The Walking Dead, Ep. 302, Sick

The Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 2: Sick

TV rating

TV-14

ZPAA rating

Teens and up

Gore level

8.5 out of 10--In addition to the leftover amputated leg from last episode, there is plenty of bloody mayhem in this episode, including more than one human-on-human killing; one zombie tears his hand off to get out of cuffs; typical zombie impalements, bashing, and decapitating.

Other offensive content

Some bad language; some betrayal of trust; marital strife.

How much zombie mythology/content

Nothing new in this episode.

How much fun

I did laugh a couple of times which was clearly intentional on the part of the writers.

Synopsis & Review

This episode was entirely restricted to the prison, as Rick and his group deal with some unzombified prisoners. Five prisoners had been locked in a cafeteria before everything went pear-shaped and only come out because the group ran into them. The prisoners' story is that a guard left them one handgun and locked them in till things calmed down. That was ten months ago. They've been surviving off a large store of food. Naturally there are trust issues between them and Rick's folks. Rick makes a deal to clean out another cell block for the prisoners; in exchange Rick will get half of their horde of food. The leader of the prisoner group agrees, though tensions remain high.

Meanwhile, they've taken Hershel back to the rest of the survivors in Cell Block C where they care for his amputated leg. A lot of tension remains here as well, considering that if Hershel dies he will turn zombie. Maggie is ready to let go of her daddy but her sister Beth still holds hope, which causes strife. Glenn is left to watch over things and take care of Hershel if he dies and comes back. Hershel is also important since Lori is due to give birth any day now and he is the most medically able. He was teaching Carol but she is not ready. She has a crazy plan to practice on some female zombies in case Lori needs a c-section.

The episode is very exciting and tense but seems to have left not a lot of things hanging for next episode, except for the hint that someone is spying on the prison. Is it Andrea and Michonne, who we haven't seen this episode? Or someone else?

Rick and Lori have an important talk about how they are doing as a family. Lori is convinced she's a bad mother and wife. Rick's leadership role is distancing him from everyone and the lingering doubt about who is her baby's father causes a barrier between them. They seem like they want to reconcile but it looks like a long road ahead for them.