It's Monday so you know what time it is. It's time to talk about last night's The Walking Dead episode. We're now two episodes out from the season 2 finale, and a lot of plot threads are coming to a head for our ensemble cast. So without wasting much time, let's break down the significant moments from this week's episode, "Judge, Jury, Executioner."
As per usual, heavy spoilers below!
Guantanamo Barn
This episode kicks off with Daryl beating the holy hell out of the farm's newest arrival, Randal, for intel. Randal reveals that there's another camp of survivors out there that originally took him in. However, this camp has a dark side, as a few members of the camp have raped young girls before. Daryl is not a fan of this news.
Dale: the voice of reason
As Rick slips further and further into the "shoot first, think later" mentality, Dale acts as the sole voice of reason, begging Rick not to kill Randal based on his association with the other band of "bad" survivors.
Shane plans an uprising
It seems Shane isn't too keen about rallying behind Rick after all. Shane talks to Andrea about becoming the new leaders of the farm. The inevitable final confrontation between Rick and Shane has to be right around the corner.
Carl is turning to the Dark Side
Something sinister is going on in this little kid's head. He has the crazy eyes!
Daryl, one man wolf pack
Daryl continues to segregate himself from the group, concluding to Dale that the group is "broken" already. In Daryl's defense, he isn't wrong. Not one bit.
Carl disrespects his elders
After giving Carol a verbal beat down in regards to meeting up with Sophia someday in Heaven, Carol continues to disrespect his father when he questions him about the morality of killing Randal. Carl is quickly slipping out of touch.
Me and my zombie best friend...
Carl continues to break the camp's rules and ventures out into the wilderness where he runs into a zombie stuck in a creek. He then thinks it's a good idea to throw rocks at it and use it as target practice for the gun he lifted from Daryl's motorcycle. This of course leads to a near-death experience which plays heavily into later events in the episode.
P.S. Carl, your father did a terrible job teaching you how to throw. Just sayin'.
Hershel gives Glenn the green light
In a touching speech, Hershel gives Glenn his blessing about dating his daughter, Maggie. This obviously makes Glenn ecstatic. Glenn's one of the family now!
Let's take a vote...
Dale makes one last attempt to sway the members of the group into sparing Randal. However, the majority of the group does not respond, choosing to instead have Randal executed in order to protect the safety of the group and the farm.
For what it's worth, I thought Dale's Minority Report argument was sound. But then again, it's probably just because I really like that movie.
The execution
Randal is saved by the sadistic nature of a warped young boy. If it wasn't for Carl walking into the barn right before Rick pulled the trigger, Randal would have had a hole in his head the size of a grapefruit. Lucky for him, Carl inadvertently saves the day… for now.
Zombie cow!
I didn't know I wanted this until I saw it. But it was pretty awesome…. and gross. OK, really gross.
WHAT?!
Wowzers! Well, it's looking like the show and comic source material have another major differentiating factor. Now we'll never see the budding romance of Dale and Andrea in the AMC version of The Walking Dead. That's absolutely shocking, yet kind of cool to know no main staples from the comic series are safe in the TV version. It's also worth noting that the sole voice of reason in the group is now dead. What will happen next?!
Also, Carl's folly with that swamp zombie has come back to bite him (i.e. Dale) in the ass. Carl's probably not going to take this too well.
Final word
And that concludes episode #2.11 of The Walking Dead. This was a crazy dramatic episode with one hell of a cliffhanger. It's going to be sad watching The Walking Dead without Dale's beautiful Hawaiian shirt taking up some screen real estate.
R.I.P. Dale. You will be missed.
