The Walking Dead Recap, ‘Pretty Much Dead Already’

Um, wow. Things have been building up to a crazy climax on The Walking Dead and this was it. Rick is trying to keep his position of Alpha Male of the group, but Shane is slowly taking over it, and quickly losing it.

Rick tries to persuade Herschel to let them all stay, Lori is pregnant and they can't go back out into the world. Maggie is still mad at Glenn, this time because he tells everyone else about the walkers in the barn. Then she's not mad at him, and well she's annoying. Shane congratulates Rick on his future baby, which may or may not be his. While talking to Lori he makes the point that Rick doesn't belong in this new world and that he wishes that Rick had never came back.

I know little Carl still loves his dad, but he obviously sees Shane as a second dad.  Daryl is upset that they haven't found Sophia yet and just before they set out to look for her again, Herschel asks Rick to help him and Jimmy (I finally remembered that kid's name) down by the lake. Meanwhile, Dale steals Shane's guns to hide them and the two have it out. I was kind of hoping Dale was going to shoot Shane, but all of the people shooting takes place at the end.

So we already know that Herschel has been keeping his family and neighbors in the creepy barn, and apparently he scours the land surrounding his property for walkers. Him, Rick and Jimmy drag two out of the water to take back to the house.

As revealed by Robert Kirkman, creator of the Walking Dead series, on AMC's The Talking Dead last night, capturing these lone walkers and bringing them back to the barn was Otis' job. Now that Otis is dead, thanks Shane, well someone has to do it. Herschel asking Rick for his help could be sign that maybe he sees the benefit of the group sticking around.

Because of Rick's absence, everyone is pissed that the search has been put on hold, until they see them pulling the walkers back to the farm. Shane goes off on a tirade about fighting and protecting and blah blah blah and shoots one of the walkers. He then opens the barn and out comes a stampede of zombies, killed off by the gang. I couldn't help but think that this was a stupid decision by Shane because they were once again wasting bullets! But then, then, out comes little Sophia. Poor thing has been in the barn this whole time.

Carol can't contain herself, and everyone else is too stunned to do anything. Rick takes it upon himself to shoot her and that's where we end. So many things to address here. This whole time, Herschel has known that Sophia was in the barn and was trying to protect the group? Shouldn't he have stopped them from going out and almost killed, or maybe he didn't know that was the girl they were looking for. Dale's problems with Shane are going to come to ahead soon, and with Andrea getting so close to him it could cause even more problems. Not to mention their little tryst in the Hyundai, seriously what was that?!

The season resumes in February. Zombie killing and betrayal, just in time for Valentine's Day!