Because The Walking Dead season 10 finale has been delayed thanks to the real-world virus, I have decided that to fill the void left in the schedule, to start a re-watch of the series. I live tweeted the episode as if it were playing live in the regular 9pm GMT slot on FOX TV UK. You can see all the tweets here or embedded below.

Opening with a eulogy for Dale inter spliced with T-Dogg (Irone Singleton), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Shane (Jon Bernthal) out securing the perimiter and taking out a LOT of frustration on some of the undead who are gorging themselves on a cow. There is only really one other scene in the episode that shows the impact that Dale had on the group and that is when Glenn (Steven Yeun) is fixing the RV. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) says in his speech at the funeral that the best way to honour Dale is to do things the way he wanted. This includes letting Randall (Michael Zegen) go.

Why is Dale’s influence on the group ignored? He fought for humanity and he won, although he never knew it. He changed the entire group dynamic (although it is quickly ignored later in the episode) by standing up for what he believed in, but all he gets are a few words of how he was a good guy, really.

There isn’t much else happening in the episode. Hershel (Scott Wilson) allows the survivors to take shelter inside the house, but the main focus here is what is happening with Shane.

Carl (Chandler Riggs) confesses to Shane who in turn tells Rick. Shane then gets all up in Rick’s face for being a bad father and putting the group first before his son. This leads to further tensions between the two that finally reach boiling point.

Shane devises a whole plot on how to take Rick out of the game. He free’s Randall, citing that he wants to join his group. Randall admits that he’ll fit in well as they’re a bunch of nasty people. Seems Shane was right all along. It wasn’t safe to let this kid live. Out in the woods, Shane breaks Randalls neck and then smashes his own face into a tree to make it look like a fight before running back to camp with a story of escape.

Taking Glenn and Daryl with them, they split up to hunt for Randall. This was Shane’s first mistake. Don’t take Daryl out hunting. Daryl and Glenn find Randall who has now turned, but they also find he has a broken neck, no bites and some blood on a tree. They can put two and two together.

Meanwhile, Shane and Rick are alone in a field. Shane pulls his gun on his former best friend. The two have a bit of shouting back and forth about whose family is whose and Rick goes to lay his weapon down, trying to get Shane to lower his, but in a swift pinch, Rick stabs Shane and kills him! Shocking twist!

Then, somehow, Carl turns up. He points his gun at his Dad and shoots, but it wasn’t really aimed at his father but the re-animated corpse of Uncle Shane. The gunfire alerts a herd of walkers who are happily hanging around in the woods. How none of the search party spotted them is not revealed.

An excellent episode that brings to a conclusion the rivalry between Rick and Shane. Unfortunately, it brings to a conclusion the rivalry between Rick and Shane. Shane has been a superb character, a little rough at times but the perfect yang to Rick’s yin. This scene also brings a beautiful shot of the two cast in shadow by the moon. Really stunning.

This is another death that doesn’t match the comic books and it’s a little annoying. In the comics, Carl is the one to shoot Shane. This is what turns him into a man, taking a life, and plays to the talk that he and Rick shared about the world changing and Carl having to grow up. Much later in the comics, Rick then has to go find where they buried Shane to kill his re-animated self, but that’s a bit much.

Overall Rating: 8.5

S02E11 – Judge, Jury, Exe – Curated tweets by Zombie_Scribe