The Walking Dead Season Two Review

The Walking Dead Season 2 Review

Overall Rating: 5 / 5

Need to start with Season One?

When Rick said, "any sign'll do", he should have been a little more discerning. This season was full of signs. How things were changing. How they were staying the same. Looking to what the future was going to be. It is all laid out like a graphic murder scene.

We start the season like we ended the last - on the road out of nowhere into nowhere. The group is taking off from the CDC and trying to make it to Fort Benning. They get blocked by an auto graveyard on the highway. While trying to fix the tricky hose on the van, they encounter their first "herd" of walkers and lose Sophia in the wood. While Rick leads the group to find her, Carl gets shot accidentally and rushed to a country vet for surgery. That was probably not the sign Rick wanted, but it did ultimately lead them to the Greene farm. Looking back on Season Two now, I wonder what would have happened to them - all of them - had Carl not gotten shot. The two groups would have never met and likely would not have survived.

Shane is caught in an uncomfortable situation between comforting Rick in his grief, reuniting him with the wife who he also loves, and watching over the boy who he had started to consider his own son. As the they try to navigate that rat trap, Shane and Otis are on what appears to be a one-way mission, T-dog is fighting a blood infection,and Sophia is still missing. These things however get resolved. T-dog gets better with medicine Daryl had - no one has ever been so glad that Merle had the clap. Shane sacrifices Otis to get the medical supplies for Carl who ends up getting saved by the world's greatest vet. And Sophia gets reunited with the group, just not in the way we hoped though probably the way we all expected.

While there was a great deal of emotional and character development in 6 short episodes in Season One, Season Two blows it out of the water. There is more time and less imminent danger to deal with for the characters and their many relationships to really blossom on screen. Since this is my favorite part, let's get the action out of the way quick-like so I can get geeky over character arcs. Group shows up at Greene farm, group stays while recovering, Hershal's keeping walkers in the barn, they shoot walkers in barn, Hershal and Rick negotiate, group stays on farm, group gets overrun by walkers, group runs away.

Okay, now to the good stuff! I will probably end up doing an episode by episode review because I just love this show so much you don't understand, but for now here's the quick and dirty.

Grimes v Shane

Well ain't this a bitch? This is a classic love triangle, if a bit messier. Shane is still coping with Rick coming back while trying to deal with his love for his best friend, his best friend's wife and the boy who he started to consider his own son. However, Rick is aware of the fact that Lori and Shane were together when they thought he was dead. He only made this known when we found out that Lori was pregnant. While Rick could accept this, Shane couldn't and considered the baby his own as well as Lori and Carl. This put everyone at odds, which ultimately ended up with Rick being forced to kill Shane lest Shane kill him.

Andrea v Dale

At the end of Season One, Dale decides to stay with Andrea in a bid to get her to leave the CDC with him so he won't die too. It works and they both make it out alive. The relationship between the two is strained. Dale decides that he doesn't want Andrea to have her gun for protection because he is afraid that she might use it to kill herself. What was once strained is now outright hostile. Andrea confronts Dale about taking away her choices and making them for her, something he has no right to do. Dale realizes his mistake and gives her gun back. Andrea starts trying to forgive him and they ultimately reach comfortable ground again.

The Hunt for Sophia

During the first appearance of the herd, Sophia gets seen by a walker and runs into the woods. Losing Sophia was a lot more than losing a little girl. Sophia became a figurehead, a rally cry, and symbol of ideals that some members of the group are holding onto and some are giving up. While Shane insists that looking for Sophia is a waste of time and putting them in danger, Rick feels it is too important to give up. In addition, we start to see Daryl step up even more and it really develops his character especially with Carol. Now, I think Daryl bringing Carol to where the Cherokee roses grew was an act of caring, but you can't tell me that in a different light that wasn't the Dixon interpretation of a date.

When Shane finds out there are walkers in the barn, he busts open the door to force the group to kill them. This devastates Hershal's family, but they end up protecting the group. What he didn't count on was Sohpia being contained in the barn already a walker herself. Carol is lost with grief and it serves a huge blow to the whole group.

Hershal's View of Walkers

In the second episode, when we meet Hershal he tells Rick that this virus is the same as any the human race has ever faced. He said that we have faced bad things and come out on top, that every new one is the worst one ever, but this is just a way of the species correcting itself. His live and let live attitude ironically is probably what kept them all alive. His tendency to not panic served him well in the early days of the outbreak, but it won't stay that way. The Greene family learned early on how to safely deal with walkers by frogmarching them into the barn, but the more desperate things become the more danger those "sick" present when so close to the living.

It is also ironic that the care and charity Hershal shows towards walkers is not extended to Rick's group, though it is understandable in light of the fact that he sees them as murderers.
This was a hard truth to face for Hershal, but it allowed him to refocus his gentle nature and ability to give people chances onto the living.

Glenn's Place

Glenn meets Maggie Greene who rides in like Zorro on a horse and he immediately develops a crush on her, which she tentatively returns. Maggie is the one who brings us the fact that he could be a great leader but she thinks everyone else wants to keep him in his place. She came from a place of anger when she said it, but she’s not wrong. Glenn has all the qualities of a great leader, though he’s not quite ready yet. And the group does want to keep him in his place, but I feel that is mostly because of his skill set. All the characteristics he shows, both of a great leader and great friend, make him so incredibly useful to the group when they are dealing with walkers and each other.

His growing relationship with Maggie is what helps him define himself and what he is willing to do. Initially he is afraid to return it as he thinks it makes him weak. It is also obvious that he’s never had a serious relationship before and it likely scared. However, as his feeling develop and the world gets more and more ugly, he realizes that he does want something to fight for and that he’s willing to do it – even when it’s against more than walkers. This is probably safer for him and the group and gives him something to life and fight for, but we also start to see some of Glenn’s optimism and happy-go-lucky spirit slip away.

Where to Watch

You can buy The Walking Dead: Season 2 from Amazon. It is also available streaming from Netflix.

Favorite Walkers of Season 2

Tastes like a Penny Walker

Woodchuck Walker

World Gone to Shit Walker

Sophia

Prayer Saves Walker

PMS Bloat Walker

Overalls Walker

Househunting Walker

Mudstuck Walker

Shane

List of Dead

Otis
Sofia
Dale
Shane
Anne & the Greene brother

List of Unknown Fates

Andrea (sort of)

Survivors

Grimes Family
Daryl
Glenn
Carol
T-Dog
Greene Family

Favorite Walking Dead Season Two Scenes & Quotes

S1.E1 "Any sign'll do." Rick in the church

S2.E2. "I'll tell you what it's worth, not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying. We're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good Lord." Daryl to group

S2.E3 "I care about you, so I made a choice for you, choices. I know why I did it, but this is not my gun and the choices that I made for you were not mine to make." Dale giving gun back to Andrea.

S2.E4 "That's Glenn, our 'go to town' expert." Rick pointing Glenn out to the Greene family.

S2.E5 "People in hell want Slurpees." Daryl about dude wanting gun.

S2.E5 "Don't be too hard on yourself. We've all wanted to shoot Daryl." Dale to Andrea.

S2.E7 "I forgot they were dangerous." Of course you did, you little shit. Glenn is the only one guaranteed to survive!

S2.E13 "Christ promised a resurrection of the dead. I just thought he has something a little different in mind." Hershal