Quick Take: The Walking Dead, "Nebraska"
"Death is death, it's always been there." - Rick
Review: The Walking Dead, "Nebraska"
(S0208) The back half of The Walking Dead's second season starts with an episode that is tonally much different than anything we've seen from the show to date. "Nebraska" is decidedly darker and more nihilistic than previous episodes, and I for one think that is a good thing. A show set in a post-zombie apocalypse world, should be nihilistic. It's taken a while, but we are starting to see indications that The Walking Dead is willing to embrace this hopeless worldview.
There is a scene in the second half of "Nebraska" that reads like a thesis statement of this new found ideology.
Herschel (Scott Wilson) has fled the farm in a storm of grief over Shane's (Jon Bernthal) decision to free, and then shoot, all of the walkers penned inside the barn. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Glenn (Steven Yuen) track him to a nearby bar that Herschel often frequented in his drinking days. After nearly an entire bottle of scotch, Herschel breaks out his big monologue. First he accuses Rick and his people of being "like a plague" that swept into his farm and destroyed everything in it's path. When he's finished blaming Rick for all of his problems, Herschel turns his anger inward. He admonishes himself for being foolish enough to believe that his loved ones were just "sick" and would eventually get better. They're not sick, they're dead, and they have been for a long time. Finally, he let's go of hope.
This loss of hope is the central theme of the speech, and the episode. Slowly but surely, the characters on The Walking Dead are beginning to realize that there is no savior. There's no safe haven, no cure. There is only survival. Survival at any cost.
Shane has always been my favorite character on the show, mainly because he was the only one to recognize how foolish and naive it is to hold out hope in a world in which hope died a long time ago. He knew it was silly to spend all that time chasing after Sophia (Madison Lintz). He also knew what he had to do in regards to the walkers in Herschel's barn. By the end of "Nebraska" it appears that other characters, specifically Rick, have decided to embrace the What Would Shane Do philosophy.
At the end of the episode, Herschel's big speech is interrupted when two strangers burst into the bar. Dave (Michael Raymond-James from Terriers, yay!) and Tony (Aaron Munoz) appear friendly at first, but soon it becomes clear that they're after the location of Hesrchel's farm. A tense stand-off ensues, and when the situation gets really hairy Rick pulls his service weapon blasts Dave and Tony.
After the double-murder Rick shows no remorse. Zombie or no zombie, he's willing to put down anyone who threatens him and his people. In a world without hope, the only thing to hold onto is survival. Survival at any cost: that's What Shane Would Do.
Lingering thoughts on "Nebraska":
Yeah, I agree the tonal shift was significant, and necessary in many ways. The standoff in the bar was about the most intense the show has ever produced... and reinforced my nagging feeling that the walkers can only be so interesting for so long. We've seen them in hordes, in the cities, in the country, in the medical center sequence with Otis, etc. etc. There needs to be some new elements to inject drama and conflict -- because, really, as a movie, TWD could have ended with everyone working totgether to build a new life at the farm.
Totally agree that Lori's little solo mission is at the least incredibly stupid for what we know about her (risking her son becoming an orphan in short order) and at worst a really really bad writing decision.
Overall, The Walking Dead for me has settled into a pretty good and occasionally great (and occasionally tedious) show. Curious to see what's going to go down with the new "group" that's now in town.