Season 2, Episode 12
One of the questions that I continually ask myself is whether this season of The Walking Dead has been building to anything, if the writers have been planning these events as lead up to some sort of climax, or if they're just plugging in plot points either to pad out time or because they happened in the comic book. While I won't deny that there have been some strong moments this season, as a whole it has been mostly rudderless, just bouncing around from plot point to plot point with only a few thin connective tissues holding the whole thing together. But as we close out the back half of the season, the show seems to have improved in this department (no doubt thanks to Glenn Mazarra taking the reins), to the end that “Better Angels” might have been the best episode of the season so far.
To be fair, “Angels” is hampered by the same problem that has hampered most of the episodes this season (all but the last two, it seems) in that it lacks a clear singular focus, and that tends to detract from any of the individual stories that it's trying to tell. However, it helps that this episode breaks down into more or less half, with the first part covering the fallout from Dale's death, and the second dealing with Shane's metamorphosis into an outright malevolent force, two plots that helps to provide that connective tissue that the show desperately needs.
The fallout to Dale's death was the weaker of the two, since in resulted in a variety of different outcomes. Now, this is to be expected, and to spend an episode (or even part of one) on the varied impact a death has across the group is in theory a great way to spend an episode, provided you have enough character depth to back all of this up, something that The Walking Dead obviously lacks. So instead we got a lot of hewing and hawing as both the characters and the show struggled to paint Dale as a great man worthy of a fond remembrance, and even actions carried out in his memory. As one of the better written and acted characters I have no problem with this, but it is quite jarring considering how just last week practically all of the group had turned against Dale as something of a stupid old man who was creating more issues than they could deal with.*
*(This was further complicated by the cold open, where Rick said Dale had a lot of insight BUT he was wrong about the group being broken BUT they would do things Dale's way just to be on the safe side. Oh, and there was also intercut some scenes of the group going zombie hunting, which last time I checked was NOT Dale's way. Maybe the show was hinting at the group's inability to follow Dale's path, but if that was the case the dichotomy should have been more clear.)
However, despite those problems Dale's death did kickoff a few good things, starting with getting everybody inside Herschel's house where it's safer and we don't have be so exasperated with how stupid everybody is asking, and also providing an opportunity for a few lines for T-Dog. But I kid. Dale's death serves as the obvious wake-up call for Carl to stop acting like such a little shit, and he owns up to his role in Dale's death. It's to the show's credit that none of this came off as cloying, and that the characters were able to believably relay to Carl how none of this was his fault, while also conferring to him the state of the current world. For the first time, I saw Carl not as an adorable Moppet who would cause trouble and plot complications for the rest of the group, but rather as someone to care about.
In another strong scene, we saw Glen and Andrea bond and remember Dale while fixing the RV, and while it's a fairly obvious symbol for the group having to fill the hole, both practical and emotional, that Dale had once filled, it worked fairly well thanks to some strong work from the actors. Even better, it seems to be setting up a new arc for Glen, as he seeks to rectify what he believes the disappointment he caused Dale, and if there's one thing this show needs, it's character growth.
But the most important result of Dale's death comes from Rick's reversal back to letting Randall live, which sets off a whole chain of events leading to Shane's death. Now, like a few other aspects of tonight's episodes, the sudden reversal of what was once the status quo last week is a bit jarring, but if you can just roll with it or let it go, it allows the show to get where it's headed all along, with Shane becoming out and out evil. Of course he had some pushing along the way, with Lori telling him that she's not sure who's the father of the baby (because duh) and Carl coming to him first about his guilt, so it's not wonder that Shane once again has it in his head that he could kill Rick and take over the latter's life.
But first he had to abscond with Randall and kill him in the woods, and while I can't be sure that Shane killed Randall as a means to killing Rick, just that act alone caused the episodes to kick into high gear, as Shane finally felt like the villain that we knew all knew he would eventually become. It was an incredibly dark set of scenes, made only darker when Rick had to kill him for the good of the group, and began to rationalize his actions away, and only somewhat successfully doing so.
Then comes along Carl to do what Carl does best: stir shit up. After turning the gun on his dad but then switching targets when Shane gets up all zombiefied, the shot rings out across the woods (which Glen and Daryl are still in, by the way) drawing a hoard of zombie down onto the farm.
Uh-oh....
Other Thoughts:
Seriously, words cannot describe how happy I am that T-Dog got actual lines tonight. And that some of them were actually humorous. It's almost as if he's a character in this show or something.
We also learned that tonight that apparently those that die are destined to become zombies not matter how they die, which is something that the show set up back in “18 Miles Out”.
Oh, so Maggie's still trying to reconnect with Glen. Who wants to bet that their separation will be more permanent by the end of the finale next week?
Man, Chris Hardwick is starting to sound really desperate in those Talking Dead promos. Does anybody actually watch that thing? If so, how is it?
The fallout to Dale's death was the weaker of the two, since in resulted in a variety of different outcomes. Now, this is to be expected, and to spend an episode (or even part of one) on the varied impact a death has across the group is in theory a great way to spend an episode, provided you have enough character depth to back all of this up, something that The Walking Dead obviously lacks. So instead we got a lot of hewing and hawing as both the characters and the show struggled to paint Dale as a great man worthy of a fond remembrance, and even actions carried out in his memory. As one of the better written and acted characters I have no problem with this, but it is quite jarring considering how just last week practically all of the group had turned against Dale as something of a stupid old man who was creating more issues than they could deal with.*
*(This was further complicated by the cold open, where Rick said Dale had a lot of insight BUT he was wrong about the group being broken BUT they would do things Dale's way just to be on the safe side. Oh, and there was also intercut some scenes of the group going zombie hunting, which last time I checked was NOT Dale's way. Maybe the show was hinting at the group's inability to follow Dale's path, but if that was the case the dichotomy should have been more clear.)
However, despite those problems Dale's death did kickoff a few good things, starting with getting everybody inside Herschel's house where it's safer and we don't have be so exasperated with how stupid everybody is asking, and also providing an opportunity for a few lines for T-Dog. But I kid. Dale's death serves as the obvious wake-up call for Carl to stop acting like such a little shit, and he owns up to his role in Dale's death. It's to the show's credit that none of this came off as cloying, and that the characters were able to believably relay to Carl how none of this was his fault, while also conferring to him the state of the current world. For the first time, I saw Carl not as an adorable Moppet who would cause trouble and plot complications for the rest of the group, but rather as someone to care about.
In another strong scene, we saw Glen and Andrea bond and remember Dale while fixing the RV, and while it's a fairly obvious symbol for the group having to fill the hole, both practical and emotional, that Dale had once filled, it worked fairly well thanks to some strong work from the actors. Even better, it seems to be setting up a new arc for Glen, as he seeks to rectify what he believes the disappointment he caused Dale, and if there's one thing this show needs, it's character growth.
But the most important result of Dale's death comes from Rick's reversal back to letting Randall live, which sets off a whole chain of events leading to Shane's death. Now, like a few other aspects of tonight's episodes, the sudden reversal of what was once the status quo last week is a bit jarring, but if you can just roll with it or let it go, it allows the show to get where it's headed all along, with Shane becoming out and out evil. Of course he had some pushing along the way, with Lori telling him that she's not sure who's the father of the baby (because duh) and Carl coming to him first about his guilt, so it's not wonder that Shane once again has it in his head that he could kill Rick and take over the latter's life.
But first he had to abscond with Randall and kill him in the woods, and while I can't be sure that Shane killed Randall as a means to killing Rick, just that act alone caused the episodes to kick into high gear, as Shane finally felt like the villain that we knew all knew he would eventually become. It was an incredibly dark set of scenes, made only darker when Rick had to kill him for the good of the group, and began to rationalize his actions away, and only somewhat successfully doing so.
Then comes along Carl to do what Carl does best: stir shit up. After turning the gun on his dad but then switching targets when Shane gets up all zombiefied, the shot rings out across the woods (which Glen and Daryl are still in, by the way) drawing a hoard of zombie down onto the farm.
Uh-oh....
Other Thoughts:
Seriously, words cannot describe how happy I am that T-Dog got actual lines tonight. And that some of them were actually humorous. It's almost as if he's a character in this show or something.
We also learned that tonight that apparently those that die are destined to become zombies not matter how they die, which is something that the show set up back in “18 Miles Out”.
Oh, so Maggie's still trying to reconnect with Glen. Who wants to bet that their separation will be more permanent by the end of the finale next week?
Man, Chris Hardwick is starting to sound really desperate in those Talking Dead promos. Does anybody actually watch that thing? If so, how is it?
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