NOTE: Let’s be mindful of all the new viewers participating in this conversation and try not to spoil plot points taking place deep into the run of the comic series. Mild speculation is fine and encouraged, as well as talking about things that have happened in the comic up until the point they are at in the show, but don’t get too explicit with regard to future surprises. They will be deleted. Thanks!
“Triggerfinger”
or
“Street Surgery Almost Never Goes As Planned”
Last week Rick shot a couple of nice boys from Philly who just wanted to know where Rick and the gang lived and what supplies they had how many people were in their group. You know, normal, non-suspicious stuff like that.
Also, Lori crashed her car which is a problem because she got knocked unconscious, she’s bleeding, and she made a lot of noise. That’s like ringing the zombie dinner bell. As this week’s show opens up a zombie is attempting to get to to Lori by… eating through the windshield? Yikes. And I have to say, I’ve had some rough wake-ups in my life and that would rank right up there.
Roll credits!
Rick isn’t done shooting Dave and Tony from Philly, apparently, so he empties his revolver into their dead bodies. And that probably feels good but would have been a big problem if there were other boys from Philly outside the– hey, there are! Dave and Tony had friends and they think they heard shots so now it’s time for Rick, and Glen and Hershel to hide.
Meanwhile I’m betting Lori wishes she has a place to hide because the zombie has broken through the windshield. Instead of pulling out the gun she packed with her last week and shooting it in the face, there’s a bit of a struggle which ends with Lori triumphantly stabbing it in the eyeball with a screw driver. Triumph! Lori can now exit the vehicle and bask in her success… for 3.2 seconds until she’s set upon by another zombie. More struggling ensues until she frees herself via a hubcap to the head of the zombie. Lori crawls back in the car, retrieves her gun and blasts the second zombie in the head. Done and done.
Back at the house, the rest of the gang is starting to get worried because it’s dark now and Rick and Glenn haven’t come back from town. It’s a good thing this isn’t a horror movie or anything! They might as well sit down to a big family dinner and since neither Rick or Hershel are around, Shane gets to sit at the head of the table. it’s a short lived dinner, though, as soon as everyone realizes that Lori is missing.
Rick and Glen and Hershel are still holed up in the bar as Dave and Tony’s friends search the town VERY LOUDLY. Before the friends have a chance to storm the bar, Rick admits that he killed Dave and Tony. His bad, he says, but Dave and Tony did draw on them first. Makes sense, right? I’m sure they’ll listen to reas– nope, Dave and Tony’s friends are shooting up the bar from the outside. We’re officially in Butch and Sundance (and their drunk old friend) territory.
Carol finds Daryl and tells him that Lori is missing. Daryl chalks it up to her being an idiot. Plus, she asked him to go look for Rick and Daryl refused. (He HAD been gone for a whole ten minutes). Daryl is crotchety and refuses to help find Laurie. Shane grabs a gun and fires up an SUV and heads to town. It’s Ten Little Indians!
At the bar, Rick reloads his revolver and implores Dave and Tony’s friends to let them go because it’s not going to end well. Glen wonders how they ended up in Bolivia before shooting someone trying to break into the back door of the bar.
On the road to town, Shane comes upon Lori’s wreck. He finds the zombie bodies, but no Lori.
In the bar, Hershel moves to cover Glen in the back and almost gets himself shot because Glen is a might jumpy after killing a man. They make their move out into the alleyway to try to get to their car but it all goes a bit pear shaped when one of the Philly boys appears in the alley and shoots at Glen. Hershel drops the Philly boy with a well placed shot of his own, but doesn’t kill him. Instead, he lays there screaming and moaning while Glen huddles in the alley. The kid’s slipping into shock. There’s no time to dwell on the PTSD before Rick shows up and they both almost get shot by a Philly sniper. All this shooting and screaming is attracting zombies, so the Philly boys jump in their cars and take off, leaving behind the wounded guy in the alley and the sniper who caught his leg on a spiky fence trying to jump from the roof a small building. Zombies quickly descendent on the wounded guy in the alley and Rick, Hershel and Glen take this opportunity to debate leaving the Philly sniper behind, trying to rip him off the fence, or just shooting him. They opt for door number two and there is talk of hatchets, ligaments, and cauterizing and I just ate dinner so this isn’t going well for anybody. Making matters worse, there’s a whole horde of zombies coming at them. Hey, there’s nothing like a pressure filled street surgery to get the blood pumping! While Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man, readies his first incision, Rick and Glen do the zombie to ammo ratio math and realize they need to boogie out of there with a quickness. Hershel says he needs more time to cut, so Rick does what only Rick can do he shoots Hershel and the boy he forcefully rips the boy off the spike!
After the commercial break, Shane finds Lori out wandering the road all alone. He convinces her to come back to the house only when he lies and says that Rick and Glen have already returned safe and sound.
Carol shows up at the camp Daryl keeps outside of the house. There she finds Daryl’s collection of zombie ear necklaces and now the surprise is ruined. He was going to unveil those at the next county fair! She tries to make nice with Daryl but he lashes out and blames her for her daughter’s death. Despite that being an especially low blow, Carol doesn’t take the bate. He’s clearly lashing out at Carol because he feels guilty about Sophia’s death. It all comes to a head when Daryl gets especially loud in Carol’s face and she flinches waiting for a slap that never comes.
Lori and Shane arrive back at the house and it’s not 20 seconds before she finds out that Shane was lying. But she’s got bigger problems now because Shane accidentally lets slip that she is pregnant and now Carl knows he’s about to have a sibling. Ooops!
Andrea, and Dale sit in the living room while Lori and Carl talk awkwardly about the baby on the way. Shane shows up and makes things doubly awkward as he jokes with Carl about being a big brother. Lori wants no part of talking to Shane, but he wants to apologize for lying to her to get her back to the house. Everyone else gives them the room so they can argue some more. I kind of zone out until Lori brings up Otis and she asks him about that night. She says he hasn’t been the same since last night and he was a bastard before that. (Okay, I added that last part myself.) Shane doesn’t answer so Lori twists the knife and tells him that she told Rick that they slept together. This causes Shane to shame spiral into a verbal flailing session in which he displays some guilt about sleeping with his best friend’s wife while simultaneously trying to get her to admit that what they had was real. You’re embarrassing yourself, Shane.
The sunrises and there is still no sign of Rick, Glen, and Hershel which is a problem because the random blonde chick (Betty? Betsy? I’ve already forgotten) is still possibly dying. Andrea and Maggie have a heart to heart about Maggie’s family discovering her birth control pills during a trip home from college. Then they talk about Glen being a good guy. Dude’s going to get soooo laid when he gets back.
Shane, Daryl, T-Dogg (hey he’s still on the show!) and Andrea arm up to go find Rick, Glen, and Hershel. Dale doesn’t want Andrea to go because he doesn’t trust Shane. Andrea wants to go because not only does she like killing zombies, but she trusts Shane. Probably because of the road side sex they had. It’s all a moot point, however, when a truck pulls up and Rick, Glen, and Hershel hop out. The Philly sniper doesn’t hop out because of the whole mangled leg thing. Plus, he’s blindfolded. We learn the Philly sniper’s name is Randall because T-Dogg asks, “Who the hell is that?” I hope he says the same thing when he finds out about the random blonde girl.
Hershel conducts a quick surgery in the barn and now the great “What To Do With Randall” debate begins. Rick wants to patch him up and send him on his way. Shane wants him gone, now. Hershel wants Shane to shut up because he doesn’t like his face. Plus, the opening the barn full of zombie family members thing.
After the debate, Glen and Maggie talk privately. He tells Maggie that he froze up in the gun battle because she told him she loved him and now all he can think about is surviving and getting back to her. Maggie finds this incredibly attractive, but Glen feels incredible shame for letting the guys down in battle. Chicks, man.
Maggie confronts Hershel while he checks on the random blonde girl. She’s pissed because not only is he drinking again, but he left her in the house.
Outside the house, Andrea tells Shane that maybe he could catch more flies with honey around the camp, which basically implies that he’s an ass. Shane tells her that the two of them are the only ones who see the world as it really is and that maybe they should have left the group together when they had the chance.
In their tent outside the house, Rick and Lori very awkwardly change clothes because they’re both sore from car accidents and all night gun fights. Lori is worried about Shane. He won’t accept that the baby is (maybe) Rick’s, he’s scaring everyone in the camp, and Lori is pretty sure Shane killed Otis. Rick tries to tell Lori that he understands the desire to kill in order to protect those he loves, but Lori is having none of it. Lori whispers into Rick’s ear that Shane loves her, and her baby which he thinks is his, and she basically says that Shane’ll kill Rick if Rick doesn’t kill Shane first.
Rick gets that terrifying look on his face that usually means someone is about to get killed and it ‘ain’t gonna be Rick.
good episode. that part where the zombie is tearing its face off with the windshield trying to get to Lori…yeah that was gross. I turned to my wife and said “we really need to stop eating dinner during this show”
Rick emptied his revolver? I didn’t see it that way. I thought it was a reverse angle from outside recapping the fight.
Sooo Lori..she’s playing the sides here a bit. I was kinda surprised at the end, but at the same time, she’s totally right.
did anyone see the scene from next week during Comic Book Men? so i guess that next location is gonna happen. =)
Also, this episode contained one of my biggest movie/tv sound design pet peeves. When lori shot the zombie in the face with her revolver…they had a sound of a shell casing hitting the ground. That’s just bad attention to details. peeves me every time.
I REALLY dislike Lori. She is absolutely awful. Someone needs to give that bitch a hairband.
I’m also fairly annoyed that they mentioned a hatchet and we didn’t get to see Rick use it.
I enjoyed the episode, but I’m eager to see them move on from the farm.
“Someone needs to give that bitch a hairband.”–haha
i dislike Shane more at this point. He really needs to get over Lori and move on…but i suspect this is years of frustration at play.
If by “move on” you mean “die horrifically” , then I agree that Shane should move on.
I like the mention of the hatchet. I hope it’s foreshadowing.
Lori was Lady McBeth by the end there. Whispering in Ricks ear, it was very creepy
@Zeppo it reminded me a lot of the “conversations” Rick had Lori on the phone in the book.
Thanks for the recap! Excellent and fun reading as ever. Loved the Butch and Sundance reference. 🙂
Isn’t it about time that Lori asked her husband to kill her attempted rapist?
I hope that people from Philly aren’t too upset as being portrayed as complete douchebags…
One small correction though, Lori stabbed windshield zombie with the turn signal stalk off the steering column. But it doesn’t really make much of a difference, really.
And when are we going to find out what CDC guy whispered in Rick’s ear?? I am aware that this is my own ‘what’s in the closet Bendis’ problem.
ugh, one too many ‘really’s
**COMMENT MODERATED**
The prison era begins, can’t wait we; should meet some intresting characters and some pretty deep story lines with this. I still would not mind Carl icing Shane and pain in the as# Lori can’t get off’d soon enough for me.
This episode was very good just boarder lined on the old, nails on a chalk board feel for me. I want things to move a little faster then they were and I would have left the little bast#rd on the fence. Does Dale have the same lines every episode? “Andrea what are you doing, whats with you and Shane, blah, blah, blah. I really like Dale I just think he needs to be more active and not just there for everyone to piss on and not listen to his advice.
All in all a great episode, liked the windshield scene too, the skin peeling away gave it that real feel; well what you think would happen right? I try to look at the TV show and the comic book as seperate entities and believe me it helps.
K
@Flash923: Dude. Really? Watch the spoilerage.
I was just thinking about the CDC guy and that whisper. At the time I thought maybe he told Rick that
Lori was pregnant, but season 2 episode one ended that idea.
yeah i always thought it was much bigger and global than Lori being preggers. Something like “we’re all carrying the zombie gene” or something like that.
Time to play guess what the CDC guy whispered to Rick. Post your best guess/whacky madlib suggestion in this thread.
“You… have a really nice ass for a man.”
Got some minor issues with character motivation and artificial conflicts.
Lori going after Rick in a car is silly. Compound that with the a silly car crash. (even though it led to a cool tense action scene).
Hershell not running home to help his daughter does not fit with his character. He was also on the wrong side of the argument with Rick about saving the kid “stuck” on the fence.
I get that he has lost hope but the switch was too abrupt.
The characters also seem way too jaded way too early in the show in their dealings with the zombie world. Would Andrea really sit with the zombie bodies when there is a perfectly good seat in the cab of the truck?
I’m very sympathetic to Shane even though he is obviously dangerous. Only the audiences know what really happened to Otis and I don’t like that the characters seem to know too.
All minor things.
Loved the Western aspect of this episode.
do you really think they adjusted to the new world too quickly? I think they’ve all had to develop a thick skin in order to survive this long. Its almost like a war zone or natural disaster..by day two or three the chaos becomes normal….if you can’t adjust to it, then you most probably haven’t survived.
Yes.
I can see that being the case Wally.
Okay I admit that I don’t watch this series anymore. However, I got a funny little anecdote about this episode.
I was flipping around trying to find something on. I was about to hit AMC and I thought to myself ‘Okay watch like 5mins of it and see if its got any better. If it does, then see if you can stick for an entire episode.’ So I turn on the channel and what do I see? A man’s face being bitten off and he is screaming in agonizing pain! So I quickly turned the channel off, went to the bathroom, and waited to see if I was gonna throw up.
For the first time in a loooong time I almost got sick watching anything horror related. It almost topped the scene in Day of the Dead where a guy’s eyelid gets ripped off by a zombie….Just….just so wrong.
….And that’s my story. lol
I think its in the water supply. Besides Blonde girl doing the dishes when she went into her fever, look how much water has been featured on the last two edisodes.
I totally forgot about the Zombie spilling open in the well. It could be that, or just her going into shock after seeing her whole family murdered in front of her.
that was a seperate well.
I think that last look by Rick was less about Shane and more about why he has to put up with this succubus of a woman?!
LOL!
Ah, Lori, making friends…
I look forward to these recap posts almost as much as the show itself.
For some reason I wanted Robert Kirkman to replace the guy that had the shotgun on the floor. There wasn’t any face shots of the bigger Philly guy and it meant a cameo from Kirkman himself :D… but it wasn’t true.
With Randall’s appearance…..we all know where they’re going next! Love it, I still think they’re gonna save my favorite character for Season 3.
Woodbury…..I hate even the word.
While Shane is definitely the most dangerous of the survivors so far, I was definitely getting a major creepy vibe from Lori while she was whispering in Rick’s ear. Shane has certainly earned that kind of plotting and scheming behind his back but something about how Lori was going about it, brought a chill up my spine.
This one was decent. So far I’m liking this half of the season better than the first. Though I’m getting sick of the repetitive ethical debates. I know the book is full of them too, but when I read the book my imagination does the acting.
The scene with Randall’s leg was probably my favorite. I was sayin’ to my buddy “Fuck that. No time for surgery, just pull that leg right off the – oh, there ya go. Good man, Rick.”
Fun stuff.
Rick is kinda too naive! Lets cut his leg off, hope he doesn’t bleed out, survive the traumatic surgery, cauterize the wound, pray he doesn’t get an infection, hope he’s able to fend for himself/run away from the kabillion zombies and ohh, yeah after all this he might be looking for revenge on us.
Just shoot his ass!!!
the line of the Ep. was by Shane: “Why don’t we just get some flowers and chocolates for him too!!”