by Matt Sernaker, Managing Editor

The Walking Dead have returned! The second season of the hit series from AMC and mastermind Robert Kirkman has finally made it’s way to our homes, just in time for marathons before the new season starts in October. What horrors must our favorite group of survivors face this season? Who do we meet along the way? Why is Shane going crazy? All these questions will be answered in The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season, now available to own on Blu-ray and DVD!

Episode Highlights:

“What Lies Ahead” – Taking place shortly after the events at the CDC, Rick and the survivors have abandoned the city and have set out on the road trying to figure out what to do next. The premiere will give the survivors a new concept of “Highway to Hell”, as they encounter a new threat from the undead!

So how are The Dead holding up after such a long period of time between seasons? They are scary as $%&*. The season premiere gives us some of the best zombies ever on television (and possibly ever on screen) as Greg Nicotero takes The Walking Dead to a new level of creepiness (some of these zombies have haunted my dreams since watching my screener of the premiere last week).

All of the cast bring their “A-Game” to the premiere, with exceptional performances by Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Laurie Holden. This phenomenal group of actors have connected with the viewers on such a personal level, and having done so just over the course of a six episode First Season is something truly impressive.

Since that fateful First Season finale, fans have been wondering what will happen next for Rick and the gang. Robert Kirkman has a history of presenting his characters with crazy twists, and loves to keep his readers guessing. Season One demonstrated that the creative team behind the show isn’t afraid to explore new territory with the characters, and it seems the Season Two will carry on with that concept.

“Triggerfinger” – I will say this, “Triggerfinger” is an episode about friends. After taking off on her own to go find Rick, Glen, and Hershel, Lori not only manages to hit the only zombie on a very open road, but also flipped the car. This newest installment opens with Lori’s fate following the crash, and reveals that she is not alone…because the zombie that she hit had friends (insert musical sting here).

Rick and the guys survive their run in with some fellow human beings (they were from Jersey so I am actually being really nice), only to find that the guys that they had just killed in self defense also… had friends. Rick, in a moment of complete stupidity, decides to just yell out to the angry group that “they drew on us!!!”. Now, this moment really bothered me more than Lori’s amazing lack of common sense in the previous episode. Rick is a trained officer of the law. One would assume that Rick has dealt with many situations regarding how to talk to an angry or upset individual. Instead of saying, “Guys I’m sorry, your friends came at us and tried to kill us,” he just yells this statement. Can anyone guess what happened next? Oh yeah, the people from Jersey (again assuming the rest of the group was also from Jersey), got mad and started shooting. With guns blazing, Rick and the boys try to make an escape from the bar and head for the car. While dodging both zombies and angry humans, Glen has a small panic attack and freezes up. Rick gets him to snap out of it and they make a run for it, only to watch as one of their attackers jumps from a roof…and doesn’t quite make it. His fellow survivor leaves him behind, and being the good guys, Rick and Hershel take the injured survivor with them on their trip back to the farm.

So what is going on back at the farm? Shane learns that Lori had taken off on her own and had yet to return, so he decides to go off after her. Luckily for Lori, he finds her pretty easily as she is walking out in the open, on the road (in the opposite direction) by herself. Lori, still determined to find Rick, tells Shane that they have to go the town, but Shane tells her that Rick is already back (but he wasn’t). The two head back and of course, Lori is pissed to find that Rick wasn’t back yet. Shane uses the excuse that he was concerned about the baby (which Carl didn’t know about yet) and that he is going to do whatever it takes to protect Lori and the baby (because he is convinced the baby is his).

Hey look, Rick is back! Everyone is happy…except for Shane. Shane is pissed that they brought the other survivor back, but Rick tells him the plan is to let him heal and then send him on his way. But what happens if the guy finds his friends and brings them back to the farm? No don’t worry…that can’t happen…(FORESHADOWING POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT).

Lori gets to have a one on one with Rick, where she informs Rick that Shane is going batshit insane, and that he believes the baby is his and Rick cannot protect them (FORESHADOWING POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT).

“Judge, Jury, Executioner” –  The survivors are still debating over what to do with Randall, the member of the other group of survivors who had taken shots at Rick, Glen, and Hershel during “Triggerfinger”. Rick and Shane have determined that having this new guy around will eventually cause problems for the group (and they are probably right), but Dale continues to be the optimist and fights to sway the group to allow him to live. Most of the group have finally come to accept the “survival of the fittest” mentality, but Dale is convinced that if they move forward with this execution, they would be giving up the only thing that makes life worth living.

Meanwhile, Carl gets a lot of screen time as he sneaks into the shed where they are holding Randall, and debates on whether or not he is trustworthy. Shane catches him in this action, and chastises with “stop trying to get yourself killed Carl”. Being a kid, Carl decides to ignore the adults and take matters into his own hands by sneaking away and stealing a gun. Heading out into the forest surrounding the farm, Carl stumbles onto a zombie who has gotten himself trapped in the mud. Instead of just killing it and walking away, Carl’s youthful curiosity gets the best of him and he decides to get up close and personal with the trapped zombie.

Surprise!

Zombies like brains…and Carl has brains (supposedly…except when he is throwing rocks at zombies)…and the zombie gets free and goes after Carl!

Shoot the zombie Carl! Shoot it!

Oh wait.

You dropped your gun?

Oh it’s ok. Don’t worry about that single zombie. I am sure that he won’t cause any trouble later. The show is about zombies (plural) and the odds of one single zombie doing anything significant is extremely unlikely.

So back at the farm, the group assembles for the final decision about Randall, and Dale puts out one final plea. While everyone is concerned about the safety of the group, they are ignoring the fact that they are about to execute a human being (not many of them alive these days). While he does manage to get through to some members of the group, Rick and Shane ultimately make the final decision to take Randall out back and put him down like Old Yeller. Carl (now back after having his own adventure earlier in the episode) catches his dad about to execute the unarmed man, and Rick has a change of heart (due to his son’s encouragement of the execution).

Meanwhile the following events happen:

Dale walks off on his own…into the middle of an open field…by himself…in the middle of the night…only to find….

OMG IT’S THAT ONE ZOMBIE FROM EARLIER!??!?!?!?!

RUN DALE RUN!

BANG BANG BANG!

Everybody else goes, “Where’s Dale?”

Oh no. The only zombie in the entire episode got Dale…and ripped his guts out.

Carl realizes it is the same zombie that he antagonized earlier. (Insert Scooby Doo “Ruh Roh”).

As Dale lies on the ground, with hits guts pouring out, Rick and the others are left to make a very big decision.

As you can tell, there are some pretty big developments in this episode…more so than we have had for quite some time. The overall debate on morality takes up a majority of the installment, but it provides for some fantastic dialogue between characters. Learning where people stand during a zombie apocalypse is important, and while most will do whatever it takes to stay alive, others are not quite willing to give up all hope. Dale’s untimely demise will surely catch many viewers off guard, as his fate is very different than that in the original comic. I think that by removing Dale, they have removed the moral compass from the show, which will allow them to push the survivors that much harder in terms of what they are willing to do to stay alive. I think that it will also give some great moments of self reflection as they ask themselves “What Would Dale Do?”. I will however miss the character, as Jeffrey DeMunn did a stellar job in his portrayal of the fan-favorite Dale. This also just goes to show again that NO ONE IS SAFE!

My one frustration with this entire episode is that there was only one zombie. Just one. I know that they wanted to make a point of duality with Dale being the one to die after fighting for the group to retain it’s humanity…but seriously. This show is about zombies, and for the majority of this season (with the exception of a few episodes) the number of walking dead have been extremely limited. The show is interesting when there is a major threat to the group, whether it comes from outside or from within. We need to see these characters growing (in one direction or another) and this episode shows that they can still accomplish that…but it’s at the expense of cheap storytelling. Re-read the scene description above (it really is not an exaggeration). This group has been together long enough to know not to go out alone, and yet Dale just wanders off on his own and then is attacked by a zombie. I just felt like that was way too easy and out of character. To be fair, I loved the fact that Carl provoked the zombie earlier, and that ultimately Dale’s death was his fault, BUT STILL, too easy of a death.

“Better Angels” – This episode 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!!!

“Beside the Dying Fire”–  An un-addressed helicopter passes overhead, and naturally this sound draws the attention of the residents (if you can call them that). This is, of course, the explanation of the massive herd of zombies heading towards the farm. They’ve been traveling in that general direction throughout the episode, picking up strays along the way until Carl’s gunshot leads them to the farm. If you’ve been feeling like this season didn’t have enough of the walkers, worry no longer. That empty void will be more than filled by the time this episode is even half-way through.

The entire episode is basically everyone fighting for their lives. Lori still doesn’t know where Carl is, they all leave Andrea behind, and everyone is either driving, shooting, or crying. Splitting everyone up was a good idea plot-wise, because it stayed true to the lingering suspense that gives this series its intense edge. The only lives lost were of a couple of pretty underdeveloped characters, so while casualties were expected, it wasn’t really as effective as the death of say, Shane or Dale. That being said, the level of destruction is exhilarating.

Rick gets tired of everyone getting mad about the outcome of the decisions they’re relying solely on him to make and declares both the end of the group’s democracy and the fact that he killed Shane. Andrea, who had made her way into the forest, is saved by a hooded badass with a sword who has a couple of walkers attached via chain. Michonne’s appearance surely made fans of the comics swoon with delight. The final shot is from above their temporary resting place, showing a huge and ominous prison relatively close-by, leaving you to wonder if that’s their new future destination and who might be inside.

Special Features:
The creative team has been kind enough to give viewers several different behind the scenes featurettes which showcase the various aspects of brining The Walking Dead to un-life!

• All the Guts Inside- Go behind the scenes to see the process in creating the Walkers on the show! This awesome featurette demonstrates what it takes to make a zombie from the inside out!
• Live Or Let Die- This featurette focuses on the development of Shane and his overall character arc. Why did the creative team feel that it was so important to keep this character alive longer than his time in the comic?
• The Meat Of the Music- What did it take to create the music score for the season finale? This special focuses on the talents of Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica), the mind behind the music!
• Fire On Set- Did you know that the Farm actually didn’t have barn originally? The crew had to custom build one for the second season! This video discussed how important the barn was to the overall development of the season, and how it was ultimately “built to burn”.
• The Ink Is Alive- Kirkman discusses how keeping things fresh and making adjustments away from the comic for the TV show version of The Walking Dead is critical to the experience.
• The Sound of The Effects
• In The Dead Water- Remember the creepy walker that was trapped in the well? Check out the process of creating the Well-Walker and the well itself!
• You Could Make A Killing
• She Will Fight- Andrea comes into the spotlight in this feature, as the creative team discusses her evolution within the series.
• The Cast On Season 2
• Extras Wardrobe
• 6 Webisodes
• Audio Commentaries on Episodes 1,7,8,11, and 13
• Deleted Scenes
• 1080p Video
• Dolby True HD 7.1 Audio

Overall:
Despite not following the exact plotline of the graphic novels, the writers of The Walking Dead have nailed the suspense factor, once again. The end of the second to last episode where they show all of the walkers in the forest was the perfect hint of the utter chaos that occurred in the finale, which itself was captivating. Spending all day marathoning the episodes on Blu-ray definitely gave me a better impression of the overall season than I had while watching it weekly on television, mainly because of the pacing. The back half of the season really kicked things into gear and got our characters moving again, and the excellent finale has instilled very high hopes for Season Three.

Get your friends, grab a beer, and get ready, because Season One was just the beginning. Season Two is still a game changer and you have never seen anything remotely like this before on television or in movies.

ComicsOnline gives The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season 4 out of 5 times we have used “Shane-ing” as a verb since Season Two aired.