“We can’t run around these woods chasing echoes.” – Daryl
During the first half of watching “Bloodletting,” I was a little nervous.
That familiar feeling of disappointment with a shot of boredom began creeping back into my psyche. Could the second season of The Walking Dead be following the same trajectory as the first – a good first episode, followed by a string of mediocre to sub-par episodes?
As I’ve stated before, The Walking Dead is at its best when the dialogue is kept to a minimum and the zombie-related badassery is maxed the eff out! The first half of “Bloodletting” was a little too talky for my taste (at least when it comes to this show). For a good 35 minutes there was nary a zombie in sight.
Most of the beginning of the episode deals with the aftermath of last week’s cliffhanger. We find out who shot Carl (Chandler Riggs): a hunter named Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince). Otis was so focused on killing the deer in his sights, he didn’t notice the boy standing behind the buck. Otis takes the injured boy, as well as Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Shane (Jon Bernthal) to a nearby farmhouse. At the house, we meet another group of survivors, which includes a doctor named Herschel (Scott Wilson). Well, actually he’s a veterinarian, but in a zombie apocalypse beggars can’t be choosers.
Luckily for Carl, Dr. Herschel thinks he can save the boy if he is able to remove all of the bullet fragments from his torso. Also luckily for Carl, he and Rick share the same blood type, so new blood can be pumped in to replace the stuff lost in surgery. The fact that Rick is on blood duty and thus can’t leave the makeshift operating room, pretty much takes him out of the remainder of the episode. The main dramatic thrust of these scenes is based around whether or not Carl is going to die. But, as a viewer, we pretty much know that Carl will pull through. So a lot of the tension is diffused. If Carl were to die, though, it might be a benefit to the show over the long term. It would prove that The Walking Dead isn’t afraid to pull any punches; anyone can die at any time.
It’s no surprise that “Bloodletting” picks up steam in the second half, as the action moves away from Carl and Rick and back towards the zombies. Shane and Otis volunteer to go on a supply run to a local FEMA shelter. Like most buildings in the area, the shelter is overrun by zombies. They successfully distract the walkers with road flares, make it inside the building and grab the supplies. Getting out, however, becomes a little trickier. The last we see of Shane and Otis, they are barricaded behind a fence with the dozens of zombie hands reaching in for them.
Some stats and info about The Walking Dead, “Bloodletting”
TV SHOW – The Walking Dead
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 22
AIRED ON – October 23rd, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – AMC
GENRE – Horror, Drama, Zombies, Thriller
CREATED BY – Frank Darabont
CAST – Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Christian Serratos, Josh McDermitt, Danai Guria, Seth Gilliam, Andrew Lincoln, Ross Marquand, Chandler Riggs
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.