Drama on the Greene Farm continues. There isn’t much in the way of actual story progression this week, but we do begin to get the sense that there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
[Be warned, this recap contains spoilers]
The rest of the gang finally arrives at the farm. They haven’t given up on the search for Sophia, but they’re hoping that establishing a base camp at the farm will help them to make a more coordinated search. They begin with a funeral for Otis. Shane is asked to give a eulogy since he was the last one with him, and he tries to refuse, but his wife begs him. Shane is clearly pained by what has happened, and he gives a recollection of what happened, leaving out the small part of him shooting Otis and leaving him to the Walkers. Now with a shaved head, wearing Otis’ overalls, and limping, Shane takes on an almost sinister look.
Getting back to the search, Maggie pulls out a survey map of the area. How or why she has that is anybody’s guess, but it’s a good way for Rick to coordinate a more focused search for Sophia. Herschel points out that neither Rick nor Shane are in any shape to look for her. That leaves Daryl in charge, which is probably for the best. Of all the people in this group, he’s definitely the one with the coolest head. Herschel adds a little wrinkle, though: he doesn’t want people armed on the farm. Shane has to gather all the guns again. Not surprising, Andrea is none too happy about having to give up her gun after having just gotten it back.
Herschel suggests a supply run into town. Maggie is the one who usually does that, and Rick says that Glenn go with her, since he is their “go into town and get stuff” guy. You can see the love connection from a mile away. Glenn has been awkward around her since he first arrived on the farm, and now they see that they have a survival skill in common. It’s obviously meant to be.
We get our first bit of suspicious activity from Herschel. When Rick brings up moving his group into the barn to give his family space, Herschel flat out refuses. He then tells Rick that once Carl is recovered and Sophia is found, he wants them to leave. Readers of the comics should know exactly what he is hiding and how things will ultimately play out. But for now, we have to wait patiently.
More suspicious activity comes from Lori. As Glenn gets ready to make a pharmacy run with Maggie, she takes him aside and asks him to pick up a few items that she doesn’t want him telling anybody about. We find out what she wants him to get by the end of the episode, but fans of the comics probably already know. Heck, anybody who knows anything about how stories like this get told can probably easily figure out what she is asking for.
Dale and T-Dog go out to one of the wells to get some more water, and Dale quickly discovers something disturbing. There is a Walker in the well. The thing is so waterlogged and bloated, it looks like the demon spawn of the Michelin Man and Jabba the Hutt. This leads to what may be one of the most ridiculous actions the group has undertaken yet. It has clearly been in the well long enough to contaminate the water, but they want to keep it from contaminating it further by pulling it out of the well intact and killing it above ground – as opposed to just taking a head shot while its still in there and letting its innards flow into the water.
How do they go about doing this? They send Glenn down as live bait. This raises two points. 1: This is a stupid idea, and 2: THIS IS A STUPID IDEA! Glenn also doesn’t seem to put up too much resistance to the idea of being the worm on a hook for a hungry zombie. I guess getting eaten by a waterlogged creature is preferable to having to – gulp – spend time with a girl. He is so painfully awkward around Maggie, it’s almost uncomfortable to watch.
As expected, this idiotic plan doesn’t exactly go as well as they’d hoped. Using the wellhead as a leverage point to help lower Glenn down into it, it snaps almost on cue, plunging Glenn down to within biting distance of the Walker. After what really looks like an overblown struggle to pull him up (there are several people pulling the rope with one tiny guy on the other end, but you’d think they were trying to pull up a car), they finally get Glenn out of the well. Somehow in the struggle, he was able to plunge the hooked end of another rope into the back of the Walker. It seems like the plan isn’t completely shot after all.
In another reminder of why you should not eat while watching this show, they pull the Walker out of the well, but it gets snagged on the edge when it is about halfway out. The Walker suddenly snaps in half and the bottom half, now spewing an ungodly amount of blood and guts, goes plunging back into the well. The top half comes out, and T-Dog smashes its head in. After that, he finally points out what a stupid plan this all was. The well is ruined, and they’ve completely shot Glenn’s nerves before he has to go into town. I don’t expect these people to be geniuses when it comes to survival, but I still have a hard time buying that not one of them put up any real resistance to such a patently flawed idea.
Daryl continues the search for Sophia on his own and stumbles upon an empty house. After doing a thorough search of it, he notices a closet that has a pillow and blanket inside made into a makeshift bed. It seems pretty obvious that Sophia was hiding here. Going outside and calling for her, he finds a flower blooming. He meets up with Carol in the RV. She has been keeping herself busy by cleaning it up. Daryl gives her the flower, telling her the story of the Cherokee Rose: a flower that the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears believed were signs from the spirits that missing children had found a safe path. It’s actually a pretty touching story. Carol has been resistant to people continuing to give her words of encouragement, but Daryl’s gift does get through to her.
Andrea continues her incessant whining about being gun free as she and Shane go looking for a place away from the farm to do target practice. Shane talks to her about how hard it is to actually kill somebody, and all but confesses what he did to Otis.
Maggie and Glenn finally make their pharmacy run into town, and Glenn is just several different kinds of tongue-tied and awkward around her. In the pharmacy, Maggie goes off to get some supplies while Glenn gets the mystery items that Lori asked for. When Maggie sneaks up on him to ask what he’s looking for, Glenn accidentally grabs a package of condoms. This instigates yet another awkward exchange, but Maggie finally puts the kibosh on that by offering to have sex with him. She gives him the “there aren’t a lot of options” reasoning for it, which is a pretty backhanded compliment, but Glenn gives in all the same.
Back at the farm, Rick pleads with Herschel to reconsider his stance on having them all leave. Herschel reluctantly agrees to consider it, but only under the condition that they don’t ask about certain aspects of the family’s life. That should raise some alarm bells, but Rick is too concerned with having a safe place for Carl to even really notice.
Glenn and Maggie finally return to the farm. Maggie doesn’t want to discuss what happened between them, so the awkwardness is still there. Oh joy. Glenn gives Lori what she asked for. No big surprise, it’s a pregnancy test. That night, when nobody is looking, Lori sneaks out into a field to take the test. Again, not surprising, it comes up positive.
There have been a few episodes so far this season that haven’t really seemed to go anywhere significant, and this episode is no exception. We’ve had some good character development, but it’s really time to start pushing the story along before it gets too stagnant. The search for Sophia is starting to feel really dragged out, and I think it’s high time they found her and moved on from this part of the story. I know where all of this is going, and I’m getting more and more impatient for it. This has been a nice pause to get to know the characters better, but it’s time to move on. Hopefully that will happen next week.
If you missed last episode, be sure to read our ‘The Walking Dead: Save The Last One’ recap to catch up.
