I've been playing TV show catch-up, and I just finished watching episode 10 of The Walking Dead. And as I sit here thinking over the episode, I'm realizing a few things.
It should go without saying at this point that if you're not current in the show, there will be spoilers here.
Generally, I'm not at all a fan of episode of any show that have main characters at odds and at each others' throats. And yet I really enjoyed this episode, largely because the writing is so good and the characters are showing their depth. I'm speaking specifically of Rick and Shane and their relationship. It's complex, and I really like it despite the fact that I generally hate love triangles.
So what exactly is it about this episode? What did it tell us about these characters? We know these guys are friends from way back. And when Rick brings up a couple topics that are very difficult to talk about, Shane handles it well. He doesn't loosen his gun in its holster and consider killing his friend. But later, during a fistfight, Shane completely loses control and takes things to the next level. He'd have killed Rick given the chance. Rick, on the other hand, is amazingly good at keeping control of himself. He will kill, but he does it very deliberately rather than on the spur of the moment or in a blind rage as Shane would.
I love the fact that after engaging in mortal combat, the two friends pack back up into the same car, bind their prisoner, and head back home. Obviously, the issues that have come up in this episode won't be forgotten, but they didn't in and of themselves constitute an ending.
I've unfortunately already been spoiled about upcoming events, but I'm still looking forward to seeing things play out. One last thing I'd like to mention is that it seems strange that after having noticed people that were turned into walkers by mere scratches - one assumes from walkers' fingernails - the guys would thing nothing of using a knife to stab a walker and then using that same knife to cut their own hands to draw blood as bait. Wouldn't that stand a good chance of transmitting the same infection that a walker's fingernails could?