Time’s running out for Carl, but some aren’t sure that’s a bad thing. What They Say:
Save The Last One – The group awaits Shane’s return; Shane finds himself trapped in a school; Daryl and Andrea search for someone in the woods.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When this episode aired originally, my part of the country was effectively dead for many people due to a snowstorm. I could handle all the things that were being lost at the time and shows missed, but losing a live viewing of The Walking Dead just got to me like nothing else. And having to wait another five days to see the rebroadcast on Friday…. that wasn’t easy either. Especially since it meant avoiding practically anything written about the episode since I didn’t want to spoil things. Which is good, cause the show continues to thoroughly engage me, especially after the last episode where Carl is barely holding on really and Shane is off at the school with a whole slew of the dead ready to gobble him whole.
The struggle that Carl’s parents are going through is definitely layered in a really difficult way. While they have to wait for Shane, Rick has to try and be strong for Lori instead of running off to do what he can like always. For Lori, it’s a real problem since she’s now depending on someone that nearly did her in back at the CDC and because of the way she pushed him away after Rick came back into her life after thinking he was dead. She definitely made the choices she needed to in order to survive at that point, but it’s continuing to haunt her and now she’s got her son’s life in his hands. Of course, she knows Shane will do the right thing because of who he is and because Carl does mean something to him overall considering how long he’s known him.
Having that struggle play out while we see Shane trapped in the school with the small but serious group coming after him works well since it gives us some good dead tension early on. The pair definitely make some difficult choices as they try to get out of the wall they’ve been backed against and it naturally gets hairy a couple of times. As has been a course of much discussion is just how fast the dead can move, and they definitely get to move a bit faster than expected here, though they are “mostly fresh” when you get down to it. It plays out decently and highlights a bit more of Shane’s personality under pressure when he’s being chased like that.
While we get a heap of dead action here, we also get some good character material beyond the seemingly top list players. Glenn’s arrival at the farm house gets him to spend time with Maggie, who herself has some grief to work through. There’s an obvious attraction between the two here at first that becomes something a little bit more later on and it’s really nice to see that play out here. There’s also some very good stuff going on back at the highway where Daryl and Andrea go off in the dark of night to try and find Sophia again, since Carol is losing it over missing her, and this lets Daryl nudge her along in a rather neat way through what they find unrelated to Sophia out there about her own desire to take her life earlier. That in turn gives us some small but important changes when she gets back to the RV with how Dale handles her. The two have some real issues to work through, but I continue to love the dynamic between them and the one that’s being walked around in regards to Daryl.
In Summary:
With this episode, we get a fair look at what really makes some of these people who they are. Lori questions whether Carl should even live in this world considering what a hell its turned into. Both she and Rick have to really struggle with what to do with Carl when it comes to his surgery as they wait for Shane and it’s great to see not only how they support each other, but also how Rick has to lean on her in order to make the hard decision. But it’s Shane’s evolution here that should be the most appealing to people,especially the comic fans, since we never got to see what his potential and true character might have been like. There are some really good moments for him here and nothing truly shocking when you get down to it, but it’s good to see them playing him right with his character path so far. Having this episode almost a week after airing was hard, but it also means I only have a day to wait for the next one too.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buUWlM6Js0Y&w=480&h=244]
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