“Nebraska” picked up literally just seconds where we had left off in the previous episode where Rick had just put a fatal bullet in a zombiefied Sophia. It was considerate of the writers to start us here, because who wanted to miss a second of all of that chaos?

The Walking Dead Review “Nebraska”

The scene we opened with was a minefield of emotions. Do you let grief soar through you as you feel bad for Sophia’s Mom and everyone else who’d had hope that Sophia would be alive? (Oh, Daryl!) Or do you first focus on how everyone from Hershel’s camp had kept the walkers where and they may have known Sophia was in there? Or do you try to walk the line of understanding that Shane “killed” those walkers, and has upset Hershel as badly as if Shane had killed real, live people? As the quiet, almost unnervingly sleepy country background pulled away, tensions and accusations came to the forefront. These were powerful moments.

Another powerful revealing moment was when Dale let Lori know that he believed Shane had killed (or “sacrificed”) Otis. Not just that, but Dale believes Shane will kill again. And in light of Shane making the choice to pull open the barn (which was reckless, thoughtless and a whole lot of other things that generally make him an ass) it seems he’s unstable and Lori sure as hell doesn’t trust him. But how can they get Shane (who once wanted to leave) to abandon the camp now?

Lori has gotten herself in some trouble by taking a car and managing to get into an accident even though there’s no other cars on the road. To be fair, there are walkers and one did get in her way. It seemed so predictable for it to happen, but it also seems predictable that she’ll end up okay. The most “fun” thing the plot could do would be to kill her off after we feel safe.

Of course, the death of Lori would only depress everyone more, and we’re already running on an empty tank when it comes to hope. With most people in America (maybe the world) infected, how long can everyone hold out and be safe before they all succumb to the same dismal, ugly fate?

But, if the car accident was a bit predictable, the scene with the two strangers was not. (Unless you read the comics, who knows what all is in there. Shh, spoilers!) Although these two always seemed to have kind of a bad vibe, it seemed all kinds of ironic that Rick would be the first to turn them away and say they couldn’t go to the farm. Hershel had felt the exact same way about Rick and his camp, and wanted them to leave. But when Rick defended Hershel’s farm, that probably bought him a lot of points.

While Lori talks about how Rick is a good man and Carl needs him to look up to, Rick did a pretty heartless thing in killing those two guys who were just hoping to find a sanctuary for their own loved ones. If you were in a apocalyptic situation like this, wouldn’t you want to group together with all other humans rather than make everyone fend for themselves?

With that in mind, my final review question is simply: Should Rick have shot those two guys or was that unnecessary?

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