TWD 2x07 "Pretty Much Dead Already" episode discussion... **SPOILERS WITHIN**

[kidgloves]

Taking over MZ duties as its getting close Discuss.

[MinionZombie]

Ach, ya cheeky bugger! I was literally just on my way here to do it. This week I'll be joining earlier than usual - I don't want to risk any spoilers for the mid-season finale, you see.

[kidgloves]

Ach, ya cheeky bugger! I was literally just on my way here to do it. This week I'll be joining earlier than usual - I don't want to risk any spoilers for the mid-season finale, you see. Dude. You're normally on the ball and a day early. Its just not good enough Good idea joining early cause thats when all the best reaction and discussion happens. I normally watch it twice before i comment cause i've always got a hangover on Monday mornings and just sit staring at the screen and it doesn't always go in first time.

[MinionZombie]

Well I'm glad you paid strict attention to the established titling of these posts, kid. Except for the little icon though (which I'll add) ... my obsessive ways, I know ... but it's so lovely when all the items on your shelf line up just so. Yeah, with this episode I don't want to risk leaving it till Friday night - the biggest shock (so far anyway) of the season was spoiled for me (Shane's actions in 2x03), and you just know this episode is going to be a spiffing one. Plus, as you say, it'll be nice to get in on the conversation from the beginning ... it's kind of a bummer to join the chit-chat after it's all pretty much finished.

[Mr. Clean]

I KNEW she was in the barn! At least pretty certain of it. The next part of this show needs to stop screwing around until the last 8 mins of each episode. All the build up just to have the little girl walk out of the barn. I still hate Shane.

[erisi236]

Hold Christ was that awesome. Shane totally losing his fucking mind was just a wonderous site to behold. "THAT IS ENOUGH!!!" *blam*

[botc]

holy f*ck shit is all i have to say...

[Doc]

holy fuck shit is all i have to say... Yeah me too. I was impressed all the way with this episode. Especially, the last 10 minutes.

[Ultra Magnus]

Shane is the realest person on the show. He reminds me of Chris Partlow from The Wire. I loved how he lost it. Maybe now Rick won't be a typical cape wearing mangina.

[botc]

welcome magnus holy f*ck shit holy fuck shit im glad i got drunk for this episode... im able to watch it closer and with no interruption from the wife or child sense they arent home yet!!! holy f*ck shit!!!!

[JDFP]

Well, as difficult as it is to say it: Shane was right. It may have mentally broken Hershel, but he was right to do what he did in blasting the ghouls apart. Seeing Sophia walk out of the barn like that was absolutely heartbreaking - but it was necessary instead of placating Hersh to get the ghouls taken care of then and there. From the "scenes from when TWD returns in February" it seems that they are going to be around Hersh's farm (or is it Maggie's farm now? Ah, I just wanted to say Maggie's farm really - anyone think someone on TWD might be a Bob Dylan fan?) for some time to come - but that could be just speculation. I think Hersh knew that it wasn't some "disease" but he's not capable of wrapping his mind around what is going on around him. And I think it's a good possibility this could have sent him over the edge mentally. I hope I'm wrong because I actually like the guy - after Maggie's talk with him he realized that it was right to let them stay and he was willing to do it. If anything, I feel some sympathy for him as he's not a bad man at all - he's just an old man who has lost his grip on what the world is really like all around him. Here's what I don't get though: Otis or some of the others that sent the ghouls into the barn KNEW there was a little girl in there - why didn't anyone ever say anything? They all KNEW they were looking for a little girl - you think one of them would have thought to say: "Oh, by the way, it might not be Sophia but there's a 'diseased' girl in the barn that could be her?" - this I don't understand. Why never mention it? j.p.

[Mr. Clean]

"Oh, by the way, it might not be Sophia but there's a 'diseased' girl in the barn that could be her?" - this I don't understand. Why never mention it? j.p. Kind of thought this myself but thought maybe only Otis knew exactly who else was in the barn besides the orginal family members. The topic of the little girl never came up until after Carl was stablized which Otis was out of the picture by this point.

[Wyldwraith]

You know, Shane's right. I agree with Dale that Shane has a real darkness gaining strength inside of him, but Shane's actions (however misguided, and for whatever motives) rightfully revealed the horrible truth that Herschel knowingly concealed, DESPITE the fact Carl and then Daryl nearly DIED looking for a little girl that Herschel had to know was undead and in his barn. Wow, just....wow. I was totally on board the "Shane's gone way the HELL too far this time" train as he wrenched the barn doors open. I understood, and to some degree sympathized because of the inflammatory/exacerbating factors of Dale pulling such a profoundly controlling and group-endangering move with the cache of guns & ammo, and Rick wholeheartedly leaping aboard the Herschel-Delusion Express in such a vivid manner by strolling into the farm with 2 Walkers on catch-poles which contributed to Shane's over-the-top choices and actions. I thought that, however dangerous and dicey what Rick had chosen to do was, that it didn't excuse Shane turning the farm into a warzone. Until Sophia shambled out of the barn! In an instant, and much as I hated to admit it, Rick's decision to do things Herschel's way...not to mention all the previous decisions made to appease Herschel, was catastrophically proven horribly, awfully wrong. Consider the timeline. If Otis was the one who had manhandled the previous Walkers into the barn, and if Otis was also free to be deer hunting while Rick and Co. were searching for Sophia, that means that Otis and Herschel (at a MINIMUM) knew Otis had put a recently-dead and now undead little girl in the barn prior to his ill-fated deer hunting expedition. A fact that Herschel couldn't have failed to link to the missing little girl that Rick and Co. were constantly discussing and risking their lives trying to find. Hell, Forrest Gump couldn't have failed to realize the little-girl-zombie, who was also one of, if not THE most-recent Walker to be put in the barn by Otis HAD TO BE the little girl Rick and Co. were searching for. In that light, Daryl's injuries can be laid entirely at Herschel's doorstep. That old man has a big-ole-pair of Liberty Bell-sized gonads to have the nerve to chastise Daryl after he came back injured. I just....wow. That finale...despite having (like everyone else) considered the possibility Sophia was in the barn, the scriptwriter(s), director and actors did a masterful job of portraying the most shattering reveal of that fact humanly possible. Just...wow. TWD is intense. It has provoked emotional reactions from me before, but that finale hit me with a positively visceral feeling of being conflicted and at a loss. Then I see the special sneak preview in Hell on Wheels, and Herschel is claiming that THEY DIDN'T KNOW OTIS PUT SOPHIA IN THE BARN. And it looks like Rick and some of the others might buy that. Despite the physical impossibility of moving a Walker of any size into that barn as a 1-man job. Finale + Special Sneak Preview = Gasoline on a raging 4-alarm fire & aching for February.

[joeharley666]

I love the irony of Rick having to shoot Sophia. Not because he was feeling responsible for her impending doom , but because it shows Hershel that after slaughtering his family and friends, he also is willing to kill his own people when needing to do so. I think Hershel will wake up and understand what it's all about now

[Moon Knight]

Yeeeah, now that's what's up! Loved that ending and Shane going off like that was just awesome. I'm gonna assume Hershel knew about the little girl and didn't want to say anything.