31 Days of Halloween - Day 2: Catching up on Season 2 of The Walking Dead

Season Two poster

Last year during the first half of season 2 of The Walking Dead, I was pretty busy. I didn't watch as faithfully as I should have. Much of my knowledge of season 2 came from recaps and spoilers or disjointed viewings of episodes (as in, out of order.) I spent the bulk of my day starting early this morning watching all 13 episodes of the second season in order to prepare myself for the season 3 premiere. All I have to say is season 3 has a lot to live up to. Warning: spoilers below, so if you have yet to watch season 2, stop reading now!

There are a number of issues threatening the survivors in Season 2 starting with the disappearance of Carol Peletier's daughter Sophia. The search for her is one of the focal points of the first half of the season. The biggest danger to the group is that of Rick's best friend and second-in-command Shane. His desire for Lori and jealousy of Rick slowly but surely affects Shane's mind to the point where he becomes frightening to watch. The scene where he breaks open the barn of walkers to scare the group into standing up for themselves was brilliant. Shane displays just how truly unhinged he had become. Can you say cray-cray?!

The group cohesion starts to splinter as the season progresses. For the first time, they are forced to rely on outsiders and not just each other. The relationships and opinions with Hershel Greene and his family has both a positive and negative effect on the group. Glenn falls in love with Hershel's oldest daughter Maggie while Rick finds himself pandering to Hershel in an attempt to convince him to let the group stay on the Greene farm. Everyone has different opinions on each issue that threatens the group's survival (such as the Randall storyline) but nobody speaks up and just defers to Rick and Hershel. Dale was frequently the lone voice of reason, worrying that the group was "losing their humanity." Poor Dale died (horribly) believing the group was broken after the majority decision to execute prisoner Randall in order to keep him from reporting the location of the farm back to his own group.

The Randall drama is the first time where outsiders pose a potential threat to the group. It causes the survivors to reevaluate the world around them. Other survivors might share the same experience of being forced to live in this new, dangerous world, but that's about it. It touched on season three's tagline of "Fight the dead, fear the living." Randall's presence reminds the survivors that other groups might want to hurt them or take advantage. The revelation that the walkers aren't the only danger to their existence is the perfect lead-up to season 3.

Finally, the biggest bomb dropped during the season was the truth of the zombie virus: that everyone carries it. If you die by natural means, you'll reanimate into a walker. You don't have to be bitten or scratched by a zombie first. They briefly touched on this issue a few episodes before the big reveal during the season finale, but it was so unlikely that nobody thought twice of it. This adds a new element to the issues faced by the group, but I really don't believe it's as serious as everyone made it out to be. The group totally jumped down Rick's throat for not telling them sooner, but what would that have solved? It serves absolutely no purpose to know they are all infected except that they would have to put a bullet in the head of anyone who dies of a heart attack or something.

Now I REALLY can't wait for season three. Those external dangers are about to increase ten-fold with the introduction of the psychotic Governor. Should be awesome. 12 more days...