The Walking Dead Recap: Tell It To The Frogs

"Guts" was a little too slow for me, and I do think the The Walking Dead would be better if every episode was an hour and a half long. That would certainly be unconventional. Or could it be that I'm too used to the long (feeling), drawn out episodes of Mad Men? "Tell It To The Frogs" was more my pace. Now that we're focusing on one group of people, I thought there would be less run-ins with zombies. Just because they're in the woods doesn't mean that they're safe.

Merle has lost whatever he had left being handcuffed on the roof.  There is no real sense of time on this show, not that it really matters. Everyone is living day to day. I did wonder how long he had been left up there, at least two days?  As the zombies try to break through the door (that probably wasn't barricaded well enough), Merle uses his belt to try to reach a hacksaw.  Driving back to the camp, Morales tells Rick not to be upset that they left Merle behind. "Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back, except maybe Daryl." And wait til we meet Daryl. Glenn arrives back to the camp first. Jim and Shane chastise him for driving the car back with the alarm still blaring, as it could attract the "geekers."

Rick is finally reunited with Lori and his son Carl, although Lori seems more alarmed than happy to see him again. As we learn later, Shane told her that he was dead. While everyone sits around a campfire, Lori tells Rick that he was supposed to be medevaced to Atlanta but that never happened. So in the first episode when we see Shane visiting Rick in the hospital, after that did he tell her that he had died? So many questions.

It might be too much to ask that nice, happy people be left after a zombpocalypse. Of course, fearing that at any moment you could have your arm torn from your body would bring out the worst in someone. Ed, his wife Carol and his daughter Sophia are among the survivors at the camp. Along with Merle, and his brother Daryl, we've been giving another man to hate. Maybe this was done so that Rick, and later Shane, could be alpha-male heroes.  The group talks about who is going to tell Merle's brother that he's still on top of the building. Rick volunteers, along with T-Dog who still feels guilty for leaving him up there.  Later in their tent, Lori returns Rick's wedding ring and they make love....um with their son a mere two feet away.  Shane sits on top of the RV, watching their tent. That wasn't creepy at all.

The next day, Rick tells Lori that he's going back to the city to get Merle, and to retrieve his bag of guns and the walkie-talkie to tell Morgan to stay away from the city. The group hears Carl scream and they rush over to a clearing in the woods to see if he's okay.  They find a walker eating a deer. Will someone please save the animals?!  I guess better a deer than a human.  Dale decapitates it and explains that they never come up that far in the mountains, "They're running out of food in the city," Jim adds. Turns out the deer was being hunted by Daryl, Merle's brother, for food.  Shane explains to him that his brother didn't come back with everyone else, Rick tells him that he was the one that left him handcuffed on the roof. They figure that he's still alive, so Rick, Glenn (who knows the area), T-Dog and Daryl leave to go rescue him, and more importantly get the guns. Carl tells Lori that he isn't worried about his dad. "Everything that's happened to him so far. Nothing's killed him yet."

As he promised earlier, Shane goes with Carl to the quarry to catch frogs.  Seems Shane got used to playing "house" with Lori and Carl while they all thought Rick was dead.  He does care for them, but they're not his family.  Now that Rick is back, he doesn't have to take care of them. Lori and Shane argue, she tells him to stay away from her family. As he explains to her, Rick is his best friend, and that would be hard to do.

Andrea, Amy, Carol and Jacqui reluctantly do laundry near by.  They talk about the things they miss, coffee-makers, actual washing machines and vibrators.  Because the womenfolk were having too much fun while they should be working, Ed fusses at them about "doing their job." Andrea confronts him, and as Carol tries to stop their argument he slaps her. I was so proud of Andrea, Amy and Jacqui for standing up to that creep and trying to get Carol to not go with them. Shane, overhearing the fight, grabs Ed and pushes him to the ground, bashing his face in. "You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time." Yes, go Shane!

Rick, Glenn, T-Dog and Daryl make it back to Atlanta. Weird that there was only one walker in the store, and they had no problem getting back in. When they get up on the roof, they find a the hacksaw, the bloody handcuff and Merle's severed hand.  But where was Merle?  If their plan of having Glenn drive around with the alarm blasting worked, then the zombies that were in the city followed the noise--which means they'll be finding the survivor camp soon.  That could have given Merle a good chance to leave, but what happened to the zombies that were at the door?   Did he jump off the building?

So many questions!