The Walking Dead Season 2 Recap

With the second half of The Walking Dead Season 2 about to explode back onto AMC I wanted to take a minute to recap what has happened so far on the hit show about human drama and our favorite brain eaters. It should go without saying that this post contains massive show spoilers and should not be read if you have not seen any of Season 2 yet. But if you are looking to get a quick catch up before Season 2 starts up this post is for you.

At the start of Season 2 the group decides to head to Fort Benning as their best bet of a secure location. Shortly after the start of their journey they get held up by a blockade of cars and stop to look for resources. A zombie hoard emerges from the woodwork and as the group manages to evade them, Sophia gets chased into the woods. When Rick and the group don’t see her again they split up into search parties. During the next day they look vigorously. Shane and Rick take Carl despite Lorie’s concerns. When a buck crosses their path, Carl gets closer to get a better look and to everyone’s surprise he gets shot by a hunter tracking the deer.

Ottis, the hunter, takes Rick and Shane to the farm he stays at with his wife and her father Hershel and several others. There, Hershel treats Carl the best he can with what he has but there are supplies he will need to perform the operation that could save his life. Though Rick wants to go, he has to stay and feed blood into his son. Ottis and Shane volunteer, and the two head to the nearest school in hopes of returning in time. The rest of the group arrives at the farm. Lorie and Rick have a hard discussion about if it is worth keeping Carl in a world filled with danger and death. Meanwhile Ottis and Shane lose their exit and are forced to circle back in order to escape. When Lorie decides to go ahead with the operation, time has almost run out and Hershel must proceed without his supplies, until Shane arrives just before the first incision. But Ottis isn’t with him.

Carl survives his ordeal and will recover over time. Ottis’ wife suffers her loss, and Shane describes vaguely what happened. The group has now settled in, making camp between Hershel’s home and the barn on the outskirts of the land. Hershel discusses with Rick that this is not to be a permanent thing. Lorie asks Glen to go into town and Maggie, Hershel’s daughter, joins him. At the pharmacy, the two find comfort in one another and decide to have sex. During this time Darryl refuses to give up on Sophia and continues to scour the woods for her. The others search as well but Darryl retains an unwavering dedication. Despite wanting to give up, Shane promises to give Andrea and several others gun training. Hershel has a strict rule against firearms on his property so they go into the woods to practice. When Andrea shows great promise, Shane takes her for even more rigorous tests. After shooting at a swinging tree stump, they move on to searching the nearby housing complex, only to get cornered by another hoard. Andrea is forced to man up, and rises to the task. Afterwards, Shane and Andrea find a solitary spot on the road to park and have sex. That night, when Lorie is alone, she takes the bag that Glen brought her and walks into the field. She takes out a pregnancy test, and takes it, to find out that it is positive.

Continuing alone, Darryl picks up where he left off with his search for Sophia. He borrows one of Hershel’s horses without asking and rides into the woods. He gets into some trouble when the horse is spooked by a snake and knocks him off, causing him to tumble down a hillside and land on one of his bolts. In the muddy pool of water he landed in, he finds Sophia’s doll, and with his renewed hope, he struggles to climb his way back to the top. While struggling the most, Darryl begins to hallucinate his brother standing over him, saying awful things, causing Darryl to push himself as far as possible. Back at camp, Shane argues with Rick about giving up the search for Sophia while Dale expresses his concern to Andrea about getting close to Shane. Determined to prove herself, Andrea sits watch on top of the RV with a rifle just in case. In the distance she sees something and gets ready to prevail against a wandering zombie. Rick yells at her about Hershel’s rule, and runs over to see what it is. It’s actually just Darryl, having managed to get this far, but Andrea fires not realizing it is him.

Carol and Lorie prepare supper that night in Hershel’s kitchen, which he is less than thankful for. He’s tried many times to express to Rick how he feels about their presence here. When Maggie passes a note to Glen about meeting that night, he writes something and returns it just out of Hershel’s view. When she’s alone, she reads what he wrote and is panicked. She runs to the barn to find Glen having already discovered the hoard of dead people locked inside. With a lot on his plate, Glen tells Dale about Lorie being pregnant, and about the walkers in the barn. Meanwhile, even with his injury, Darryl tries to go out on a horse again but Carol pleads him to take care of himself. She cares about him for all the effort he’s put in. Glen talks to Lorie about her situation and he says she can ask him for anything. She asks him to go to the pharmacy and get something else. He manages to get Maggie to go with him, though she’s mad at him for telling Dale who then told Hershel about the barn. At the pharmacy, Maggie has an encounter with a walker but Glen saves her. This obviously shakes her beliefs about zombies and she lashes out in anger when they return to the farm by throwing abortion pills at Lorie. When they’re alone, Maggie tells Glen his friends treat him like walker-bait and why doesn’t he stick up for himself? That afternoon, still having not said anything to Rick, Lorie takes the all the pills. But after crying and running to the field, she throws them up. Rick finds the packets in the tent and goes after her, quickly confronting her. They discuss how dangerous it would be to have a baby in this world. Then Rick asks her if she has anything else to tell him and she finally tells him about Shane. But he already knew, and understands the circumstances.

The next morning, with hesitation, Glen tells his group about the walkers in the barn. Shane has serious opinions about exterminating the collection Hershel has hidden considering how dangerous it is sleeping so close to it, but Rick refuses to go against Hershel’s wishes, no matter how strange they are. Hershel is now fed up with Rick’s group and insists they live within a week. But Rick pleads with him that it’s not safe out there and tells him Lorie’s pregnant. He does the same with the heated Shane later in order to convince him over to his side. Babies make great weapons apparently. Shane storms off only to find that Dale’s taken all of the weapons out of the RV. He hunts him down in the woods and a high tension confrontation ensues. Dale knows Shane shot Ottis to save himself but he can’t stand in the way of Shane doing something drastic. So Shane gets the guns and heads to the farm where he rallies everyone into clearing out the barn. Hershel, despite their differences, takes Rick into the woods to wrangle two stray walkers with animal control leashes. When they get back, Rick finds Shane going on a tangent just outside the barn. Being completely fed up, Shane gives guns to everyone and breaks the lock on the barn door. As they poor out, they have no choice but to shoot. And just when they think it’s over, Sophia emerges from the barn, snarling and growling. Rick humbly approaches and shoots the girl in the head.