The Walking Dead S02E10 Review: For Want of a Wrench

The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 10: 18 Miles Out

Yeah, at this point I've kinda watched season two up to its end, but I'm just taking my time writing these reviews. I'm going to review this series at least until the end of season two -- we'll see if I continue reviewing it. It's not getting that much views, and it's far more interesting to review manga and superhero TV shows anyway for me. Not that Walking Dead isn't bad per se, I'm really enjoying it and I'm probably going to watch it up until season 6, but, well, I dunno if I'm going to continue to continue reviewing it episode by episode. I've got a lot on my plate and I'd rather continue talking about something I'm far more passionate and interested about.

Anyway, episode ten. It would be a far, far stronger episode if we didn't get the random in medias res opening that showed Shane, Rick and Randall being attacked by a swarm of zombies. It definitely dilutes the tension of the episode because we know whatever the hell happens, a zombie swarm is going to come around and we're going to see Shane in a buss and Randall crawling towards a knife. 

This episode is very neatly divided into two sub-plots. The one at the farm is, as ever, less interesting. We basically single out ever other person in the farm other than Andrea, Lori, Beth and Maggie sort of. Beth is suicidal, and we get an argument between the pro-life Lori and pro-choice Beth. There's some stupidity in the argument as Beth goes with the method of experimentation -- let Beth kill herself to see whether she really wants to kill herself -- and the fact that it actually worked instead of, y'know, Beth fucking bleeding to death... yeah, that bit was silly. I thought something along the lines of Andrea locking the two of them in the room, goading Beth to make a choice, and Beth not being able to do it would make for a far more impactful scene. Otherwise that suicide scene ended up really doing nothing for me. Also stupid is Maggie leaving Andrea to watch Beth. Seriously, Maggie? I thought you were far smarter than that.

What's far more interesting is Lori's argument with Andrea. The bit where Lori basically tells Andrea to go back and wash clothes, because 'the men have been working hard' -- yeah, T-Dog is totally a big fighter -- is obviously kind of shitty for her. Yes, Andrea's been kinda mopey since forever, she's borderline suicidal and maybe she shouldn't have left Beth and Mr. Knife to sort things out. But the thing is, Andrea's proven herself with a gun, even if it's just in front of Shane. She's not a burden to the group any more than Carol or T-Dog are. Andrea's counter-argument, mocking Lori for crashing her car, and then being absolutely (and rightfully) angry that Lori can afford to say everything's going to get better because her husband and child 'returned to life', and how she miraculously survived said car crash when Andrea lost her sister... that's some powerful moment.

But it's definitely the losing plot, because as interesting as it is, the Shane/Rick bit took priority.

We seem to have had a bit of a timeskip, considering Randall's all healed up -- enough to be limp-running away from the zombies anyway from what I thought was an amputated leg. We go straight to Shane and Rick confronting the fact that leaving Randall alive might bring his entire group down upon the farm. We get Shane and Rick confronting the revelation that Rick knew all along that Shane and Lori were fucking while he was 'dead'. The two fight it out, and there's not much to say about it other than it's brilliant. Shane's logical and pragmatic in most things, of course. He's just not really diplomatic, he's got insane tunnel-vision, and he's got this insane bit of entitlement where he thinks Lori and Carl 'belongs' to him or some bullshit like that. Whereas Rick is too much of an idealist, but he's the nice guy that's trying to do right by everyone. 

And then, y'know, the decision on whether to kill Randall turns to a fight involving a thrown wrench, and a swarm of zombie attacks! We get some awesome moments like that bit with the zombies dogpiling Rick and him shooting through one's mouth to aim at a different one, we've got Shane holding off an entire horde with a school bus's door... and really there's no predicting what's going to happen when Rick decides to bugger off with Randall. Considering Shane just tried to kill him, it could very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back and Rick decides to leave Shane at the mercy of the zombies (and Shane might survive even then) but considering this is Rick, who's perfectly willing to let loose someone who tried to kill him last episode... and, y'know, Rick ended up helping Shane with that utterly awesome car-vs-zombie action.

So yeah, Shane and Rick's conflict is great this episode. The suicide subplot is entirely uneven and went in all directions and didn't really feel satisfying, though, which brings this episode down somewhat.