"Do you see a sign on my lawn that says dead zombie storage!?"

If there was an “Excellence in Manliness” medal awarded to fictional characters then Rick Grimes on last nights mid-season finally episode of “The Walking Dead” certainly earned it.

WARNING: This contains spoilers. Read at your own risk. Now that I’ve cleared my nerd conscience (I respect the law of spoiler warnings) I’ll jump right into it.

This last episode was laced from head to toe with tension soaked moments that while completely autonomous, ultimately coalesce into a dingy soup of madness that affects everyone on the farm. The thing that really set everything in motion I believe, was Shane’s conversation with Lori. That was a line that once crossed, there was no turning back. His confrontation with Dale was interesting as well. I kept hoping that secretly, Dale was a Kenpo master and a founding member of Delta force; something on the level of a Rambo.

That would’ve been awesome. I kept thinking “whoop his butt Dale!”

Glenn’s drama with Maggie was a nice relief, a different type of tension because by and large it’s about innocent attraction in a not so innocent situation. Which brings up another point I’d like to make, something that really annoys me.

The Walking Dead isn’t the only one guilty of this; you mainly see it in horror movies, but who are these people that in horrific situations, are thinking about sex? I can understand Glenn’s reasoning but other than that, seriously? You’ve all been walking around for weeks, funky, dirty-down right stank; and you want to do the deed? Especially considering you’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Maybe it’s just me but I’m thinking food, water, ammunition, shelter…anything survival related. If you’re talking propagation of the species, that can wait until there is relative safety to facilitate such an undertaking.

Nothing has changed on the Andrea front-I still don’t like her and the fact that she’s now Shane’s very own Anakin makes it worse.

Shane opening the barn and rallying the troops seemed like an end to the leadership of Officer Grimes. And as much as I don’t care for Shane, the good doctor seemed separated from the reality of the situation. Shane was right to a degree. He did his best Brave Heart- everyone (with a few exceptions) got online and proceeded to unload until all of the walkers were down.

Except for one. The most important one. Sophia.

I figured that she would end up being a walker, but I wasn’t expecting that. To have her walk out last not only perfectly illustrated Hershel’s point but it provided Rick with the perfect opportunity to “pee on the tree” so to speak, reclaiming his status in the clan. Let’s face it, it didn’t look good with him escorting walkers to the barn. The fact the he was the only one who had the intestinal fortitude to do what needed to be done in the end, proved that he was more than man enough to handle business. A true leadership move if you ask me, given the circumstances. This was also a good move in the eyes of Hershel. He had already made some in roads (Maggie did help) but standing by the Dr. and putting the exclamation point on what he was trying say to the group went a long way in cementing a good partnership. A home, stability, safety. Needless to say there will be some people who will have to leave. I can’t wait until February to see how the break ups going to be. I’m assuming Andrea will leave with Shane, maybe a few others, who knows.

There is a lot more about last nights episode that I would love to get into but I wanted to keep this relatively short and I didn’t want to spoil everything. Believe it or not, there is a lot more that happened during that episode and to be honest, even knowing what you know now, it won’t change the experience of watching. It’s pretty powerful stuff. If you’re a fan of the show or if you’ve never watched it but like a good drama, then make sure you watch this episode. But first, if you haven’t already make sure you get caught up on past episodes.