Spoilers! The Walking Dead s2 ep12: Better Angels

I guess the TV series still tries to tread a path similar to the one taken by the comic book. I mean, it’s different enough to avoid being labeled as a direct adaptation, but similar enough to give you an idea of where things are going or why things have happened.

Spoilers start after the cut.



The episode starts with the entire crew attending Dale’s burial. And then we see some of them try to cope with what happened – with the most poignant one being Glenn and Andrea’s moment with Dale’s RV. I really liked this bit. For all the effort the show has of portraying Dale as the conscience and the heart of the group, I feel like it’s Glenn who deserves that label. If there’s one person on the group who has always acted out of kindness and truly deserves to be happy, it’s him.

We also have Carl approaching Shane and admitting that Dale’s death was his fault, and then we have a heart to heart between Lori and Shane, and for a moment there I feel like Shane is truly going to come around. A pity that he OMG SPOILERZZ dies in this episode, because he could have made a good uncle for Carl, and was really a good friend to Rick. But in this episode, he made his choice and he paid the price.

Shane’s plan is this: he frees Randall, and tells him that both of them will escape the farm and join Randall’s 30-man crew. As soon as Randall starts to get giddy at the plan, Shane snaps his neck off cam. Then Shane runs himself into a tree in order to make it look like he was attacked. After giving the crew his story, he is partnered with Rick while Glenn goes with Daryll in order to recapture Randall.

Daryll and Glenn run into Randall, who is now a walker even though he was never bitten. This may eventually become part of the plot, like in the comic: people can turn into walkers just by dying normally. Daryll, the astute hunter that he is, recognizes that there are things in Shane’s story that don’t add up…

…then we cut back to Shane and Rick. Rick is a very nice person who wants to give everyone a fair chance, to his detriment. But he is no fool. He gets what Shane is planning to do, and they get into a standoff. They finally say what they needed to say to each other, before Rick stabs Shane in the heart while pretending to drop his gun.

Poor Rick, he really wanted their friendship to work out, but Shane is too far gone. And chances are, so is Carl, who saw one of the two male authority figures in his life kill the other. He also sees Shane come back as a walker, and proceeds to shoot him in the head – similar to what he did in the comic.

The episode ends with Rick cradling his best friend in his arms, while a whole herd of walkers who were alerted by all the commotion approach the farm. Next episode will be the last for season 2, and it looks like we’re going to have a lot of walker action, and possibly another major character’s death.