The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

Spoilers for the episode

The Story:

The group get stopped by a traffic jam and then have to hide from a hoard of walkers passing through. This causes problems the biggest of which is Sophia running off.

Thoughts:

The group are still in Atlanta and Rick is on a roof somewhere summing up last season by talking to Morgan on the radio. He says Jackie died because she lost faith then he explains what happened last season and that they’re going to fort Bennet that’s 125 miles away. It doesn’t seem that smart to talk on a radio about your plans because you don’t know who’s listening but I guess they haven’t come across other hostile people yet. Only the gang in Atlanta and they turned out to be nice.
In the car Rick and Lori are reminiscing while Carl and Sophia want to go see the grand canyon. Rick says they’ll never leave Carol and Sophia behind.
In the caravan Shane’s cleaning the guns and offers to teach Andrea to use the gun her dad gave her but didn’t teach her how to use it. Even though he wanted her and her sister to be able to defend themselves. You can see where Andrea gets her intelligence from. Also I’ve just noticed behind Andrea there’s a sign saying ‘how about a cup of shut the hell up’. There’s never been a more appropriate sign.
There’s a huge traffic jam ahead and then the Caravan breaks down but luckily they’ve got lots of parts to choose from.
Everyone wants to go scavenge but Lori says it’s a graveyard and she doesn’t know how to feel about it. Food and water for your child trumps people who are already dead. I love how everyone turns to look at her like she’s crazy.
Carol finds some clothes and Lori gives her a judgmental look.
Andrea decides to practice cleaning her gun while Shane finds water and has a mini shower.
Rick spots a walker and takes aim but there’s whole lot more. When they switch to a wide shot to of the road there are so many that you wonder how Dale didn’t see them considering he’s on top of the caravan.
Nobody tells Andrea though who’s in the caravan with the door open. She’s just sat there minding her own business and then realises she’s surrounded. She hides in the bathroom as one comes through the door. Then decides to fiddle with the gun she doesn’t know how to put back together properly so she makes noise and the walker tries to get her.
Dale passes her a screwdriver from the roof and she kills it but then she starts crying. I’ve lost all patience with her.
Everyone else is under cars and for some reason the adults don’t hide with the kids. T-Dog manages to slit his arm open and the blood attracts a walker but Daryl kills it and lies walkers on top of them so the others passing won’t see them.
They think the walkers have gone and Sophia goes to get up but a walker spots her and she runs into the woods. Lori gets hold of carol to stop her from following so the manly men can go be heroes but Rick doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to go save her.
Once in the woods he starts running and he finds her but he can’t shoot the two walkers because the ones on the road will hear.
He picks her up and they are way ahead of the walkers but for some reason he puts her down to lead them away. He says he can get winded but they can’t. But he could have easily lost them in the time it takes for the walkers to catch up.
Sophia being a stupid child leaves her hiding place and doesn’t give Rick a chance to come back. This would be the point where it would have been a good idea to let Carol look for Sophia as well. Instead of treating her like a child who’s going to get lost as well.
Rick kills the two walkers with a big rock then shows Daryl where he left Sophia. Daryl starts tracking her and she’s heading in the right direction towards the road but then veers off deeper into the woods. So Rick and Daryl continue to search while Shane goes back to the cars to keep everyone busy scavenging.
Back at the road everyone discusses what just happened with the walkers moving in a big group. They decide to call it a herd.
Carl does some looting on his own and finds an axe on a body and other weapons. The body falls but its not a walker. They’ve just lost Sophia but they’re letting Carl wander off on his own.
He takes it to Shane who tells him to take it to Dale. Lori gets angry at Shane for blowing off Carl but Shane says he’s doing what she wanted. He also says the CDC was a mistake. I’m assuming he means trying to rape her and not that going there was the mistake. He’s also decided he’s leaving the group and is fixing a car to take.
Back in the forest Daryl and Rick kill a walker that’s eaten recently so Daryl guts it to see what’s in its stomach. Rick looks queasy and then Daryl says here comes the bad part and he removes the stomach. Then they cut the stomach open and find that this walker didn’t eat Sophia. It was disgusting and worth it just to see Rick trying not to throw up.
On the road Dale has taken Andrea’s gun and she’s not happy about it. Shane says they all need training and Dale’s going to keep all the guns accounted for.
Rick and Daryl come back because the trail went cold but they’ll pick it up tomorrow. Carol’s not happy with her daughter spending the night in the woods and asks Rick why he left her. Rick tries to explain himself but Carol’s more focused on Sophia being left out there.
Next day and the search party lays out the weapons Carl found. Andrea still wants a gun and is really annoying about it. Shane tells her to get over it.
They let Carl go with them because they need another child lost in the woods. Lori refuses to be the one to say no because she doesn’t want to always be the bad guy. Rick agrees because of poor judgment and he always has to be the good guy. The fact that Dale doesn’t see a problem with it should be a warning sign.
Then Andrea picks another fight with Dale over the gun. She’s right he should leave her alone but she’s way too annoying for me to side with. Dale expects gratitude for stopping her from killing herself. That’s so stupid I don’t know where to begin.
Lori manages to keep an eye on Carl for probably the last time in the series and tells Carl Shane’s not mad at him.
They find a tent and Daryl investigates with his knife. The guy inside committed suicide. Rick gets Carol to call for Sophia and they hear church bells.
Back at the road and Dale had the caravan fixed yesterday but he wants to hold off on the needs of the one vs needs of the many arguments. He’s so not as smart as he thinks he is.
They find a church but no bells. Inside walkers are sat in the pews. It’s a recording on a timer and they turn it off.
Carol decides to go in instead of being useful and looking for Sophia. Andrea stays outside and hears a conversation between Shane and Lori about him leaving.
In the church Carol is praying to god because he got them from Atlanta and killed Ed for her.
While outside Andrea wants to go with Shane when he leaves. I don’t know how she thinks they’re the third wheels. He is because he’s having an affair with a married woman but she’s just got Dale following her around. That’s only two wheels.
Back in the church Rick says finding Sophia is the miracle they need and has his moment in the church talking to his god. He wants a sign.
Rick and Shane decide to keep searching and send the others back to the road. They let Carl stay with them to keep searching because Rick still can’t say no.
Rick gives Lori the gun to protect them on the way back because she knows how to use a gun and Andrea’s annoying about it. Lori gives it to her then gives a speech about Rick doing his best.
Elsewhere Carl gets entranced by a deer and gets shot. See this is why you can’t be happy in the walking dead. This time it’s Carl trying to make friends with a deer. Or maybe this is Rick’s sign from god telling him to look for the little girl lost in the woods instead of getting distracted and tat bringing your child along to help wasn’t a good idea.
This is a good start to the season. Reminding us of what came before and upping the stakes with the constant danger of being on the road.
We get introduced to the concept of walkers moving in herds that comes back to be a major problem later. The only bad parts of the episode are Andrea and Dale who continue to compete at who can be the most annoying.
Carl getting shot is a good way to end because I remember the first time I watched this I didn’t see it coming. We’d already had our bad thing happen for the episode which was Sophia going missing and that was enough of a cliffhanger. But this is the Walking dead and one bad thing happening isn’t good enough.
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