TV Recap: The Walking Dead – Secrets

In advance of next week’s midseason finale on AMC’s The Walking Dead, things really started to heat up this week, with a number of stories that viewers or longtime readers of the comic were waiting to see some movement on advancing to center stage.It begins quietly, with Carl finally out of bed and helping his mother feed the chickens on the Greene Farm. Their playful banter and good-natured ribbing is a welcome (if momentary) distraction from the existential crisis and sullen, staring expressions that have become the norm in the Grimes family this season. When they turn their back, Beth Greene takes a chicken, breaks its legs and then throws it into the barn where, at the end of last week’s episode, we saw dozens of roamers. The zombies swarm on the fresh meat, and our story picks up where last week’s left off, with Maggie begging Glenn to keep quiet about the secret of the Greene barn. This leads to a brief and awkward exchange with Dale and T-Dog back at the camp.In his tent, Andrea brings the recuperating Daryl a book to keep him occupied and apologizes for shooting him last week when she thought he was a roamer. He forgives her easily, warning her against shooting him again lest he take it personally.Around the fire, Glenn confronts Lori about having not yet told her husband that she’s pregnant. He wants her to take better care of herself and offers her his share of the food they’re eating. He asks her what she needs from him if he runs into town and she tells him she only needs him to keep quiet. Seems to be a recurring theme, poor guy.Shane, Rick and Jimmy are huddled around the map on the hood of the pickup when Glenn comes to bring them apples; again, there are a few awkward moments of silence before he moves along without telling them what’s on his mind.Patricia and Beth approach Rick about getting firearms training while Carl approaches Shane. Before he walks away, Shane catches him with a gun in his belt, leading to a roundtable discussion about whether or not he should have one. Ultimately Lori’s resolve weakens (even if her fears don’t) and she allows him to be trained.Before Shane and Rick take the whole crew off of the Greene property to learn, Glenn is caught by Dale in a lie when he declines to follow them so that Dale can teach him mechanics on the RV. Ultimately after trying to soft-pedal the secrets he’s keeping, he blurts both out in one sentence, leaving Dale a bit stunned.