***WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the current season of The Walking Dead.***

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Well, at least they finally found Sophia.

That was the main thought swirling through my head following this week’s mid-season finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Like some of the folks I’ve talked to about the show since it’s return, I’d grown tired of the story and longed for them to just find her already. Still, the story served it’s purpose in that it gave the characters a reason to stay where they were, and allow the drama between them to play out.

Loosely based on a story arc that played out in the comics, this season saw Rick and Lori’s son Karl mistakenly shot by a deer hunter. The hunter leads the group back to a farm owned by Hershel, a conservative traditionalist who believes the walkers (a.k.a. the zombies) are simply sick people, as opposed to undead killing machines. All the while, Sophia has gone missing after being chased off during a walker attack. Her mother Carol is grief-stricken as the party searches for her while staying at the farm. While many in the party would be content to stay at the farm permanently, Herschel is intent on them leaving in the near future.

While on a search to find Sophia, Rick’s best friend and former cop Shane shoots Otis (the hunter who shot Karl) and leaves him for dead so that he can survive an attack. This in turn brings out a more dangerous, merciless side to Shane, which conflicts with Rick’s tendency to try and negotiate with Herschel. which races to the forefront when he discovers that Herschel’s family has been hiding zombies in their barn in hope of a cure one day being available for them. With everyone looking on, Shane breaks open the barn, and what is essentially a mass execution follows, as the walkers are shot one by one. Then, to their horror, a zombified Sophia emerges from the barn. Rick, taking a page from Shane’s book, takes on Sophia himself.

Amidst all of this, Rick’s wife Lori is pregnant.

Needless to say, there’s a lot going on here. But you’d be surprised at how often this show can be rather dull. I suspect that’s a product of the show being given more time this season, with 13 episodes in stead of six. I’m all for that, as I love long form storytelling. But when you have trouble holding your audience’s interest, the product suffers. But AMC also has to shoulder some of the blame, as they’ve been doing a decent amount of cost cutting on the show recently, which has led to fewer zombie scenes, as well as more time spent in the confines of Herschel’s farmhouse. Those factors, combined with the growing pains that TV shows simply have to face sometimes, have led to this season a bit watered down compared to last year.

The comic book, as great as it is, can be the same way some times. That’s why I have trouble reading it an issue at a time. It’s sometimes difficult for the book to hold my interest on a month-to-month basis, especially now that many of the characters we started with (many of whom were the inspiration for the characters we’re seeing on the show) are gone now. When I read an entire Walking Dead graphic novel, it’s fantastic. When I read a single Walking Dead issue, it can be hard to stay focused.

Still, they payoff for all the build up was certainly worth it. For some reason, I thought the group was going to find Sophia alive and well. That’s a sort of hope that usually isn’t rewarded in this world of zombies and mayhem. The fact that she was in Hershel’s barn the whole time was a delightfully cruel twist of fate. Though they were tirelessly combing the woods for her, she was with them the whole time. I’ve greatly enjoyed the relationship between Glenn and Maggie, as those two actors have great chemistry together. The Daryl character, who doesn’t exist in the comics, is also interesting to watch. The episode where he gets injured in the woods and has to survive on his own for awhile is among the season’s highlights thus far. Andrew Lincoln, Joe Bernthal and Sarah Wayne Callies continue to give fantastic performances, providing the show’s conscience and emotional anchor. Scott Wilson is also the perfect choice to play Hershel.

All in all, the show is still pretty good. But it requires more patience than it used to. For (*ahem*) die-hard fans of the comic, and now the show, that shouldn’t be a problem. And so long as the payoffs stay as good as they were for this mid-season finale, it won’t be a problem for me either.

All images from amctv.com.