Nobody really knew what to expect from the second season ofThe Walking Dead.
The six-episode first season featured significant departures from the plotline of the original graphic novel.
But, after a slow start,Deads new season picked up considerably in the last couple of weeks.
Credit: Gene Page/AMC
And that was just a warm-up for tonights midseason finale.
Diplomatic Rick sought to make peace with Hershel; militant Shane wanted to kill them all.
Shane got his way in a horrifyingly extended sequence.
Then, though, the knife-twist.
And thus, the season-long Search for Sophia plotline came to a horrifying, bleak conclusion.
Sophias final fate made much of this season seem darkly funny in hindsight.
(Remember when Daryl found the pretty flower and said it proved theyd find Sophia?
It was just a stupid flower!
There is no God!)
It was a great payoff, especially when Rick stepped forward to put a mercy bullet in her corpse-skull.
In the meantime, start the conversation!
And remember: No moreDeaduntil February 12.
