The Walking Dead Season 2 Discussion *Spoilers*

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by PsychoPere, Oct 14, 2011.

  1. Borgminister

    Borgminister Admiral Moderator

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    Why? Sushi?
     
  2. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Whoa! Shane threw Otis under the bus? This I've got to see.

    Unfortunately, I do not. It was just a quote they threw up on the screen. I'll go back to my tape and see if they give a reference and post it tonight if they do.
     
  3. Vendikarr

    Vendikarr Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think what it came down to for Shane is that taking the chance to save Carl was more important to him than the life of the man who shot Carl. Otis kept saying he was trying to do right by Carl. So Shane made sure Otis paid that debt.

    And in the back of Shane's mind, not that he would be ready to admit it, he wanted to be Lori's hero. The problem is Shane is basically a good man, and now he will have to figure out if he can live with his decision.
     
  4. Borgminister

    Borgminister Admiral Moderator

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    They could've actually gone the 'easy' way out and have Otis be the 'hero' by sacrificing himself for the boy. It was an interesting decision to have it be decided for him by Shane. Definitely a WTF moment.
     
  5. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    What did they tell whatsherface when Shane got back without Otis? Did she just assume he was there or did they lie about his whereabouts? Something about that part didn't ring true. And speaking of Shane cutting his hair, all I could think of is how he was wasting water by leaving the shower running.

    By the way, I saw Zombieland the other night and loved it. A great zombie apocalypse movie with some good humor mixed in. Check it out if you haven't already.
     
  6. DarthTom

    DarthTom Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Solid episode. I'm glad they returned to the Zombies. Dale is irritating and his paternalism towards Andrea would annoy anyone.

    The safe house seems to have power. Presuambly they are running a generator.
     
  7. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Fresh bread, hot water, that farmhouse doesn't seem to be lacking for anything.
     
  8. DarthTom

    DarthTom Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yea. There sure is a lot of unaswered questions on how they are so well stocked with foodstuffs and other creature comforts.
     
  9. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    Last night I thought... Why don't they just stay there?
     
  10. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The previews for next episode suggest the reason why not.


    As to the question of where the power is coming from and so on: obviously they could have a generator running, or the water could be gas-heated, or both. But in either case, there's the question of fuel.

    It's possible to set up a remote home with an inverter, a device that takes battery power and turns it into line power. That's the industry I work in. Renewable energy could keep the batteries charged to power the inverter. A place of that size might have a creek or river with a DC microhydro turbine, which would charge the batteries 24/7. That would explain being able to run lights at all hours, electric shavers, and running water (assuming there's an electric well pump somewhere). The only thing you have to worry about is running down the batteries-- and they will get recharged.

    But it still doesn't explain the hot water. Electric water heaters are power HOGS and would run down the batteries pretty fast. The water would need to be heated by something else. Someone, somewhere, should have been carping about wasting some kind of fuel.

    Maybe they have a solar thermal water heater?
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2011
  11. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, the picture quality was rather bad this week on my end too. At first I thought I had accidentally recorded the SD channel.

    On first thought this seemed possible (perhaps the instinct is to only eat food they've killed), but it doesn't seem like it would track with the guy who hanged himself.

    That was what I initially expected when Shane showed back up at the farm without Otis, and would've felt more or less in line with what little we knew about the television version of the character. But, yeah, it was definitely a more dramatically interesting decision to have him betrayed by Shane.

    I'd assume they simply didn't say anything to her, and allowed her to assume Otis was outside with the others. She did stay in the room with Carl, after all, preparing him for the surgery when Shane returned, and I would assume Herschel went right to work when he went back inside.

    If they incorporate a point from the comics (and there's been some foreshadowing on this front, or at least I've taken it as such), then I think a very good reason will present itself in the next episode or so.
     
  12. Vendikarr

    Vendikarr Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I wonder if Sophia's in the barn.
     
  13. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    A living screaming person is a better distraction for the zombies than a dead body. Shane was trying to distract as many as he could.
     
  14. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    Ah, for some reason I didn't think about it from the most obvious perspective... Yes, that's an incredibly good point.


    Also, for anyone who is interested in comparisons and contrasts with the comics: Otis did not die nearly this quickly after his introduction, nor through betrayal, in the comics. He was with the group for a decent amount of time before meeting his end.
     
  15. Dark Gilligan

    Dark Gilligan Writer Fleet Captain

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    It's quite possible that the hanging didn't kill him. Botched hangings have left a good many alive and kicking while still in the noose. Imagine if he was still alive and choking when the zombies came upon him and ate his legs, only to die sometime later.
     
  16. Vendikarr

    Vendikarr Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    True, but he never really had much of an impact. Anything he did after this point could easily be done by someone else.

    I get the feeling we will never see Tyreese either. It seems that Shane has taken his place as Rick's right hand man.
     
  17. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    Indeed. Taking Otis off the stage this early makes a lot of sense for many reasons: he didn't have much of an impact in the comics; his death here can have a big impact on various characters, not just Shane or Patricia; the cast is already pretty large; and so on.

    As for the thought in spoiler code: Yeah, I get that feeling, too, which has me a little disappointed because I quite liked that character.
     
  18. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I guess that's what we were supposed to think from Shane's explanation when he got back (although I couldn't make out half of what he was saying). Plus I thought it was a little odd that they didn't show what happened. Seemed like one of those "fast-forward to end" dramatic shortcuts they kept using on SGU.

    I figured that what we were seeing was Shane skirting the dark side, getting over his problems with Rick's family by proving he was still willing to go through hell for them (and presumably coming out a better man). Although that hair-cutting sequence at the beginning seemed awfully dark and moody for such a conclusion.

    Instead, we see Shane's trip to hell luring him into the dark side, into which he will probably continue to descend-- and the hair sequence suddenly fits a lot better.

    Too bad, though.
     
  19. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think Shane was being completely altruistic. As much as he probably wanted to save Carl, I think it had more to do with his own survival than anything else.

    We've seen how self-involved Shane can be, from still lusting after Lori even after Rick's return to nearly shooting Rick (almost literally in the back). I would have thought maybe he had moved on from Lori in this new season, but given the conversation he had with Lori in the first episode, he's clearly still wallowing in self-pity.

    I think the show is building Shane as the kind of character that values himself above others, but that doesn't mean he's an outright horrible character (and even that sense of self-value is very realistic and even appropriate given the circumstances). He obviously cares about the other members of the group, including Rick, Lori and Carl, and it was very selfless of him to venture out with Otis (even if I suspect some of that might have been to appeal to Lori; or, as others have said, to be seen as a hero in her eyes).

    If anything, Shane is becoming a very multi-faceted and complex character. He's not necessarily evil, but I think ultimately he's going to possibly start causing problems for the group in some shape or form some point down the line. Also, I thought shaving his head like that would attract more attention than just having that bald spot. He could easily explain that (zombies), but he's going to have a slightly more difficult time explaining his shaved head (unless he claims he did it for vanity reasons or whatever). I'm sure shaving his head was some kind of visual indicator for the direction Shane is heading, but it didn't make much sense in my eyes for practical reasons.
     
  20. marillion

    marillion Vice Admiral Admiral

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    All I could think of, leading up to the WTF moment was:

    Rule #1 from Zombieland - CARDIO...

    and the age old moniker (whether you're running from bears or zombies with other people around you) - You don't need to be the fastest, just the faster than the person behind you...