Welcome to Walking Dead Weekly! As the title implies, each week (bearing a new episode of course), we’ll be taking a look at the latest episode of the AMC series. I’ll let you know how I felt about each weekly offering, and will also compare it to what Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard were doing with the comic at the same time.

Last week’s premiere was an action-packed introduction to the venerable prison setting from the ongoing comic. That ~42 minutes must have had more zombie-slaying in it than the entirety of the second season, and I think I can speak for most of us when I say that it was a welcome deviation from what we had grown to expect.

Ratings fell slightly (13%) from the 10+ million viewer premiere, though the 9.5 million of you that tuned in still made The Walking Dead the most watched show all week. Sounds to me like you’re all infected with some sort of zombie-fever (let’s just hope it’s not the same one from the show!). I’d also like to welcome DISH subscribers back to the apocalypse, as this week AMC and DISH seemed to settle their dispute, and the network has already returned to the provider’s roster.

As usual, there will be plenty of spoilers below, so consider yourself warned!

Episode Thoughts – “Sick”

The closing moments of Seed were among the most intense that the show has offered thus far. Hershel receives an unexpected bite in a walker heavy area, which forces the group to push forward without the quiet calm they would typically progress with. Drastic times of course, call for drastic measures, and Rick (likely thinking only of the baby on the way) decided to remove Hershel’s leg in an attempt to save his life. The final seconds of the episode would shockingly (or not) reveal that the groups new home was not as empty as they had initially thought, as five of its previous inhabitants still resided there.

Sick thankfully opens right where last week’s cliffhanger left off. Each group looks confused at the presence of the other as Hershel bleeds-out all over the floor. Rick and friends rush to get Hershel back to the others, while the former inmates follow close behind, eager to see the other side of their newfound freedom. The scene closes with a close-up of Hershel’s now missing leg before cutting to the opening credits. Awesome.

Rick, Darryl, and T-Dog try to reason with the inmates (who state that it’s their prison since they were there first) while the others try to tend to a quickly fading Hershel. A very cool realization in this scene is the fact that none of the inmates have any idea what is going on in the outside world. While Rick’s gang has lost all hope for any sort of rescue,  the inmates still speak of hospitals and police. The realization wasn’t as effective as it could have been however: upon Rick explaining that everything was gone, that nearly everyone was (un)dead, none of the inmates seemed particularly bothered by it. Shouldn’t they be shitting their pants at the fact that the world they once knew is gone forever?

Things eventually cool down, and an agreement is established between the groups. The inmates would give half their remaining food to the hungry survivors, and Rick & friends would help clear out another cell block for the inmates to stay in. After that point they agreed to leave each other alone.

I feel like I need to talk about Tomas for a second. He quickly establishes himself as the leader of the prison inmates, and while his performance seems sometimes exaggerated, the dude is freaky as hell! He starts off simply looking intense, but when one of the other inmates is bitten, Tomas goes batshit crazy, furiously stabbing and beating his former friend, over and over until he dies. The look in his eyes here seems as though he’s thoroughly enjoying the experience too, like he’s been just waiting for an excuse to kill again.

I was very interested to see where the writers would take this character, but Tomas doesn’t end up lasting long. When Rick appears to be the source of Tomas’ aggression, Rick feels the need to kill Tomas before the same is done to him. While I was sad that we wouldn’t get to see more of the character, it really showed just how much Rick has changed during the course of the series: he definitely isn’t as soft as he used to be and is not willing to risk another Shane-like descent into madness. Rick kills another inmate before the interaction is over, showing that maybe he’s starting to lose it himself.

The rest of the episode largely revolves around Hershel, who appears to be ready to pass. Maggie seems to lose hope rather quickly that her father can pull through, while surprisingly Beth (who was ready to end it all just a short time ago) remains hopeful that her father could survive. A much more mature looking Carl puts it on himself to find medical supplies (in turn, likely saving the man that saved him last season), much to the dismay of fan-favorite (not) Lori, who scolds him for trying to go alone. It appears as though Hershel will pull through thanks to the mother and son, which is definitely good for the survivors (plus, they now know that if a bite can be removed quickly enough, survival is possible).

Sick does have a scene that definitely lives up to the episode’s title. In short, Carol doesn’t think that Hershel is going to make it, and that helping Lori give birth will fall to her. She has never performed a caesarean before, and would like to practice before the real thing. What happens next was absolutely disgusting (in the best way possible), and will definitely stick with me for some time.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy Sick as much as I did the previous episode. After a strong opening and a few other great scenes, this chapter’s purpose leaned more towards setting up things to come. I still had a blast with it however, and of course we’re still so early in the season that an episode to set things up was likely very necessary. It looks like shit is definitely about to go down based on the preview of next weeks episode. Again, I’m very glad to call myself a fan of The Walking Dead again, and the new season at this point is exponentially better than the last one.

Have a look at the preview for next weeks episode, and make sure to let us know what you think!

Comic Comparison

While last week’s premiere fit in very nicely with Issue 13 of The Walking Dead, Sick seems more like a loose amalgamation of the next few. Both media begin with an introduction to the inmates, but present them in a much different manner: while the shows inmate’s are introduced during a time of extreme crisis, the comic starts them off in a much friendlier way.

While the end of the episode would see three inmates dead, the comic took much longer for any of them to perish. Fittingly, Rick would do the deed both on paper and on the screen (though the comic would give him a much better reason to do so).

I wondered just how close the show would be able to follow at this point: Kirkman’s work featured a much larger group when the survivors arrived at the prison, and more than one of them would find themselves dead before many more issues passed. The subject matter in the comics is also much more disturbing at the start of the prison arc: it deals with a suicide pact between two young lovers and the brutal murder of two children. As much as TV viewers may love seeing zombies get blown to bits, I’m sure AMC would be receiving a few angry letters if young kids were thrown into the fold.

Issue 14 would also see Hershel, Glenn, and family return to the book due to Rick’s belief that the Prison would be a safe haven. While the show has him physically broken due to the bite on his leg, the comic has two of his children be the murder victims, an outcome that should be much harder on a man than a missing leg. Rick is the reason that Hershel came in the first place, and feels personally responsible for the children’s deaths.

Again, the episode overall strayed from what Robert Kirkman was doing with his storyline, but due to the book’s extremely graphic nature, I’m not sure that it could have been done any other way.

The book is fantastic at this point, as was the episode, and I’m happy.

Hopefully with the introduction of The Governor and Michonne’s continuing storyline, the fork that has been created will come together once more. In any case, if the rest of season 3 retains the quality of the first two episodes, it will by far be the best season yet!

See you next week!

Side note: if you’re not yet into the book, but want to be, take a look at the collector’s edition of Telltale’s adventure game version of The Walking Dead. It comes with the first 48 issues, as well as a game that is the best version of TWD yet!