A fitting title for this week’s episode of The Walking Dead but sadly the “Cherokee Rose” wilted more than it blossomed. After what was the best episode since the pilot last week the show slowed down it’s pace but that’s not to say it didn’t have some good moments – especially for Glenn. The episode started off well with the burial of Otis putting a lot of pressure on Shane as he tried his best to re-invent the truth of what happened at the school. This then took a swan dive, almost literally for Glenn, into the pretty pointless zombie fishing experiment.

We heard from Maggie, no less than 10 minutes before, that there are 5 wells on the farm. Ok, so when Dale and the much more active T-Dog discover the zombie tribute to Sadako trapped down well number 2 they decide that they’ve gotta bring it out alive to prevent water contamination.

Obviously this was going to spell trouble and chaos ensued when the rusted pump collapsed, but after getting Glenn out they figured they’d use the horse to drag out the deep Z diver instead. So why not use the horse in the first place? or even more logically – use another well? And who would want to drink water that a zombie had been bathing in? Seeing the guts spill out back into the well was pretty gruesome and T-Dog putting what was left out of it’s misery was fun to watch, but ultimately it felt like this scene was only there to give us our weekly fix of the undead.

Maggie’s reaction to this was interesting and there have been a few disapproving glances between her and Hershel when the others have killed walkers. This looks like it could cause some conflict later on.

The best part of the episode for me was without a doubt seeing Glenn get a reward for all of his well wading and supply missions. Or maybe this was a bit of karma for saving Rick’s ass way back in the second episode. Fans of the comics would have known this was coming and so probably weren’t surprise when the pair decide to get it on right there in the store. What would have been nice would have been if the pair had an unexpected guest – remember two’s company, three’s necrophilia.

As most of the stronger male characters were recovering from one thing or another the only real action would have come from Daryl in his search for the missing girl. Although he didn’t find much other than a ‘Cherokee Rose’ and a used can of tuna it was insightful to see another side to his character when he spoke with Susanne. He seems to have really developed since we first met him and as he’s not in the comics it will be good to see what the writers decide to do with him and his brother, should he reappear.

The tempo of this episode was in many ways a let down compared to the magnitude of “Save the last one”, but there were some key moments to keep the story flowing and the development of Lori’s pregnancy is going to add more depth to the storyline in the coming weeks.

6/10

Scene of the episode – GLENN GETTING SOME!

Reviewed by Rich Jepson, cult TV enthusiast and author of 24: Terrorism Through Television.