First, let's talk about that cold opening, in which our band of heroes rummage through the latest in a series of houses, looking for food, supplies, and anything of note. The complete lack of dialogue in this 5-minute sequence is impressive, allowing all sorts of plot developments - Lori's pregnancy progress; the lack of food, as evident in Carl's hankerin' for dog food and Daryl munching on an owl; Carl's increased proficiency with guns, not to mention his big honking silencer - to be expressed solely via visuals, while still allowing for a few good zombie kills in the process.
After the first commercial break - and the shiny new opening credits sequence - we get a quick info dump: winter has already come, and our gang has been nomadically roving from house to house with little success. It sets the stakes just enough so that, by the 10-minute mark, when Rick and Daryl finally find the prison they were oh-so-close to in the Season 2 finale, you can understand why everyone's easily on board with getting into the prison yards. Food, medicine, shelter, fields to plant the titular seed of the episode, and a heavily fortified, enclosed space… what's not to like, considering what they've been through and what they're currently dealing with? (Of course, there are some caveats to this… several of which manifest themselves before the hour's end.) However, I do think it's a wee bit ridiculous, given how close they were to the prison last season, that they didn't happen to find it sometime during the winter… I wish they had justified that a bit better.
And from there, the episode pretty much wrote itself: our heroes get past the prison fences, Rick shuts the prison gates camp out for the night, spend the next day getting into the prison while blasting off walkers in the process, and work their way into a safe cell block. For those who bemoaned the inert nature of last season's relaxed "down on the farm" mentality, the forward momentum in this first hour is nothing short of fun to watch. Plus, we got oodles of action sequences in the process, eschewing the tension of last season's "horror on the highway" set piece with kills, kills, and additional kills. (I especially like the subtle special effects incorporated into the wide shots… it speaks to the weathering of us viewers that every kill on the show these days don't have to be thrust into our faces.) Plus, we got to see walkers in prison riot gear! How cool was that? (The makeup award of the night went to the riot gear guard whose face skin peeled right off when Rick removed his mask… followed immediately by Rick splitting his skull in half like a coconut.) The only qualm - and it's a minor one - is that it's too bad that Frank Darabont is no longer with the show, since he has some experience with prisons. Nonetheless, the show certainly appears to be doing the prison setting just fine so far.
The tricky part of tonight's episode, from a writing perspective, was how to slip in all sorts of character beats amidst all this action. We got some major pieces into play: Lori's growing fears about delivering the baby, presented in a tender scene between her and Herschel; the developing relationships between Glen & Maggie, Daryl & Carol (hey, that rhymes!), and even Carl and Beth; and Carl's increased maturity and responsibilities. (Seriously, Carl rocking that silencer still gets to me.)
One thing that surprised me about tonight's show was just how little we saw of Michonne and Andrea, given how ecstatic the fans have been waiting to see her in action. For starters, we didn't see Michonne at all until the half-hour mark… and even then, it was the exact same scene that we saw in July's hour-long Talking Dead advertisement for the new season. We did get one additional scene between the two, which basically sets up that Andrea's not feeling well, that Andrea has managed to save Michonne's butt quite a bit during the winter (well, that will make for an interesting flashback episode!), and that Michonne isn't going to leave Andrea behind. I guess with all of tonight's fun at the prison, that didn't leave much time for the B-story, which is understandable… but I can only hope that their scenes will take on a bit more significance in the weeks ahead, if only for the hardcore fans' sake. If what I've heard from advance reviews of Season 3 is true, these two ladies don't even appear in next week's episode… which may not make certain viewers happy.
But then again, given all the balls that The Walking Dead put into play at the end of tonight's episode, that may not be a problem after all. Not only are plenty of walker inmates are still scurrying about in the prison, but Herschel got bit by one of 'em, too… leading to a heck of a scene in which Rick hacks off Herschel's leg with no pretense whatsoever. (Have the walkers gotten to AMC's Standards and Practices department? That's the only way that scene could've made it to air, right?) Oh, and there's a band of prisoner survivors to contend with! "Holy shit" indeed… and with that, see you next week!
Random notes:
- As AMC did with the back half of Season 2 (and this summer's run of Breaking Bad), the network has brought back their fun Story Sync feature, which provides trivia during the initial airing of each new episode. The main Story Sync page can be found here.
- Tonight's episode director is Ernest Dickerson, who started out as Spike Lee's cinematographer, then went on to direct his own movies such as Juice, Surviving the Game, Bulletproof, and the Snoop-Dogg-as-a-back-from-the-dead-1970s-gangster horror flick Bones. This is the sixth episode of The Walking Dead that he's directed thus far.
- Number of zombies killed in tonight's episode: at least 56, according to the Story Sync. Rick alone notched at least 19 kills.
- Number of times "NOT AVAILABLE ON DISH" was mentioned tonight: Only 2… one for Fear Fest (hosted by Kevin Smith), and one for Comic Book Men (also with Kevin Smith). AMC's putting all their eggs in the Silent Bob basket, eh?
- The Season 2 Blu-ray/DVD set is well worth your while, if only for the illuminating look at the chaos behind the season premiere. Long story short: Much of the footage was unusable, especially the first 15 minutes of the episode, which was replaced by the awkwardly-edited scene with Rick on the walkie-talkie. So, the first episode was chopped down to about a half-hour and combined with episode 2 to create the 90-minute season premiere.
- Wow, there were a lot of movie ads on tonight's show: Skyfall, Seven Psychopaths, Cloud Atlas, Paranormal Activity 4, and Alex Cross. Plus, we got zombie-themed ads for Microsoft Windows 8 (???) and RunForYourLives.com.
- Tonight's episode was brought to you by SMEAT!
- Let's talk about Talking Dead: CHRIS HARDWICK IS SHOUTING!!! OUCH!!! As much as I enjoy listening to his Nerdist podcasts, there is something as 'being too excited'. (Tonight's guests: showrunner/episode writer Glen Mazzara, and Michonne herself, Dania Gurira.)
- Next week: What to do with a victim like Herschel? Well, see for yourself, in AMC's preview clip for the next episode:
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