'The Walking Dead' delivers a shocking new episode
'The Walking Dead,' which recently had an upcoming twist revealed on the AMC website, still manages to surprise viewers in a new episode
'The Walking Dead' cast and producers discuss the show during the TCA Winter Press Tour in January.
Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters
(This recap features MAJOR SPOILERS for the episode ‘Judge, Jury, Executioner.’ Stop Reading If you have not yet seen the episode.)
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After the well-paced zombie killing antics of last week’s ‘18 Miles Out,’ The Walking Dead returns to where it is more comfortable, by focusing on the internal squabbles of the survivors – but this time the argument centers on the worth of a man’s life. While everyone else seems to think executing Randall (Michael Zegen) is in the group’s best interest, Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) does his best to dissuade whomever he can in ‘Judge, Jury, Executioner.’
Randall’s future looks pretty bleak from the onset, as the group’s resident ear collector (Daryl) puts his apparent apathy to good use by torturing the young man for information regarding the group he was traveling with. Daryl (Norman Reedus) knocks Randall around for a bit, but when he’s not getting the right kind of answers, puts his knife in Randall’s gnarly leg wound from ‘Triggerfinger.’ The cringe inducing technique is enough to get Randall to spill the beans on what kind of group he’s been with, and the details are less than encouraging (The Governor, perhaps?).
Supported by the information that Randall’s companions are both heavily armed and prone to violence toward women, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) finds it difficult to see another solution besides killing him. Naturally, having championed (read: forced) Andrea (Laurie Holden) into choosing life at the end of last season, the sentence of death does not sit well with Dale.
‘Judge, Jury, Executioner’ takes a David Milch (Luck) approach to storytelling, in that it begins in the morning and plays out until the end of a single day. Most of that day is spent with Dale visiting various members of the group, and begging them to take his side with regards to the execution of Randall. He first visits Andrea, and manages enough of an appeal that the former civil rights lawyer agrees to stand watch, lest anyone (read: Shane) get the idea to remove Randall ahead of schedule.
Next, Dale meets with Daryl and Hershel, but to little avail. Hershel seems wracked with self-doubt after the barn incident and is driven mainly by a need to protect his daughters, so Hershel places his faith in Rick. On the other hand, seeing as how Daryl happily bloodied his knuckles with Randall’s face, it’s a wonder Dale even bothered talking with him. The discussion does raise the notion that the group is broken, and once more brings up the fact that everyone seemingly knew Shane (Jon Bernthal) killed Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince), but no one – especially Rick – was bothered by it enough to do anything about it.
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