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.

Carl is gonna need some serious therapy after all of this...

R.I.P Dale. I honestly expected Hershel to die before he did.

wait so that cow was a zombie? aha i thought the cow was just suffering after having just recently been chewed up by the zombie. i kinda thought it ironic..how the cows stomache is all chewed up and the fat cow is in agony with his head moving around. then shortly after the SAME zombie ends up tearing DEALS stomache apart. and then dales the ones left in agony with his head moving around lol i thought that was good directing in a way. and kinda humorous. dale essentially was the fat cow who was suffering right next to the other fat cow! lol

sorry peeps, i gots me a sick sense of humor :p

also just wondering. why is there a talking dead segment?? thats kinda dumb. and comic book men as well..good lord is that show HORRIBLE aha

RIP Dale. He actually was one of my favorite characters, some people might have been turned off by his "preachiness" but i found it somewhat comforting in a show that is very pessemistic. He said he didnt wanna live in this world now and he got his wish. Since the show is way different than the comic maybe shane will live through this season.

MY FARM MY RULES!!! oh hershel... i was getting a little tired of dale's over abundance of morals, but i was sad to see him go...and in such an agonizing way.

That ending was honestly really shocking and left me feeling pretty blue. Dale was one of my favorite characters...

Also feeling really pissed at Carl now, freaking punk! Grrrrr!

Dropped the show forever. It's not that they betray the source material. What bothers me is they keep the annoying characters alive and degrade the decent ones into being annoying or they just simply kill them off. Am I supposed to cheer for the zombies all of a sudden? F*ck this sh*t.

I hate Carl now after watching this episode.

How the hell has Tdog been spared for another episode? I get that they want to diverge from the comic with Dale, and I understand how him dying is symbolic of the last threads of humanity dying, but come on Tdog has literally done so little that Ive almost forgotten he was part of the group. Couldn't they have subbed one for another here? Just sayin they either need to have Tdog do something, kill him, or have he leave the group never to be heard from again. Other than that the episode sorta felt like filler in comparison to 18 miles out.

Wow, as much as I couldn't wait for Dale the washwoman to go that was still kind of upsetting.

@Nefilim927: How is Dale a washwoman when everything he says is right.

Dale NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Finally.

That whole episode was 60 straight minutes of Carl f-ing things up.

Do I think Dale was a bad guy? No. But I would not want someone like that around me, in a Zombie land situation. I think they made the right choice... The outsider was a large threat. And if you were protecting a group of people including your child it would be the right choice. The world is already broken at that point.

is anyone else pissed that Carl hasnt shot anyone yet? By this point in the comics, he had killed Shane AND the crazy twin (who they cut from the show). It makes his character much more interesting to have around, because hes a smart and tough 10 year old who will do what even Rick sometimes cannot. It makes the duo awesome, and lines up the possibility down the road of Carl taking over as leader. The longer the show takes to have him do something, the less it will seem like hes a smart no-nonsense kid. Eventually, he'll either just be a crazy person or a teenager. :/

I feel like the show is readily sacrificing Andrea and Carl for Shane. Andrea is was pretty hardcore by this point, and is one of the strongest characters to this day in the comics as a result. Here shes... well, kinda stupid. People keep protecting her and saving her. And she keeps clinging to others instead of making her own decisions. I dont like it.

i know comparing the two is never a good thing, but this is really bugging me. It always does when someone licenses an idea that everyone loves, and then completely changes it. Either make some other random tv show in the spirit of walking dead, or please your fans, who will love every single scene that you re-create. Tv shows start with story boards. Why not use the comics as story board? this system they are using is essentially re-creating a comic based off of a comic before shooting it because they dont think people like the comic...then why make a tv show about the comic?

i am liking the show though, and it is interesting. It just doesnt make sense to me to make a show based off something everyone likes, and then change things people like about it.

Carl should've got smacked for the way he was talking to everybody. Other than that I think Randall should've died, I think Dale died to early, and I'm still waiting for Shane & Rick confrontation!

jeffrey demunn is a terrible actor.

T-Dog outlives Dale. wtf?

it's weird though, i dont like when they give a character like Dale loads of screentime just to kill them off at the end

RIP Dale, you were the better than all of us

i'm guessing Randell will have somehow escaped when they were all rushing to dale's rescue?

This one's for you Dale. Go drive that big RV in the sky now with an open road and no walkers in sight buddy

daaaaaaaamn rip dale oh well shane will b soon

My one complaint was the episode was a bit light on any action ( killing Zombies and shooting guns ) but alas, the pivotal drama was intense.

Carl is a lil' sheeyot and shows how much Shane and the world they now live in has influenced him. Trying to be a "bada$$" while a little boy isn't cutting it. See how quickly he went to sob to Lori after realizing what his pet Zombie did to Dale. He's going to be grounded.

Dale's comment to Andrea about being in a violent world but choosing humanity was rather poignant.

Dale you were my favorite character you will be missed, he was always helping keep people sane and from trying to kill one another, at least he's gone from the world run by Walkers

one other thing Carl needs an ass-whoopin, he was out of line with Carol

Now who will be the father figure to keep rick on the straight and narrow path of what right?? Haha I like Dale a whole lot he was a bit of a moral bar for the group which is spiraling out of control. T-dog doesnt even speak anymore! I'm concerned but I felt it was about time that someone died in the group.

W...T...F....

Not happy. That was a bit of a shocker.

Also, the writers must really hate T-Dog since they only give him one worthless throw away line an episode.

Where's Merle when you need him?

I still haven't watched this show (I read the comic though).
But why did they kill Dale off so early?
BB

@Billy Batson said:

I still haven't watched this show (I read the comic though).
But why did they kill Dale off so early?
BB

I'm pretty sure they did it to make me mad.

IE

This is a big shit. Why they have to kill Dale so early? ... Where stayed the charismatic romance with Andrea? Fucking writers... I'm a little bit tired of this series. Waiting the arrived of Michonne though.

T-Dog is going to make it to the end. There comes a time when being easily overlooked is a good thing lol. I bet if he stands completely still zombies will walk right past him

Bout time Dale died. Next is Carl and Lori I hope.

Carl is getting more-and-more relaxed in this dark world, what happens when they cure things in the near future? I'm sure they'll cure things in the near future.

I did not see that coming!

@inferiorego said:

@Billy Batson said:

I still haven't watched this show (I read the comic though).
But why did they kill Dale off so early?
BB

I'm pretty sure they did it to make me mad.

IE

LOL, was Dale your favorite character? Or are you just made that there won't be the romance of Dale and Andrea?
BB

T-Dog outlives Dale. wtf?

it's weird though, i dont like when they give a character like Dale loads of screentime just to kill them off at the end

@Billy Batson said:

@inferiorego said:

@Billy Batson said:

I still haven't watched this show (I read the comic though).
But why did they kill Dale off so early?
BB

I'm pretty sure they did it to make me mad.

IE

LOL, was Dale your favorite character? Or are you just made that there won't be the romance of Dale and Andrea?
BB

Moreso that we won't see Andrea and Dale...

IE

@spiderbat87: sorry, i didn't say what i meant very well. I mean it's weird when they give a character loads to do in the same episode where they kill him off. idk this was like the most dale's done on the show and all of it was just kind of to build him up to kill him.

@spiderbat87: sorry, i didn't say what i meant very well. I mean it's weird when they give a character loads to do in the same episode where they kill him off. idk this was like the most dale's done on the show and all of it was just kind of to build him up to kill him.

This episode was awesome, don't care what others think, this series has personally had me on the edge of my seat each and every episode.

I see randel escaping, runs straight to Woodbury. Darrell and prob Rick and a couple other will track him to Woodbury where Murrl (sp?) has been since his escape from Atlanta. Darrel will chose to stay in Woodbury. I as till think that they are skipping the prison...or maybe they find it tracking Randel?

Anybody else see the preview where T-Dog says "Yo Randy, you got a reprieve from the governor."? I thought that was hilarious. Also, I'm thinking Shane lets him go on purpose and busts up his own face so they can just hunt him down.

Awesome show great make up effects and its had a very touching ending i'm looking forward to next sunday

@Nicodemus: Really don't think they'll skip the prison. If Randall is from Woodbury, we're not going to see them this season considering they've only just cast the Governor, so I think they're just setting this up so it's ready to go sometime next season when they're in the prison :)

we had this debate last night, but thats NOT a zombie cow. it had just been eaten by the zombie and hadnt died yet.

worst episode of the series yet....I've said it other threads but I'll say it here to...you can really tell the difference between the episodes where Durabont was involved and these episodes....cause the show has really gone down hill since he left....Dale's death was the cheapest moment yet...a zombie cow???? really? it felt like a moment from any other crap zombie movie and not like a moment from The Walking Dead....I really hope they turn it around but I've lost a lot of faith over this last episode

NOOOOOOO!

Robert Kirkman said only humans become zombies, so unless he's going back on his word that was just the cow from 'Me, Myself & Irene' making an appearance.

It wasn't a zombie cow.