We find out who the mysterious voice inside tank is at the beginning of this episode. It’s a young survivor named Glenn and he helps Rick escape from the tank by being his eyes from the outside. Once they meet up Glenn introduces Rick to the rest of the survivors, holed up in a department store. They are angry with Rick for shooting up the street and show him all of the zombie attention he has drawn to the department store. Zombies are piled up against the glass and slowly cracking it, about to get in. We switch over to the roof of the department store and tensions run high between a Black man named T-Dog and a racist redneck, named Merle Dixon (played by Michael Rooker). In an unrelated side note, I found myself thinking Merle Dixon looks exactly like Francis from Left 4 Dead, leather vest and all!
Rick handcuffs Merle to a pipe on the roof after he attacks the group, and they decide to leave the bastard up there to rot. T-Dog’s conscience gets the better of him and he returns to the roof before leaving and attempts to free Merle, he drops the key down a pipe and all is lost. Goodnight Merle, enjoy your own personal easy bake oven.
Glenn steals an awesome Dodge Challenger and the group makes it’s escape as he distracts the zombie mob with the car alarm. They head off into the sunset and head towards the survivor camp we saw briefly in episode one. Little does Rick know, but his family reunion is rapidly approaching…
Although I did enjoy this episode, I felt it didn’t have the same impact the series opener did. This is to be expected though, every Television show needs to open with a powerful and memorable first episode to establish it’s viewer base. The first episode was a difficult one to top. Episode two introduced the viewers to a group of new survivors, some good, some bad. Merle Dixon in particular is a character that is going to be recurring on the show, even though the events of this episode would lead us to believe otherwise. I have a feeling he is going to pose many a problem for the core group. This episode was a transitional episode, a piece of meat stuck in between the bread of the episode that came before it and will come after. Now the group is on the way back to meet up with the other survivors at camp, a big powerful episode is expected next as Rick meets up with his Wife and Son, and other survivors meet up with their friends and loved ones.
