This weeks episode "Chupacabra" was better than most episodes this season but still lacked the action and suspense that made me attached to the show in the first place. I really hope that AMC can somehow step up the pacing now that we enter the second half of the season. Enough with that tho, onto the review.
This episode starts off with a flashback bringing us to Shane, Lori and Carl, before the initial takeover of the zombies. It also shows how they met up with Carol, Sophia and Ed who was still an asshole even before the apocalypse. We are shown a scene where the government is dropping napalms down on a city while Shane and Lori watch in horror. I would like to see more flashbacks that show the characters fleeing from their hometown and seeing zombies for the first time, but this was nice as well.
Back to the farm where the gang continues the hunt for the still missing Sophia. They split up into groups to cover more ground and they're off. Rick and Shane pair up together and have a nice little scene in the woods together, it gave us more info on their back stories and it also shows us the differences between the two. Rick is a good leader but lacks the discipline to make the hard decisions for the group, something that Shane is willing to do (killing Otis to save Carl).
Now onto Daryl, whom most of this episode focus' around. Daryl takes one of Hershel's horses so that he can go to the top of the mountain ridge to get a birds eye view of the ground, this gets interrupted as the horse gets scared by a snake and sends Daryl tumbling down the side of the mountain leaving him with an arrow through his side and stranded at the bottom. When he tries to climb back up he falls yet again injuring him further. It seems like all the falls gets to Daryl's head as he starts to hallucinate that his brother Merle is with him. They have a very weird heart to heart that ends with Merle's hallucination being a walker. Daryl soon wakes up and goes straight to zombie killing. This scene was very cool because it shows us how tough Daryl actually is and the lengths he will go to to survive. He makes an ear necklace from the walkers he killed and its back to climbing where Merle returns to antagonize Daryl yet again. This brings Daryl to a state of rage which does lead to him making it to the top.
When Rick returns to the camp he gets in trouble with Hershel. It seems that Daryl never asked to borrow a horse and Jimmy (one of Hershel's men) never asked for Hershel's permission to join the hunt for Sophia. In my opinion it looks like the writers are just trying to find ways for Hershel to kick Ricks group out so the story can progress. The only problem with this is that the group isn't going to go anywhere until they find Sophia, this is the main thing holding the whole story back from getting anywhere.
When Daryl returns to the camp Andrea mistakes him for a walker and shoots at him, just grazing his head and knocking him unconscious. This was also another thing that just felt like it was added to give Hershel more excuses to kick the group out. It looks like the writers are waiting for the mid-season finale to kick the group off the farm. It's a good and bad thing, it makes me have faith for the second half of the season, but it also makes me angry that they wasted most of the first half dealing with things that could have been solved in two episodes or less.
Onto the end of the episode, Maggie and Glenn's relationship seems to be growing as they plan to have sex again. Glenn leaves Maggie a note telling her to meet him in one of the barns but Glenn gets more than he bargains for when he finds the barn full of walkers and then cut to credits.
Chupacabra was one of the better episodes this season but it was still full of filler and didn't progress the story in any major ways. I did enjoy the fact that most of the episode was centred around Daryl because it made me realize how much he has actually changed since last season. He has come from the big huge jackass, to a caring man and one of the strongest members of the group. I enjoyed seeing Merle again because Michael Rooker put up a hell of a performance. I also liked Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) a lot more this episode as he was actually funny and did provide support to other characters. Hershel (Scott Wilson) is beginning to get on my nerves as he is now being written off as the cranky mean old man, and I still can't stand Andrea (Laurie Holden) because she continues to be the dumb blonde that won't listen to anyone.
Still not a big fan of this how this season has been turning out but Chupacabra gave me some hope that this season will get better.
8.5/10
Still not a big fan of this how this season has been turning out but Chupacabra gave me some hope that this season will get better.
8.5/10
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