It should go without saying at this point that there are spoilers ahead, seeing as how this is a recap and all.
Lori awakens to a zombie trying to break through the windshield of her overturned, smashed up car. She is understandably alarmed. However we immediately switch gears and head into town. At the bar we pick the story back up as Rick is firing his last shots into Tony. Hershel suggests heading back to the farm, but they’re interrupted by the arrival of the friends that Dave had mentioned.
Lori fights her way out of the wrecked car, impaling one walker with the gearshift and hitting another with her hubcap. She finds her gun and follows up with a shot to the face of the hubcab zombie. Death by car parts has never been so fun! Still dazed, Lori stumbles off on her own.
Back at the farm, the group gathers for dinner and starts a search for Lori after realizing she has been missing for half the day. Lesson learned from this episode: have an apocalypse buddy who always knows where you are. Rick, Glenn and Hershel are camped out at the bar, hiding from the newcomers. Rick suggests that they leave through the back and circle around for the car. The mysterious friends try to enter the bar, but Glenn slams the door shut. Now the friends know there’s someone there. They call through the door, saying they’re just looking for Dave and Tony. Rick calls out, “They drew on us!” Unlike Dave and Tony, the friends don’t seem outright shady – until they start firing. Hershel slides Glenn a shotgun. Now we’ve got a shootout.
Carol runs into Daryl while looking for Lori, and he admits that he told Lori he wouldn’t fetch Rick for her. He’s isolating himself, camping alone away from the others. Carol returns to the house and tells the others that Lori probably went into town. Shane confronts Dale, assuming he knew her plan, and speeds off to find her.
In a lull of shooting, Rick tries to diffuse the situation with the friends outside, who have gone silent. Glenn makes a run for the back of the bar, hitting every creaky board on the way. He ends up in the bar’s storeroom, and the friends are trying the back door. Glenn shoots out the glass, but we don’t see anyone yet.
Shane finds Lori’s overturned car and the zombies she left behind, but no Lori.
Rick tells Hershel to cover Glenn while he gets the car and pulls it around back. Glenn is less than thrilled about the plan but opens the door. Immediately he is shot at, and Hershel shoots the guy who fired. Rick comes running. Glenn is unharmed but freaking out. The shooter is in pain and making lots of noise. There’s another shooter on top of the pharmacy across the street and a getaway truck pulls up. The pharmacy shooter tries to jump into the truck bed, but misses and the truck leaves him behind. We can hear him screaming as well as the original shooter, who is soon attacked by zombies. Hershel watches, killing the first zombie that arrives, but the shooter is quickly overcome and eaten, starting with his face.
Glenn and Hershel make a run for the car, but Rick has gone across the street to help the kid who jumped off the pharmacy. He has landed on his back with wrought iron railing spikes through his leg- the kind of railing with studded spires on top. The kid is screaming, attracting zombies, and in desperation Rick tell Hershel to cut off his leg so they can save him. The town’s walker population has grown, and the gunfire and shouting is drawing the hordes to the group. Hershel is panicking, telling Rick to leave the kid behind, and Rick and Glenn are trying to hold off the zombie throng, but there’s too many. In a split decision, Rick rips the kid’s leg up and off the railing, ripping apart his leg muscle but saving his life.
Shane finds Lori wandering the road. She’s still determined to find Rick and so Shane lies, saying he has already returned safe and sound to the farm. She is relieved and goes with Shane. Carol visits Daryl in his hermit hideaway again, and he lashes out at Carol for not taking better care of Sophia. Carol says nothing, taking it all in silence.
Back at the farm, Lori becomes angry at Shane for lying about Rick. Shane slips and mentions the baby in front of everyone, including Carl. Carl has lots of questions about the baby, and asks to name it Sophia if it’s a girl. Shane and Lori talk on their own. Lori asks what happened with Otis. Shane doesn’t answer directly but says whatever happened, happened because he loves her. Lori tells Shane that Rick knows of their affair. Shane is shaken, but refuses to say their love was a mistake – in his opinion, it was a good thing they could hold onto while the world fell apart around them.
Morning comes, and Beth is still catatonic. Maggie stays with her, unsure of what to do. Dale tries to warn Andrea against Shane – after all, warning Lori seems to have turned her against him – but Andrea stands up for Shane, saying he has done more to save the group than anyone else has, including Rick. Before the search party can leave, a van pulls up with Hershel, Rick, Glenn, and a blindfolded Randall (the pharmacy shooter). Hershel prepares for surgery while Rick debriefs the group. Daryl joins the group for the first time since the barn incident, and he picked quite the occasion. Rick and Hershel plan to heal Randall and then drop him off at the main road to fend for himself, but this causes an uproar. No one seems to believe that helping Randall was a good idea, since he might be able to lead others to the farm now that he’s been there.
Maggie and Glenn have a moment alone to talk. Glenn froze during the shootout and blames it on Maggie saying she loved him before he left. People were counting on him and he hid, worried about what would happen to her if he died. What could have been a romantic moment turns sour very quickly with Glenn so upset about their relationship. Maggie takes this as well as you would expect. “Not only did I not say ‘I love you’ back to you, but I’m blaming you for my inability to defend myself in a gunfight.” Poor Maggie. She deserves better. Straight from this conversation, Maggie confronts Hershel for drinking again and leaving her alone.
Andrea suggests to Shane that he just needs to stop being so blunt. They both think helping Randall will bring a war to the farm. Shane says he should have left with Andrea when he had the chance.
Alone in their tent, Lori tells Rick that Shane thinks the baby is his, though she claims “no matter what, it’s yours.” Lori worries that Shane is delusional and dangerous. She mentions that she thinks he killed Otis, and Rick responds that he killed two people himself to keep Lori and Carl safe. Lori twists his words, saying Rick killed the living to protect what’s his, and now Shane thinks she, Carl, and the baby are his.
So what’s Lori playing at with her Lady MacBeth act? I agree with Andrea – Shane doesn’t make wrong decisions, he just goes about them in the most brash and destructive way. He knew Carl needed medicine, so he sacrificed Otis. The barn was full of walkers, so he riled them up and shot them in front of people who had known and cared for them. Lori needed medical treatment, so he lied to get her back to the farm. His intentions are right, it’s just his follow-through that leaves me uneasy.
Lori, on the other hand…I don’t even know what’s going on in her mind. There’s a preeeeetty big chance that this baby is Shane’s. She knows it, Shane knows it, and Rick knows it. How can she expect to cut Shane out of her life (and her baby’s life) and pretend that their affair never happened? I can understand that she’s embarassed and mortified that she slept with her husband’s best friend only to find out her husband is still alive. But Rick understands, and as her husband, his opinion is the only one that matters. There’s no excuse for her to treat Shane the way she is – in fact, her shutting him out is leading to more desperate behavior on his part. I think she depended on Shane when she thought Rick was dead, and now that Rick has come back and it’s inconvenient for Shane to be around, she wants him gone. She’s playing with these men’s lives, and there’s no way it can end well.
If you missed the previous episode, be sure to read our ‘The Walking Dead: Nebraska’ recap.
