by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor
Beware! This article contains Spoilers for Season Two of The Walking Dead!!!
Why hello new episode of The Walking Dead! Nice to see you have finally returned to us in full form!
“Better Angels” kicks off with one of the best sequences of the season, giving viewers a look at Dale’s funeral with Rick giving a speech on behalf of their fallen friend. If this heartwarming sentiment from Rick wasn’t cool enough, it was inter-spliced with shots of the entire group going out to kill off any zombies in the immediate vicinity in honor of everything Dale stood for. This marks a huge turning point for this show as many of you comic readers are aware that Dale originally lives through The Farm, and keeps chugging on for a while. It will be very interesting to see how the following events play out with this drastic change.
The episode revolves around our crew figuring out where to go from here, and watching Shane completely lose it. The conflict between Rick and Shane has been building up for a long while now, and with the presence of their prisoner Randall, the feud has reached a boiling point. Rick still considers Shane a loose cannon, and has no clue what exactly to do with him, so Rick tries to keep Shane away from anything important and keeping him sidelined for the most part. This leads to Shane talking with Lori who reveals to him that she has no clue who’s baby it is… UH OH LORI! BIG MISTAKE! (How many times can this woman screw up this season? I mean REALLY?). Upon hearing this, Shane sets about a plan to get Rick out of the picture, as he believes Rick is ruining everyone’s chances at a happy life… and the only way to make sure Rick is out, is to kill him. This all leads up to a tense showdown in the woods between Rick and Shane… and only one man is gonna walk out of there alive!
Now we all knew Shane’s death was coming, they have been hinting at it all season long and there was no way this conflict within the group would be allowed to continue but the way it played out took everyone by surprise. In the comics, Carl ends up being the one to shoot Shane to death which up till this point it seemed the show had been setting up as well, but it turns out that Rick ended up getting in the killing blow. Honestly Rick has been kinda an idiot so far during this season and this episode doesn’t stop his stupidity. As Rick turns away to see Carl watching him standing over Shane’s dead body, Rick fails to notice as Shane returns to the living… or should we say UN-living. Thankfully Carl is around to reenact the classic scene from the comic where he carls Shane with a headshot! Sadly with Shane being a Zombie, this takes a bit of the fun out of the scene but I guess that they can’t show a kid put a bullet in a living person’s head even on cable TV past watershed hours. Now Shane died without being bitten so how could he possibly become a zombie unless… the virus has now gone airborne! Dun dun DUNNN!!!
With the ending of the episode, it seems we are finally moving away from the farm and into bigger and better territory which fans have been begging for over half this season. While this reviewer agrees they wasted a lot of time in the first half of the season, this back half has been nothing short of epic, which is what this season should have been like all along. The back half of Season Two has featured tons of character growth and genuine plot development. With us moving into the season finale, and ultimately the lead up to Season Three, we encourage the creative team to maintain this pacing for their future episodes. “Better Angels” sets the stage for an epic Shane-less finale which should allow us to get some answers!
ComicsOnline gives The Walking Dead “Better Angels” 4 people being carled out of 5.
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