Phew. The second season of The Walking Dead is almost over, after a final few episodes that seemed to stem from the writers waking up and thinking: “Wait, have we killed anyone all year? Except when we knocked off that little girl off-screen? No? Better get on that!”
And so they have. Which… means this season finale could be pretty traumatic. And yes, spoilers, obviously.
The Big Game
This episode divides pretty neatly into two sections, which works out well because so do these reviews. First up, we had the farm attack, in which our season two backdrop gets duly annihilated by a herd of walkers. Was the opening helicopter sequence of this episode meant to imply that someone led them there on purpose?
Anyway, after Dale and Shane, the show can’t really slaughter more major cast, which means the only fatalities this week are non-speaking, barely noticeable members of Hershel’s family. We barely care, and neither do the characters.
But the sequence itself is well done, the chaos and horror is well conveyed, as is the scale. I thought they were going to take out Hershel a couple of times, would’ve been a good symbolic kill for the end of the farm era, but he pulled through.
Post-Match Analysis
And then they escape the farm and the squabbling resumes. Carol is angry, Lori is stunned, I was totally right about what Jenner whispered, and Rick is… psychotic, it seems. The pressure of leadership has ripped him apart. I did enjoy his final speech though, even if a lot of the other characters’ debates were the same tiresome moaning as ever.
And then we get a few teasers for season three, with the debut of a popular character from the comics and a final shot that hints strongly at the use of the prison setting next year. Just out of interest, did that closing image make sense to people who haven’t read the comics? Or, since we’re on quite a geeky website, did you all know that was coming anyway?
Regardless, a decent ending to an uneven series, good sense of action, plot and direction, the feeling that the cast are actually in danger and anything could happen is back in place after a few traumatic weeks, which is something The Walking Dead really needed to recover. Hopefully they’ll carry it through into season three.
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Nick Bryan
Nick learned to read and write at an early age. This has developed into an unhealthy need to either write stories or consume them for later dissection. He reviews film and TV on Dork Adore and The Digital Fix, lives in London and enjoys a nice white beer.
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I thought it was a great ending to the series. Not overly keen on some of the characterisation – Lori in particular really irritates – otherwise it was gripping. Roll on the Prison and Woodbury! Things are starting to closely resemble the comics, and it’s all going to get a whole lot darker!
Yeah, they’ve really done a good job of making Lori irritating, although at least Rick was being recognisably a bit insane himself this week, which makes her look like less of an inconsistent hysteric. Still, good episode.