“Trapped” explains most characters predicaments in “Triggerfinger,” the ninth episode of “The Walking Dead” Season 2.
Lori is quite literally trapped in the car she flipped last week after hitting a walker on her way to finding Rick, Hershel and Glenn. A gloriously gory zombie shoves his face in the car’s shattered window, trying to gnaw at her brain, but rather than act dazed or even slightly confused, Lori manages to shove a handy rod into the walker’s eye, and shoot another zombie who hobbled on over looking for some leftovers. No scraps for you, zombie guy, just a bullet to the brain. Later, Shane finds Lori walking on the road. Only by lying to her — saying Rick and the others have returned to the farm — is he able to convince her to return with him.
But Rick, Hershel and Glenn aren’t back at the farm. And they certainly aren’t having an easier time escaping their own predicament from last week. After convincing Hershel to stop moping and drinking at the town bar, the guys were approached by two men from another band of survivors. The pair wanted in on some of that sweet farm action; Rick insisted they find somewhere else to go. He got his point across by shooting them dead.
So of course the rest of the “outsider” survivors show up at the bar after hearing shots fired. The farm trio is reluctant to let their presence be known, until Glenn slams the bar door on the intruders as they try to enter. The outsiders’ repeated “Who’s in there?” cries are answered by Rick’s “They drew on us!” defense, as if that is considered an acceptable motive in a friend’s murder. And so begins a shootout with an unknown number of outsiders, which, unfortunately — and by “unfortunately” we actually mean “awesomely” — attracts an unknown number of walkers to the bar. The farm crew dodges bullets until the outsiders stop firing — that’s when the approaching zombie mass becomes the bigger threat to all. (One of the outsiders, shot by Glenn, already had his nose bitten off by a walker, after all.) The outsider driving the getaway car calls to the outsider sniper on the roof to get his ass in the truck. The outsider sniper jumps — and impales his leg on a fence. His “friend” drives away.
Up until now the farm crew has shown no sympathy for the outsiders. But Mr. Outsider Sniper gets a free pass from Rick, Hershel and Glenn: 1. Because he has been impaled by a fence and 2. He’s pretty young. Also, there’s a hungry zombie hoard getting dangerously close, which makes this one of the season’s most memorable action sequences. Rick doesn’t want to leave Outsider Sniper. Hershel says in that case, they have to amputate his leg. Outsider Sniper screams, “Don’t cut off my leg!” Glenn shouts, “We’ve got to go!” The walkers mumble, “Arrrrrrrrrgh!” Rick says, “I can’t hold them off!” Outsider Sniper wails, “Please don’t leave me!”
And so Rick rips Outsider Sniper’s leg off the fence so they can escape.
Things are less bloody back at the farm. Carol and Daryl have a tense argument, both still expressing grief over the death of Sofia (those two are totally going to hook up, aren’t they?). Shane and Lori argue over Shane’s incessant lies and dangerous actions in the name of “helping” the group. Lori swears she never loved him, not even when she thought Rick was dead and the world went to hell and zombies became their neighbors. Shane confides in Andrea that they’re the only two willing to make the right sacrifices for the good of the group, which is the moment Andrea becomes president of Team Shane. Team Rick gets its own president after Rick, Hershel and Glenn return to the farm — with a recovering Outsider Sniper (whose real name is Randall) in the backseat. Shane says bringing an outsider to the farm is going to spark a war with other survivors. Hershel says this is my farm, shut up, and seals his own allegiance.
Battle lines are, indeed, being drawn at the farm, and nothing sets up the Rick vs. Shane war more than Lori’s episode-ending chat with her husband: “You killed the living to protect what’s yours?” she asks Rick of the events at the bar. “Shane thinks I’m his. He thinks the baby’s his,” she says, planting the seeds for the impending showdown.
