HO...LEEE profanityZENPHLAGAM!


Just finished last night's episode!!!!!!!!!

The fallout with Dale....the community coming together...dealing with the little piss ant in the barn...Rick and Shane's walk and final end.


The way the episode ended...I literally had my hands on my mouth just effing aghast. WOW.

To the haters who thought this would be a crap episode that would only do somethin shocking in the last few minutes to build up for the season finale...

YOU WERE RIGHT! Except for the part about it being a crap episode, and only leading up to the end for the finale.

Good call!

 

-----signature-----

Great episode. I'm looking forward to the third season and of course the finale next week.

As for the AR-15s/M-16s there are a number of reasons why you probably don't see too many of them in peoples' hands:

1) It's a fairly complex weapon that takes a bit of time to master compared to a typical bolt action rifle or even a 1911/M92 style pistol which are among the most "complex" handguns in popular use on the show and in reality.

2) If the "noise" factor is one to concern yourself with, the AR-15 is FARGING LOUD. For example, if you ever had to use one in a home defense situation, you might well wind up with permanent hearing damage.

3) Conservation of ammo is not exactly going to be easy with a full auto (M-16 military version) or even semi-auto (AR-15 civilian version) rifle and you'd better be able to get your hands on a ton of it if you want those rifles to be anything more than expensive hammers. It looks like all the ammo shops and whatnot were pretty much overrun and/or inaccessible by the time Rick met back up with the group.

On the other side of the argument are the facts that:

a) This is the South - there are a SIHTTON of AR-15s in civilian homes down there, I'd bet my own gun collection on that - so there would be a PILE of them in homes as well as a pile of ammo readily available.

b) Rick raided a police arms locker when he got out of the hospital and I can't remember if I saw any AR-15s or M-16s in that bag - (and I can't remember if he lost that bag of guns either).

c) The M4 carbine pictured in the above would be an EXCELLENT weapon for people on the move if they could master the operation of it due to the fact that that particular configuration is optimized for close quarters combat and multiple operators with the adjustable stock and so forth.


Either way, it's at least somewhat plausible that there are no or very few AR-15/M-16s in the group's arsenal for the time being at least.


As for the Shane, Randall zombie thing - yeah it appears that if you die, and your brain is intact, you will become a zombie in the environment now - this is an interesting plot angle because it accomplishes several things:

1) It stops all the concern about blood splatter and scratches and possible infection - thus letting characters fight and get bloody and not risk turning themselves as a result as long as they don't die.

2) It provides an opportunity for there to be a cure - which may not cure those already zombified, but which may cure those who remain so that they don't propagate the zombification.


Other spoilers - I was a little chagrined to see Carl point that 1911 at Rick (which he was doing before Zombie Shane stood up). That boy needs some serious attitude adjusting. I am annoyed at the death of Shane though as I thought his character was a big value to the story and that his decline into madness was partially reasonable, but in the end, was exaggerated in order to force the outcome in the plot. After his big dust up with Rick in last week's episode and after the whole talk with Lorie, I would have thought that Shane could have gotten it together. Of course, maybe he decided he wanted to check out and wanted to do so in a way that would let Rick live with himself for doing it and so he was being "crazy like a fox" to goad Rick into killing him. Maybe he just didn't want to live anymore with no chance of having Lorie and everything else gone to siht. Or maybe he was crazier than a sihthouse rat...

Additionally, now the group doesn't know about Randall's group that was about 5 miles from the farm since Shane died without passing that info on - I wonder if the zombies that approached the farm were the remnants of that group or if they were just other zombies not connected to Randall's group on their usual Zombie roam. This information provided a potential point of redemption for Shane. He had an opportunity to say "Look, Randall told me his group was and maybe still is camped about 5 miles from the farm, we gotta be aware and possibly go deal with that, and that's why I killed the little siht!" This would have been the thing to do for someone REALLY concerned about the safety of Carl and Lorie and the group... so maybe he was just crazy... Finally, I KNEW Randall was a fkn liar and still think they should have offed him earlier anyway.

 

-----signature-----

FYI, they had to kill Shane off. He was leaving the show.

 

-----signature-----

yeah but with the incoming zombie horde, more people are going to die, I think

 

-----signature-----

I know, and I know that he's lived longer in the show than he did in the comic. I also know that this spoiler was confirmed in an intentional or accidental leak last week. That doesn't mean I have to like it lol.

 

-----signature-----

I agree with a lot of your points Cawlin, but like you said this is the south. I own mutliple ar's and other weapons like shotguns, muzzle loaders, pistols etc.......

I have 300-400 rounds of 5.56 in storage now, if you add up all my ammo I have over a 1000 rds, that is minus the bricks of .22 ammo I have.

it doesnt even have to be a ar rifle,just any rifle capable of accepting a large magazine.

I find it odd that not one of them has a assault rifle,considering Rick raided the cop shop armory and not one of them thought to pick up a m-16 off a dead solider.

yes a 5.56 is loud as hell but no louder than that bolt action 30 aught 6/.270 hunting rifle dale kept using.

this is where they could've have loaded up on guns and ammo, and replaced the vehicles with at least some humvee's and maybe a ma deuce truck.
hell they could've commandeered a abrams.

 

-----signature-----

I hear you loud and clear. I am a reloader and have a LOT of ammo at home lol. When I buy a weapon in a new caliber, I pretty much go out and get enough brass to load up 1k rounds of it.

I feel like a M-16/AR-15 is louder than a typical hunting rifle but maybe it's just because it always surprises me how loud the 5.56 round is for its size relative to 30 cal ammo... either way though yes, as for attracting zombies, I guess there's no *effective* difference in the volume of the gun shots.

I will have to go back and watch the episode where Rick loads up in the police armory - it's not unreasonable to consider that some smaller local police forces haven't all gotten equipped with AR-15s yet and are still using Win 94s and/or Rem. 700s or whatever... I dunno, maybe that's a stretch too, or maybe when the SHTF the cops all passed out the ARs and so the armories were empty of them...

When all is said and done though, from a practical standpoint, I would not want to put just your generic AR-15/M-16 into the hands of a possibly first time gun user - the weapon is complicated to use relatively, and of course in the event of a malfunction, is hard for a novice to get running again...

Now, if you're versed in operating such a rifle - it's a great choice imo. I wouldn't want to see Andrea or T-dog for example trying to figure out an AR-15 on the fly in the midst of a skirmish with zombies... but then it takes a lot more skill to use a pistol effectively - setting aside complexity of operation.

I still say it's plausible, if only *just plausible* that they have no proper battle rifles in the group.

That shot that Carl made on Zombie Shane last night was like the impossible dream for his limited trainng. A single shot, one handed too wasn't it? I can't quite remember. In the head, at about 20 yards... that's a tall order for a 10 year old kid.

 

-----signature-----

Karl had both hands on the gun when he fired that shot.

That being said, there's no way he would have pulled off that shot. An emotional shakey kid, no way.

Rick is lucky Karl didn't shoot him in the face.

I knew Karl was going to be the one to finish Shane off. I saw that coming a mile away. What I didn't know is that it would be Zombie Shane, of course that became apparent when they discovered the prisoner roaming around the woods with a broken neck. (which I don't get, broken neck = quadriplegic).

 

-----signature-----

Errr you do realize that in the first season there was a zombie that was dragging itself around just by its arms as it was completely severed in half and was only torso and up That virus apparently doesn't use neurons or any normal muscle action to animate the corpse.

 

-----signature-----

if everyone is infected, how come the dude didn't reanimate after Shane snapped his neck?