Review

Our group of survivors are on the road again heading for Fort Benning, after discovering Atlanta is overrun and the CDC doesn't hold any answers they want to hear. Unfortunately they pick a freeway that stops them in their tracks with a multiple vehicle pileup. Much to Lori's protests they pick through the debris hoping for supplies, and start draining petrol tanks to replace their dwindling resources. Interestingly there are a whole bunch of dead bodies, ergo not everyone is returning as a zombie. The scavenging is interrupted by a mob of zombies that Andrea christens a "herd".

With zombie numbers dwindling Sophia panics and takes to the surrounding woods with a couple of walkers in hot pursuit. Rick flies to her rescue, get's her to hide, and manages to get the walkers to chase him. After taking care of the walkers Rick heads back only to discover Sophia has disappeared and has not returned to the group on the freeway. A search of the woods fails to find Sophia, but they discover other things, including one gross out moment. The episode concludes with a member of the group being shot by someone unseen.

The episode kicks off sometime after events in the final from last season and improbably begins with Rick phoning home, or Morgan as the case might be, from a high rise in downtown Atlanta. Why Rick actually needs to visit the zombie overrun City to make his phone call is never adequately explained, would have taken all of five minutes, and didn't get me rocking to the new season in good fashion. Little plot points that are at best meaningless and at worse bloody atrocious in their implications nearly always work against me digging the groove once again. It's been a year or so since we last climbed onboard the Rick Grimes survivor train, shouldn't they have kicked things off with something slightly more explosive? About the only thing the scene reminds us of, besides Morgan being out there somewhere with his son Duane, is that Doctor Jenna imparted some knowledge to Rick at the end of last season that we still don't know.

As the episode develops, and it surely does improve on the opening scene, we get the major conflicts within the group from last season being exposed, the ones that weren't resolved anyhow. Andrea is pissed at Dale for not allowing her to take Jenna's final solution, and is even more incensed when Dale, with Shane's support, keeps her gun from her. Andrea makes no bones of the fact it was her right to die in any manner she chooses, and points out Dale was selfish to take that option away from her. Damn, even with the zombie apocalypse going down the feminists are taking time out of the busy schedule of surviving to analysis stuff! Speaking of Shane, the thing with Lori is still weighing him down, and he goes to some length to keep Lori and Carl away, even so far as to planning to exit stage left and leave the group. Lori, who I've actually supported through the first season in the face of life inexperienced teens making stupid statements, throws up one of those objections to Shane's course of action that involves face palming and hoping a lurker might be in her near future. So hell yeah the drama is back in season two kids, which is pretty much what a zombie outing is about as opposed to what people might think.

Nice start to the season that gets us back into the groove without overloading our expectations

Naturally we do have zombies of course and associated gore trailing in their wake. If you are squeamish in any shape or form this episode isn't for you, it's up there with the bloody mayhem we got shown in Guts. We're talking a screwdriver repeatedly driven into a zombie's eye socket, and a sort of impromptu post mortem. Add in one character getting one hell of a cut to his forearm and of course the normal zombie takedown with a variety of sharp objects.

The major plot point of the episode is of course Sophia getting out of Dodge and into the woods. Guess she got a nasty surprise there as this girl has flown. But there are a couple of minor vibes going down that might indicate who's going to survive and who is a dead person walking, in a manner of speaking. Lori has major issues with looting, but then doesn't have any issue taking advantage of the haul; hello horror outing this Chick's days are numbered. Daryl on the other hand shows some compassion to T-Dog and Carol, I'm predicted a long run for one of the few television created characters in the show.

In one of those "where do I know him from" it's taken me just over a season to realise that Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) is the English actor I had seen previously in This Life and Teachers.

What Lies Ahead shattered cable broadcast records with a 7.3 million tune in during initial broadcasting in North America. Clearly the release of the first season DVDs built on the excellent audience of the first season pushing the show out to more homes. Word of mouth should build during the second season, with interest now centering on just how broad an audience The Walking Dead can accumulate from here. The franchise is a phenomenon we have not seen previously in horror.

Just before I write up my final thoughts, I mentioned during season one that the show has gone mainstream and "how freaking long before we have sparkling zombies being hit on by self centered teen chicks". Once again be careful what you wish for in horror, Warm Bodies hit that concept, except without the sparkling, frack me teenage chicks are gullible.

Anyways had a blast with What Lies Ahead and am ready to tune in for another engrossing season of post apocalyptic mayhem. Rick's going to have problems within the group and from outside antagonists as well. Can everyone keep it together, and just who was the gunman we didn't see? Recommended kids, and no you don't have to have seen season one to get your Walking Dead on, just pick up the rifle and run with it.