S02E02
Much like the first flashback we saw, this one seemed to come out of nowhere but actually tied in with the current story pretty well. Of course, we don’t know exactly when in the timeline that this conversation between Lori and another mother takes place. I was half expecting a zombie to stumble up and attack one of the many congregated moms talking on cell phones and holding coffee cups. Instead Shane pulls up to tell Lori of Rick’s gunshot and we see as Lori has to break the news to Carl. Perhaps there is something in the Grimes’ family DNA that just attracts bullets.

After the shocking end of last week’s episode (spoiler: NOT A ZOMBIE DEER!), Rick runs through an idyllic golden field carrying his son who has one too many holes in his body. Fortunately enough, the wayward hunter Otis is grouped up with some other chaps who live in a farmhouse that looks plucked straight from Night of the Living Dead or something. Also in the group is Herchel Greene, a sage old doctor who begins barking orders to Rick and to the others in his posse to stop Carl’s bleeding chest wound. Rick panics and tries to bolt out to find Lori and tell her of the accident but is stopped by Shane, who the writers apparently cannot decide if he will be a decent guy or a dick. Lori, Andrea, Glen, and the others are still making their way back to the highway looking for Sophia (will she be this season’s Merle?) when Andrea is attacked by a very stealthy walker but saved by a woman on horseback sent to get Lori. Meanwhile, Shane and Otis set out to the local high school to get medical supplies needed for Herchel to extract the bullet fragments out of Carl but they run into some hungry resistance.

I’m still not sure at what point in the production Frank Darabont left (or was jettisoned from) his EP post but this episode continues the good things I see coming from this season. I’m not conveniently forgetting that the first three episodes last year rocked before going downhill (and then up and then down again) but call me an optimist. There were many instances this week that left me uncomfortable whether merely implied like the haunting bloodstained child carseat or the direct like the late episode foray into a swarm of walkers. Otherwise, we get a good amount of characterization from Rick and Lori and even Shane in his goodguy swagger this week that hold the focus of the show to these normal and well-drawn characters without resorting to over-the-top zombie carnage or poor stereotypes.

The introduction of new characters was not really needed for the story especially since that marginalizes the characters we have already grown attached to like Glen and Andrea. This was not a shock especially with the casting calls that went out this summer but most of the new characters were not very prominent, thus I didn’t catch most of their names. Herchel seems like a good character and maybe he will evolve over time but his part here seems very familiar as an amalgamation of sage, old men from countless stories like this.

The commonly reported reason for Darabont’s leaving the series was around AMC’s demanded budget cuts and it looks like that may be fairly accurate. There were a fair amount of zombies at the tail end of the episode but the majority of it was mostly between the main actors in only a handful of locations, none surely as costly as last year’s weekly jaunts to the devastated city. I can’t say this bothers me that much since the show still is shot beautifully and mostly will live or die on its core characters still with above-average acting chops. But this series has the potential to have a much bigger canvas as the comics apparently do and it would be a shame to have the story curtailed by network penny-pinching. We’ll just have to see on that front as the rest of this 13-episode season continues.

BONUS: Zombie Kill of the Week
Actually, there was only one that I can think of but it was pretty good as Daryl mutters “Shut up” as he fires an arrow into the mouthy walker.