The Walking Dead - "Cherokee Rose"

Season 2, Episode 4

“Good thing we didn’t do anything stupid, like shoot it.”

Apparently I was wrong about last week’s episode – or, to put it in more objective terms, I was completely out of step with the critical consensus. I actually don’t think I was wrong about the episode – the episode didn’t tell us much that we didn’t already know, and (mostly because of that), it was boring – but it times like these, when I see to be on the fringes that I begin to question what exactly it is I look for in a television show. It’s not that I believe that I have to fall in line with every other critic – in fact, a variety of opinions is what makes criticism interesting – but I often do have similar taste to those critics that like last week’s episode, and it felt weird for me not to agree them. And thus I’m thankful for episodes like “Cherokee Rose”, which affords me another opportunity to dissect what I do and do not like about a show.

I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but I don’t like horror movies; in most instances, I’m a big stoneless chicken, and paying to have myself scared just seems like a waste of money. And I wouldn’t even say that I have an exception for zombie flicks – I’m too scared about being scared by watching a Romero film (even if am familiar with all the arguments for why his films are brilliant, and thus I should see them), and the only one I’ve ever seen in Shaun of the Dead. The Walking Dead may mark my second outing into the horror genre, but I’m very familiar with the trappings of this particular genre, if only because their so ubiquitous in pop culture as a whole.

And one of these trappings – perhaps the most infamous – is the “stupidity factor”. It’s a common complaint about the genre, and it makes way for even more common jokes, but it’s also a necessary evil. You short of need character to act reckless in order for the plot to move forward. But what’s been problematic about TWD’s stupidity factor is that it didn’t really help the plot move forward; it was mostly just characters acting stupid for the sake of filling out the running time. It’s a fine line to walk, and too often, the show has the characters acting stupid without giving any sort of payoff that makes up for it.

That changed tonight, in a glorious fashion. I am of course referring to the scene that everyone will be talking about – The Well Zombie. Not only is it an idea that’s surreal enough to be entertaining, but it also delivers on the show’s requisite one-gross-out-image-per-episode quota. Was sending Glen down into the well as bait for the zombie a stupid idea? Yes, it really was. But it was also an idea with weight behind it: The zombie could have possibly been poisoning the water supply (for that one well, anyways) and rather than shooting it and definitely infecting the water, they decided to pull it out, just in case his bloated corpse hadn’t already tainted the well. It was a poorly executed plan – how did you not think to check the resistance of the pipe you’re using as a pulley? – and it ended up with the infecting the water anyways by not counting on the fragility of a bloated zombie’s structure. But it also allowed Glen a heroic moment as he was able to get the rope around the zombie, and it led to a cool little sequence regardless.

The same could be said for Glen and Maggie’s trip into town, and Daryl’s continued search for Sophia. The former is potentially stupid – there could be zombies at the drug store, but mostly likely there won’t – but it is for the sake of preventing any future illness (and getting Lori a pregnancy test, because this is just that kind of show, apparently), and there’s a real intrinsic value to the trip. The latter is trickier. Daryl is at a much greater risk – he’s only one person, and there are definitely zombies out in those woods – it’s for a slightly more dubious cause. Though getting Sophia back doesn’t hold a strategic advantage for the group – indeed, kids just seem to slow them down – there doing it for that noble cause of love. Even better, this subplot allows for Daryl and Carol share a moment, and it brings up some important questions about what we value in an apocalyptic wasteland.

Or to put in another way: the stupidity of the first trip is dismissed by the tangible needs of the group, but the stupidity of the second if acceptable under the needs of the story. As I’ve said in the past, I’m most intrigued by the show’s insights into the daily life and troubles of those trying to survive in the wasteland, and tonight’s episode gave us that is spades, both in the stories listed above, and in Rick’s struggle with Doc Greene to make the farm their new base of operations. (Seriously, what is that guy’s deal?)

But that doesn’t mean that TWD has truly turned a corner. While I appreciate the kind of actions that the show had the characters take tonight, and I hope that the show continues those in the future (and it’s quite possible that it can), there are still a few problems left. Characters still relentlessly talk about God with no end or new insight. The search for Sophia has gone on for too long, and it’s quite possible Carl’s recovery will as well. And there’s still some bland family drama between Lori and Rick that just really doesn’t do much for me, and the pregnancy reveal just aggravates me further. But, if tonight marks a new turn in the show’s treatment of its characters, maybe somewhere down the line – say, the back half of season two? – the show can start telling better stories, and all of the elements can start congealing into a better whole.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Okay, something truly stupid to balance out all the acceptable stupidity of tonight: Lori decides to go outside to piss on the pregnancy stick. She deserves to be eaten by a zombie for that kind of thinking. (Also, that kid is totally Shane’s, right?)

T-Dog claims that he wasn’t serious about all his negative thinking last week. Sure, he’s totally fine, and that’s why he repeatedly bashed that zombie’s skull in long after it was dead. (Re-dead?)

On the one hand, Glen getting to have sex with Maggie that soon after meeting her reeks of male fantasy. On the other hand, he did just risk his life going into that well, so it’s not like he didn’t do anything to deserve it.

We get it show, Andrea wants a gun. Can you just give it to her, have her fuck it up, and move on already?

Glen is the group’s “go to town expert”. Couldn’t come up with a better position title, Rick?

“I’m heard you’re fast on your feet and know how to get in and out.”

“Maybe ‘cause a ham don’t kick and scream when you eat it.”

“Have I mentioned I like your new haircut? You really have a nice-shaped head.”