Review

Following Carl being shot in a hunting accident by Otis, Rick takes the boy in his arms and runs to Hershel's farm, the only hope Carl has of living. Shane drags Otis along after Rick as Hershel's make shift medical team swing into action. The bullet has fragmented into six pieces and Hershel desperately needs medical equipment in order to have any chance of a successful operation to remove the fragments. Shane and Otis head off to the local college were an emergency FEMA medical centre was setup during the zombie outbreak and Hershel's daughter Maggie saddles up to go get Lori, who is still unaware of the shooting incident.

Back in the woods the search for Sophia is proving fruitless with the team deciding to call it a night. Just as they start heading back Andrea is attacking by a decaying zombie but is saved by the arrival of Maggie with a swinging baseball bat. Lori heads back to the farm with Maggie, while the rest of the group head back to the highway. Seems T-Dog has blood poisoning from the gash he received on his arm during the zombie herd migration, Dale believes his only hope is anti-biotics. Just so happens Daryl can help there as his brother Merle pretty much carried a pharmacy with him. Shane and Otis discover the college is overrun by zombies and worse they are trapped by the rotting hordes. Time is running out for Carl.

Readers of the comics will of course be well aware of Hershel's farm and the major revelation toward the end of season two no doubt, but I for one was kind of excited to see it on the screen. All the family members were well cast for mine and the platform is set for season two in fairly impressive form. A haven that has escaped largely intact from the zombie apocalypse, could this be what Rick and his ragtag band have been looking for or will the decay hit the fan by season's end? I'm already looking forward to where they take this season.

The episode kicks off in highly dramatic fashion, well besides Rick's dash for help, with a flashback to the afternoon Rick was shot. Now that seems an age ago. Lori is talking to a friend about a few problems in the old marriage, seems Rick is slightly too conciliatory or something, when Shane drives up Police cruiser siren going and everything. Guess Shane wanted to ensure everyone knew there was trouble down the road. Lori has to tell Carl his dad has been shot and is fighting for his life. Interestingly, and going some further distance in explaining Lori's subsequently actions, Shane makes mention later to Rick that he was never meant to get out of hospital, i.e. Rick was dead man walking. Anyways this is juxtapositioned against the aftermath of Carl having been shot in an almost surreal dreamlike sequence. I was pretty darn impressed to be honest and was high five the people I have locked in the garage, because I'll need some zombie extras in due course, for sure.

The season is unfolding with some surprising plot twists to keep things rocking along

While the episode focuses on the efforts to keep Carl alive there are a few other things going down, and yes time is also taken to ensure we are aware the zombie menace is ever present. However they did drop the ball slightly on the search for Sophia, remembering this episode is set directly after events in the season opening. Seems Sophia is no longer the driving focus of our hearty band of survivors, even Carol seems to adopt a "whatever" attitude when they decide to call the search off for another day. All I'm saying here is that there is a distinct dropping off in the feeling of time running out, of throwing all their limited resources into the search, of giving up now that something else has cropped up. No doubt we'll revisit Sophia by the end of the season, but I distinctly noted a pretty poor effort in consigning the plot arc to secondary importance in the face of the latest Grimes issue.

Shane and Otis trying to salvage some needed medical equipment from a zombie overrun College is clearly going to take some focus next episode, but well set up and left on a knife edge in terms of outcome in an example of excellent television tension building. Speaking of zombies Andrea has a close shave, which should have linked back to her confrontation with Dale last episode but which doesn't as scribe Glen Mazzara completely misses the inherent opportunities. What I did want to say, and it's divergent, is nice zombie development in The Walking Dead. The ghouls in this show are starting to exhibit some real wear and tear; decay is an ever present factor. Nice to see this angle, 28 Days Later is about the only other zombie outing that postulates that deterioration would be ongoing in the re-animated corpses, not a sort of state of balance as the "correct" degree of grossness is achieved. Actually if they want to run The Walking Dead down they could eventually have the zombies simply dissolving and no longer being an issue in a few seasons time. Of course readers of the comic are well ahead of the game here, the zombie menace is never going to be finished while humans still survive. No spoilers kids, you are going to have to keep on keeping on to discover the meaning there.

Almost out of room here, would just like to conclude with a reason for the T-Dog interlude that seemingly comes out of nowhere and is pretty much resolved without fanfare. The Dog is suffering from blood poisoning and points out to Dale that they have been left behind as they are the weakest members of the group, T-Dog even goes so far as to mention Shane, Rick, and the other rednecks. Relief is at hand however via Daryl having some medication stashed away; clearly the whole thing is meant as building up this character, one of the few television created ones, for a bigger role in subsequent episodes. Nice touch, I was certainly rocking out to it as Daryl is one of my favourite characters, hopefully being singled out from the group for a longer run.

Bloodletting, don't these episodes just spell out the themes - in a sort of read between the lines fashion, managed a 6.7 million audience on initial broadcast. The result is down on the season opener, which is to be expected, but still shows a solid enough support base going into the second season. What is interesting is that the tune in is far more than horror fans can account for, indicating the trials and tribulations of team Grimes is achieving an audience impact in the mainstream. I would imagine the aim would be to keep the audience above 6 million for each episode of season two and hopefully build on that figure with an eye to season three and the future.

So I was rocking out to the episode, it's building the tension slowly going forward but adding the necessary zombie elements to keep things interesting. The conflicts and dramas are well established and the new characters are interesting. Not an episode that will stand alone, you need to know the characters and a lot of the references they make, but for fans of The Walking Dead a good episode that moves plot points forward and adds the focus for the season. Recommended kids, if you surprisingly haven't dialled into The Walking Dead yet then Bloodletting isn't the place to start, catch up with the previous episodes and then slurp up with this one.