The Walking Dead 2x11 Review

Judge, Jury, Executioner

So wow! Talk about an episode that lulls you into a sense of calm.  As always, spoilers throughout! 

This episode is about two things, and those two things seem to connect late in the episode in what I saw as a very predictable and average(compared to where you know this story can go). We find out of course just a few minutes later that these two stories will connect again. What I'm talking about is the story about the Randal question, and also the story about Carl. To me the Carl story was the far more interesting, and riveting one. Dale's quest to get everyone to see the humanitarian side of things seemed very ignorant, and preachy. My personal politics aside, you can't look at this situation like it's happening in a pre-walker world. Dale had many points, and was very moving at times but the pros and cons just don't add up to keeping Randal alive. The odds of Randal being even a little bit useful are slim. He was with that other group for awhile, and they sent him to attack Rick, and he managed to fall and hurt himself. Not exactly a powerful warrior. 

The odds of him being dangerous, even if it's not intentional, are very high. This was my main source of disappointment in the episode before the final minutes. It was so predictable that Rick would change his mind, and that it would be caused by some small thing that's supposed to be touching. Just like Shane always says, Rick just doesn't have the stones to do what needs to be done. Randal may save Carl's life, or he may cost Carl his life some time in the future. No one can know that. But if Randal is gone, then things are back to square one. Carl is just as safe as he was. Yes, it was not a good thing that Carl wanted to watch his father execute someone, but the kid clearly is a little messed up. Watching Sophia get gunned down has seriously affected him, and I think Lori and Rick need to address this fast. 

This is the reason I was so into the Carl story in this episode. First, he tells Carol that there's no Heaven. Rick dealt with this well. Simply telling him to say he was sorry. Carl then storms off and runs into a walker stuck in the mud. We learned earlier in the season that this happens often, and is the main way they captured the walkers who were in the barn. I loved watching this scene. Carl was terrified, and his reaction is not to run away and tell a grown-up, it's to throw rocks at the thing. If the Walker had not broken free I'm pretty sure Carl would have shot it, and I would have loved the reaction to that. I can see it now. Rick being angry with him for not telling someone, Shane defending him by saying he's becoming a man, Lori just complaining about something. What happened was great too, and what it lead to was even more epic. This is the kind of thing the comic does. You think all is well, and the ordeal is over, and then BAM! 

Let's talk about what happened at the end. I know I breezed over the moral dilemma of the episode, but I think we can agree there was a lot of talking about very important things, but what we really wanted was walkers and/or humans dying. I mean that's why we watch this show. If we want powerful dialogue driven scenes then Mad Men is only a few weeks away(I can't wait!). In the Walking Dead we want death, horror, and epic sadness.  

The end of this episode gave us all those things. Carl's encounter leads to Dale getting killed by a Walker, and I loved that we got a shot of Carl's reaction. He understand completely what has happened, and he really can't tell anyone. During Dale's struggle I was thinking two separate and opposing thoughts. First, if he doesn't die, or get bitten here, what was the point of this scene? If they had stopped the attack before Dale got hurt it would have just been a cheep scare. However, the show hasn't eliminated main characters like that for a long time, if you don't count Sophia that is. For me Sophia died in the first episode of this season, even though she would reappear. So that's almost 10 episode without a main character death. In this show, and this universe that a VERY long time. 

I'm pretty sad to lose Dale, and of course even more sadder to lose Jeffery DeMunn.  Even though I disagreed with him in this episode, his presence as a character and actor is beyond compare. I know I said I wouldn't talk about the comic, but I'll simply say this. I'm sad we didn't get the relationship that develops in the comic with his character. I think it could have worked in the show, and it would have been even more meaningful.