WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for last night’s episode of The Walking Dead on AMC. While this column always features spoilers in the way of plot descriptions, this week’s recap features an image at the bottom of the story which pretty much gives away the ghost in one image. Don’t read, or even scroll through, if you don’t want to be spoiled. Also, don’t go to AMC’s website, where a similar image is featured on the front page.
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One of the guiding principles of Robert Kirkman’s brilliant comic book series The Walking Dead is that “no one is safe.” Characters who were beloved by fans and an important part of the series’ overall chemistry have been killed time and again, shocking and thrilling Kirkman’s readers. That anarchic spirit of exploration has carried over to the TV show, leaving us with a world where many comics readers find themselves uncomfortably unfamiliar with the stories of characters they’ve been reading for years. It’s one of the dynamics that makes the show work, because when a story so often relies on twists, surprises and shock to move the narrative along, even purists have to accept that it may be somewhat hobbled if a good chunk of the viewership knows ahead of time what will happen (see also: True Blood, where they stick closer to the central narrative of the Charlaine Harris novels but are by no means slaves to them).This week, the action opens on the survivors’ campsite while Shane and Carol watch as Andrea sharpens her knife. Everyone is quiet and miserable as Rick rejects Lori’s advances and Glenn stares longingly at Maggie, up on the farmhouse porch, out of reach. Finally he stands to address the group, dropping the bombshell that the barn is full of walkers and drawing Rick’s ire for making the announcement and violating Herschel’s trust. The group goes there to confirm it, and then to argue about strategy, with Shane breaking from the rest of the group. If they must abide by Herschel’s rules and cannot kill these walkers, he says, maybe it’s time to abandon hope for Sophia and move on to Fort Benning. This brings him into escalating conflict with the rest of the group and he almost comes to blows with Daryl before moving on to screaming at Rick and Dale. All the noise riles the walkers, who pound away at the inside of the chained-shut barn door. Alone, later, Shane returns to the barn to evaluate its security and, again, riles its occupants.At the chicken coop, Glenn tries to get Maggie to talk to him. She takes his hat, places an egg in it, crushes the egg against his head and leaves.At the campsite, Carl and Lori are studying together when he asks whether she thinks Sophia is dead. Carl tells her that he isn’t ready to give up on Sophia, and that even after she returns he wants to remain on the farm and make a home there. At the horse barn, Daryl and Carol discus whether he should head back out after Sophia. He wants to leave, but she tells him that he still needs to heal from his many injuries, and that there’s no guarantee that they’ll even find her daughter. This infuriates Daryl, who throws the saddle and reopens a wound before storming off.At the RV, Andrea tells Dale–who has just given his signature hat to Glenn–that she’s heading off into the woods with Rick to look for Sophia after Rick finishes talking with Herschel. Dale confronts Andrea about Shane, asking her if that’s what she wants to be. She says that Shane refuses to be a victim and that he needs to stop worrying about her. She leaves, and Dale seems shellshocked, asking Glenn to go get him some water.
