Opening this week's episode was a nice flashback that further explained how everything went down with Shane regarding leaving Rick behind. It was an exciting start that showed the military partaking in horrible damage control as they tried to keep the hospital quarantined by killing many infected. We learn that Shane did in fact believe Rick was dead, after not hearing his heartbeat. It helped add even more humanity to the great character that Shane is. Things pick up where the last episode ended with the group being let in to the CDC (Center for Disease Control).
The new environment helped keep things exciting for me as you see the group finally able to enjoy some down time. But that excitement dies down the following day when the scientist, Jenner decides to show them some footage of a test subject. Basically, it's the evolution of someone who is infected and it just came off as extremely tedious. Finding out that the test subject was his wife tries its best to add some weight to it, to mixed results. Our survivors soon find out that the facility is going to shut down and decontamination will commence destroying everything and everyone in CDC. Obviously, this was there to put the group in peril but it just felt manufactured. Jenner knew this was going to happen, yet he still decided to let them into the facility. They try to give him a reason by having him express that the world is over and there's no hope left. But, it just came off as incredibly bad writing. It was just a case of poor character motivation, in my mind.
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| Just wasn't interesting. |
Rick eventually convinces Jenner to open the door exlaining that he knows the world is bleak but all he wants is a chance. Jacqui decides to stay as she doesn't want to face what's out there. It was a powerful character moment in an episode that was lacking. Andrea decides to stay too but Dale, stubbornly, convinces her to leave and the episode ends with everyone escaping minus Jenner and Jacqui.
The shortness of The Walking Dead's first season helped caused many issues regarding pacing. On top of its rushed nature, the writing throughout the series was severely lacking. Aside from Shane, I can't name a single compelling character on the show. Rick has his moments and so does Dale and Andrea but their character development just feels lacking.
The first 20 minutes or so of this episode really kept me entertained. It was nice to see the characters in a new setting but all that was squandered by the end. The writing just isn't getting the job done. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this first season. It had a great pilot episode and episode 3 was also excellent but everything else was just good, not great. With a 13 episode second season, hopefully they'll be able to take the time to craft characters in a more subtle and convincing way.
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