Guts -- One More Walking Dead Revisit (4/5)

Merle, not to just be a racist, calls Andrea sugar tits, so he's also a misogynist.

 I had forgotten how much fun The Walking Dead could be. "Guts", for me, is one of the most entertaining and exciting episodes of the first season (and probably entire series). You have fireworks of a kind that will leave plenty of viewers cringing concerning racist, Merle Dixon, and his object of hate, T-Dog. T-Dog didn't do anything to deserve it, but the writing has to make sure Merle isn't nuanced in the least. If I have a gripe it is that the writing and performance from Rooker (who isn't restrained, really laying it out there thick, hot and heavy) are very overripe. T-Dog leaving Merle behind after losing the key to handcuffs that locked Dixon to a pipe is this major development the writing made sure to establish as a big deal. Now in this episode, it isn't established yet that Merle has a brother...the very popular Daryl. We do know that Amy, the pretty blond in white pants who is part of Shane and Lori's group, and Andrea, the pretty blond pointing a gun in anger at Rick's face for stirring up the undead outside their department store in Atlanta, are sisters. You get some tension between Shane and Amy regarding no communication from Andrea and her group in Atlanta. Shane has firmly supplanted himself as the leader trying to talk sense to Amy about not leaving their camp for Atlanta, a mission he is sure would leave them vulnerable and endangered. And Lori, who is Shane's lover, looks right into his eyes and shakes her head in approval. Lori looks over at Shane showing her son how to tie a rope properly, that big smile letting us know how happy she is to have a surrogate father. It's clear: soap opera love triangle melodrama awaits as Rick has supplanted himself as a leader of the group in Atlanta, proving his capabilities through creative escape for them all. 

Chopping up the body pulled into the department store building remains one of the defining moments of the first season for me in regards to The Walking Dead. It reiterates that Rick can think on his feet when the pressure is on to find a route towards escape, knowing that underground is a no-no. By smearing zombie gore all over the body, Rick has found a way to camouflage himself from being identified as fresh meat for zombies. 

Glenn, a big early series fan favorite, helping Rick get to a ladder in order to join his group proves how brave he can be. Rick does appreciate it...and why wouldn't he??? Walking among the undead, Rick and Glenn, smeared in grue and quite smelly, seem to be doing well...that is until an inconvenient rain! Look, I get that the rain was used just as an excuse to put our heroes under a major degree of "oh, shit" distress. But, dammit, if that doesn't work! I loved that. Glenn in that red car, with the alarm going off, with his foot on the accelerator, was quite a way to end the episode.

Andrea was never a character I liked particularly, if I'm honest. But this revisit I will be re-evaluating her. The inevitable conflict between Rick and Shane is firmly crying out at us in this episode. Shane and Lori all hot and heavy in one scene in the woods, getting them some fuckbuddy time, while Rick is standing in Merle's face, telling him he just wants to get back to his wife and kid...yep, these two scenes are all about that soap opera. This is no different than what you might see on "As the World Turns" or "Days of Our Lives", except you have the walking dead devouring horse and humans alike.