Every once in a while, a piece of cinema or television comes along that hits that emotional string inside every one of us. It could be from two completely different movies; the closing scene of Saving Private Ryan, or Toy Story 3 for example. A successful film is able to hit this string buried deep inside of our soul, and when it's hit, it hurts.
Rick Grimes did that with his gun last night on the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead.
Last night, we were treated to one of the best hours of cinema in the last 5 years, and yes, it was on cable television.
"Guys, the barn's full of walkers". 6 words was all it took for Glenn to light the fuse that would inevitably lead us to the best fireworks display that television has seen in years. Granted, the 20 minutes or so after that were just transport to the more interesting bit, but they all served a purpose. To develop these characters more, as if this season hasn't done enough of that already. Shane and Rick are really starting to become deep characters in this show, we are starting to see what side this world brings out of them. They may have been partners and best friends before the world turned, but once the world changed so did they, they became two opposite people. This constant thirst for character development can only mean one thing. People are going to start to die, and its going to get violent.
I digress
Some would say that Shane melted down last night, I disagree. Shane made a decision last night, he wants to lead these people, and he wants to keep them safe. He isn't going to discuss killing the walkers in the barn, he is going to kill the walkers in the barn, and he's going to give a gun to every son of a bitch that agrees that in this world there is no safe haven unless you fight to make it so. He may have a brash way of making a point (shooting a walker repeatedly while Herschel holds onto it with a Steve Irwin stick) but he makes it nonetheless. He walks to the barn door with a pick axe and chops those locks off with deliberate force. And he stands back and lets hell rain down on every mother, father, sister, brother, son and yes even daughter that walks out of that barn, and as the dust settled, Shane and the rest of the group looked up to see Sophia walk out into the world on the opposite side. And instead of Shane walking up and putting one more exclamation point on his tirade, it's our quiet leader, with Sophia's mother crying for her daughter in the background, who makes the biggest statement of all. We are willing to fight for our own safety, even if that means doing what is hard, killing one of our own.
If Shane would have pulled that trigger it would have meant nothing. Rick proved himself with that bullet, he said to Herschel that these things aren't people anymore and we're not afraid to put down the ones we love when they are no longer the ones we loved. He then said to his group that after all of the searching and all of the persuading, I can still make decisions that need to be made. Maybe not as rough and off the cuff as Shane, but when it matters, I can pull that trigger.
This is where the writers showed their brilliance. Sophia wasn't valuable, she meant nothing to the group, her character was the least relevant in the whole show, she acted simply as a MacGuffin. A thumpin' good one at that. She made us sink our teeth into this story and wait and wait, hoping for a positive outcome. Her running off was the best thing that ever happened to The Walking Dead, she drove this entire story without being on screen for more than 5 minutes and she will continue to drive the story for the rest of the season. She influenced every decision made by the group. She helped make us fall in love with Darryl, and start to hate Shane. Hell, she got Glenn laid and Maggie in trouble. She killed Otis, she got Carl shot, and she broke Herschel as a man. If it wasn't for Sophia; little, insignificant, Sophia, the group would not be at that farm, and they might all be dead. Sophia became the best thing that ever happened to The Walking Dead and she didn't do a damn thing. That my friends is brilliant screenwriting.
Cheers to the writing staff for their show of brilliant emotional writing, they knew where to punch and they hit their mark. Right in the gut.
Cheers to the second half of the season, I'll see you all there!
-Tod
