The Walking Dead – Season 2, Episode 8: “Nebraska”

AMC’s The Walking Dead
Season 2, Episode 8: “Nebraska”
Directed by Clark Johnson
Written by Evan T. Reilly

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

The shocking finale of “Pretty Much Dead Already” continues.
After Shane (Jon Bernthal) let the walkers in the barn loose and they were all shot down, Hershel (Scott Wilson) has decided to kick everyone off his land. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is bumping up against Shane hard, the latter not wanting to accept anything. Carol (Melissa McBride) is distraught over losing Sophia permanently, as Daryl (Norman Reedus) helps to comfort her. Meanwhile, Beth (Emily Kinney) is traumatized after her dead mother is further smashed in the had by Andrea (Laurie Holden). The Greenes have had to go through some terrifying moments since the survivors showed up, and it couldn’t have been easy. Regardless of how you see the zombies and the apocalypse.

Glenn (Steven Yeun) talks with Maggie (Lauren Cohan) about moving on. Now that Sophia’s been found/is dead. Although, her death hits everyone hard. Carl (Chandler Riggs) is upset, too. But agrees his dad did the right thing, putting her out of the endless misery of the undead. Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) seems completely dumbfounded, probably wondering what happens next for their group. Of course they’ve been cast off the farm, she’s pregnant. I don’t blame her for worrying.
T-Dog (Irone Singleton) and the others decide to start burying the bodies, as well as having a service for Sophia to help Carol. “We bury the ones we love and burn the rest,” says Andrea.
There’s still lots of tension between Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) and Shane. They have got serious problems and they are not going away anytime soon. Shane asks “What have you done for this group?” and chastises Dale for only fixing vehicles, and so on. Not fair – who would fix the R.V. if it weren’t Dale? Then where would they be, especially after being kicked out? Nowhere. Shane’s simply lashing out in every direction because he’s a cowardly, arrogant piece of shit.

Carol: “That‘s not my little girl. It‘s some other… thing. My Sophia was lost in the woods. All this time, I thought. But she didn‘t go hungry. She didn‘t cry herself to sleep. She didn‘t try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago.”

There’s trouble brewing with Hershel. He’s in his room, packing a small suitcase. Afterwards, he takes out a flask and lays it there. We know his father was a vicious drunk, perhaps Hershel was at one point, too? I hope this isn’t the road he heads down.
Maggie is worried Glenn might leave when his group does. She wants to figure things out because time is short. Everything is interrupted when Beth collapses in the kitchen. When they take her upstairs, she’s laying in bed as if catatonic. At the same time, Hershel is gone. Nowhere to be found. His flask is still there, but Rick starts wondering if maybe Hershel went out to find a bar. He and Glenn decide to head out and look for the old man.
Carol’s in a bad way. She wanders up to the farm, dirty, in her own world. Shane takes her aside and helps wash all the dirt off, as well as offers his apologies for what happened to Sophia. He says he was “just trying to keep everybody safe” by opening the barn, but what came after was unexpected. All the while, Dale and Lori talk about Shane – the former shares his belief Shane killed Otis while out on that run. Something that disturbs Lori to her core. Shockingly accurate how Dale is about what happened that night. “I knew guys like him,” says Dale, “and sooner or later he‘s gonna kill somebody else.”

On the road again, at least for now, Rick and Glenn head out to find Hershel. Glenn brings up how Maggie confessed her love, though, he thinks it was heat of the moment stuff. Rick assures him she knows her own feelings. Nice little touching moment between two friends, something we don’t often see in this post-apocalyptic world.
At a bar in town they find Hershel. He’s sitting alone, obviously, having a drink. The three men sit together for a time. Hershel feels responsible for what happened with Sophia, that everyone was waiting around to try and find the girl out there somewhere. They talk of a number of things. Mostly, Rick tries to convince Hershel he did nothing wrong; he was only “holding out for hope“.
But one of the scariest part of this episode? Lori takes it on her own shoulders to head out looking for Rick. They need Hershel back, as soon as possible. And out of nowhere, Lori hits a walker then flies into a ditch, flipping the car. Pregnant, no less.

Hershel: “I didn‘t want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe it. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that‘s when I knew what an ass I‘ve been. That Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotten corpse! That‘s when I knew there was no hope. And when that little girl came out of the barn, the look on your face – I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. And you know it, like I do. Don‘t you? There is no hope for any of us.”

In the middle of conversation, Rick, Hershel and Glenn are stumbled upon by two men named Dave (Michael Raymond-James) and Tony (Aaron Munoz). The five of them sit around together, sharing a drink and toasting to “our dead“. Slowly, the situation gets more and more awkward. Or well, confrontational. Tony and Dave are trying to find a place to rest their heads, but do they have people with them? Rick isn’t so sure they’re totally alone. When the two men find out there’s a farm involved, a place where Rick, Glenn and Hershel stay, they hope to find there way in as guests. No such luck. Rick doesn’t want to take any chances, which is smart.
The conversation whittles away until finally a real confrontation emerges – Rick is forced to pull his gun, blasting Dave and Tony to the grave. An impressive, exciting end to this episode. This is the first time Rick has killed a non-walker, a living person – juxtaposed nicely with the burning of the walker corpses back at the ranch. Very telling moment, which signals this is DEFINITELY a new world where they’ll have to adjust even further.