10 Best Episodes Of The Walking Dead (So Far)
7. Pretty Much Dead Already Season 2, Episode 7
Just talk to anybody who watches the show and most will agree that it hit a sizable bump during the first half of season 2. While this period of the show stressed character development and personal traumas, there were many times when it got dangerously close to being trite and repetitive. Among those was the over-extended arc of the search for Sofia, a character that had gone missing since the season 2 premiere. The way things were going, it seemed that the arc would last the entire season. The episode 7 comes along, and hits us with one of the most heart wrenching and emotional sucker punches in the shows history. The episode initiated the irreparable divide that would eventually tear apart Rick and Shane. With the knowledge of the walkers in the barn, Shane stepped up and proclaimed that the only way for them to be safe was to clear out the barn, even with some of Hershels zombiefied family inside. It was his moment of establishing dominance over the whole group, doing what he thought was best no matter what the consequences. Shane and a few others in the group ripped open the barn and fired several rounds into the shambling crowd of the undead. Though they were killer zombies, the way they were killed eerily resembles a senseless massacre. When the dust settled however, one last walker comes out of the barn. It was little Sophia, and in an instant the world came crashing down. As the others looked on in shock or sadness, Rick, who had stood by and refused to join in shooting the barn walkers, walks up to do what had to be done. He puts a single bullet in Sophias head to put her out of her suffering, once again re-establishing himself as the true leader of his group. The entire sequence of the barn shootout all the way to its emotional final shot was filmed beautifully, benefiting from a moving score that drove home the emotional mood whiplash. This episode marked the transition of season 2 into a more exciting and memorable saga where no one is truly safe.