'The Walking Dead' Season Two Recap So Far

Does this dress make me look fat?

With only 3 episodes of The Walking Dead to go in this second season, you have to admit, it's getting tense filled and exciting. 

And don't forget the TV news or word on the street is that David Morrissey has joined the cast of The Walking Dead to portray The Governor in season 3.  The other word on the street is that he's a pretty important character in this story, period.
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The tensions at the farm house are riding at an all-time high, the tensions within our group are razor sharp and some of the sexual tensions are leaving their mark also.

So far this season, in the season premiere, called "What Lies Ahead," Sophia (Madison Lintz) ran off from the group while they en-route to Fort Benning.  But things got no better in as Carl (Chandler Riggs) got shot while search parties were out looking for Sophia.  This is when they discover Dr. Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson) in "Bloodletting."

Hershel was very welcoming, and went to work on Carl, but supplies were needed and Shane (Jon Bernthal) and Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) headed to town.  It's here, when Shane makes an ugly decision and leaves Otis as bait for a herd of walkers, in "save the Last One."  It's here when we start to understand there's a darkness within Shane that is uncomfortable to address.
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But after a close call, Hershel manages to save Carl from his gunshot wound and now the group, based out of Hershel's farmhouse, can once again start looking for Sophia in "Cherokee Rose."   The most adamant searcher in the group is Daryl (Norman Reedus), who makes more search runs than anyone else.  It's during one of these runs that Daryl finds himself injured and on his own in the woods.  It's here we see Merle (Michael Rooker) again...  if only in Daryl's head.

Also in "Chupacabra," Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) figures out she's pregnant.  Oh, the sparks (the wrong ones) are going to fly!

Of course it's here, in "Secrets," that our party learns that Hershel has been herding walkers in the barn on the other side of the property...  because he thinks there's a cure.  His wife is one of them.  Well, Glen (Steven Yeun) finds out, and as you all know, Glen is the WORSE person to tell or let have a secret.  Period.  Even if his new love interest, Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan), begs him to not tell anyone.  (What were you thinking girl!?)

It's in the episode "Pretty Much Dead Already" that Glen blurts everything out and it is also about this time that with Carl pretty much mended, Hershel asks Rick to take his group away from his farm.

But then Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) gets very sanctimonious on the group, and makes a unilateral decision and steals everyone's guns and hides them in the woods.  He thinks he's doing what's best for the entire group, while leaving them defenseless from whatever they might encounter.  (He reminds me of Locke, from Lost, who kept making group calls for the group, when mostly the group had no clue and had to abide by his decisions.)
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It's here in "Pretty Much Dead Already" that Shane starts to show the group his breaking point and confronts Dale about the guns, threatening no undue measure if Dale doesn't give up the guns.  But once Shane has the guns, the ungrateful guest that he his, storms his hosts barn, releasing the walkers, then starts mowing them down.

It's here that we learn that Sophia has been in the barn because she had become a walker somewhere along the line.  Rick steps up and puts her down.

The Mid-Season break gave us a chance to froth about the developments we've seen so far and also learn the news that the man that brought The Walking Dead to its successful cable network run, Frank Darabont, was let go by AMC.  Supposedly for making noise about having such a hit show and having his budget tightened down instead of embraced to keep making the show better.

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The mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead was apparently a highly anticipated premiere.  And no, I'm not quoting the marketing people that pull that statement out of the air because they heard it in the studio bathroom somewhere!

The Walking Dead broke all cable TV records, ever, with the TV ratings of the mid-season return episode titled "Nebraska."  Guess we're liking this fantasy depiction of zombies storming the world and following a rag-tag group of survivors.

We have a new showrunner in-place, Glen Mazzara (The Shield, Hawthorne), but that doesn't seem to matter, except to say that he promises a bit more action than was previously experienced, while still focusing on the story of our survivors and the other desperate people they meet along the way.  The story was good... and compelling enough to continually set ratings records
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In the mid-season premiere, titled "Nebraska," things get different within the groups.  Hershel vanishes (into the town bar down the road), Rick and Glenn go after him.  Dale voices his suspicions about Shane getting Otis killed and Lori pulls the stupid and charges off after Hershel in a car, despite her husband having gone looking already.

It's here that Rick, Hershel and Glenn (Yes, they found Hershel) encounter some strangers in town.  But their line of questioning doesn't seem right.  They seem to want to know where the farm is and Rick takes some abrupt and shocking action to keep things sane.  Wow, it was abrupt action.

In "Triggerfinger," we watch Lori reaping her own reward from taking off on her own.  She took off for no real apparent reason except to get attacked by a creepy looking zombie who shoves his face through a crack in the broken window... very cool, very creepy.

Rick, Hershel and Glenn are now dealing with friends of the two guys from the last episode, but not to fear, zombies to the rescue, sort of.  As they come out of the woodwork and attack the strangers.

Shane finds Lori on the road, and gets her back to the farm.

In "18 Miles Out," Rick and Shane are "escorting" a prisoner, Randall (Michael Zegen), so to speak.  They're taking him away from the farm so he can't give up its location, but it turns out he's a local.  Shane is all for killing him and Rick is not.

Rick thinks they need to learn to use more knives to kill the walkers (ick!) and tries to show Shane the trick to it.  (I wouldn't want zombie goo on me!)

What a cute gun-toting couple they make!

Meanwhile, the female version of Shane, Andrea (Lori Holden), who was charged to keep eye on suicidal Beth (Emily Kinney), walks off to let Beth decide for herself if she does want to die or not.  So much for suicide watches and trust, as Andrea seems to be making unilateral decisions herself now. Andrea's self-important 'tude is right along the lines of annoying... a non-team player who can't be trusted as she's proven here.  Her and Dale would make the perfect team, and I'd add Shane, but the Dale and Shane show would be a traveling fight!

And that's where we are, with only three episodes left of The Walking Dead, in this second season.

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Thoughts anyone? Are you liking where the show is going, or where it's veered off from the original comic?  If you bring spoiler comments from the comic, please mark your comment top and bottom with SPOILER. Thanks.

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