The Walking Dead returns...

I think we are glossing over the most important thing...

ZOMBIE COW!

It stumbles around the pasture moaning out, "Miiiiiiiiiillllk"...

That did it...

I officially hate TV Carl now. Little *******.

wow...did not see that happening....poor Dale....r.i.p.

I'll miss Dale. It sounds like he had a better death in the comic.

I guess Carl didn't take Shane's advise to stop trying to get killed, only this time he got someone else killed.

Now that we know more about Randall's group, I'd probably be in favor of getting rid of him as well...

Having avoided any spoilers for the show...

That was unexpected.
Excellent performance by Jeffrey DeMunn in this episode. What a great hour role that would have been as an actor - running a real range of emotions and interactions.

Dale's voice will be missed when it comes to regulating the group.

Rick and Company need to think in terms of leaving the farm. Randalls' group sounds like a group of Shanes, and they definitely sound local.

Carl... um, has some issues to sort out. And I can certainly see that we may be building to dramatic role in his life.

Zombie cow!

Notes about Dale: While I honestly didn't expect to see him to check out during last night's episode it almost made sense for him to get killed at this point. Of the entire group I think he always represented "the past", the time before the ZA when there was law and civilization. Clearly the group has been slipping away from that as more people die and the truth that things are never going to return to "normal" is finally driven home.

Dale, as a character, served his purpose. He made his point known to Shane, Rick and the others that the world as they knew it was over. In order to "prove" his point he really had no where to go character-wise other than to get killed in a senselessly sad way. His death verified that the world has in fact changed and that the group is broken. It'll be up to the others to pick up the pieces and recreate a new world that Dale could have never been a part of.


Notes about Carl: Opposite to Dale we have Carl who represents "the future". He's growing up in a world where things have literally become survival of the fittest. He's learning that individual human life is almost meaningless, where random friends or strangers can end up dying at any moment. He's now even learned (or at least feels guilty about) what it's like to let someone die due to his actions. I suspect Dale's death may be the tipping point that'll crush any last ideas about him just being a carefree innocent child.

Some may think that he'll turn into some kind of maladjusted sociopath, and if the world was still in pre-ZA mode that might be one way to summarize it. But I think that given the circumstances of the post-ZA world that he's learning exactly the kinds of harsh lessons he'll need to survive. He won't be able to afford the luxuries of second-guessing and compassion that got Dale killed (at least indirectly).

In a weird sort of way I see Dale's death almost akin to that classic scene when Luke Skywalker watched Obi Wan get killed by Darth Vader. It was a pivotal scene in Carl's life that'll galvanize him into becoming the kind of man he'll need to be in order to survive.


Notes about Randall: I'm fairly convinced that he's completely full of crap and a definite threat to the group. First off he didn't really seem that innocent when Daryl was beating him. Sure he was whimpering and begging Daryl to stop, but he was acting more like a captured enemy soldier rather than a purely innocent kid. He only told Daryl things -after- Daryl beat he more. If he was truly innocent/repentant he'd be telling Daryl everything instantly instead of trying to keep his mouth shut.

Also there was that scene where Carl snuck into barn and Randall was trying to get him to let him go so that he could "go back to his group". Why does Randall have so much loyalty to that other group which supposedly did all those evil things that he tried to claim he didn't do himself?

Let's just say if Randall actually ends up being an innocent kid that's true to his word then I'll be surprised at this point. I think Shane's assessment of Randall's threat is spot-on.

*** SPOILERS from March 4th episode ***



I find it amusing that Dale shuffles on, and apparently the next episode we find out how wrong he might be about Randall. Shane will get in his "I told you so"s for sure. Some rather large divergences from the comics at this point, which is really cool. I wasn't expecting Dale to die this fast; he managed to live quite a bit longer in the book.

OK, zombie behavior question: We've never seen a zombie animal of any sort, so I have to assume that the cow was still alive, but in a lot of pain. Why did the zombie leave the "feast"? We've never seen any of them leave a still living person/animal unless they were forced to. Isn't it a bit odd that this one decided to wander away long enough to surprise Dale?

FINALLY!

Hated Dale.

Hate people who constantly whine about others behind their back, even when told to shut up.

Just watched Talking Dead, which had an interesting factoid: The director stated that they intentionally filmed that zombie such that his eyes never blinked.

So, do zombies never blink? Is the autonomous reflex in a part of the brain which does not "reactivate"? And, if this is the case, will it be a nation of blind zombies in a few months?

They didn't say on Talking Dead that they don't blink. The director was merely pointing out that the particular person playing that zombie didn't blink for that particular zombie to give it more of a "skull like" effect. But I didn't gather that meant all zombie's don't blink. It sounded to me like a specific decision made for dramatic effect.

Regarding the issue of zombie degredation - I know point was made in the comic that it was safer for the humans in the winter because the cold air slowed down, or perhaps in some cases even froze the zombies solid. Still, they seemed to survive that when spring came.

Another thing that came to mind was the issue I think that was mentioned here about how easy it seems to be to stab through their skulls to kill them, and I knod of came up with a personal justification for that: osteoporosis. The zombies aren't drinking enough milk, so their bones are getting brittle!

How does a single zombie manage to overpower a cow?

I don't recall, but didn't Shane and Rick come upon the deer and then Darryl shot the zombie in the head with his crossbow? It's very fuzzy.

Even if the walker started munching on the cow as it was asleep, you'd think at some point, the cow would wake up. I mean, I know cows are not exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, but you'd think the stink alone (presuming they are stinky) would be enough to rouse the cow to make some noise.

Also, what the heck was Dale doing wandering way out there past the corpse pile in the first place?

I see Carl has inherited some of his mother's traits.

Poor Dale. It'll be interesting to see how this affects Andrea.

Great death scene. Loved Dale in this episode. Most times I find him cloyingly dramatic and sometimes wished he'd shut up but this time around his presence was absolutely necessary. Decent episode but Carl is now neck and neck with Andrea for characters I hate because they don't know how to listen. Seriously, someone put a bell on that kid.

Carl's probably only going to get worse. He has no one his own age to relate to anymore. Having Sophia around probably acted as a brake on his idiocy.

I was kind of surprised that they decided to put Dale out of his misery like that. Other than being in pain/shock, is being disemboweled fatal? I've heard of people being stabbed or wounded in the abdomen and their intestines coming out and surviving. I guess the doc must have seen more ripped stuff inside Dale than just the skin and knew it was beyond his capability to fix.

Also: looking forward to seeing the ZOMBIE COW!

The virus or whatever probably only effects human brains or something....