AMC’s The Walking Dead
Season 2, Episode 6: “Secrets”
Directed by David Boyd
Written by Angela Kang

* For a review of the previous episode, “Chupacabra” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Pretty Much Dead Already” – click here

At the start of “Secrets”, we watch Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and Carl (Chandler Riggs) together. Simultaneously, Patricia (Jane McNeill) break the legs of a chicken, throw it in a bag, then head down to the barn to feed it to a pack of walkers inside. This is the same barn Glenn (Steven Yeun) discovered at the end of the previous episode, “Chupacabra”. An ominous beginning to this one seeing Patricia with Carl and Lori right before. As if it were another everyday chore.
Now Glenn is also being told to keep quiet about it all by Maggie (Lauren Cohan). She begs him to keep it a secret, even with Glenn begging her not to make him keep it a secret. Around Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) and T-Dog (Irone Singleton) he’s troubled and a bit obvious, but nothing comes of it.
Resting in his tent, Daryl (Norman Reedus) gets an apology from Andrea (Laurie Holden). It’s a respectable moment, as Daryl admits to knowing she was “protecting the group“. He quips that if she shoots him again she “best pray” he dies. Out by the fire, a less friendly conversation happens when Glenn confronts Lori once more. She tells him to back off and he reluctantly agrees. The titular secrets of this episode concern all the little quiet things Glenn is tasked with holding onto.

Rick (Andre Lincoln) and Shane (Jon Bernthal) are busy coming up with plans. They only laugh off Glenn and his awkward behaviour. Then there’s Patricia and Beth (Emily Kinney) who want gun training. They tell Rick that Hershel (Scott Wilson) gave them permission, though, I’m sure he’d rather wait to hear it from the man himself.
Speaking of guns, Shane finds Carl carrying one in his pants. Lori is upset about the boy having one. Rick thinks it’s better than him being scared of guns, bullets, after getting shot. Growing up in a world with zombies, isn’t it only natural for a child of appropriate age to have a gun? At the same time, Shane is still being the would-be-father to Carl, offering to give him training and lessons with a gun. Unknowingly, Rick thinks it’s a great idea. Only another way for Shane to worm into Lori’s life.
Glenn goes to Dale about both Lori being pregnant and the walkers in the barn. He blurts it out from nowhere. Not good at keeping secrets is right. Regardless, he shouldn’t have to in a world rife with danger. Secrets should be the last of anybody’s worries. Everybody else is getting lessons with a gun while Glenn is busy trying to hold in the secrets of others. Not even his own.
Meanwhile, Dale goes to see Hershel. He says he “heard the moans” out of the barn and takes it to Hershel as if he were the one to discover the walkers inside it. Hershel is clearly stuck to his notion that zombies are still people, that there is a cure. Dale tries to make it even clearer they have been “cut off from the outside world“. The stakes here are higher: Hershel’s wife and stepson are in there. Most of all, Hershel doesn’t want the others to know because he isn’t sure about the others, aside from Rick. Particularly, you can imagine what Shane would do immediately if he were to find out what’s in the barn. Guns blazing.

Lori is scared about having to leave the farm. Hershel wants them out, soon enough. Trying to get Rick to take care of things, Lori chastises him for knowing about Hershel sending them back out into the world and not telling her, or anybody. Hypocritical? I think so. At the same time, Shane and Andrea have some conflict after he pushes her hard when doing gun training. They form a slight bond over the entire situation.
Most interesting, Dale knows that Lori is pregnant. His wife was pregnant once, though they lost the child later. She was similarly sick. But Glenn already told him, anyways. There’s an emotional scene where Lori talks about being with Shane, something Dale already figured out, too. They discuss a few things and she assures Dale the child belongs to Rick. “Memories are what life used to be,” Lori says near tears. She is extremely scared of the world ahead, she isn’t sure of bringing a child into this new, decrepit world. Dale does his best to reassure her, but it isn’t enough for her. A little later, Lori asks Glenn for help on his next run. She seems to have made decisions about the pregnancy, despite having not told Rick yet.

Maggie (Lauren Cohan) heads into town on horseback with Glenn once more. But she is pissed. He betrayed confidence and her father is also not pleased with her. Maggie still has a warped notion of how things are, due to her father. She doesn’t see the zombies as dead. Rather they’re still people, like her mom and stepbrother. I suppose it’d be hard at the beginning, though, it may only have to do with their seclusion. The Greenes haven’t yet truly seen and understood what the world has become. They’re still working through it.
In a pharmacy, Maggie is attacked by a walker. Glenn saves her quickly. They both embrace. A bond between them was already evident. Now, it only gets stronger. Furthermore, Maggie is slowly beginning to see the danger of the walkers. They aren’t just mothers and stepbrothers anymore. They’re dangerous creatures out to eat, to kill. A world with them surrounding the living is not a safe one. But back at the ranch, Maggie freaks out. She blames Lori and her “abortion pills“. Not fair. Glenn willingly went out on a run. It isn’t the danger so much as it is Maggie’s worry for the people she loves. “You‘re walker–bait,” she tells him. She doesn’t want his group treating him like an expendable body. She’s starting to love him.
Andrea and Shane come across a grim scene while searching through a suburb. In a garage there are a ton of corpses, burned, death everywhere. Out in the streets a bunch of walkers close in on the two of them. They fire, keeping back the dead. When Andrea has trouble reloading Shane lets a walker come for her; only to teach a lesson. Following this moment, Andrea discovers an inner calm. Now she’s able to focus, to shoot, no matter the circumstances. A warrior in the making. Excellent few minutes in this sequence.

Later on, Glenn brings Lori other pills: prenatal vitamins. He also suggests not making her choice alone, to include Rick. It’s only fair. While it is Lori’s body, as the father Rick deserves to hear about it.
At the same time, Shane and Andrea have a heated journey back towards the farm. They stop in the middle of the road after she grabs hold of his crotch. The two of them let loose and let off some steam.
Back to Lori – she swallows a bunch of the pills. Not a second later regret shows up on her face. She runs into the woods and forces herself to vomit. Her choice is now a different one, at least for the present time. Arriving at the farm, Shane and Andrea are certainly both feeling better, except for having to tell Carol (Melissa McBride) there’s no sign of Sophia.
Dale doesn’t like Shane, though. He wants him to leave. The intelligence of Dale always shows, he can read people. He sees them as they are, without pretense. Further than that he says “I know what kind of man you are” and brings up when Shane had Rick locked in his gun’s sights. Leads to an intense, subtle conversation.
In his tent, Rick discovers the Morning After Pill package torn up, the medication gone. Obviously a devastating thing to find. He tracks Lori down and asks her about the pregnancy. He’s naturally upset about not knowing before she decided to try aborting their child. Lori has a few good, rational points about bringing a child into the post-zombie apocalypse world. At the same time, Rick makes a good point about never giving their family a chance. It’s essentially giving up, in a way. Sure, it would be incredibly difficult. But giving up giving life is admitting the world is finished.
The final bomb drops, as Lori tells Rick about her and Shane. He already sort of understood, he comes to terms with it. “The world went to shit and you thought I was dead, right?” says Rick. Not loving it exactly, he doesn’t get angry. It’ll be interesting to watch the dynamics shift now that Rick knows all the secrets.

Next episode coming up is “Pretty Much Dead Already”. Another exciting and bloody chapter in this wonderful AMC adaptation. Stay tuned.