The Walking Dead S01E05 Review: Conspiracies and Burying the Dead

The Walking Dead, Season 1, Episode 5: Wildfire

A bit of a slower episode, and honestly I don't have as much to say about this episode. A good chunk of this episode is just Shane and Rick arguing with each other, while the rest of the camp tries to recover from the aftermath of episode 4's zombie attack. Rick believes that their camp position is compromised and they are better served going off to the CDC building which is very far off (the hell do I know where Georgia is in respect to Atlanta)... a risky proposition since resources are limited and they're not sure of whether there will be a payoff, but then again there's not much else to do just hanging around. Shane and Rick get into a bit of an argument, and thanks to the whole Shane-Lori friction there's a moment when Shane and Rick are in the woods, and there's a chilling moment where Shane has his shotgun set on Rick's head. It's not clear just what is going through Shane's head, or if he's just working out the frustrations from their arguments, or if he's just considering shooting Rick so he can continue to fuck Lori... but it's a good thing Dale showed up.

There are a couple of nice moments for the minor characters, but the ones that get the most screentime this episode are Andrea and Jim. Jim's basically a plot device, though, and despite being set up to be important with his weird prophetic dream, he's apparently bitten by a walker last episode, and while he tries to hide it, well, there's no stopping the disease. And therein comes the biggest emotional blow to the group. No matter how hard they try, they can't save Jim, and going to CDC is a very long shot anyway. But they can't really leave him alive, and while Daryl could've pointed out that Jim's zombification is imminent in a more diplomatic way than running at him with a pickaxe, it's still a valid point. They eventually get consent from Jim to leave him behind so he can die in peace, which certainly is something more dignified than being shot in the head after turning into a zombie.

Andrea had to deal with her dead sister's body, and protects it fiercely with the gun skills she learned from Rick. For a moment it seemed like Amy's about to become a zombie and fuck the sentimental Andrea up, but apparently Andrea had enough nerves and balls to end Amy's unlife by herself. It's a nice, heartbreaking moment that might've ran on for a bit too long, but certainly effective in making Andrea more as a character.

Carol gets to whack Ed's head with a pickaxe. Damn, girl, I know he beat you and I know someone has to break his brain, but when you make even Daryl nervous...

Morales and his family (he had a family?? I didn't know that) split off from the group for... uh... vague reasons. There's some talk about his family or whatever but they don't really make sense. Apparently he doesn't show up ever, so I honestly wonder why not kill Morales off instead of Jim. I literally can't give two shits about Jim, who's claim to fame is that he went loony one time and dug holes, whereas as little screentime Morales got, he's still part of the Atlanta crew and did a fair amount of fighting with Rick, Glenn and the rest. Oh well.

Everyone else goes off with Rick, though, even Daryl. Daryl's basically the team's comedic sociopath at this point. He's definitely cooperative and while he bursts into angry tantrums at times all it takes is Rick, Shane, T-Dog and/or Glenn to hold him back and he'll usually calm down. Certainly far more reasonable than Merle, though the fact that, y'know, the people in that group left his brother to die is still going to be a ticking time-bomb if/when Merle returns.

The love triangle, if it can be called that since Lori is pretty much a faithful wife who's spurning all of Shane's delusions of love, is starting to get annoying and we really need some payoff or confrontation at the final episode of the season. Though the fact that this actually ties in to whether Rick or Shane's decision is the right one makes Shane's attempts at currying favour with Lori somewhat more relevant.

They do end up in the CDC building and while there's an overly-long 'LET US IN' sequence, apparently there's a mysterious scientist who's driven into near-suicide thanks to, well, his work in trying to figure out a cure to the titular 'Wildfire' ending up failed because he spilled something into some other thing, he's forced to evacuate by the helpful computer (Red Queen is that you) who proceeds to sanitize his entire lab. By way of explosives, thus completely destroying every single sample in the room. We get a couple of recordings from Mr. Scientist who gives a fair establishment of how long he's been trapped in the CDC building. He seemed pretty hopeless, though we might get some answers about just what the origin of the zombie plague is. Which, while honestly might not be the most interesting thing, will still help to shape the state of the world. And, well, whether there is a potential of a cure or whatever or not remains to be seen.

Overall there really aren't any glaring issues to this episode. Not even the talky scenes felt like too much padding. But on the other hand there's also not really a stand-out spectacular scene or sequence like the previous episodes, so this episode really felt weaker simply by virtue of being an in-between sequence between episodes four and six, spending most of its scenes either setting up for the confrontation at the CDC building or winding down from the zombie attack on the camp.