TV Review: "The Walking Dead" Season 2 Finale

And so "The Walking Dead" ends it's overall stellar season, not with a whimper, but with a subtle bang. It was time to clean up house, and the show has the luxury of simply causing a zombie attack to trim the fat. It happened before, when Andrea's sister died at the camp, and it happened now. so, who'd we lose? Jimmy, and the forgettable sister who's name and place in the story I can barely recall. So, it's good we lost them, because those we have left are characters we know much better some degree, even the younger sister, after her brief flirtation with suicide.

 

Rick's character went to a place I'm very happy about. After the last episode, I really felt that Shane's death needs to have meaning. If we are losing Shane, we need it to somehow affect Rick. You'd assume that's a given, but you never no what the writers are up to. Thankfully, they went with it, and Rick had enough of people second-guessing his decisions when he's acting in the best interest of the group. So what does he do? Gives people free reign to leave, but if they stay, they willingly undergo rule by a dictator. A dictator named Rick Grimes.

 

And Lori is so irritating. She basically hinted at Rick to kill Shane two or three episodes ago, and now she's all in disgust at what he did. What did she really want? She's probably suffering from pregnancy brain. At least Carl is not as much of a brat as he was in the episode where Dale died. Carl is growing in character, and that's a good thing I think.

 

We haven't had a large-scale zombie battle in a while, so it was much welcome. Plus, we seriously needed a change of scenery from that barn, where like 99.99999% of this season took place. So, while Hersel was sad to see it go, I was quite glad.

 

And on to seasons 3. This finale tied up that mystery from season 1, confirming that Jenner realized the virus was in everybody, living and dead. I agree with Rick's decision not to tell anyone. What good would it do? Rick tried to keep hope alive, and he carried that burden of that knowledge on his own shoulders. Rick deserves to be making decisions for the group, because he is sacrificing a lot. However, his decisions can also be bad, as would likely have been evident it he let Randall simple go free. Of course, the zombies going enroute to the farm wouldn't have helped things anyway,

 

We have some really interesting hints as to where season 3 will lead us. First, who the heck captured Andrea? A hooded figured chained two slaves? That's what it looked liked to me. Exciting! And that mansion at the end, which was our last show of the season.... does the governor reside there? Who is the governor? I can't wait t find out, only because just his name alone is intriguing.

 

Season 1 was a fantastic introduction to this world and these characters. Season 2 dragged a little at the start, but helped build characters that, in my opinion, totally paid off in the second half. I feel like the third season will take us to completely new places, and I'm excited to go along for the ride. I'm just glad I can experienced it vicariously, because I so wouldn't wanna live in that world.