TV Talk: THE WALKING DEAD 2.6 “Secrets”

Last week, Devin made the reasonable assumption that now that the secret of Hershel's Walker Barn Depot is out, the action was about to hit its climax. Instead, this week we got an hour of people talking to each other, yelling at each other and embracing each other. And the pointless, fruitless search for Stupid Sophie continues. Why doesn't Carol ever participate in this search? WHY? Is it simply to enrage me? Every week, she's sitting back at home base doing who knows what, popping up just when the search party returns so she can make a sad face before disappearing again until the next episode's sad face scene. It makes no sense that Carol wouldn't participate in the search for her own daughter. I hate to belabor this point every week, but I find such negligent writing enraging, unless the writers intend to portray Carol as a shiftless slacker and terrible mother.

This week, our intrepid band of travelers made absolutely no progress whatsoever. The episode is called "Secrets," and sure, all of the secrets are out, but nobody seems to care. Let's review. Glenn tells Maggie and Dale that Lori's pregnant. They both make it known to Lori immediately that they know her secret, and the only thing that happens is that Maggie goes bananas and judgmentally calls Lori's morning after pills "abortion pills," and now I hate her. Glenn knows about the walkers in the barn; he tells Dale, who tells Hershel that he knows; nothing happens with that, either. Rick finds out Lori's pregnant and does some yelling because she kept it from him, and then she tells him about sleeping with Shane and he says "Of course, I  know." And...that's about it.

There were a few interesting developments. I find Lori's struggle to decide whether to bring her baby into this grim world perfectly understandable and compelling. I loved every moment of Glenn this week. He may have no guile, but he has a world of heart. He deals with Lori in such a sensitive and compassionate way, never deigning to tell her what to do; he merely does his best to be supportive. While I don't love that the writers are making Maggie out to be this emotional trainwreck, always either fuming, crying or initiating sex instead of having rational conversations with people, I do appreciate how much she appreciates Glenn. I think he'd make a great leader, too. After last week, with Carol telling Daryl that he'd make a great leader, it does seem as though the show is headed toward some sort of Who's In Charge showdown, and I'd love to see that.

And speaking of showdowns, it was so fun watching Shane and Dale have it out this week. That's the only really juicy piece of action in "Secrets." Shane and Andrea finally got it on after shooting up some attacking walkers, and because Dale is apparently The Character Who Must Always Know Everything, he instantly figures it out when they dare to make eye contact in his presence. He tells Shane to take off, which is a really shitty move considering Shane is the best shot of the group and he's made a lot of sacrifices to protect everyone, but Dale sternly reminds Shane that he saw him point his gun at Rick last season. Shane retorts by balls-out threatening to murder Dale, and it's awesome. I'd love to say, "I can't wait to see what happens!" but knowing this show, nothing will probably happen until next season when someone randomly brings up this fight and we're all, "Oh right! I forgot about that."

Also interesting, considering a certain comic book plot: the fact that Carl wants Shane to teach him how to shoot.

I think all of the pieces are in place for this show to take a turn for the rad soon. I actually enjoyed this episode in spite of the wheel-spinning, because I love Glenn and Shane and because I feel that we're moments away from something big happening. But I keep thinking that--"next week, they'll wrap up this godforsaken Stupid Sophie plot line and break away from the farm and some of the boring characters will die and Merle will come back and stuff will happen!" and so far every week it's more of the same, more of the same, more of the same. But next week is the midseason finale, which ideally means some big, crazy shit will go down before the hiatus. If the search for Stupid Sophie lasts into the latter half of this season, so help me, I will find her and kill her myself.