'The Walking Dead' Season 2, Episode 10 Recap - '18 Miles Out'

"When I figured it out," says Rick about Shane and Lori's tryst (and I may be paraphrasing here), "I wanted to break your jaw." Of course, he didn't break Shane's jaw then. No, he waited to pummel his friend's face until they were faced with killing a kid who was shooting at him just a week ago.

My point here is that Rick, for all his decisiveness at the barn and in the bar, is still a terrible decision maker. He and Shane drag Randal "18 miles out," and when Shane asks if they should just dump him here, Rick says no, let's find a better spot and give him a chance. So then they take him to the department of public works, where the gate was chained up and where there are CLEARLY walkers because they kill two of them at the gate? How is this a better spot? When will these guys learn that buildings and populated areas equal more walkers?

Anyway, Rick and Shane are just about to leave Randal there when he says that he went to school with Maggie, which means he knows where the farm is. So now it's time for Rick and Shane to decide whether or not to kill the kid. There's been a lot of deciding over killing so far this season.

But here's the thing about the debate: Shane says yes, kill him now. Rick does not say no, don't kill him... he says "I want to think about it for a night." This guy isn't even decisive in deciding to make a decision.

That (understandably) pisses Shane right off, and he goes to finish the job himself. Rick intervenes, and the two of them have the all-out brawl that they probably should have had weeks ago. And, of course, walkers show up, because duh of course they're there.

While Shane and Rick duke it out over whether they should kill a man or not, Lori and Andrea argue over whether they should allow a girl to die. Beth, it seems, has had enough of living (and is probably pissed that she's had about three lines so far. I had to look up her name) and hides a knife to kill herself with. Lori finds it, and sticks her obnoxious nose in Herschel's family's business.

Of course there's nothing wrong with trying to convince a young girl that there's no sense in killing herself, but it's Lori, so we all kinda want to gang up on her, right? That is, we do until Andrea comes in and the two of them have a holier-than-thou-off, with Andrea attempting to prove that she's not totally the most worthless person on the farm (and in this show) as Lori does the same for herself.

Ultimately, Andrea's decision is to trick Maggie from watching over Beth so that she can leave Beth to her own devices and let her "make her own choice." You can translate that as "let her lock herself in the bathroom and cut her wrist with a piece of mirror." Listen, I'm all for letting people make their own choices, but don't you think her FATHER should have at least known something about this beforehand?

The theme here seems to be, as it has been all season, the changing attitudes toward the value of life in this post-apocalyptic world. Is it now okay to kill people? Is it okay to kill yourself? In a normal society, you'd be locked up for the former and locked up for attempting to do the latter. But here, one is a survival tool and the other is just an alternative choice of how to go.

There is a nice parallel between Rick's bit about knives, how they should use them more and how they're quieter and cleaner, and the fact that Beth was attempting to use a knife for a clean, quiet death as well. Another fantastic moment as Shane goes completely rageball and throws a wrench at Rick's head... we now know that Shane truly is dangerous, and fully capable of attempting to kill Rick if provoked.

Will Rick just pat Shane on the head again and call it good? Will the writers kill Andrea already so they don't have to worry about checking up on her? Is T-Dog still a character, even?

Hey, as long as people keep shooting zombies through another zombie's head, and lines like "she'll get a husband, son, baby... boyfriend," then I'm good. Keep it coming.