The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 4: Cherokee Rose
A far slower episode, so I don't think I'll be too verbose about this episode. It's very much a cooldown episode, and I am honestly unconvinced that each good episode must be followed by a cooldown one. You can have an escalation. What we got is good characterization, but it's just so low-paced. Shane's big moment from the previous episode ends up only translating to him ad-libbing Otis's eulogy, and later in teaching Andrea about how to flip off The Switch when killing someone, but also confesses that he still has guilt about it.
The search for Sophia goes on... with absolutely no result. Daryl runs around as this solo tracker, but we don't get any payoff. Not even a requisite walker fight. Even Carol seems to have somewhat given up on the prospect of getting Sophia back alive, and I'm just confused where we're going with this. Some clue to indicate either way Sophia's status would be nice. And having us actually care for Sophia since she's barely a step up from a non-entity in the first season would be decent too. Daryl's short speech about Cherokee roses to Carol was nice, and he's definitely softening up.
Rick's... kinda just there. We get a moment of talking between Rick and Hershel, and while Rick respects Hershel a great deal he is also not afraid to beg Hershel to reconsider letting them hang out in a more... permanent form, something that Hershel was initially straightfowardly adamant about. There are 'aspects' he can't discuss, so maybe he's hiding something? I highly doubt this nice old vet will end up being an antagonist, but we'll see. Maybe the well zombie will end up being a plot point?
Also Lori is pregnant. Also Glenn and Maggie have sex. Also Rick gives Carl his sheriff hat. The first is a bit of a nice, if not unpredictable, revelation -- beyond the question of 'who's the daddy', really. With Glenn it's nice to have him be brought up to B-lister status after basically being nonexistent for this season, and with Carl it's... well, just a heartwarming moment.
The thing that didn't work for this episode was the stupid well zombie, though, and how long they spend on trying to pull it out. With Daryl's solo search being uneventful, and Rick and Hershel just looking into the Georgia sunset together, it just makes the episode mostly dull. And the fact that after all their trouble the well zombie just splits in half and contaminates the water anyway... honestly, it's just dumb, especially since a couple of scenes earlier Maggie or someone told them that there are five wells. Drinking water from a well where a zombie has been mucking around for long enough that it has become bloated (good job on that makeup effects, though -- Bloatface McWell is easily the best zombie makeup jobs in this series so far) isn't going to be healthy.
Overall not a very exciting episode, honestly, mostly because nothing really happened that was of consequence.
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