Daredevil: A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

 “What if this isn’t the end? What if this is just the beginning?”

This, in the end, is a fairly predictable finale, but it’s so well-crafted and emotionally resonant that that’s ok. It’s not much of a spoiler, given the forty years since Daredevil #181, that Electra dies, so why not have an emotional Matt pledge to be with her, and go with her anywhere, before their final battle against the odds, just to rub in the fact we all know she’s not going to survive?

It’s an all-out battle with Nobu and the Hand, with much of the supporting cast involved as hostages. Even Frank Castle, while taking a lower profile, gets to play his part at the end… while wearing that proper Punisher skull t-shirt. Daredevil finally gets his billy club, too.

It’s a highly satisfying closer, and that’s not even taking into accountthe cameo appearance of Jeri Hogarth from Jessica Jones- will Foggy take that high flying job? Will he appear in other Netflix Marvel shows before the next season of Daredevil? And we get that dramatic moment, right at the end, where Matt finally reveals to Karen that he’s Daredevil.

I’ll wait for the Netflix shows to transfer to Disney Plus, then I’ll carry on with the first season of Luke Cage…

Daredevil: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

 "Matty, I'm proud of you."

Wow. That's how to do a penultimate episode.

I especially love how there are two parallel narratives, with both Matt and Karen cast very clearly as equally heroic. Karen gets a further sequence, despite her very human exhaustion and despair, of journalistic awesomeness as she interviews the Colonel from Castle's trial... only for the rather brilliant revelation to hit her that he is, in fact, the Blacksmith. Even more of a shock is to see how she's saved by Frank. This whole sequence is full of shocks, yes, but also with superb acting from Deborah Ann Woll, John Bernthal and Clancy Brown who, I should have realised, is not the sort of actor you get in for a bit part.

Then we have the sequences of Elektra's childhood with Stick, the relevance of which hits us towards the end. But first we have Stick Kidnapped and tortured by the Hand, with both Matt and Elektra on their trail, but there's still time for a poignant scene between Matt and Foggy, who can't seem to resurrect their friendship.

There's lots of cool, well-directed action as Matt fights loads of ninjas until we get to the really big revelation... the Hand's big scary weapon, the Black Sky... is Elektra! And we end with a flurry of activity and confused motives leading us into a much-anticipated finale.

If that's not enough, you have to admire the parallel revelation, Black Star and the Blacksmith, and with the long-buried past coming back, gothic-style, to horrify everyone...

Wow. Just wow.

Daredevil: .380

 "Stay away from me..."

The season is in the final stretch and things are speeding up. There's still time for character scenes- Claire once again warns Matt he's in too deep; Karen gets advice on not letting the love she has with Matt slipaway by Frank Castle, of all people, while he simultaneously uses her as bait; and Daredevil agrees with Frank to handle the Blacksmith his way "just this once"- but, as Frank points out, there's no going back from that side of the line.

There's a lot going on. Madame Gao is back. Matt and Frank are simultaneously on the trail of the Blacksmith, their paths converging towards the end, and Frank may or may not end up dead. We see more of this bizarre blood cult. Elektra is after Stick, ostensibly for revenge. 

And yet the real heroes of this episode are women. Claire quits her job rather than being implicit in the kind of cover-up, motivated by a need to please a donor, which makes a powerful argument in favour of America getting an actual health care system. And Karen, despite her obvious trauma, spends the episode reaching for the right thing to do, and doing it in spitre of her fears.

This is an episode filled with incident, but it's the characters that make this series so amazing.

Daredevil: The Man in the Box

 “This is your jungle. This is your blood, like it is mine.”

We're moving close to the end of the season and things are speeding up. An assassin tries to kill a departing Elektra, after flirting with her- and he was sent not by the Hand but by Stick. Frank Castle is on the loose and is seemingly on a killing spree... or is he?

Frank is seemingly assassinating everyone who he believes to have wronged him, starting, in an effectrively shocking scene, as Reyes confesses to being behind the sting gone sour and the cover-up, before being suddenly killed... with Foggy lucky to survive, showing the danger Matt's friends are in. And Karen, pursuing the sory as a reporter again, discovers that there are further targets- the doctor from the trial and herself. She's saved, in a not-entirely-unpredictable twist, by none other than Frank. So who is the killer?

All this is just plot, of course, exciting that it is. What the episode is really about is Matt's increasing isolation, deciding he wands "no more law" and "no more friends", despite Claire rather sensibly telling him that cutting himself off from normal life, justive, human connection and, indeed, sleep, is not exactly an awesome idea. 

We end this splendid episode with the hospital under attack from without by ninjas and from within from those blood-poisoned people Daredevil has just rescued, and both Claire and Foggy in peril. I bet that would never happen in a country with an actual health system...

Daredevil: Seven Minutes in Heaven

 "In prison, there's only room for one Kingpin..."

At this point the series is quite addictive and I'm eagerly waitng for the next episode. Daredevil is amazing right now, and this episode is a roller-coaster of well-directed, superbly acted and astonishingly eventful awesomeness.

Where to start? Matt sadly sees, from Elekra's bloodlust in saving him last episode. He admits he loves her, but dumps her for falling short of his ideals. And then there's the end of Nelson and Murdoch in an extraordinary scene of suppressed yet palpable emotions as Matt and Foggy end their firm and, seemingly, their friendship. He's already lost Karen; Matt now has nothing and no one... except his mission and his unhealthy drive to do what he does, which is pushing everyone away and ruining his life.

Yet Karen is still awesome. Now having no job, by default, she finds respect and purpose in journalism, uncovering the fact that the carousel massacre was instigated by a police agent provocateur... as, in a parallel, Frank discovers the same thing.

Frank's prison experience, seemingly brief, is dominated by what I suspect is a single episode guest appearance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Fisk, that calmly introspective, civilised yet menacing man who dominates every scene in which he appears. To see his adaptations to prison life as he uses Frank Castle to become, well, kingpin is nuanced and fascinating. He never lies to Frank, being quite open about why he's using him. It's an extraordinarily subtle, well-written and superbly acted dynamic.

And then we have O' Hornhead's dsubterranean pursuit of the Hand, and the unexpected things he finds. Yet it's not just the momentous events: it's the characters, the extraordinary sequence where the Punisher, in slow motion, prevails against an army of fellow prisoners... this is as good as it gets. And what on Earth is going on with the Hand?

Daredevil: Guilty as Sin

 "This is who I am."

I think it's probably fair to say that this is an eventful episode. Matt and Karen breaking up and Matt and Elektra ending up together in more ways than one; Matt and Foggy ending up on bad terms; and the trial suddenly ending in disaster as Frank Castle pleads guilty out of the blue.

Oh, and Stick's back. With some semi-mythological exposition about the baddies- the Hand- in which he himself may have a starring role. And Frank, in prison, meets none other than a certain Mr Fisk...

It's a massive change to the status quo, but it works. The characters ring true, from the unddrdog Foggy- more competent than he knows- to the conflicted Matt, the severely damaged Frank and, most of all, the truly amazing Karen. And there are set pieces which showcase superb acting, from Jon Bermnthal's exceptional final speech as the Punisher to a standout guest appearance from Clancy Brown.

Yet the plot is also deeply intricate and engaging, with cool Hand ninjas threatening New York and police corruption seemingly manipulating the trial in ways that seem to be connected with Wilson Fisk. And Matt's realisation that he loves Elektra after all, after nearly seeing her die, is believable.

The season is really shaping up into a coherent whole know, with the Punisher, Elektra, Matt's complex personal life, the Hand and the Kingpin. This episode is an incredible bit of telly.

Daredevil: Semper Fidelis

 "Elektra is not the problem, Matt. You are."

Ouch. This is a hard-hitting episode which hits at the core problems with Matt/DD as her attempts to serve two masters, the law and vigilatism. This is an interesting dichotomy ideologically- as is shown by Matt's awkward response to Karen's question about what he thinks to the activities of "the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

It's Frank's trial, Reyes is prosecuting, it's David vs Goliath and their chances are slim. So it really doesn't help that Matt is moonlighting with this Yakuza lead and neglecting the case. Foggy is right, when Matt admits it all to him, to feel furious, and that Matt is not reliable. And yes, he's right to accuse Frank of lying, not only to him but to Karen, who has a right to know that he's off doing stuff at night with his ex... especially with all that sexual tension between Daredevil and Elektra, and her confession that she took so long to return because she thought he was too good for her. And her unasked for attempt to help the trial ends up going very wrong indeed.

Karen is really blossoming, and proving to be awesome at research and the legal stuff. Matt suggests she might want to go to law school; I hope she ends up doing someything awesome... but she deserves something better than a man like Matt, who could never share everything and put her first.

There's a lot going on. Then we see the Yakuza are digging that massive hole. What...?

This is gripping telly, a real step up from what was already an impressive programme.

Daredevil: Regrets Only

 "Well, you can't mask that ass. I'd know it anywhere."

This is probably the episode where the season starts to click into place: we have a high profile trial for the Punisher, which is part of a series of complex power games by DA Reyes, while ol' Hornhead and Elekra have their own arc, separate at this point, involving the Yakuza, or whoever these Japanese criminals connected to Roxxon may be. The extended martial arts fight scene before the credits is awesome, as it the use of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Date with the Night" as the Yakuza travel through the city on their cool motorbikes.

Matt is not exactly being unfaithful to Karen, with whom he has an increasingly heartwarming relationship: he makes it clear to Elektra that he's taken. Yet he's hiding from her the fact that he's doing stuff with his ex and, much as he makes it clear at the start of the episode that he wants Elektra gone, by the end the two of them are planning another mission for the following night... which, unless I'm very much mistaken, clashes with Matt's date with Karen. Awkward, and rather masterfully plotted.

Meanwhile, Nelson & Murdoch are representing Frank Castle at his upcoming trial as it's the right thing, on balance, to do, even if Reyes is going to absolutely crucify their firm for it. The scene between Frank and Karen, as they discuss his family and build a real connection, is incredible.

As is the season so far. This is a real step up from what was an impressive first season.

Daredevil: Penny and Dime

 No killing."

"Altar boy!"

Yep, this is a superlative bit of telly, just like the last episode. Beautifully acted- Jon Bernthal's monologue as Punisher in the graveyard is extraordinary- and artily directed throughout, it's a triuph of script, theme and characterisation.

It's surprrising in where it takes the arc, though. The Punisher meets his match as a psychopathic Irish godfather from over the ocean (a menacing Tony Curran) shows Frank that he is, after all, mortal, and vulnerable. And so Frank shows his vulnerability in more ways than one, nearly suffering an agonising death in the name of yet another revolution of that stupid cycle of revenge. Unexpectedly, it's Daredevil who saves him and the two of them find a mutual respect, if not agreement. Neatly enough, Daredevil lets Frank's arrest be attributable to the sergeant who blamed him for all this last episode, saying that "Vigilante days are done in this time. "Hah". It is, perhaps, a little too neat for Brett to respond by reassuring him that "You ain't him", but it works.

So, I wonder, is this- complete with Frank's touching backstory- the end of his part of the season, overshadowed by the shock cliffhanger just after we've come to know him a little? I somehow suspect not.

The episode is also, of course, about the touching little budding romance between Karen and Matt, again superbly acted and shot, and a very real and touching thing between characters we like, with Foggy amusingly making it quite clear that he knows exactly what's going on.

But that ending... her?

Daredevil: New York's Finest.

 "You're just one bad day away from being me."

What a piece of television here.

Obviously the focus is the foregrounded debate between Daredevil and the Punisher- handled badly, in my view, by Matt, with his very Catholic focus on redemption and good vs evil. But the debate implicitly extends, too, to Foggy and Karen, the real heroes of this episode, without a hint of violence. 

The debate is, of course, superb, as is Charlie Cox. But Jon Bernthal's performance is simply a revelation. He absolutely owns this episode. Yes, he has a cracker of a part, a superlative script to work with, and, frankly, all the best lines, but this is acting of the very first rank. And the whole thing is, of course, very revealing for both characters. Both grew up Catholic. Both are native New Yorkers in a city inhabited mainly by incomers. And both are, of course, vigilantes. But Frank angrily denounces Matt for his "half-measures", only to be weakly opposed by vague and dogmatic arguments about rehabilitation, which are easily and powerfully batted aside by Frank.

Frank is, of course, wrong. You can't just appoint yourself judge and jury, and executioners are always in the wrong, vigilantes or not. But Matt is entirely wrong about why this is. I don't deny the possibility of redemption; it's just that it's not the reason that Frank is wrong. No; the reason is that Frank is an angry man with a massive arsenal who has acquired the habit of killing. Yes, so far he seems to be killing only the guilty. But what if Frank, an unaccountable lone wolf, gets it wrong and perpetrates a private miscarriage of justice? And what if, short fused killer that he is, he kills an innocent who happens to piss him off or get in the way, as he seems tempted to do with the old veteran? It's only the matter of time.

Justice must be accountable to the people. It belongs in the public sector, always. I suppose the Punisher, in a roundabout way, can be seen as an argument against the private sector involving itself in the justice system. The justice system can be unfair, ineffective, maddening, stupid, choodse your adjective. But the alternative is the abyss of anarchy and the hell of a failed state.

Matt is on stronger ground, I suppose, when he alludes to the never-ending cycle of revenge, which led Aeschylus to explain why we need a justice system some twenty-four centuries ago. It's a pity he never pursues this. But then again, it's appropriate that Matt can't out-argue the Punisher. Because the argument is one against vigilantism, which is wrong anyway. It's brave of Daredevil to lean into this, and shine that harsh glare on its hero.

Because the real heroes of this episode are Foggy, preventing bloodhed in a hospital by words alone. Karen, doing awesome research and playing ten dimensional chess with Blake Tower by sowing doubts about his boss, and most of all Claire, a nurse, the biggest hero in this whole damn episode.

Yep. This is good telly.

Daredevil: Dogs to a Gunfight

 "Maybe we created him...?"

Again, there's so much going on in this gripping and excellent episode. We still see little of the Punisher, lreaving the rumours from terrified Grotto (and an equally terrified Karen, who hints at hiding secret guilt) to shape how we feel about this terrifying ogre figure.His only speaking scene- Jon Bernthal's first- has his buying illicit stuff from a black market shop... and giving the proprietor a beating when he turns out to be selling underage porn.

Yet the morals of this are fully explored. We may feel a brief instinctive good feeling about this paedo, who profits from and indirectly creates such unspeakable suffering, getting a beating. But is this justice? As Aeschylus taught us, long ago, we need justice and not vendettas. With vendettas- as the police sergeant notes- not only the guilty ultimately suffer. And then there' the cycle of revenge. Justice may be imperfect, corrupt, unfair... but it's better than vigilantis,

And yet, this being the case, what of Daredevil...? Here we face the hard questions: the differences between DD and the Punisher are only ones of degree. Daredevil doesn't kill, but he uses violent force unsanctioned by an accountable state. And then there's the question, horrifying to Karen, of the Punisher being a copycat killer.

We see another argument between Matt- covering for him yet again after his shooting- and Foggy re Matt's extra-curricular activities. We are reminded of the firm's dire financial situation. And we see the easy bond between Foggy and Karen and the equally close but more complicated one between Karen and Matt which again hints at possible romantic feelings. Yet we also see Karen beginning to suspect that Matt- and indirectly Foggy- is not telling her something.

We meet the District Attorney, Reyes, a hard bitch who tries to push Foggy around until he starts being awesome. I've never heard of Reyes, but her deputy Blake Tower is a familiar figure from the comics, so I rather suspect she's not long for this world. We shall see.

We end with the tension of Grotto being double crossed and used as bait for the Punisher, as the Punisher and DD fight...

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 12: Better Angels

"This was you, not me!"

SPOILERS

It's the penultimate episode, and we begin with Dale's funeral oration. Dale was the group's heart, and is a true loss. He had a complex relationship with many- Glenn, certainly Andrea, and of course Carl, racked with guilt over his part in Dale's death, but he was in many ways the antithesis of Shane who, of course, shows his true colours and dies this episode. Yay!

Everyone is moving inside the house; at last the two groups are one. Lori has one last heart-to-heart with Shane, revealing that the baby she is carrying could be his; she just doesn't know. In hindsight this conversation could have hinted to me that Shane would die now, and not in the finale, but I remained oblivious.

We have a father and son talk between Rick and Carl that is simultaneously heartwarming and incredibly bleak: what kind of childhood can Carl expect, waiting until his parents probably die, and himself probably unlikely to survive to adulthood? It's symbolic when Rick hands him back the gun; he must put away childish things and be a man.

And so we come to Shane's devious yet probably opportunistic plot to kill Rick, and the final standoff where Shane pulls the gun on Rick and calls him a weak husband and father. And yet it's Rick who finally has the guts to kill, stabbing Shane with a knife. Not coldly, though; it upsets him to have to kill, but he does what he must.

The final scenes feel exactly right; Carl has secretly seen what happened, and pulls a gun, saving Rick from zombie Shane. This is a superb episode in which we wave goodbye to a superb villain, brilliantly portrayed by Jon Bernthal. Roll on the finale...

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 11: Judge Jury, Executioner

"They're gonna kill me, right?

Spoilers. You have been warned.

This is one of the best types of episodes of The Walking Dead: all about a big ethical dilemma now that civilisation has ended. Randall is a threat, as Daryl discovers by, er, torturing him. He has thirty well-armed rapist mates. So should the group kill him for the sake of their own safety?

Dale's view is a principled "no". Everyone else's view consists of multiple variations and degrees of "yes" because the group must be protected from the threat. My own view is, perhaps, more nuanced; in any civilised society, Dale would be right. But civilisation has literally ended; humanity is literally now living in small, palaeolithic-type bands, struggling to survive and struggling, beyond that, to pass on any inkling of modern tech, knowledge and philosophy. The aim is therefore not to behave according to a state of civilisation that no longer exists but to survive, and do what you can to contribute to the hopeful rebuilding of a civilisation where such acts are not done. For now, though, the group probably need to kill him, as quickly and humanely as possible. And feel awful about it, because to feel ok about it would be inhuman.

This is also a huge character episode, of course. Dale dies, courtesy of a lone and foreshadowed zombie, thinking the worst of everyone. There's a touching scene where Herschel shows Glen that he accepts him as his daughter's partner. Daryl hints gruffly to Dale that he doesn't much approve of Shane's psycho tendencies. The female characters are all a bit disappointingly passive in this testosterone-fuelled episode. Carl's behaviour is getting to be a bit of a worry. And the subtle joshing between Rick and Shane for the position of alpha male is getting close to a climax. Shane admits to Andrea that he wants to be boss, and Rick has lost face by not going through with shooting Randall.

A definite uptick in quality, then, although next episode could do with a bit more oestrogen.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 10: 18 Miles Out

“This is so pointless!"

This may be a quiet episode focusing on character- albeit with lots of exciting zombie action, and may have an unusually limited cast of characters, but that is a strength here, allowing us to focus on the relationships between the characters.

Firstly we have the macho alpha male contest between Rick, giving up perhaps too much ground under pressure on being repeatedly told by the psychopathic Shane that his conscience is a liability. As well as lots of arguing, fighting against zombies and themselves, and of course clearing the air over Lori, they have the dilemma over whether they should kill the kid they caught last episode who, it turns out, knows where Herschel's house is. Rick, arguably, ends up ceding the argument to Shane but he will at least have the decency to sleep on it before killing the boy.

Meanwhile, back at the house, a row between Lori and  Andrea pretty much centres on how Andrea, in standing guard against zombies, is getting out of the drudgery of the more traditional woman's work, a feminist subtext if ever there was one. But the main focus is on the hereto background character of Beth, who seems to be set on suicide, seeing no point in living post-zombie apocalypse, and the ethics of suicide and what to do with her are explored well and at length, with the pragmatic Andrea perhaps alienating herself from Maggie permanently. Beth lives, though.

This episode is well-written, compelling, and makes me certain that the main arc of this season is the conflict between Rick and Shane, and will end in Shane's death. We shall see...

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 9: Triggerfinger

"Rick? I keep you safe!"

These last episodes are a contrast between Rick and Shane as rival alpha males; Shane as the volatile and guilt-ridden disturbed individual who would do well as an analogue for Trump, and Rick as the decent man burdened by a conscience, honest enough to try and reason with a bunch of hostile gunmen having killed their friends in self-defence, sympathetic to Herschel and willing to save the life of an injured man whose friends had tried to kill him. It's a straight choice between them in a world where other humans can be as deadly as zombies. So far Dale is definitely for Rick but Andrea, horrifyingly, is under Shane's spell. Lori is coming to see through him very easily by now, but he wants her and is convinced the baby is his. I have a good idea where the season is going.

Meanwhile Glenn continues to be horribly immature about Maggie declaring her love for him, and Herschel is beginning to return to his old self, although he's certainly no friend of Shane's.

This is an episode of foreboding-laden set-up for Shane doing something bad; it's clear that he's the big bad of the season. This is the best episode in a while.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 8: Nebraska

"Get him off my land!"

It's the morning after the night before, and the shocking events, as the second season recommended in sober mood- although not necessarily with literal sobriety in the case of Herschel. Carol mourns poor Sophia, with Daryl also pretty damn upset. Shane continues to be a dangerously arrogant twat whose presence Herschel cannot tolerate, yet Herschel is desperately needed so that Lori's pregnancy can not be a death sentence. Fortunately Rick connects a little with Herschel in a bar; the formerly teetotal farmer has fallen off the wagon with the realisation that zombies are, in fact, not curable people but monsters, and that there is seemingly no hope.

Interestingly (foreshadowingly, perhaps, if that's an adjective), the main threat here is not from Zombies at all but from two random blokes in a bar and, of course, from Shane. Civilisation has broken down, a terrifying thing in itself.

On a more pleasant note Maggie declares her love for Glenn, but the young man seems not to be mature enough to deal with this. I expect that, after the birth of Lori's baby, she'll choose to leave with the gang. But Fort Benning is gone; where can they possibly go to?

We're clearly leading up to a massive showdown with Shane, who surely cannot survive the season. I fear, though, for Dale. I also wonder, well-written though the characters are, how we can possibly fill another four episodes before this happens.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 7: Pretty Much Dead Already

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!"

This is the half-season finale. Knowing this tells us it's going to be heavy and dramatic. And it is; from the moment at the start where Glenn cracks and tells the whole gang that there's a "barn full of walkers" it's inevitable that the two groups are going to be sundered apart and it isn't going to be nice.  But the final moments are not predictable at all.

Things are downbeat. Rick has to beg Herschel to let them all stay; childbirth on the run without medical supplies would be a death sentence. But with Shane around and the inevitable upcoming conflict it's all hopeless. And even Carol is losing hope in finding Sophia, much to Daryl's discuss. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.

Yes, Maggie argues with her dad to let them all stay and yes, she sort of reconciles with Glenn, but these are slim pickings in a gloriously doom-laden episode. Shane is increasingly unhinged and,hearing about the baby, is sure that it is his. That's bound to cause friction later. There are signs of John st how far gone he is as he hands out guns in open defiance of the principled Herschell's wishes, and there's an atmosphere of deep foreboding until Shane starts to shoot and kill all the zombies in the arm. The most horrible thing is saved till last, though- one of them is Sophia, and Carol has to watch as Rick shoots down the thing that she has become...

This half-season has gone on far too long. But this episode, at least, is magnificent.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 6: Secrets

"There's walkers in the barn and Lori's pregnant!"

This is an episode of revelations and, again, a very well written treatment of the characters but... isn't this season going awfully slowly?

We now know why Herschel wants Rick and co to leave so quickly- he's keeping his zombie family members in the barn from a heartrendingly stubborn belief that they're just sick people who can one day be cured- an attitude that has been much hinted at; he's a good man, but not the kind of good man this new world needs. Especially as Glenn is pants at keeping secrets.

There's an underlying theme here, established visually at the start, of carnivorousness and the food chain, an ominous metaphor. This apparent stability at the farm now seems all the more illusory with all these secrets. It's hard to adjust to this new world, as we see with Lori and Rick arguing over whether Carl should learn to shoot- and whether Lori should keep the baby. It's unquestionably Rick's; her angst, it seems, is far more existential. What sort of life could the baby have? Yet humanity must endure.

Maggie is furious at Glenn and therefore, this being TV drama with all its attendant tropes, ends up aggressively kissing him as the prelude to some no doubt angry sex. Shane, fresh from kissing his shooting pupil Andrea, is accused by Dale of not telling the truth about Otis; showing a truly dark side. I doubt either of them will survive the season.

It's a heartwarming ending, though, with Lori and Rick coming to terms over the baby- and he knows, of course he does, about her and Shane, and understands. Rick is a good man.

All this is plenty of evidence of good writing, I suppose. I just wish something would happen.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 5: Chupacabra

"Don't be too hard on yourself. We've all wanted to shoot Daryl."

Again we begin with a flashback, this time of Lori, Shane and Carl making their way away from the many others fleeing and observing as Atlanta gets napalmed. It makes you appreciate the sheer horror of events while Rick was asleep and how they were just trying to do what was best. It's a contrast to the present day where a darker, balder, nastier Shane wants to give up the search for Sophia.

Where is Sophia? This sub-plot is being dragged out so long that she can't simply be dead. Daryl is certainly dedicated to finding her, leading to his accident and his getting unfortunately shot by Andrea. Worst of all, he has a hallucination of his deeply unpleasant brother that feels, at first, as though Merle is genuinely back. Foreshadowing?

There's a fascinating conversation between Dale and Glenn which illustrates, again, how women's rights have gone backwards, subtly and otherwise, since civilisation ended. Maggie is a grown woman, but Dale is terrified that Glenn may have offended their host Herschel by sleeping with his daughter Maggie. She is, in a sense, property; that's the implication.

We end with an awkward dinner showcasing tension between the two groups, and Glenn discovering that Herschell is keeping a bunch of zombies in a hidden place. It's quite a cliffhanger, and quite a well-crafted plot line as ever, but this season is beginning to feel a little too slow-paced.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 4: Cherokee Rose

"I'll have sex with you!"

There's an uplifting beginning to this more contemplative and less intense episode as Carl wakes, and he's ok. God-bothering patrician type Herschel conducts a moving Christian funeral for Otis which includes the inevitable awkward moment for Shane. But, underneath it all, Sophia is still missing, and it's been so long. We, being seasoned viewers of television, are quite aware that so much narrative time being spent on the search for her is unlikely to end in an anticlimax, but the characters don't. So it's fitting that the title of the episode refers to a moving gesture of hope from Daryl to Melissa.

Rick manages to negotiate with Herschel for his tribe to stay there for a while, and there's a spot of bother with a zombie in a well. Lori seems to be pregnant, and Maggie and Glenn take advantage of a rare bit of privacy to have a bit of a shag, taking what joy they can from their bleak and likely short existences. Still, both of these things recognise that life goes on.

Still, whose baby is it? Another brilliant episode, and this is shaping up to be another excellent season.