The Walking Dead (2011) – Season Two, Episode Four

Nov 29, 2011
Hari Navarro

The Walking Dead (2011) – Dir. Billy Gierhart - © AMC

"Cherokee Rose" finds Sophia still very lost, a waterlogged walker, an impulsive sex scene & a further shifting of the sands of betrayal & self preservation

The Walking Dead (Synopsis) – Season 2, Episode 4: "Cherokee Rose" (Spoilers Ahead)

The Walking Dead saga continues with its now obviously altered pace. Passing on the frenetic momentum of the inaugural first series, one that had but six all too fleeting episodes, the story structure is now stretched to encompass a thirteen episode run.

"Cherokee Rose" follows our core group of survivors as they find uncertain, and deceptively stable, sanctuary within the sprawling rural estate that is home to mysterious patriarch Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson).

Lies – White and Black

Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) is still recovering from the accidental gunshot wound that played catalyst to the now multi-layering story arch. His father Rick (Andrew Lincoln) falsely reassuring him that Sophia (Madison Lintz) is safe and well, when in fact she is still missing.

The straggling remainder of the group, those who had stayed at the roadblock in case young Sophia had somehow made her way back there, also now arrive at the farm. Somewhat to Hershel’s chagrin they then proceed to set up camp on his property. We are here again tossed the lingering hint that he is guardian to many secrets and that all is definitely not as it appears.

There is a brief opening scene in which the group come together for a memorial service to remember Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince). Shane (Jon Bernthal) is called upon to relate the last moments of Otis' life, as only he was there and only he knows the ‘truth’ regarding the manner in which he died. After initially being reluctant to speak Shane further cements the lie by exalting Otis and telling of how he sacrificed his own life so that Carl, and in affect Shane, could live. In actuality, it was Shane who betrayed Otis (he shot him in the leg in sacrifice to the flesh starved horde gnashing at their heels) so as to save his own life.

An All But Fruitless Search

The search for Sophia continues in a far more organized fashion with Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) taking the lead. Both Shane and Rick are injured so it is left to Daryl to put his tracking and survival skills to good use. He duly finds an abandoned homestead deep in the forest and signs that someone had perhaps been camping there. He also discovers a newly blossomed Cherokee Rose, this forms the subtext for the episode as he presents the flower to Sophia’s grieving mother Carol (Melissa McBride). As he does this he also relates the Native American folklore that accompanies the plant, in that it is seen as a sign that the gods are looking over those (children) that are lost.

There’s Something in the Water

Whilst retrieving water from one of the farms many wells a ‘walker’ is discovered. Refraining from simply shooting it (the water source then saved from contamination) it is decided that Glenn (Steven Yeun) will be lowered down the well so that he might attached a rope to the bloated and grotesque creature at its base. All, of course, does not go smoothly and Glenn narrowly escapes being attacked. Though he does manage to attach the line and the walker is slowly dragged to the surface. Just as it seems that it is safely out of the well the line snags and the creature is unceremoniously torn in two, its lower torso plummeting back into the well and therefore destroying all of the groups’ hard work.

Hershel’s daughter Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) and Glen are sent, on horseback, into town to retrieve extra medical supplies from the local pharmacy. Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) cryptically asks Glenn too discretely find for her an item, one that he will have best chance of finding in the stores 'Feminine Hygiene Section'.

After an uneventful and almost silent ride into town Maggie catches Glenn of guard by offering to have sex with him. Initially driven by loneliness and a sense of futility this is a relationship that soon gathers depth, though it also threatens to uncover many of the Greene family’s darker secrets.

Back at the farm Rick and Hershel discuss the prospect of the group staying on and consolidating there place on the farm. A notion that Hershel all but rejects, agreeing only to consider it on the proviso that certain of his ‘rules’ are closely adhered too.

With Rick sitting at Carl's beside, confiding that he had previously lied and Sophia was still nowhere to be found, Lori steels off into the half-lit night. She has the item that Glenn had retrieved for her, a pregnancy test. The closing frame confirms that the test is in fact positive and that she is pregnant.

Stay tuned for coverage of the fifth episode in this series of thirteen,"Chupacabra".