The Walking Dead - S03E02 Sick (2012)

Review

Rick barely has time to take in the five live prisoners who have been living in the mess hall before he is rushing Herschel back to their cell block to see if Carol, who has a little training from Herschel, can save his life. Carol tries to staunch the bleeding, apparently cauterisation would be too much for his heart, and is successful though admits she desperately needs medical supplies. Meanwhile Rick heads back to deal with the prisoners with the help of Daryl and T-Dog. They agree to help clear another cell block for the prisoners for half the remaining food supplies.

Daryl explains you need to kill a zombie by destroying the brain; naturally the prisoners don't listen and go full on prison riot as they attack a couple of zombies. Rick demonstrates the preferred method of dispatch and the combined group advances further into the prison. One of the prisoners, a huge black man naturally called Big Tiny tries to edge away but is scratched up by a zombie. Rick breaks the bad news, Tiny is dead man walking, and another prisoner Tomas whales into him with a metal rod killing the infected prisoner. Later as the group attempts an assault on the new cell block Rick has to deal with Tomas who has other plans for the prison.

The one thing missing from this episode was any update on Michonne and Andrea, so get ready to focus on events going down in the prison and nothing else. Got to say a lot went down this episode with Director Bill Gierhart keeping up the kinetic energy created in the first episode of the season Seed. Once again we have a rotting of zombies to deal with and some human danger sprinkled in to keep it all rocking.

They are really going hell for leather so far this season on the action front

Hershel's amputation immediately caused concern for the survivors as it appeared the old fella might not make it, which would be a shame as Hershel looks to be pretty much adopting Dale's roll of group consciousness. Glenn is given the task of doing the necessary if Hershel dies, the issue divides Maggie and Beth, Maggie wanting Hershel to go into that dark night while Beth isn't about to give up on him. Hershel's rehabilitation is going to be interesting, no he didn't die due to Lori taking swift and decisive action, and is one sub plot I'm going to be following with interest. With Hershel down for the count it looks like Carol is next cab off the rank to deliver Lori's baby. Carol confides in Glenn that Carl was delivered via c-section and believes the new baby will arrive the same way. She enlists the aid of Glenn in getting a walker in order for her to practise slicing and dicing. There was a completely different spin on this in the graphic novels by the way, but hey moving along like a conga line of asshats. Ominously someone is watching Carol from outside the prison fence as she begins her incision.

Late last season there was a hint that Rick was becoming more harden to the rigours of the new world, especially considering his decision to resolve the Shane issue in pretty graphic fashion. With Sick the new Rick is called upon to give a repeat performance. Tomas, who seems to be the quasi leader of the five man prisoner group, gives Rick no choice and joins Shane in Rick's personal tally count. Once again Rick gave Tomas every chance and once again Rick took decisive action when those chances were not taken, though it has to be admitted that Tomas as a character is painted pretty sparingly, the dude is simply evil. However Rick equally has little qualms in condemning Tomas' fellow conspirator Andrew to what we imagine will be a pretty intense last few minutes of life. Is Rick becoming Shane? I can't get passed the analogy, Rick as a law officer is probably the last person to take the law into his own hands but is force to do so by circumstances. However there is some redemption for Rick, he quite happily allows Oscar and Axel to live once he determines they had no part in Tomas' deception. Another point of intense interest is how Rick will develop this season, there's a lot more challenges on his immediate horizon.

Lori Grimes can't win a trick recently. I'm not as anti the character as the general consensus seems to be but can still see she is hard work. With Hershel in the balance Carl goes off on his own and discovers the infirmary, returning with needed bandages and medicines. Rather than praise the boy for taking a risk and perhaps ultimately saving Hershel, Lori lays into him about the risks involved. Lori remains ill equip to deal with the rigours of the new world order, something Carl is evolving in a rapid way to face. At the moment I can't quite figure out if I have missed something in Lori and Rick's relationship or the Producers of the show forgot a couple of scenes. Seems Rick is pissed with Lori, or at least remains remote from her, when did this happen as Rick seemed to have adjusted to the whole Shane thing pretty well last season?

Okay think I have the episode covered pretty much. I had noted with last week's episode that the zombies were starting to get real juicy, the trend continues in Sick. Carol gets her very own "geek" to practice on and the body is pretty desiccated. Without a degree in zombie anatomy I'm hedging my bets on the walking dead in this franchise slowly decaying and weathering away. For sure we now know they go into an almost trance like state if there is no food available and loud noise is like chum in the water to them, unfortunately for the survivors of the apocalypse there is no waiting them out even though that would seem the ideal solution. Hole up in the prison, lock it down, and in a year or so no more undead to deal with. The flaw of course being we know the zombie horde is strengthened each time a human dies, everyone has the virus ticking away inside them like a time bomb. I would imagine the solution is find a cure, an anti-virus, something to eradicate the threat once and for all. This could well be Kirkman's end game for the graphic novels, and would make a fitting conclusion to the television show. Let's hope that happy meal is years in the future, the television show at least keeps on rocking.

The episode took the five new characters introduced in the season premier and whittled them down to two, which is about enough new blood to keep things rocking without overwhelming us with new people to get to grips with. I am really into season three thus far, the action is far more kinetic than last year, the dangers lurking around every corner of the prison are keeping things tense, and the interactions are really developing the characters in interesting directions. I'm noting Beth Greene is getting increased screen time which probably indicates another major character isn't going to make it the final episode of the season. They killed off two majors last season, I'm expecting a repeat dose, who is going to live who is going to die? Must be how it felt watching those gladiator circuses in ancient Rome except we have Southern Americans rather than Christians and zombies instead of Lions. Am I having a great time with season 3, would a zombie bite you on the arse if you hung it out over the prison fence! Can't wait till the next episode, the Governor is coming, and then it's going to get real spicy. If you haven't dialled into this franchise yet, where do you live, Outer Mongolia? - then don't walk, run to get your zombie on.