I was sceptical when I heard that this weeks Walking Dead would be "shocking". Not because I haven't enjoyed the show so far but you now how sensationalist everyone can be.
Tuesday night's episode marked the Season 2 mid-season finale - the show's gone on hiatus for the festive season and will be back in February.
The episode aired in the US on Sunday, screams of "shocking!" echoed across the world afterwards and after watching it on Tuesday I was finished because of how unbelievably true the screams were.
All I have to say about the final moment is:"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" How else does one describe the sorts of madness of it?!
The best was how it built up to the moment, starting with Shane's slow yet violent loss of his humanity.
Then, that long walk across the field by Rick and Hershel Greene, harnessing the zombies, everyone else spotting them and us
knowing how they would respond when they saw the zombies alive with them.
And then WHAAAAAAAAAAAM - Shane's explosion and the grisly, highly emotional murder of the zombies.
And of course the final, stabbing "huh huh" (zombie sound) moment of Sophia emerging from the barn.
I don't mean to blow my own zumpet (zombie trumpet) but I just
knew it was gonna be her when we heard the sound of one more living zombie inside. Did you also? What was so extra insane about it is how much you wanted her to be her and you got the feeling that she
might be.
Like she was still the small girl she was before with the bob, blue eyes and takkies. There was a flicker of the thought: "Could it be that she's not like the rest? Maybe they could keep her and she could get better?"
Obviously to get us to feel what Hershel was feeling in his trauma, which he's
never gonna get over. Ultimately though, it turned out he was wrong.
Last week
I agreed with why he was keeping them in the barn and decided I would too. This week it changed bigtime. I realised that they
are too dangerous, that they'll probably never be cured and that keeping them like that - without knowing what would become of them - was cruel, unintentionally so. They
aren't human anymore.
The brilliant thing about how it unfolded was how the show contrasted Shane with them. Has he become a zombie too but in a different way? At what point does one cross the line between being human verus
not? I reckon Shane's definitely crossed it, whereas Rick hasn't.
Also mindboggling is the reason why: Shane's much more terrified than Rick - it's clearly what his fear and loathing's done to him.
All in all the episode was killer and reflected it's punch with record ratings. According to
The Hollywood Reporter it scored higher ratings in the US than the Season1 finale: 4.5 million viewers in the 18 to 49 year-old age group.
It'll be back in the US on Sunday 12 February 2012. It resumes for us on Tuesday, 14 February.