‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Sick’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

It is definitely safe to say that the AMC series, The Walking Dead, is one of the smartest horror stories to ever hit the airwaves. Because it has always made use of social commentary and observations about the human condition to tell its harrowing tales and in doing so, it has provided its loyal fan base with powerful stories. The kind that explores, how the human spirit endures in times of strife and how we process grief and loss and in its later years, it has explored, in great detail… our follies and our missteps and how we can be our own worst enemy because of fear and greed and indulgence of the darkness that sadly resides in all of us. But that particular examination and the hard questions the final season has been asking about humanity, needed some kind of genesis point… since big questions grow from little ones and it just so happens that the second episode of season three, was that jump off point.

For ‘Sick’ is a story that took the time to examine our arrogance and our selfishness and how those elements can prevent us from working together and motivate us to harm and fear one another and it accomplished that feat... by introducing our group of heroes to a somewhat unsavory one. For the jailbirds that briefly made an appearance in the last episode, wherein they watched Rick slice off Hershel’s leg… took the center stage in this story. For they were locked away in the pantry for months on end and didn’t have a clue as to what happened to the outside world and well, once they learned about the end of everything and were given a chance to peacefully coexist with Rick and his family and friends… is when the exploration in question, got underway. Because unfortunately, the leader of the prison group, Tomas… saw this alliance as an opportunity for more.

Wherein he could be the leader this prison needed and where he could be admired at last, and all he had to do… was get Rick out of the way. A feat that was no easy task because Rick Grimes sees all and spotted the treachery, to the point where when the opportunity arose to deal with Tomas and his pseudo-right-hand man, Andrew… he took it and killed one of them for certain. Which of course, brought about peace and new allies since everything was copacetic now with the remaining prisoners that didn’t want trouble. But what matters more here, is the subtle commentary, and how the story spotlighted that the same problems that plagued humanity before the end, were still out there and at the time… few of us had a clue that such problems would continue to pop up down the line. Because at first glance, this appears to be a one off, courtesy of some rightfully broken men. But this was the genesis point that would kick off a bevy of explorations on how the living would be a bigger problem than the dead and it was quite amazing to see that take shape here. 

However, while it was incredible to see the commentary that would shape the future of the franchise come to life in this tale, there were more poignant moments to be found here. After all, Hershel spent the entirety of this episode, knocking on death’s door. For his wound was ugly and his health was in rough shape because of it and for quite some time… it appeared as though a major character death was coming. One that would break our hearts, and that allowed for so many people in this tale, to ponder upon the nature of death going forward and how best to process it at a time when living death is everywhere, and when endless danger wouldn’t allow for a standard grieving process and that too made this moment a genesis point. For the show would explore a great deal of that in later years and in many ways… this sequence was designed to prepare us for the worst. Since season three would in fact, be a bloodbath when it came to the principal cast.

But thankfully, Hershel lived, and peace came to this group once again and in the end, this was just a solid… fast paced tale. One that offered up creepy moments and dark humor, courtesy of the prisoners’ attempts to ‘kill’ the living dead, and of course… set the stage for so much more. Because you really see the formation of what this show would stand for in this story and that’s incredible. Since it gives us grand perspective on the journey that is about to end and well, now that we’ve reached the end of the beginning so to speak… we can turn our attention to another examination of evil. Specifically, what can drive normal people into evil’s mottled and waiting arms and truly, this writer cannot write to dive into that particular tale, one that would introduce us to a nasty and enigmatic and oddly charming villain. Until next time.

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