The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 3: Save the Last One
The main focus of this episode is undoubtedly Shane. Sure, he spends most of it other than the last fifteen minutes embroiled in an action scene with Otis set in darkness where they save each other as they try their best to survive the zombie horde. Yet Shane returns, all alone but with all of Carl's equipment... and we get a flashback showing that Shane -- who previously has been saved by Otis from the zombies -- shoots Otis in the leg, beats him up and grabs the medical equipment from him and leaves him to be devoured by the zombies in the most horrific of manners. You could argue that Shane is doing it to ensure that his son-figure, Carl, would survive, or he could just be looking out for his own survival, or if you're feeling like a dick you might think he did it to score points with Lori. Or it's simple pragmatism as they're both not fast runners and they're almost out of bullets, so either they both die (and so does Carl), or one of them make it out and save Carl. Either way, though, Shane basically killed Otis, and while it seemed like an open-and-shut case at the moment, like Merle in the first season it might not be that simple. It's a great scene, though, and we're not sure whether we should be cheering for Shane... yet booing him after seeing how much Carl's possible death would affect Rick and Lori, people we actually care about, and things suddenly get more gray.
Rick and Lori get a lot of great scenes as they consider the ever-worsening odds regarding Carl -- kid didn't help by going into a horrifying seizure. Rick going out is certainly not an option considering his blood loss, and the two actually have a pretty good discussion about keeping Carl alive in this horrendous world where sooner or later Carl's going to die by some horrific way or other. Shame the introspective moment got ruined by the utterly cheese "he talked about the deer, Lori" speech which just plain didn't work for me. But keeping the hope alive and yadda yadda yadda works out fine, though.
With the focus of the episode solely around the drama surrounding Carl and Shane, and a good chunk of the episode taken up by action scenes, it's amazing how much extra character moments we got in this episode. Some of the characters shifted to the side get a lot of character moments, with B-listers Glenn and Maggie having a great scene where Glenn tries his hand at praying. We get Daryl bonding with Andrea, talking about opting out in this crazy crazy world as they see the zombified body of someone who hung himself with the most ridiculous suicide note ever. We get Daryl talking about his past, how he himself got lost in the woods for days while his father didn't give two shits, and is adamant that Sophia is alive -- without Carol around, it seemed to be something Daryl really believes in, so the resident jackass has a soft spot for little kids.
Overall a pretty damn great episode, and most of it centralizes on the big reveal at the end about what Shane did to survive. It's still a great episode (cheesy deer speech aside), though, with nearly everyone getting a great moment of characterization or two.
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