The Walking Dead: Cherokee Rose (spoilers)

Despite all the excitement over the first few episodes of season two I have managed to fall behind.  I am terrible at following shows as they air on tv and I almost prefer to let them build up and watch them back to back.  Today is the turn of Cherokee Rose and Chupacabra. 

PLOT:  The RV finally leaves the highway and Dale (Jeffrey De Munn), Andrea (Laurie Holden), Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) join the others on Hershel’s farm.  Hershel (Scott Wilson) is holding a memorial service in which Shane (Jon Bernthal) speaks about Otis sacrificing himself to save Carl (Chandler Riggs).  Shane left out the minor detail that he helped Otis to sacrifice himself.  Rick (Andrew Lincoln), who has absolutely nothing to do this episode, is mean to Daryl for no particular reason.  Dale and T-Dog (Irone Singleton) discover a Walker in a well and the plan to remove it spectacularly fails.  Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) head into town to pick up painkillers and a pregnancy test for Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies).  They have sex between the hardware and feminine hygiene isle.  We get an ominous lingering shot of the barn which will no doubt feature heavily in future episodes.  Lori discovers that she is pregnant but I cannot shake the image of Lori peeing right in front of Hershel’s house especially when she squatted down in front of a big ass tree rather than behind it.  END PLOT

Plot wise Cherokee Rose is definitely the weakest episode of season two so far.  The Walking Dead is a show which takes its time but with this episode the pacing ground to such an abrupt halt I think I should sue for whiplash.  

There are a couple of nice little character moments which just about make up for sitting through forty minutes of nothing - even the reveal of Lori's pregnancy was a meh moment of blah.

Rick handing over his hat to Carl is straight out of the comic and it looks as though Carl will wear it with as much pride as comic book Carl. Chandler Riggs is such a good little actor and I think he will be able to handle some of the darker moments which are coming with ease. 

Daryl gave Carol a flower and a historical anecdote to make up for the fact that Sophia is still missing in what must be the largest wood in the history of all forests – if she shows up with a herd of female Ents I will not be surprised.  It was a sweet little scene which shows that Reedus and McBride can work very well together.  It had the potential to veer into cheesy territory but thankfully it never did.

If it is to be the start of a Daryl/Carol affair then that is fine but for the love of God get on with it and bring the Sophia arc to a close!

Maggie and Glenn got a chance to spend more time together and their relationship was upgraded from awkward friendship to awkward fuck-buddies.  Their scene in the hardware/feminine hygiene store was poorly written and played like something from a very bad teenage romantic comedy.  Maggie and Glenn’s relationship is a very sweet part of the comic but on screen it just doesn’t work as Cohan and Yeun don’t have much chemistry.  The problem is Lauren Cohan has more screen presence compared to Steven Yeun and this is causing Glenn to be pushed further down the pecking order as he still being overshadowed by the supporting cast. 

I like Jon Bernthal's portrayal of Shane but it appears that whenever he shaved his head he also managed to lobotomise himself as he has suddenly developed this blank slack jawed stare.  From an aesthetic point of view this, coupled with his new wardrobe of dungarees, is not pleasing on the eye.

Andrea does not appear to notice that Shane is slowly turning into The Hills Have Eyes and the two are bonding over their love of firearms.  I don’t care about Andrea and her very very vocal desire to have a gun in the slightest.  I just don’t care.  At the minute with Andrea less is very much preferred.

Cherokee Rose is an action free episode aside from one rather bloated looking Walker which for some unexplained reason fell into well number two.  There was no tension in this scene and I didn’t for one moment believe that Glenn was in any danger.  The only purpose this section of the episode served was to give Greg Nicotero and the prosthetics department a brief moment to shine and I think in the end it was worth it!  It also gave T-Dog zombie kill of the week although not to take anything away from T-Dog it was actually the only zombie kill of the week. 

Cherokee Rose should have been called Filler Episode.  It was always going to happen in a season of thirteen episodes but it doesn’t make the bitter pill any easier to swallow. Cherokee Rose only gets a 6/10.  In a show in which expectations are so high this one has to be considered a disappointment.

Performance of the week:  Lauren Cohan

no one stood out but this was the week I realised I actually really like Maggie

Annoying character of the week:  Andrea
Zombie kill of the week:  T-Dog *by default*
Daryl line of the week: "I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers blooming for my brother. But I believe this one bloomed for your little girl" 
Daryl picture of the week: