The Walking Dead - The Day After

"18 Miles Out"

We get our previouslies and see that pretty much everything was sucky last week and Lori, as my two English professor friends pointed out, turned into Lady MacBeth for a few minutes at the end.

We're at a school and Rick, Shane and a bound Randall are trying to get away from a herd of walkers.  We then cut to Shane and Rick in a car and on a quiet road.  They stop and Rick wants to talk.  He does get Shane to admit that he sacrificed Otis to save Carl.  Of course Shane still thinks it was a decision Rick couldn't have made. Around the back of the car and we see that they have Randall bound and blindfolded in the trunk.  Ok, so he's all fixed up and being taken away from the farm.  Now I'm caught up.

At Hershel's farm, Lori and Maggie are talking in the kitchen.  They seem to get along pretty well and that's nice.  Lori offers to take a tray of food to a less catatonic Beth who inquires as to how Lori could get pregnant.  Is she asking because she doesn't know how that works or why Lori would let it happen?  I'm guessing it's the latter.  Lori talks to her about how difficult it is to lose parents but Beth isn't hearing it.  When Lori takes her tray away she notices that the knife is missing so she goes back to Beth's room and gets it from her. 

Rick goes further than the 18 miles and winds up at a gated school.  He and Shane take a look around and decide to hone their knife skills on walkers they attract with their blood.  Rick seems to enjoy plunging his knife into their skulls which is effective and tends not to draw attention like gunshots do.  They take Randall out of the trunk and set him up to be left behind at this place.  As Rick and Shane are walking away Randall is giving it his best shot and shouting reasons why they shouldn't ditch him.  The one that gets their attention is that he remembers Maggie from school.  She wouldn't know him but he remembers her.  This upsets Rick and Shane because Randall must know where Maggie lives.  Uh, I went to a very small high school and have/had no idea where most of my schoolmates lived but whatever.  This of course prompts Shane and Rick to quarrel over what to do with Randall.  They brawl a bit and Shane even throws an effing wrench at Rick.  Their ruckus gets the attention of the walkers inside the building.  That's just great.

Maggie tries to talk some sense into Beth about not giving up, etc.  Meanwhile Andrea criticizes Lori for taking away the knife.  She goes on about if she wants to die she'll find a way, etc.  While I agree with her I don't think that equates to them handing over all their possible instruments of death. They get in each other's faces and while I see both sides to the argument I think Andrea is being a pain in the arse about it.  I could go on and on about this but I will spare you guys.  Andrea offers to sit with Beth to allow Maggie to get some rest.  Andrea's idea of helping is to open the door to the bathroom and leave Beth alone.  Before she leaves she says, "The pain doesn't go away.  You just make room for it."  True but not really helpful.

Poor Rick ends up under a walker pileup and has to shoot through a twice-dead walker to get to the once dead walker on top trying to bite his hands.  He gets free and finds Randall who has broken loose of his restraints and shot (multiple times) a lady-walker who could have been trouble.  Shane has managed to get himself stuck on a bus with a hoard of walkers at the front doors.  He can't lock the door in place and make it to the back in time so his only option is to open the doors slightly, rub some blood from a self-inflicted wound on his hand (from a knife he just used on a walker) onto the bus, and as they try to lick the blood, use the opportunity to work on his knife-to-skull skills. Rick and Randall get a look at Shane's situation AND. TOTALLY. LEAVE.  Wow.

Maggie checks on Beth who breaks the mirror and is assumed to be using the broken glass to cut herself.  Lori helps her break into the bathroom and they get to Beth in time.  It's noticed that Beth's cut didn't go too deep so she must have made the decision that she wanted to live.  Andrea takes this opportunity to be smug but Maggie's not having it and banishes her from the house.  In a slightly surprising turn, Lori agrees with Andrea about Beth choosing life but Andrea didn't hear that.  I'm guessing there will still be tons of animosity.

Back at the school Rick and Randall have happened back upon the two dead cops they noticed earlier (I think I forgot to mention these two).  Something flickers in Rick (perhaps memories of when he and Shane were cop buddies?) and he grabs their guns and ammo and goes back to get Shane.  They're successful but poor Randall ends up blindfolded and back in the trunk again.  Heh.  Shane and Rick have one last conversation where Rick urges Shane to drop the crazy, follow Rick's lead and trust him again.  I very much doubt Shane will be towing that line.

Interestingly we focused on very small groups tonight.  We kind of heard Hershel but didn't see him.  We had no Dale, Glenn, Darryl, Carl or Carol at all.  It was different but cool.  BTW, the actor who plays Hershel was on Talking Dead and shared that prior to getting the job on the show he and his 97 year old mother were big fans.  I LOVE THAT!  I hope I'm still watching zombie stuff when I'm old.  Of course that all depends on the zombie apocalypse not actually happening before then.