Point-by-Point Recap: The Walking Dead, Episode Six

My oh my we’re already at the end of the season. Boy how time flies when your evading zombies. It’s been a wild ride, so lets see how drunk shenanigans and big explosions make for one heckuva season finale.

• We open with things getting crazy at the hospital. That’s right, it’s flashback time. Shane’s out to rescue his BFF.

• Unfortunately, Shane doesn't really know how to handle comatose Rick, and is bewildered by the fancy medical equipment.

• Oh no! Something (a bomb perhaps?) hits the hospital and kills the electricity. Shane tries to check for a heartbeat, but I don't think he's doing it exactly right. Also, less than 3 minutes into the show and Shane’s already had 2 crazy facial expressions.

• Ah the CDC, our heroes are saved! Also, apparently the CDC is rolling in money, as their building is pretty ridiculous.

• "What do you want?" "A chance." "That's asking an awful lot these days." Yeeesh, that's pretty corny for a show that takes its realism (mostly) seriously. No wonder Frank Darabont fired his writers (even though he really didn't).

• Ah, everyone is secure in the building and "Once this door closes it stays closed". Guess what that means? Closed quarters episode! Guess there’s no chance of seeing Merle or any of the other side characters until next year. Oh well, only so much you can fit in 6 episodes.

• Ohhh great, the CDC has a talking computer (Vi) a la every movie from 2001 to Iron Man. Sigh. I really don't like how the CDC became the climax of the season. It just feels out of place.

• "I've already broken every rule in the book letting you be in here." ~ Dr. Edwin Jenner. Really?! It’s the apocalypse and you’re adhering to rules? I’m pretty sure getting drunk in the lab is against the rules as well, but I guess you just get to pick and choose which ones you bring up, eh?

• First thing to do when you have a new safe haven? Get wasted.

• "Not you Glenn. Drink it little man, I wanna see how red your face can get". This Daryl / Glenn bromance is really growing on me. Also, why is there such thing as the Asian glow? Genetics! * The more you know *

• Looks like Dr. Jenner isn't having as much fun as everyone else. Sad scientist is sad.

• Anyone else wonder how the CDC got the huge supply of wine and SoCo?

• "Hot water?" "That's what the man said". You know what that means, time for some basic-cable level nudity montage.

• And then we see Andrea sad in the shower. Buzzkill. But still sad.

• As much as I dislike the doctor, I really like the scene where drunk Rick opens up to how he feels about everything. Apparently he isn’t just a good guy hero who wants to save the world, he has feelings too!

• The book Lori picks up is “Reasonable Doubt”. According to Amazon it is about how “a former U.S. prosecutor defends his daughter-in-law, who is accused of beating his son to death.” I really hope that isn’t a forshadowing of some sort.

• Uh oh. Looks like Rick isn’t the only one opening up his feelings when wasted. Why Shane, why? I agree that Lori’s pseudo-cold shoulder is a bit much, but that isn’t an excuse for attempted rape. Actually, there’s no excuse for that. It’s just creepy.

• And everyone is hung over. Surprise!

• "We didn't come here for the eggs." Really Andrea. Really? That's the best line you can think of? Of course you didn’t come for the eggs zombies ate your sister. The writing of this show sometimes...

• We finally get some answers thanks to Test Subject 19. Apparently becoming a zombie is a bit like meningitis, and you’re really not in any way human after you change over. Satisfied? Me neither.

• Shows and movies with a sci-fi element always seem to handle explaining the reasoning behind everything pretty poorly. Sometimes it’s better to have a little ambiguity and let us come up with our own thoughts on the outbreak. Remember Groundhog’s Day? You know, the one with Bill Murray. Remember how they didn’t explain why he kept repeating the same day over and over? It’s kinda like that. We don’t need to know why everything is happening, it just is.

• What’s the worst thing about the test subject scene? The fact that gunshot would be impossible. Do you see that picture above? The part where it says MRI? Which stand for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. You know what happens when you stick any metal object in one of those while it's going does. It does something like this:

• "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" "When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination will occur." Really? They just got here yesterday and already the base is going to be destroyed. Yeesh, they just can’t catch any break at all.

• I tried to find an image with the countdown timer from the beginning of the episode but it always seemed blocked by something. In the picture below it’s at about 10 hours, which makes sense, seeing as they were only there one night.

• "Energy use is being prioritized." "Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Thank you Dale! You are the saving grace of this episode.

• Did you see how Edwin stole Daryl’s SoCo? How can you not hate him?

• "The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean how stupid is that?" Oh doc, it's too late to try to have us accept green energy. The world is over! Unless that was a veiled comment to us, the audience. Not that it was completely blatant or anything…

• So… if the doors to the outside are locked, why lock down the tiny center room? So you can have company in the last few minutes with people that hate you? Or because your crazy?

• Crazy it is.

• "HITs?" " High-impulse thermobaric weapons" "Sets the air on fire". Apparently these things are real and as intense as they sound.

• "This is our extinction event." I really just wish Daryl had axed the doc in the head just so we could stop hearing the doc babble.

• So this whole episode culminates in the fact that Dr. Jenner promised his wife to try and cure everything when she turned into a zombie. After he fails, he decides to trap and kill everyone with him. I see the logic in that. Oh wait, I don’t.

• Finally after all this long windedness Dr. Jenner comes to his senses and opens the locked door, but not before saying something to Rick all secret like.

• Jacqui decides to stay and die with Edwin. I had to look up her name because I forgot it. That’s how memorable she was.

• Andrea decides to stay too. What a twist!

• When nothing can break the glass out of the CDC where do we turn? To the gun hidden in the first act! Well, really it's the grenade from the start of the second episode when Rick was in the tank, but that'll do!

• "Get the hell out, I don't want you here." "Too bad. You don't get to do that. To come into somebody's life and make them care and then just check out." You are my hero Dale. You are officially the best character in the show.

• Boy, things are really ramping up here at the end. We even get a little zombie action this episode. Daryl even beheads one.

• Dale and Andrea escape. I mean, I knew that would happen, but still. Yay!

• Wow, that high-impulse thermobaric weapon was no joke.

• Best part of the explosion? We can now put this subpar CDC plotline behind us!

• Ah, our ragtag team of survivors drive away on another adventure to the tune of Bob Dylan. That’s it until next season!

Boy, what a fast season it has been. I can’t believe it’ll be a whole year until we see new episodes again. 6 episodes just isn’t enough (and seemed a bit rushed at the end there). Next season’s a full AMC season though, 13 episodes! That should be plenty of time for more drama and zombies, and they’ll be able to pace things out a bit nicer.

In the meantime, any ideas on what else I can recap until The Walking Dead returns?