The gang bonds with a group morale building exercise; a good ole' fashioned zombie massacre. It's like shooting fish in a barrel (or is it Zeds in a barn?)

Season 2, Episode 7: "Pretty Much Dead Already"
Original Air Date—27 November 2011

"Hershel sets a deadline. All secrets are out in the open. Glenn stands up for himself and Shane takes charge"

The episodes starts with Glen spitting out the big secret: "So, uh, guys? The barns full of walkers." Looks like we might have a good one again.

Oh hell no! Shane's furious (go figure?), Rick agrees the barn needs to be cleared but in current wimp-mode wants Hershel blessing (really dude?).

Meanwhile, Carl does schoolwork with Lori. "I'm not leaving" until we find Sophia, Carl says. "She's gonna like it here." Nice twisted foreshadowing kid.

There's some soap-opera stuff with Dale and Maggie (don't leave, I love you) and Rick lets out to Shane that Lori's pregnant (for this installment of "As The Zed Turns"). Lori later tells Shane that even if it's his, it's Rick's. Yeah, that's going to calm our resident beserker down.

Dale runs off with the groups guns, fearing what Shane's wrath may bring. Shane confronts him in the process and Dale calls him out on killing Otis. He sees the madman that Shane is and tells him he belong in this world (the effed up zombie apocalypse aftermath version).

I got to say, I like this Shane. The short-lived original psycho of Kirkman's comic book was over-the-top and many find this current anger-driven Shane a bit played out, but I think this version works. Some of my favorite moments of this season thus far were propelled by this Shane (Save the Last One, The Barn Massacre). He does fit into this world as Dale assesses, but I enjoy it. Other than Daryl, he's still the best and most consistent character, in a season where we see many of the great original characters from season 1 neutered (Mopey Rick and Glenn) or just notably more annoying (Lori, Dale).

Then Rick goes off with Hershel to capture a zombie that got away. Now, that is good timing, cause all we need is for Shane and company to see a scene like that to explode this powder-keg.

As Rick returns helping Hershel corral a zombie with a pole and noose set up the gang sees what's going down and Shane flips out with a classic "What is this??" roar.
The gang joins in and Shane teaches Hershel a lesson by unloading into the zombie, proving the point of it being undead. He then rallies the mob and shows them how its going to be as Hershel and his family watch trembling and sobbing. Handing out guns, he opens the barn door and lets the zombies free...to be shot down by the gang which is now in full mob mode. This scene was good stuff. Filmed well, and impactful like classic season 1 Walking Dead.


Ok, one of the nitpicks this season was the endless search for Sophia. I, along with many others, asked last episode "Still no Sophia? Why bother?" Well, we finally have our answer and it is a good one, though some had speculated on it, just as many "figured out" the barn before that twist was revealed. Really, once the barn was revealed, the true fate of Sophia became a logical option to mull over.

Yes, Sophia was in the barn all along. And her dramatic slow-mo exit (conveniently as the last walker) was pretty cool even though we knew it was coming. And Rick Grimes stepping in for the head shot (cause we all know Rick does have that experience of shooting little zombie girls dead center in the head) and reasserts his role as the man, a dramatic scene full of emotion and a cathartic moment in this season.

3"Zs" - Zombtac.com

NITPICKS:

- Some of the character's dialogue and whiny demeanor continue to bug (we're looking at you Lori). Hopefully this is the last of subservient, mopey Rick.

- All the soap-opera angles.

- At this point in season one, we ended the season, after covering so much ground and varying situations. Let's get off this farm already.

QUOTABLE:

Glenn: "So, uh, guys? The barns full of walkers."
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Rick to Herschel: "The first time I saw a walker, it was just half a body, snapping at me from the ground and my first inclination wasn't to kill it. But what the world is out there isn't what you saw on T.V. It is much, much worse and it changes you. Either into one of them, or something a lot less than the person you were."

Rick: "My wife's pregnant,That's either a gift here, or a death sentence out there."

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Shane: "You know it's mine," (he says of the baby.)

Lori: "Even if it's yours it's not going to be yours,"
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Shane: "Could a living breathing person walk away from this?" (as he shoots Herschel's zombie pal)


FACTS & NOTES:

(SOURCE MATERIAL SPOILER ALERT!):
CHARACTERS THAT NEVER WERE
In Robert Kirkman's comic book, which the series is based on, Shane was a ragingly jealous character that was very killed early in the series, by Carl, who was defending his father.

The show's perhaps most fan-favorite character, Daryl Dixon, didn't even exist in the comic series.

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CURING THE DEAD
Cryonics was popular in the 1960s. The concept was that a body in a frozen state could later be thawed when technology was great enough to cure it of it's affliction. Walt Disney was rumored to be cryogenically frozen, and placed under Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney in fact had a quite traditional burial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California in 1966.

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RICKS' GUN
Rick's signature sidearm is a polished stainless steel Colt Python revolver chambered in .357 Magnum, with six-inch barrel, first introduced in 1955 as the top-of-the-line model.

The Python immediately made inroads into the law enforcement market when introduced, with the 6-inch barrel being popular with uniformed officers and the 4-inch barrel considered optimum for plainclothes use.

Official Colt historian, RL Wilson described the Colt Python as "the Rolls-Royce of Colt revolvers" and Firearms historian, Ian V. Hogg referred to it as the "best revolver in the world". However, the revolver is not without its detractors. The downside to the precision of the Colt Python is its tendency to go "out of time" with continued heavy shooting. It is also quite large and heavy for a modern handgun weighing at 2.4-2.6 pounds.

We first saw Rick use the iconic revolver in the opening scene of the series ("Days Gone Bye") , where he, like in this episode, also has to shoot a zombified little girl dead center in the head.

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