Cherokee Rose

Worst episode so far it just soooooo Boring gfgdhfhx vcbfjdhduddunvbxhdgsgdgdgdgdhdgdycgchchvcvvxg

Plot In A Paragraph: With Carl recovering, led by Daryl the gang continue to look for Sophia. Glen bonds with Maggie while Hershal tells Rick the group needs to move on once Sophia is found.

A weak episode, possibly the weakest one so far. It's saved by excellent acting all round (except Sarah Wayne Callies of course). Especially Norman Reedus, his acting is superb as Daryl Dixon who is searching for Sophia and is desperate not to lose another member of the group. He shares a great scene with Melissa McBride continues to impress as Carol. Andrew Lincoln is as always great as Rick and he shares some great scenes with Scott Wilson as Hershel. It was also good to see Steven Yeun get some good screen time again too.

With the introduction of Hershel and his family, some of the main cast (T-Dog and Dale are the biggest victims) are taking a back seat. I hope that's not an indication that some of them are becoming expendable. Cos as we know "The Walking Dead" has a tendency to go all "Game Of Thrones" on us and kill off main characters.

With Carl saved, the group tries to organize the search effort for Sophia. Dale and T-Dawg find a walking in the well, and the group dispatches to try and solve the issue. Rick attempts to convince Hershel to let them stay permanently on the farm. The group decides to try and get the walker out of the well with a rope in the hopes that the well water is not already contaminated. Daryl goes back into the forest alone to search for Sophia, as the rest of the group is too injured or untrained to go. Glenn and Maggie set off into town for more medical supplies and the start of their relationship. Lori has a revaluation.

Cherokee Rose is the first truly uninteresting episode of the show. Nothing monumental happens. It's a building episode that fails to keep the viewer engaged and as a stand alone episode is pretty mediocre. The writing stays sharp as usual but no level of acting or directing can help such an uninteresting plot to be interesting. This episode starts as a sting of episodes that fail the capture the action packed nature of the seasons beginnings.

Had heard nothing but great things about 'The Walking Dead' from friends and IMDb reviewers. It took a while to get round to watching, both from being busy and also not being sure whether it would be my cup of tea. Finally getting round to it a few years ago and slowly working my way through it, having had a very long to watch and review list, 'The Walking Dead' turned out to be very much my cup of tea and as good as the hype made it out to be, have found it extremely addictive.

"Cherokee Rose" is a slight disappointment, being the weakest of Season 2 up to this point and the weakest of the overall show up to this early stage. That it is still a very good episode says a lot of 'The Walking Dead's' high quality in its prime. It is still a strong reminder of how Seasons 1-5 of 'The Walking Dead' to me were absolutely brilliant and seeing the show in its full glory days (Season 6 was uneven, Season 7 was a huge disappointment and am still debating whether to watch Season 8). It may lack a few of the things that made the previous episodes so great but there is plenty of what is particularly good about the show.

It still shocks me at how an intelligent, well-made (so much so that it is easy to mistake it for a film) show about zombies could be made when so many films have tried and failed abysmally to do so.

Not a perfect episode. "Cherokee Rose" would have benefitted from a tighter pace for an episode that is dialogue-heavy and more intricate. It does lack the previous episodes' tension, guts, tautness with the emotion not always as strong.

Occasionally it's a bit too talky, although the quality of the dialogue is actually very good, which can bog things down a little in terms of momentum. Also am yet to be completely sold by Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori, she does give her best performances of the show up to this point but she still doesn't have the presence or nuances of much of the rest of the cast.

Like all the episodes of the show, "Cherokee Rose" is incredibly well made in the production values, with gritty and audacious production design, photography of almost cinematic quality, effects that look good, have soul and are not overused or abused and pretty frightening make-up that make the walker even more creepy. The music is haunting and affecting, having presence but never being too intrusive.

The writing generally is intelligent and thought-provoking, with lots of tension and emotional resonance and continues to show signs of character complexity and multiple layer storytelling. The highlights here are the hilarious yet grotesque water well sequence, the tense conclusion and the Maggie and Glenn and Daryl and Carol interactions. Am liking that Daryl shows signs of being made into a gradually lighter character.

Appreciated the ever strong and still progressing story and character building, which the episode has a bigger emphasis on.

The world building is still stunningly immersive and effective. Direction is smart and atmospheric while the show throughout has been strongly acted. Andrew Lincoln is an excellent lead, with an even better performance from Norman Reedus giving Daryl intensity and pathos.

In conclusion, a little disappointing but still very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A fitting title for this week's episode of The Walking Dead but sadly the "Cherokee Rose" wilted more than it blossomed. After what was the best episode since the pilot last week the show slowed down it's pace but that's not to say it didn't have some good moments – especially for Glenn. The episode started off well with the burial of Otis putting a lot of pressure on Shane as he tried his best to re-invent the truth of what happened at the school. This then took a swan dive, almost literally for Glenn, into the pretty pointless zombie fishing experiment.

We heard from Maggie, no less than 10 minutes before, that there are 5 wells on the farm. OK, so when Dale and the much more active T-Dog discover the zombie tribute to Sadako trapped down well number 2 they decide that they've gotta bring it out alive to prevent water contamination.

Obviously this was going to spell trouble and chaos ensued when the rusted pump collapsed, but after getting Glenn out they figured they'd use the horse to drag out the deep Z diver instead. So why not use the horse in the first place? or even more logically – use another well? And who would want to drink water that a zombie had been bathing in? Seeing the guts spill out back into the well was pretty gruesome and T-Dog putting what was left out of it's misery was fun to watch, but ultimately it felt like this scene was only there to give us our weekly fix of the undead.

Maggie's reaction to this was interesting and there have been a few disapproving glances between her and Hershel when the others have killed walkers. This looks like it could cause some conflict later on.

The best part of the episode for me was without a doubt seeing Glenn get a reward for all of his well wading and supply missions. Or maybe this was a bit of karma for saving Rick's ass way back in the second episode. Fans of the comics would have known this was coming and so probably weren't surprise when the pair decide to get it on right there in the store. What would have been nice would have been if the pair had an unexpected guest – remember two's company, three's necrophilia.

As most of the stronger male characters were recovering from one thing or another the only real action would have come from Daryl in his search for the missing girl. Although he didn't find much other than a 'Cherokee Rose' and a used can of tuna it was insightful to see another side to his character when he spoke with Susanne. He seems to have really developed since we first met him and as he's not in the comics it will be good to see what the writers decide to do with him and his brother, should he reappear.

The tempo of this episode was in many ways a let down compared to the magnitude of "Save the last one", but there were some key moments to keep the story flowing and the development of Lori's pregnancy is going to add more depth to the storyline in the coming weeks.

6/10 Scene of the episode – GLENN GETTING SOME