Last night's episode of 'The Walking Dead' ended with a bang, and something predicted by every fan of the comic book. Obviously, the show and book will have a few similarities and a few differences. Last week, the group all settled in at Hershel's ranch, and life seemed to be getting back to normal. Sophia was still missing, Carl finally woke up after being shot, and got to wear his dad's sheriff's hat, and Glenn and Maggie got busy in the drug store. The big shocker was that Lori found out she was pregnant, but has yet to tell anyone. Check out last week's recap for all the info.
As it is stated every week, this recap is filled with MAJOR SPOILERS, and they will not be blocked out, so you all have been warned.
== TEASER ==Flashback
Before Rick joined up with the group, Shane, Lori, and Carl were with Carol, Sophia, and her now dead husband. They are all stuck on a highway and Shane and Lori decide to move forward to see why they're stuck. The get to the forest and get a clear view of the city. Shane, Lori, and many other onlookers who were also trapped on the highway watch as the Army napalms the streets.
Cut to current day, Lori wakes up in a tent alone. She's slept in. She gets out and helps Carol with the laundry. Carol tells Lori that she wants to make dinner for Hershel and his family for being so hospitable, but she wants Lori to ask since she and Rick are closer to Hershel and the family after the whole Carl ordeal. Meanwhile, at the house Glenn and Maggie have a bit of an awkward moment. Glenn seems smitten with Maggie, but she couldn't care less.
The Search Continues
The group splits up for another day of searching for Sophia, and Jimmy, a member of Hershel's camp goes with them, after saying it's ok with Hershel. Rick and Shane team up together. Shane is very quiet, and Rick knows the only way to get him talking is to bring up women in the past that Shane slept with. They have this surreal moment where they actually have this real conversation about Shane's sex life in this very unreal situation. While on the search, Shane voices his opinion that it's been three days since Sophia ran away, and in the "cop world," after 72 hours, all you find is corpses. Shane and Rick have differences on opinion.
Daryl's Search
Daryl took a horse from Hershel and is on the search by himself. While riding, he spots a doll in a pond down a steep hill and ventures a bit closer to see what it is. A snake scares the horse Daryl is riding and bucks him off. Daryl falls to the bottom of the hill and into the water, and sees that one of his arrows has pierced his torso. Daryl is bleeding quite a bit.
Daryl slowly pulls himself out of the water, and he makes his way to shore and looks for a way out. He rips the sleeves off of his shirt and ties off his torso in hopes of slowing down the blood loss and grabs the doll, which was Sophia's. He begins to climb back up to the top.
Drama All Around at Camp
Back at the camp, Glenn quickly realizes what he grabbed for Lori, the day before, at the pharmacy, and that Lori is pregnant. Lori hints at the fact that no one knows yet, not even Rick. Lori bumps into Rick and Shane is brought up and how he does not want to stay and find Sophia. Lori tells Rick to keep doing what he's doing.
Hershel is not happy with Rick one bit. He is not happy that Jimmy went on the search with them and that Daryl took a horse. All without his permission. Hershel tells Rick that he needs to know everything about what is going on at the camp. Tension builds between the two leaders.
Daryl and Merle
Daryl falls down the hill, again, and he gets knocked out. He wakes to see his brother, Merle, above him. (Merle cut his own hand off after Rick handcuffed him to a rooftop in the first season, and hasn't been seen since) It's not truly his brother, just a vision, since Merle has both of his hands. Merle gives a Daryl a pep-talk about pulling the arrow out and to stop being a wuss.
Daryl fully wakes up to see a walker trying to bite his foot, and another one coming through the woods. Daryl bashes the head on the first one in, pulls the arrow out of his side, and uses said arrow to shoot the other walker in the head. Daryl makes his way back to the farm, where Hershel tells Maggie not to get close to Glenn because they won't be around forever. Dale and Glenn have a talk themselves about love and ladies, and Glenn reveals to Dale that he and Maggie had sex.
Walker Comin!
Andrea is hanging out on top of the RV on watch... with a gun. Andrea spots what she thinks is a walker off in the distance. She wants to shoot it, but Dale insists she shouldn't, as Shane, Rick, T-Dog, and Glenn go to handle the walker face-to-face, so they don't need to shoot.
As the guys get to the walker, they realize it is a battered and bruised Daryl, but before they can say anything, Andrea shoots Daryl. Hershel runs out of the house pissed off. Daryl is just grazed by the temple. He'll be fine.
The Barn! (Finally!)
During the incredibly awkward and quite dinner between the two camps, Maggie hands Glenn a note asking where he wants to meet up. Glenn responds and hands it back to him, but Maggie doesn't read it because Hershel is watching her closely. After dinner, Maggie opens the note and it says, "ever done it in a hayloft?" Maggie's face turns to horror.
Glenn strolls to the barn, and tries to open up the front. It's locked up tight. Glenn finds a way to get to the hayloft from the outside and tries to find a good place to settle down. He hears something in the barn and peers down to see it's filled with walkers. Maggie runs in and says "you weren't supposed to see this."
Compared to the Comic
If you've read the comic, then you know the whole ordeal with Carl getting shot and Hershel fixing him up is about 6 pages long.
However, the best comparison to the book is the ordeal with the barn. In issue #11, Hershel gets confused to why Rick's group is shooting the walkers, and he quickly reveals that he just puts them all in the barn. Cue walker blood bath.
There are some smaller moments, within this episode, like Glenn and Maggie growing closer, Lori's pregnancy, and Shane becoming a cold and hostile human being that are, in one aspect or another, in the comic book, but they happen at different times. We also get some foreshadowing of Andrea as a sniper.
The show is mixing up the chronological order of events from the book a bit, but it's worth it. Shane, although you may hate him and want him to die, is still alive and a great character to have on the show. What did you guys think about the episode? Anyone else excited to see the next episode for the walker blood bath?