RECAP: ‘The Walking Dead’ – S02E06 – “Secrets”

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!


“Secrets”

or

“SECRETS”

Carl and Lori feed some chickens because, just like your mama told you, those chickens are not going to feed themselves. While they go about their feeding, some random chick grabs a chicken, takes it to a shed, breaks its leg, puts it in a bag with other chickens, spots the horse that Daryl stole last week as it makes its triumphant return home, wheels the chicken to the barn, and then dumps the bag full of leg broken chickens into the zombie-filled barn. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that working a farm is easy.

Roll credits!

Glenn watches the barn through binoculars because he knows about the zombies inside. Maggie wants him to keep his mouth shut and bribes him with fruit and jerky. Sex would be a lot more effective, Maggie. Glenn worries that he won’t be able to keep this SECRET from the rest of his group because he’s a terrible liar. Which he then proves by not being able to handle a “‘Sup?” from T-Dogg. Oh, Glenn.

Andrea brings Daryl a book without pictures to read while he recovers from having been grazed by her bullet. He’s cool with it and harbors no grudge. But if she shoots him again, then they’re going to have a problem.

Glenn drops some more guilt on Lori for not having told Rick that she’s pregnant. Glenn is really being weird and intrusive about this whole thing. It’s kind of uncomfortable.

Rick, Shane, and Jimmy plan for yet another search for Sophia. At this point I’m just praying she’s zombie food so we can all move on. Glenn brings them food and it’s super awkward because he knows two SECRETS and can barely contain himself. Glenn leaves before he blurts out everything just in time for two random blonde chicks– is Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man growing these people in a lab?–to show up and demand firearm training.

Carl wants firearm training too! In fact, he’s already acquired himself a pistol, which he keeps tucked in his waistband. For some reason, Lori is not happy about this. Rick thinks that maybe it’s time to teach him how to use a gun but Lori is not going for this at all, considering he was shot just five episodes ago. Lori loses the argument and agrees to let Shane instruct Carl in proper gun usage.

Glenn begs out of firearm training, claiming that he has to help Dale fix things. By “help Dale fix things” what he really means is spill all his SECRETS to Dale after very little prompting. Now Dale knows that there are zombies in the barn and that Lori is pregnant. I’m betting that he is going to see one as slightly higher on the “things we need to worry about” scale.

Time to learn how to shoot guns! It would appear that there is both an endless supply of bullets and glass bottles because a lot of both are being used for firearms practice. Shane and the gang train Andrea and Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man’s people how to shoot. And despite only grazing Daryl last week, it turns out that Andrea is a crack shot.

Dale confronts Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man about the zombies in the barn. Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man tells Dale that he considers the zombies to be people and the violence against them to be atrocities. Dale says he’s a little bit crazy if he thinks that zombies are people. Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man says that his wife and stepson are among zombies in the barn and that they most certainly still are people. Dale is a little bit horrified but offers to talk to Rick to prevent this situation from going exactly how it’s going to go when people find out. Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man declines the offer but asks Dale to keep it a SECRET.

While he’s working on repairing a barbed wire fence, Lori thanks Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man for his hospitality but he says it’s no big deal. Besides, they’re leaving soon, right? Right??

Andrea attends Shane’s advanced firearms class where she can’t seem to hit a moving target to save her life. The moving target that Shane has set up is a chunk of log swinging from a tree. Shane is part Ewok. Shane tries to teach Andrea how to shoot better by badgering her at the top of his lungs. This does not work. Instead of shooting Shane like I hope she would, Andrea storms off.

Lori confronts Rick about Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man’s expectation that they’ll all be moving on soon. This place is great! There’s food! Shelter! Zombies locked up in a barn! Wait, they don’t know about that last one yet. Once they do, I’m sure that moving on won’t seem like such a bad idea.

Andrea is stomping down a road and Shane catches up to her in a car. She refuses a lift back to the house. Shane pulls over and apologizes for going too far in trying to rattle her. He offers to let her come with him to look for Sophia, which is what Andrea has wanted for so long. I DON’T LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING.

Back at the house Dale grills up some food but Lori isn’t partaking. But now Dale knows her SECRET pregnancy so he sets about giving her some fatherly council. It has to do with pregnant women not liking the smell of cooking meat. Now I just want some cooked meat. Anyway, Lori unloads emotionally on Dale. She hasn’t told Rick because she feels guilty about her SECRET sex with Shane. There’s also the whole having a baby in a zombie apocalypse world thing that has Lori a bit freaked out.

Lori asks Glenn to go into town to get her some more medicine. She’s okay that he told Dale her SECRET and gives him an extra long hug. Ladies love Glenn.

Glenn and Maggie head out on horseback to fetch some medicine from the town. Glenn tries to talk to Maggie but is met with stony silence. Man, Glenn didn’t even get the three month new relationship grace period where it’s all just talking and sex and killing zombies. Poor Glenn. As it turns out, Maggie is a mite pissed that Glenn told Dale the SECRET about the zombies in the barn because Dale told Dr. Hershel, Medicine Man who in turn got mad at Maggie even though Glenn stumbled on those zombie all by himself. Glenn tries to get Maggie to understand that the zombies are undead monsters and not her friends and family. Maggie’s having none of that.

While looking for Lori’s SECRET pregnancy medicine at the pharmacy, Maggie gets attacked by a zombie. Before it can have Maggie for lunch, Glenn swoops in (quite literally) and almost takes its head off with a shelf from the store. But “almost” only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and the zombie lurches back to its feet with its head barely attached which forces Glenn to engage is some pretty gruesome zombie skull bashing. Does Maggie see the truth about the zombies now?

Maggie and Glenn arrive back at the house and Maggie is… well, she’s a bit perturbed at Lori for sending them out for supplies, including her SECRET request: morning after pills. Awkward. Glenn confronts Maggie about her outburst. but she manages to turn it around by complimenting Glenn and telling him that she sees that he’s a smart and brave leader and that Rick and the gang only see him as zombie bait, someone to send into town for supplies or into a well to snag a zombie.

In a nice suburban neighborhood, Shane and Andrea are engaging in a house-to-house search for Sophia. They find a house chock-a-block full of dead bodies where apparently people tried to make a stand against the zombies and didn’t quite make it. There might be two new bodies to add to the mix because suddenly there are zombies… everywhere! They bust in through the garage door and flush Shane and Andrea out onto the street where it’s just zombies as far as the eye can see. Shane and Andrea work on clearing a path to their car but Andrea is still having trouble hitting those moving targets. Andrea’s gun jams and a zombie is almost upon her! Shane, after he probably briefly considers shooting Andrea in the leg, talks her through unjamming her mental block gun and she shoots the approaching zombie. Her mental block gun clear, Andrea is now a dead eye, dropping zombies like they are going out of style.

Back at the camp, Lori and Glenn chat a bit. Lori apologizes for sending Glenn to get her pills and for putting Maggie in danger. Glenn asks about the morning after pills considering that it’s been many, many mornings after. Neither Lori nor Glenn knows if they’ll actually work so he gives her some prenatal vitamins just in case she changes her mind.

On the car ride back to the house, Andrea seems in rather good spirits and gropes at Shane’s manly bits while he drives. Shane pulls over and it’s time for car sex AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE I’VE FEARED THIS WOULD GO FOR WEEKS NOW.

Lori has apparently made up her mind and she takes the morning after pills. But then she freaks out and runs into the woods and forces herself to vomit them back up.

Shane and Andrea return to the house and have to report the sad news to Carol that there was no sign of Sophia. I’ll tell you what there was a sign of: hot car sex. Andrea’s got mussed hair and an “I’ve Got a SECRET” grin that is as clear as day. Dale might be old, but he knows what’s up. He tells Shane to gas up his ride and leave the group. He’s going to ruin everything. Dale tells Shane that he’s suspicious of what happened with Otis and reminds Shane that he saw him almost shoot Rick in the woods. Dale sees Shane for what he really is! Shane then basically tells Dale that if he almost killed his best friend Rick then he’ll have no problems killing an old man that he doesn’t even like.

Rick returns to his tent and find the empty morning after pill packet. He’s a bit floored by the discovery. He finds Lori sitting in a field and confronts her about the pills. She confirms she’s pregnant and then tells him that she threw up the pills. They have a heartfelt argument/discussion about having a baby in such a fucked up world. Rick tells Lori that he can’t live with all these SECRETS and asks her if she has any more that she’s like to share. She tells Rick that she slept with Shane and he tells her that he had already figured that out.

No one in this group is good at keeping SECRETS.

Comments

  1. I liked the episode overall. I’m hoping next week has some epic ‘holy crap’ moments.

    Endless Ammo! seriously that is one of the things that always kinda gets me, but i guess is just suspension of disbelief thing. When they are fighting zombies, its “i’m down to my last 2 rounds” but when its down time they have crates of Ammo for dozens of different calibur’s of weapons. *shurg*

    The thing about Maggie is, in this episode she’s singing the company line about the walkers being real people, but when we first met her, she has no problem playing polo with Zombie heads to save complete strangers. Thats a bit odd.

    Also, when they were searching that housing development they looked through one house and decided Sophia never came through there. I dunno, did they just assume because it was swarming she would have stayed away?

    • I was thinking about it and I think Maggie is trying to stay even; she’s trying to respect and uphold her father’s ideals but still acknowledges the danger and uses non-lethal force when necessary. She didn’t kill that walker, she only smacked it off of Andrea and she was horrified when T-Dogg killed that well walker.

      As far as the housing development, I think that house was actually the last one they searched because Shane basically said let’s start at the end of the street and work our way back to the car. Their car was right outside the house they ran out of. I agree though, it was a little confusing the way it was filmed.

    • Yeah i heard that too. I guess they cleared 20+ houses off camera? It was a bit confusing editing that way.

      I’m sure maggie is conflicted. That deep routed “honor your father and mother, respect the wisdom of your elders” type of morals with what she sees with her own eyes. I wouldn’t say taking a swing at someone’s head with a baseball bat on galloping horseback is “non lethal” but hey whatever works! =p

      As far as the guns go…i was just thinking about it more. In the firing line alone we see 4-5 different pistol caliber’s and if you include the rifles that gets up to 6 and 7. All ammo in one duffle, and most all civilian arms, which is funny cause they mostly came from a police locker. I dunno, crazy TV stuff that way.

  2. Fantastic review. I stumbled upon the previous season 2 episode reviews (and related comments) last week and now I look forward to reading them on Mondays as much as I look forward to new episodes on Sundays.

    The “Shane, after he probably briefly considers shooting Andrea in the leg…” bit caused some potential coffee-spit damage to my monitors…

  3. During the two separate “they’re just sick people” arguments, I’m surprised that Dale/Glenn didn’t mention to Herschel/Maggie that they just came from the CDC and walkers are not people anymore, that they are very much dead.

    Although, I think after Maggie’s recent encounter at the sex pharmacy, she probably sees things a little differently.

  4. This was the first episode of the season that did not bore the hell out of me. I was getting ready to write the show off, and halfway through, I was thinking, ‘great, the show seems to have gotten its legs back under it.’ Then the end scene happened. Ugh. I am not a fan of what the writers have done to Lori.

    Did anyone watch Friday Night Lights? This Sophia crap is just like the rape story line from season two. Just dragging everything down with it.

  5. The search for Sophia is dragging on waay too long. It’s taking up a ton of screen time that’s far less interesting than the various dramas going on at the farm, for a character who had like six minutes of screen time.

    Maggie’s lecture of Glenn about how he could be leader makes me worried they might start forcing some conflict there, and maybe they’re looking to turn one of the few likable characters unlikable.

    • I have a feeling that the Sophia search is now going to last the entire season. it’s going to be the thread used for all the episodes leading up to the finale. Probably not the best decision in my opinion, but if they haven’t found her yet, i don’t think they will until the very last few eps

  6. Wasn’t a bad ep, but they can’t seem to go one whole episode without having one scene that bothers me. The Dale/Shane scene was pretty rough and honestly felt like it came out of nowhere. Now all of a sudden Dale suspects Shane of shooting Otis? Dale’s acting in that scene was also pretty brutal. :S

  7. Yes, I “get” that this is a fantasy show about the dead reanimated…but Sophie surviving in the wild for even three episodes, much less the entire season, really breaks any sense of realism the show is trying to maintain.

    • Unless they’re turning her into the kid from Hatchet. Crossover!

    • We don’t even know if she HAS survived. And if she has, we have no idea about the circumstances. It’s a bit early to judge the realism of the event.

    • If they use her missing as a plot thread for the entire season and she’s been dead the whole time, it’s a letdown. If she’s managed to survive, short of another group of adults picking her up and taking care of her, it’s ridiculous. That’s all I’m sayin’.

    • Kids have a will to survive and she know to run and hide. It would not be so ridiculous if she survived on her own, it would be a bit of a bore. WHAT I have been on the run and lost but fine glad to see you, no that would not work.

  8. The best one on the second the season and the first one that didn’t bore me to death. Finally the minor characters are appearing and things are getting less moralistic.

  9. Who’s ready to see Carl shoot Shane in the neck? I am.

    • I’m starting to wonder if shane is going to become the protector of the group, the guy who gets the stuff done that needs to get done, kinda like wolverine.

  10. I’m glad Andrea is progressing to her role in the comic book, but the whole Shane involovement is really scratching at me. My hypothesis was that the doc from season 1 whispered in Rick’s ear that Lori is pregnant, but I’m not quite so sure now.

    • Damn. Forgot about that. Now I wonder what was whispered in his ear too!

    • I tottaly for got about that whole thing. I really hope that wasn’t a waste, or that someone forgotten.

    • I figured Rick learned Lori was pregnant. And that’s the undercurrent of all of Rick and Lori’s arguments this season about letting Carl just die versus saving him and raising him in this world. But he didn’t acknowledge already knowing about it. Don’t know now…

    • He actually whispered “I’m not wearing underpants”. That’s why Rick wanted OUT of there on the double.

    • I think we should all post our guesses about the whisper here. Seriously, funny, whatever. I’ll start.

      “Dale likes Andrea, pass it on.”

  11. This was probably the best episode this season.

  12. Dale’s getting a little annoying. He confronts everybody of every secret that is told through this episode. If I ever find myself in this kind of apocalyptic setting, I’ll know not to trust the old guy with the secrets. It’s like you can’t have some car sex without an old guy snooping around…

  13. Goddammit now i really have no idea what that dude at the CDC could have whispered in ricks ear

  14. MAJOR SPOILER for next week in the below link. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

    http://i.imgur.com/vPh4Z.jpg

  15. I found it funny that this and Young Justice had the same episode title on the same weekend.

  16. So who is still mowing the lawns in that zombie-infested suburb? Shouldn’t they have been overgrown by now?

    Can I get a trained zombie to mow mine? That would be sweet.