First off, I decided to re-watch episodes 101-103 this weekend. Maybe having these recently in memory gave me new insights into the characters; but I’m really digging what they’re doing with Shane.
AMC’s gimmick seems to be “head shave” = “bad guy”, but I wonder about Shane. Did he do what he did because he thought it was Carl’s best chance to get the supplies he needed? Or because he knew he could only make it if Otis didn’t and it was a selfish descion? In other words, are we really seeing Shane become the bad guy, or is this just a display of pragmatic survival? Maybe a little bit of both? Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty despicable either way, but it’s more along the lines of “let Jane choke” evil rather than “shoot an ‘innocent’ man in the face” evil, to put in Breaking Bad terms.
And what is the connection between Shane’s actions and Rick’s story about them as kids? I felt like it should have been obvious, but maybe I’m just slow.
I can’t tell which I find more persuasive, Lori’s speech about it “ends for me” or Rick’s about “he talked about the deer!” I’m more naturally optimistic, so I lean towards Rick, but I’m a realist, too. Life is always better than death, because death is the end. But if you’re trapped in a burning building, choosing a quick, clean death by jumping can be preferable to a slow, agonizing death by fire. If death is inevitable, sometimes choosing the terms of your death is itself an act of dignity. Take that for what you will, but this scenario seems to really be more along the “death is inevitable, and probably horrific” line of the spectrum.
After being certain that either Otis or Shane would die this week after the end of “Bloodletting”, I liked how the show kept me involved all the way through the resolution. It looked like Otis was a goner, than Shane, and back and forth. I had no idea that Shane actively killed Otis until they showed the resolution of that story. His cover story pushed basically borderline cowardice, and I was thinking that somehow his injury would lead either a mistake or Otis deciding to sacrifice himself, but I really didn’t see the show going as far on Shane as they did until they showed the twist.
Now, saying all that, if the writers decide to try to make Shane sympathetic again, FUCK THAT. He might have been a nominally good person once, but there has always been a dark side to Shane, and there’s nothing like a Zombie apocolypse to scrub off any “good” veneer or facade someone might have. Now he’s an attempted rapist, and murderer. You can’t come back from that.
Other thoughts.
- Darryl is an amazing character. He’s about the only one I would absolute throw a hissy fit if he died at this point. And that’s before the writers gave us about the most sympathetic back story a rough around the edges probably racist hilljack character like him could have; a nearly abandoned boy having to raise himself in a rough world with the odds stacked against him. Darryl is both less pollyanna and more genuinely caring than anyone in the group. After all, why does he stick his neck out for anyone in this group? Everyone else has reasons to care for at least some members, either being friends before the zombie plague for familial ties, but Darryl is an island to himself. They should be lucky he doesn’t leave their collective dumb asses and go fix himself a sandwich.
- He’s also dead right. That was a waste of an arrow. Hard to believe that Andrea, of all people, is still sentimental about zombies. Sure, I can see what she did with her sister, but c’mon now.
- The seizure scene with Carl was as good in it’s way as the operating scene from last week. Just horrifying. I’m not sure how medically accurate it was, but it was riveting as hell. Very nice acting job by the creepy young man, too.
- I do think Andrea answered the question Darryl asked. I think — if I parsed the answer correctly — she said she doesn’t know why she won’t kill herself, but nevertheless, she won’t. Maybe because she “has” to, or is destined to live, or maybe because living is just a habit she’s fallen into. But she’s not going to quit now.
- Look’s like it was Dale’s turn to hold the idiot ball this week. What the hell was he thinking walking alone in the dark? If Darryl were, in theory, in danger — Darryl, by far the most badass and woodscrafty person in the group, with arguably the most badass woman of the group — what the hell is Dale going to do to help them? Tell stories about watches? The extent of his people saving skills is to threaten to join them in a suicide pact when they want to die a peaceful death.
- I think Glenn is going to Zerg rush the Vet’s hot-ass daughter. Rowr.
- Those of us who have noticed Shane’s… uh, earlobal endowment… got a show tonight. Backlit in the scene with Rick towards the end, they were literally glowing.
- Now, don’t get me wrong. As I’ve gone on at length, I think Andrea’s bitchface pact with Dale is total horseshit, and still do, but since the writers are sticking to it, I thought his apology was well done and the scene well done in general.
- I wanted Hershel to come out and say “Not too shabby for a vet’, now was it, you thankless harpy?” to Lori. But that’s just me.
- The cutting back and forth between the intense zombie action at the high school and the quiet, character moments at the farm house was effective and appreciated. I know they can’t integrate the action like that each week, but in my opinion that should be the goal. As listener Michael M. pointed out in last week’s feedback segment, the show just seems better when the group is split up and they can divide up the screen time.
- Okay, I have to nitpick. Why did Shane kill Otis? I mean, he managed to get back out, even with Otis tying him up grappling for 30 seconds or so over the backpack and his hair. You think they’d both make it to the car.
- Also, you’d think Shane could at least shoot Otis in the head. Leaving him to be ripped apart by zombies is cold, even by “AMC shaved head villain” standards. What a scumbag.
- “They won’t fit well, they were Otis’s.” Ouch, hot-ass vet’s daugher! Shane has it coming more than you know, but still.
