The Walking Dead - "Bloodletting"

Season 2, Episode 2

When less zombies is a good thing

 “This is turning into the strangest day.”

-Shane

“The whole world is having a rough time.”

-T-Dog

Though I’m sure it upset many a fan, I was pleasantly surprised when it took “Bloodletting” a whole 36 minutes to finally show a zombie onscreen. As I wrote about at length last week, zombies are the obvious hook for the show, and the reason that so many people are mesmerized by a show that has problems mastering the more basic things like plot and characterization, so it was bold that the show would take away the gold plating and show us the lead that exists underneath.

But surprisingly, the “lead” in this instance was actually quite shiny all its own. While the first season can be somewhat forgiven for not improving these elements due to both its short running time and the fact that it was produced in a bubble, now would be a perfect time for the show to start listening to some of the criticism lobbed it’s way so that it can be a better program. And while the premiere seemed to indicate that Darabont and Co were just fine doing the show their way, thank you very much, this second episode would seem to indicate that the show is going to be talking those worries seriously, and that just makes me pretty damn happy.

It starts with the cold open, in fact. (And maybe it’s just me, but the cold opens seem to be taking up the “mini-movie” conceit that Breaking Bad seemed to discard with its latest season.) While it does seem a bit pointless from a storytelling perspective for the show to be making a flashback for a blank that really didn’t need filling in, I do think it’s a positive step for the character of Lori. In the first season, she was pretty much resigned to the “bitch” role, which was not only offensive and lazy, but it just didn’t make for good drama, and we were given no reason to care about her and no logical reason for why two men would be so infatuated with her. Seeing that she wasn’t sure about her future with Rick before the zombie attacks not only makes her seem like less of a bitch for hooking up with Shane, it also takes into consideration her thoughts and feelings, something the show had really done up until this point.

Luckily, that wasn’t the only moment where Lori was able to shine. Though I cringed at her irrational freak out when she found out that the doctor treating Carl was actually a veterinarian (it’s not like you’ve got any other options, Lori!), she redeemed herself by being the rational voice that talked Rick out of running out of the house to go help Shane and Otis get the medical supplies. Couple that with Lori’s very astute deduction that something was wrong based off of the one gunshot she heard earlier in the forest, and she’s shaping up to be a much better drawn character than last year. The Walking Dead still has a good deal of other problems with its female characters (both in how their used and how their treated), Lori’s improvement does seem to indicate there’s more positive change on the horizon.

And even if there yet are no other improvements in character to rival Lori’s, the episode did see a better use of general character interaction. Back in season one, the group being constantly split up just seemed like a way for the show to keep its wheels spinning and avoid having to get to some actual story, and I was afraid that was going to happen here. Instead, this splitting up of the group allowed the show to deal with a few separate issues. We got to see T-Dog worry about his place in the group, and the group’s solidarity as whole. The group out looking for Sophia got of play a fun round of “needs of the many, needs of the few”, while Shane and Rick got to ponder the cost of individual sacrifice. I’m not saying that all of this was written or carries out to the highest standards, but it does seem as if the showing is trying to work towards a higher theme, and that’s commendable.

And that theme, in my mind, is that of “creating society” that I brought up last week. Not only did we see T-Dog worry over whether their group was going to stay as solid as they are right now, we actually got to see the forces that push these people together and those that pull them apart, which were far more interesting. Andrea feels upset with the search for Sophia as she is forced to remember the loss of her own sister. Shane has to go on the most awkward supply run ever with the hunter who accidentally shot Carl, with the gun that he shot him with. And Doc Greene’s primitive medical practices might save Carl’s life, but they worry Lori and almost cause Rick to stop them in order to prevent any further pain to his son.

Really, it seems as if the show is making a smart move by adjusting the level of focus when it comes to these characters and their actions. While blowing up the CDC and trying to finding the cure for the virus are things that feel way out of the reach of this band of survivors (even if the latter issue will probably have to be dealt with in order for the series to achieve a satisfying finale), simple things like saving members of their group, having to go get medical supplies, and simply staying together and surviving seems to be more in step with their abilities. What’s more, the show is applying this same tactic to the zombies. Instead of unrealistically watching the group fight off wave after wave of zombies, I like how the show is now using them as obstacles to these simpler goals. Not only does it stop these people from appearing unrealistically superhuman, but it puts believe and palpable tension on these smaller problems.

But even if character work, thematic relevance, and dramatic scope aren’t your thing – and for many of the show’s fans, I suspect it’s not – there was still plenty of action to keep the story clicking along as well. (Which is a good thing, considering that last week’s premiere shattered basic cable records, and a third-season pickup can’t be far behind.) Settling into smaller-scale stories not only benefits the show’s realism and focus, but it also seems to help the writers create stories that don’t feel disorienting in their open-endedness. We see the basic goals that each of the survivors needs/wants to achieve, and watching their attempts to do so spread out over a few weeks keeps the stories chugging along at a nice pace. And while I’m not sure how Shane and Otis are going to get away from the zombie hoard at the school, the show could use more cliffhangers like this, ones that build off of the actions that preceded it and feels like it will lead to the next leg of the story.

“Bloodletting” was a much better episode than “What Lies Ahead” for the simple fact that it answered a lot of the questions and criticisms that I had at the end of the premiere. The Walking Dead still isn’t a great series by a long shot, and not everything in tonight’s episode worked, but I know believe that the show is capable of being consistently good from week-to-week. And if the show keeps making more little baby steps toward quality, well that’s even better.

Quotes, Etc:

“And I’m the one black guy. Do you know how precarious that makes my situation?”

“I’ll take that under advisement, but for now he’s The Idiot Who Shot Our Son.”

So, with Rick punching a zombie in the face, I guess the is firmly in the “only zombie bites turn you into a zombie” camp.

I don’t know if this was meant to be a critique or what, but that zombie in the FEMA jacket made me laugh.

Though frankly, I could have done without that parallel Doc Greene drew between AIDS and the zombie virus. It was as tasteless as it was illogical.

The meth in Daryl’s bag? Blue, of course.