The Walking Dead: Beside the Dying Fire, 3/18/2012

Just in case anyone was wondering, we’re shown how that many zombs got in the woods: they were a random cluster from the city drawn first by the sound of a helicopter, then by Shane’s and Carl’s gunfire. (Wait—a helicopter? So there’s still a military somewhere!)

Glenn and Daryl return to the farmhouse. Daryl reports that Randall got zombed, he was not bitten, and his and Shane’s tracks being together was suspicious. (In other words, Daryl knows Shane killed Randall.) Lori asks him to go back out and try to find Rick and Shane. Glenn stays; Andrea and Daryl head outside—and everyone sees the approaching zomb swarm. Doc tells Tricia to kill the lights. Andrea goes to get the guns. Glenn says maybe they’ll just pass by like the highway herd; maybe they should just wait it out in the house? Daryl says not unless there’s an escape tunnel; that many zombs’ll tear the house down. Lori realizes Carl’s missing.

Rick and Carl dart through the zomb horde, make it to the barn, lock themselves inside. They pour gasoline around. Carl climbs up into the loft. Rick throws open the doors then darts up the ladder; Carl drops a lighter, and there’s a zomb roast. At the farmhouse, everyone’s arming themselves and loading weapons. The plan is to load into the cars and lead the zombs away.
-- Daryl: You serious?
-- Doc: This is my farm. I’ll die here.
-- Daryl: All right. It’s as good a night as any.
LOL. Theodore drives while Andrea shoots from the truck. Maggie drives while Glenn shoots from the SUV. Daryl shoots from his motorcycle, then yells at Jimmy, who’s shooting from the RV, that Rick and Shane must’ve set the barn on fire. Swing around and see if he can see them. In the house, Lori’s running around frantically looking for Carl. Beth observes that the barn is on fire. Tricia says maybe Rick set the fire to draw the zombs. Nice guesswork, Daryl and Tricia. Jimmy pulls up to the barn; Rick and Carl hop onto the RV roof. For reasons I’ll never understand, Jimmy doesn’t drive off, and zombs break in and eat him. :( I guess he didn’t know Rick and Carl were on the roof. Rick and Carl climb down, hear Jimmy’s screams and see his blood on the windshield, realize he’s history, and take off running. (Observation: RV drivers die.)

Doc stands a few feet from the farmhouse, shooting and shooting and shooting. Tricia, Beth, Lori, and Carol yell for him to come with them; he doesn’t budge. They flee. The zombs get Tricia. :( Theodore and Andrea pull up; Lori and Beth hop in the truck; Andrea hops out to go get Carol. Andrea shoots a zomb; it falls on her; Theodore et al. assume she’s dead and Carol’s lost, drive off. Elsewhere, Glenn yells at Maggie that they have to leave; the farm can’t be saved. They go. At the house, Doc is still standing there, shooting. A zomb is about to sneak up on him from behind; Rick and Carl run up; Rick shoots it. Doc says he doesn’t know where Lori is. He doesn’t want to leave, but Rick convinces him, and the three of them hop in Doc’s truck and flee. They just miss Andrea. She grabs the ammo bag and takes off running. Doc gets in a final glance at his brightly burning barn as they drive off. Elsewhere, Daryl hears Carol’s screams and picks her up on his motorcycle just before the zombs get to her.


Holy shit. I’m exhausted.

Dawn breaks. Maggie is freaking out wondering about her family.
Glenn suggests they head for the highway; maybe everyone will be there. (Note: FAIL! People, you always have an in-case-we-get-separated-in-a-zomb-attack rendezvous point.) Maggie says no cuz that’s where the zombs came from. Glenn (wisely) switches with her so that he’s driving; then calms her down by telling her he loves her—AWWWWWWWW!—and it’ll be all right. Doc, Rick, and Carl, thinking like Glenn, pull up on the highway to see if anybody else will show up there. Carl’s mad cuz Rick won’t go back for Lori. Doc tells Rick to take Carl to a safe place; he (Doc) will stay behind and wait for the others to arrive, if they arrive at all. Rick doesn’t want to split up. In the truck, Beth and Lori want to go to the highway to see if their families are there. Theodore refuses to stop. Lori opens her door and threatens to jump out. He relents. Carol/Daryl, Maggie/Glenn, and Lori/Theodore/Beth arrive on the highway together. Joyful reunion time!!!! Rick asks Daryl how he found everyone; Daryl brings the funny, explains that he found Glenn cuz his driving is so bad Daryl figured it had to be an Asian. Glenn and I LOL. Oh Daryl, you endearingly bigoted bastard. There’s a who’s-dead check: Jimmy, Tricia, and Shane are goners; Andrea might’ve survived? But the chances are seriously like nil; plus, there’s no way to find her. The group heads east. The camera pans to … the note they left on a windshield for Sophia back when they were looking for her. :(

Cut to: Andrea running through the woods, gun in her hand, ammo bag over her shoulder, zombs in hot shuffling pursuit.

Rick stops the group; his vehicle’s almost out of gas. He says they should camp for the night and in the morning make a gas/supplies run. Beth says but what if zombs come thru, or a dangerous group like Randall’s, leading Daryl to say he found Randall dead by Shane’s hand and zombed but not bitten, leading Rick to admit what he’s known since the CDC: that everybody’s infected and will automatically zomb upon death. People are mad* that he never said anything. Glenn says he told everybody about the barn zombs; Rick should’ve told everyone they’re infected. Rick says he thought people were better off now knowing. He strides off, angry. Lori approaches and hugs him, says she’s sure he had his reasons. He tells her he killed Shane, that Shane killed Randall to lure Rick into the woods, Rick realized what he was doing but wanted it over because he was tired of Shane coveting her and Carl, Shane came at him and Rick killed him, Shane zombed, and Carl re-killed him. Lori looks like her head’s going to explode. She doubles over. Rick reaches for her; she knocks his hand away and storms off, furious**.

In the woods, an exhausted Andrea has three zombs on her tail. She drops the ammo bag, bashes the first one’s head in with her gun, knifes the second one thru the skull, and is struggling with the third one when out of nowhere, a shiny blade decapitates it. A shocked Andrea looks up to see a hooded female figure*** standing there, sword in hand, leading two armless, jawless zombs by chains. And I'm seriously all like WHOA! Who dat?

The group sits around a campfire. Carol whispers to Daryl that they don’t need to be around Rick and he’s dangerous. Daryl says, “No. Rick’s done all right by me” (HE’S DONE ALL RIGHT BY ALL OF YOU, YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS.), and that Rick is a man of honor. Damn right. Maggie tells Glenn that she thinks they should take their chances without Rick. Doc says don’t be foolish; there’s no food, fuel, or ammo. Damn right. They hear a noise in the woods. Everybody’s jumpy; Maggie says they should leave. Rick says nobody should go running off in the dark. Damn right. Carol says “Do something!” Rick says he IS doing something! He’s keeping the group safe! He killed Shane for the good of the group! And his hands are clean, because Shane lured him into the woods to kill him, and everybody knows Shane needed to be killed! (Carl starts crying. You idiots! You’re upsetting the child!) If anyone wants to go, Rick continues, go! But if they stay, this ain’t a democracy anymore. Nobody leaves. Damn right. It’s a Ricktocracy. (Credit: I stole that from The Talking Dead.)

The camera pans away to … a castle? manor? prison! in the woods. Setting for season three? Methinks yes. Best season finale EVAR? Methinks yes.

Discussion:
*I don’t get why everyone’s mad. Just what did Rick do that was so bad? WHO CARES if when you die you automatically zomb? What the hell difference does that make??? And we all remember how straightjacket-required crazy Jenner was; he could have been wrong. As Rick tried to explain to Lori, he didn’t know for sure Jenner was right until he saw Zomb Shane. Plus, after everything Rick has done for the good of the group, how dare they turn on him? HOW DARE THEY?????

** Lori can hop the happy hell off of her high horse. She has no right whatsoever to be upset about Shane. Hell, it might've been her ill-timed apology to Shane that set him off and made him want to kill Rick. And like two episodes ago she was whispering in Rick’s ear that he needs to do something about Shane. Well, he did. AND SHANE WAS GOING TO KILL RICK. So, why’s she mad? Maggie, Lori, and Carol need to take a Xanax or smoke a joint or something and calm the eff down. I’m mad that it’s the women completely losing their cool. I’m going to chalk it up to the stress of the night. Team Rick, Doc, and Daryl. And Theodore, since he didn’t make any anti-Rick statements. And since the black guy didn't die, for once. Yay!

***I haven’t read the comics, so I had to wait til The Talking Dead (I love you, Chris Hardwick.) to find out who that was. Michonne. Fan-favorite character. (Black chick! Yay! Black girl high five!!!) Total bad ass—although that part I figured out from the sword skills and mutilated zomb prisoners, lol. I’m already loving her and wanting to be BFFs. Plus, she saved Andrea. *hug*