some insight into how the Travis/Gellar relationship could be visually perceived as well, showing that the person who does the action could be the same their imaginary twisted partner.
Masuka's intern is moving up in the world – he's now got a lab coat and a date with Jaime. The best thing he's done so far though is design the Dexter video game, soon to be in the bargain bin at a HMV store near you alongside other classic TV-to-game titles such as Prison Break and Lost. Saying that though I would still buy it, if for nothing more than being able to make Deb swear on demand. Speaking of which "where in f***topia are you?" was another corker from the under-pressure Lieutenant who this week took a kick in the stomach from LaGuerta over her stats. At least Quinn's apology laid that story to rest so that things can continue and he can get back on track.
Things were a little quiet on the Doomsday Killer front this week, the 'whore' that Travis let go did stir things up a bit by acknowledging the professor in her statement, but for me I'm still not sold that he's real as she conveniently left out any hardcore evidence of him.
Now we're into the latter half of the season it will be exciting to see how things will play out between Dexter and the DDKs. It would have been better to see how Brian's input could have affected this for the remaining 5 episodes but sadly now we may never know.
RATING – 7/10 Scene of the episode – Dexter confronting Jonah about the killings in the house was fantastic, the tension between the two after Dexter declares, "I know for a fact Trinity did not kill anyone in this house" was immense.
The Walking Dead: Cherokee Rose (2011)
Failed to bloom
A fitting title for this week's episode of The Walking Dead but sadly the "Cherokee Rose" wilted more than it blossomed. After what was the best episode since the pilot last week the show slowed down it's pace but that's not to say it didn't have some good moments – especially for Glenn. The episode started off well with the burial of Otis putting a lot of pressure on Shane as he tried his best to re-invent the truth of what happened at the school. This then took a swan dive, almost literally for Glenn, into the pretty pointless zombie fishing experiment.
We heard from Maggie, no less than 10 minutes before, that there are 5 wells on the farm. OK, so when Dale and the much more active T-Dog discover the zombie tribute to Sadako trapped down well number 2 they decide that they've gotta bring it out alive to prevent water contamination.
Obviously this was going to spell trouble and chaos ensued when the rusted pump collapsed, but after getting Glenn out they figured they'd use the horse to drag out the deep Z diver instead. So why not use the horse in the first place? or even more logically – use another well? And who would want to drink water that a zombie had been bathing in? Seeing the guts spill out back into the well was pretty gruesome and T-Dog putting what was left out of it's misery was fun to watch, but ultimately it felt like this scene was only there to give us our weekly fix of the undead.
Maggie's reaction to this was interesting and there have been a few disapproving glances between her and Hershel when the others have killed walkers. This looks like it could cause some conflict later on.
The best part of the episode for me was without a doubt seeing Glenn get a reward for all of his well wading and supply missions. Or maybe this was a bit of karma for saving Rick's ass way back in the second episode. Fans of the comics would have known this was coming and so probably weren't surprise when the pair decide to get it on right there in the store. What would have been nice would have been if the pair had an unexpected guest – remember two's company, three's necrophilia.
As most of the stronger male characters were recovering from one thing or another the only real action would have come from Daryl in his search for the missing girl. Although he didn't find much other than a 'Cherokee Rose' and a used can of tuna it was insightful to see another side to his character when he spoke with Susanne. He seems to have really developed since we first met him and as he's not in the comics it will be good to see what the writers decide to do with him and his brother, should he reappear.
The tempo of this episode was in many ways a let down compared to the magnitude of "Save the last one", but there were some key moments to keep the story flowing and the development of Lori's pregnancy is going to add more depth to the storyline in the coming weeks.
6/10 Scene of the episode – GLENN GETTING SOME