Tuesday 27 September 2016

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 1: What Lies Ahead

"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch"

We start the season with the tribe in a desperate situation, as we hear via Rick's walkie talkie message to Morgan (I'm sure we'll see him again, but for now this is a handy excuse for a bit of exposition). They have ahead of them an exodus of a hundred miles across potential zombie territory with absolutely no way of maintaining their vehicles other than what they can do themselves. Many, including Rick, are teetering on the edge of losing faith.

There's a great set piece for the episode of everyone hiding behind beer eath various vehicles from a passing herd of zombies, with some very close calls. And, as part of this, twelve year old Sophia gets lost in the woods shortly after Rick has saved her but had to leave to deal with the zombie. It says a lot for this show that we all feel the agonised hope and despair of the tribe as they search for her without any success, but Daryl Dixon turns out to be quietly amazing, with his tracking skills and his temperament.

We also hear of Andrea's resentment towards Dale for presuming to thwart her attempted suicide under such a hopeless background- perhaps she has a point. The gang end up in. Church where, cruelly, Sophia's mother Carol reveals in her prayer that she feels she's being punished for wishing her abuser husband dead. But the final moments are of beauty, in the form of a deer, and shock, as Carl is shot...

This is gripping and bloody good telly.

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