What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead (Season Finale)

The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 6 “TS-19” (B+)

And just moments after they found a safe haven, it’s completely gone. That night of heavy drinking and hot showers had to lead to something grim because, after all, this show is hopelessly grim, though it executes its bleakness so magnificently. There’s little I love more than a flashback to “before the storm,” and the shot of the gurney blocking the door to Rick’s hospital room leading into the opening credits was terrific. Watching the soldiers shoot the patients in the head was pretty terrifying, and having Rick sleep through the beginnings of this outbreak has thus far allowed us to skip that time and only see what’s happened after the apocalypse is already underway. At the CDC, Rick and his tired crew aren’t even allowed twenty-four hours of bliss before the dejected doctor delivers his grim prognosis and tries to keep them all locked inside the center. This is the kind of show where anyone is truly vulnerable, and therefore I thought that Andrea and Dale might in fact end their lives rather than face whatever’s out there. This finale represents a movement back to square one, but with the knowledge that the one hope for salvation was useless, and now the crew will simply have to move from place to place trying desperately to stay alive. Fortunately, we’ll have almost a full year (Halloween 2011, reports say) until the show returns, and I’m sure anticipation will be sky-high by then. The pilot was fantastic, and the rest of the season was strong. I’m eager to see what’s in store for season two.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Lennie James as Morgan