Walking Dead Recap S2E13: Beside the Dying Fire

It's season finale time, and after a slow start, the back half of the season has been running at full steam. In the last two episodes we've seen two main characters die, and with a zombie horde approaching the body count is likely to go higher, so let's start!

We begin in Atlanta, with zombies chewing on a poor dog, a helicopter in the sky catches their eye, and they start walking in it’s direction. As they walk more join, and more join them, all endlessly walking until they reach the outer fence of a farm, Hershel’s perhaps. And that would be the end of it, since they can’t climb, but there are a lot of them, and as more and more pile up, eventually the wood gives way, and the zombies pour in. Hershel and the rest are not going to like this. They hobble through the woods, still aimlessly walking, until a gunshot grabs their attention, Carl’s gunshot when he killed Shane, and now the walkers have a target. Carl and Rick walk away from Shane’s body in the field unaware of the hell that is nearly atop them.

The group is gathered, waiting on news of the escaped prisoner, Daryl and Glen return with news. No bites, and Randal still turned. They also reveal that Shane and Randal’s tracks were in sync, but Lori doesn’t want to hear this at the moment, since Rick and Shane are still out there. She has no clue that Carl is out there too. This woman is the worst mother ever, she loses Carl constantly, and if he wasn’t smarter than Sophia he’d have been zombie chow long ago.

Carl asks about Shane, he feels bad about killing him as a zombie. Carl asks the hard question about Shane’s death and before Rick has to tell him the truth the walkers interrupt the party. The two run for the farm. The group sees the horde in the darkness, but doesn’t realize that Rick and Carl are out there in the middle of it.  Rick and Carl barely make it to the barn. Finally Lori realizes that Carl is missing.

The walkers try their hardest to break into the barn. Maggie arms everyone, especially Glen. Hershel prepares to make a last stand. And Andrea is all for the plan of saving the farm and taking out as many zombies as possible. Bad ass Daryl, doesn’t like the idea, but he doesn’t back down either.

Rick spreads gasoline around the bottom of the barn. He sends Carl up to the loft, as he makes as much noise as possible getting the zombies in a frenzy. He opens the door, and they come, but smartly he stays just out of reach. Carl throws a lighter down on the horde lighting them up.

Daryl rides in on his hog, shooting zombies, as the others drive around in various vehicles, shooting and killing the zombies. T-dog’s crazy driving worries me a bit, we haven’t really seen much of him this season, which kinda put a target on his back as far as I’m concerned. Glen wields a mean shotgun and takes out plenty with Maggie at his wheel.

In the house, doing nothing but watching, Patricia and Beth see the barn is on fire. Really? Everyone else is doing something and you two are sitting comfy in the house, amazed that the barn is on fire, like no one else notices that big ball of flames in the middle of the night? Lori as worthless as she is, is looking for Carl, at least, as is Carol.

Jimmy in Dale’s RV takes out plenty of walkers, but he seems to be alone. Daryl tells him to circle around the barn to see if Rick and Shane are there. Poor simple Jimmy, has this giant RV, and when he spots Rick and Carl instead of using it to ram a few zombies, he gently parks it. With his cargo on top, he should have high tailed it out, but no. He looks at the surrounding zombies, and of course the RV not exactly a tank, they get the doors open, and eat Jimmy. Stupid boy , congradulations you are the episode’s first casualty.

Rick climbs down, gun a blazing and clears a path for he and Carl. They see Jimmy is a goner, and they trek on.

The group continues their mad firing, and driving, which is kinda poorly done. Why not round them up and then shoot them, instead it’s more hapless firing. I’m surprised there hasn’t been friendly fire yet. Heck, even T-Dog agrees they need a plan as Andrea comments on the unending numbers and the diminishing ammo supply.

Rick and Carl continue to run. Hershel singlehandedly defends the house, as Lori panicks, and Carol tries to reason with her to abandon the house as the walkers close in. Why do these women not have guns, and why are they not helping Hershel? Lori is finally ready to leave and tells Carol to get the others, and then low and behold she does have a gun, and begins shooting the enclosing walkers. The women get ready to leave, but Hershel refuses to even acknowledge them, maybe he’s too into the shooting, whatever, the ladies leave out the back door.

They scramble away from the house, and Patricia becomes victim number two, as Beth hangs onto her hand screaming as zombies eat Patricia. I would be so out. They should have let the girl die a couple of episodes back, because she’s not going to be an asset in any way. Lori is forced to pull the girl away from the walkers. T-Dog and Andrea ride into the rescue, and Lori and Beth get in the cab of the old truck. Andrea goes to save Carol, who got a little separated from the group. The truck is being overrun by zombies, but T-dog waits for Andrea to recover Carol. Andrea shots a walker, and he falls atop her, all T-Dog sees is her fall, and Carol run. He’s forced to leave the other two behind.

Maggie and Glen see T-dog peel away, and she wonders if she should follow. The car gets over run, and Glen forces Maggie to realize that the farm is lost. They have to leave. She doesn’t want to, but she has no other choice.

Hershel continues to be a one man killing crew, and nearly dies as he reloads, when Rick shots the zombie closing in on him. Hershel has no clue what’s happening, and Rick forces Hershel to abandon his home. They pile into a final vehicle and speed off, not knowing they’ve just left Andrea and Carol behind.

Daryl watches the farm burn in the distance, when he hears Carol’s cries. He hightails it to her, and together they ride off in safety.

There is a lot of sorrow and diminished hope as Rick, Carl and Hershel leave the farm. Whatever safety they felt they found is completely gone. That beautiful dream of normalcy, destroyed. The burning barn falls, and the walkers have taken over the farm.

Daryl rides with Carol through the lifting darkness, dodging walkers. Maggie worries about her father and sister. She wonders if any of her family made it, as Glen tries to get her to go to where they left supplies for Sophia. He has her pull over so he can drive, seeing that she’s too upset. He tries to offer her hope, and he tells her he loves her. Rick, Carl and Hershel have the same idea as Glen,and they head to where they left supplies for Sophia on the highway. Carl gets a little loud because Rick isn’t running off to look for Lori. 

Hershel offers to stay with Carl so he can go back for Lori. He promises to keep Carl safe, even if it costs him his life, since he’s lost everything anyways. Rick tells him that the others will come, to have faith. Hershel tells him that he thought when Christ planned to resurrect the dead, he thought he’d had something different in mind.

Lori tells T-Dog that the need to head to the highway, that that’s where Rick will go. He tells her that it’s suicide, but Lori convinces him to do as she asks, or she and Beth will walk alone. T-Dog turns around and heads towards the highway.

Rick, Carl and Hershel dodge a few stray walkers, refusing to use their weapons and attracting more. Hershel is ready to make a break for it, to look for safety, but Rick is reluctant to go. He sees the wisdom in Hershel’s thoughts, and just as he decides to do as the old man is asking, they hear Daryl’s hog, followed by Glen’s car,a nd T-Dog’s truck. Huzzah the group has arrived, and it’s a happy welcome.  And Daryl delivers the best line of the night, when Rick asks how he found everyone “I seen tail lights zig zagging on the road, I figured it had to be an Asian driving.” Daryl asks about the rest, and Rick has to admit they’re the only ones so far.

Lori of course immediately asks for Shane, and Rick can only shake his head. She looks almost lost at the news. Is this the same Lori that pretty much told Rick he had to kill Shane a few episodes ago? Seriously? I can’t wait to see her reaction when he tells her he was forced to kill him.

Glen asks about Andrea, but T-dog says he saw her go down. Hershel asks about Patricia, and Beth tells him she’s gone too. Beth asks about Jimmy, and Rick tells them that he died in the RV. Well isn’t this a pleasant round of sharing?  Carol wants to be sure Andrea went down, and Lori helpful gem that she is says that there were walkers everywhere. Daryl want to go back for her, but Rick decides against it.  Daryl wants to stay off the main road to avoid the walkers, and the group leaves.

But Andrea isn’t dead, she’s running in the woods, as the walkers continue to follow her. Poor thing, she’s tired, just about out of ammo. I know in the past I’ve begged for her to be eaten, but I’m not ready for it, run Andrea run!

Rick’s truck runs out of fuel. There’s no gas station in sight, and the group is too big to fit in one vehicle. They’re forced to hunker down. Rick wants to fortify for the night. Daryl finally reveals his news about Randal turning without being bit, but this doesn’t surprise him, even though the group doesn’t want to believe it.. He reveals to the group that good ole CDC Jenner told him the same thing. Whatever the zombie virus is, they’re all infected. So Jenner’s whispering wasn’t that Lori was a whore, Rick figured that one on his own, it was just that everyone was infected. The group is upset that Rick kept the secret, but really it wouldn’t have changed anything knowing would it?

Lori goes to Rick and wraps her arms around him, offering comfort, Rick confesses that he killed Shane. Her arms immediately drop as Rick lays out the events that lead up to Shane’s shanking. Shane killed Randall to draw Rick into the woods, how he’d planned the whole thing, and Rick had no choice. It was practically a cop assisted suicide. As Rick talks Lori distances herself more, even as she hears the pain in his voice, how he couldn’t stop it, he just wanted it to be over, how he was tired of feeling like a thief that stole his own family. Lori looks horrified, clearly she didn’t want Shane gone as much as she claimed. Maybe had she not pushed Rick, planted into his head the thought that there could only be one, that Shane was going to kill him, Rick would have been the one dead, and maybe then Lori would be happy.

But with Shane’s death, it was confirmed for the first time to Rick that Jenner was indeed correct, everyone was infected already. And finally he reveals Carl’s hand, that he killed zombie Shane, and Lori completely loses it. Her anger with him is over the top, and she walks away from him. Rick finally realizes that the wrong man emerged in the woods in her eyes. Maybe Rick will finally get a backbone, and maybe someone will finally knock Lori off her pedestal, and maybe that is way too much to wish for.

The sun begins to set and Andrea is still in the woods, forced to bash zombies with the butt of her gun, and stab at them with the smallest of knives. She’s way past the point of fumes, and can barely fight off a walker, when suddenly shink. It’s head comes clean off. Cloaked her face shadows with two pet zombies chained to her side, Michonne has finally makes an appearance! Lovers of the graphic novel know the kitana wielding badass. Kirkman has been teasing her appearance for a while, and she’s finally here. I can only guess that they don’t show her face since they haven’t cast her for next season at the time of filming. But her armless zombie pets are perfection, and Andrea has a I just crapped my pants I’m not sure if I should be happy or scared look on her face.

The moon rises high in the sky, T-dog takes watch as the other gather around a fire. Carol is still dwelling on Rick keeping the CDC secret, she feels that they’re not safe, but Daryl tells her Rick’s done all right by him so far. She makes the case that Daryl is a friend, but she’s a burden, and she couldn’t be more right. Besides doing laundry what purpose does she serve? Daryl asks her what she wants. And she answers a man of honor, not realizing that that honor is what gets Rick into a lot of trouble. Maggie wants to leave the group as well, but Hershel tells her the pitfalls of her plan. They have no supplies.

A noise frightens the group, and Rick soothes them, urging everyone to stick together. Carol wants to leave, saying she won’t stay in the path of another herd, and Rick puts his foot down. He reveals that he killed Shane for their group, how he compromised the group, how he endangered them, and Shane’s entire plan with Randal. The group listens shocked. He tells them they’re free to go, but if they stay it’s no longer a democracy. Lori looks to be the most shocked of the group, but Hershel looks almost proud. Come on people, where is the applause. Rick is stepping up to the plate, and as the cameras pan to the distance, there is the safety that Rick has long promised. The place that will be the best of times and the worst of time, dare I squeal about the prison? I cannot wait for season 3!