'The Walking Dead' Season 2, Episode 3 Recap - 'Save the Last One'

There's a saying in zombie fiction: "Save the Last One." Its implications are grim... the meaning is that you should always save your last bullet for your own head if you find yourself overrun. Being a corpse is better than being a zombie.

But in last night's episode of "The Walking Dead (titled "Save the Last One"), it wasn't only the last-ditch, about-to-get-eaten-by-zombies scenario that had our heroes and anti-heroes thinking about taking the easy way out. It was life in general.

With this theme, it was inevitable that we revisit Andrea's state of mind. Here, we saw her accompanying Daryl out into the woods (at night, with flashlights... Zombie Survival 101 dictates that this is a BAD IDEA) to continue to look for Sophia.

While they do, we learn a lot more about Daryl and what makes him tick. After all, how could Merle's brother be this decent of a guy? What would make him want to go out in the woods alone to look for Sophia?

As it turns out, Merle and Daryl had a deadbeat, alcoholic father who went on a bender and left Daryl to be lost in the woods for eight days. That explains his kind-heartedness in this matter, but he still seems to have a different outlook on this whole situation than everyone else does. Daryl is almost hopeful. Daryl is nearly as heroic as Rick. He's a far cry from Merle.

He even asks Andrea if she wants to live, to which she responds, "I don't know if I want to live, or if I have to, or if it's just a habit." I like that, "just a habit." What a clean, human way of describing our innate biological drive to survive and reproduce. Anyway, the whole thing seems a bit of a healing experience for Andrea, and Daryl is nice enough to shoot the hangman zombie for her.

Meanwhile, Lori has her own questions about life. As Carl continues to slip away and Shane continues to be missing, Lori drops a bomb on Rick: "Maybe this isn't a world for children," she says. Whoa, girl, are you saying what I think you're saying?!

Lori makes her point in relation to Jacqui, who chose to stay behind at the CDC. "Jacqui didn't have to see any of this," notes Lori. She didn't have to see Sophia go missing, or Carl get shot, or that herd of walkers going down the highway. Maybe, Lori implies, it would be better to just end it.

But that rather dark outlook is brightened when Carl briefly wakes up and, before anything else, begins to tell his mother about the deer and how amazing it was. "He chose to talk about something living," says Rick to Lori, and that pretty much closes that conversation.

Even Glenn seems to be changed by the experience, though he's not considering suicide: rather, he's praying for the first time. So, we've had a church in two episodes and Glenn praying in the third. Will this theme continue?

But perhaps no one changes in their outlook and in our eyes in this episode than Shane. When we last saw Shane and Otis, the duo was trapped in the high school with zombies pounding on the flimsy gate. Their increasingly desperate attempts to get back to the farmhouse result in the two of them, nearly out of ammo, limping across the parking lot with a crowd of walkers following them.

There have been a lot of shocking and disturbing moments in this show, but Shane's betrayal of Otis for the sake of zombie bait was both sickening and thoroughly surprising. Though I guess if you're going to leave someone as bait, there's plenty of Otis for the zombies to chew on.

"Save the Last One" was, in essence, an examination of human nature when faced with mortality (or, in this case, a fate worse than death). What are we capable of in that moment? Ending it ourselves? Allowing our own children to die to prevent them from feeling any more pain? Throwing a fellow human being into the fire to keep from getting burned? If things get any worse for our heroes (and our new anti-hero, Shane), then we might see even more awful truths.

Other notes:

-Love the story about Shane stealing the principal's car over his escaping from the zombies. Plus, it highlighted the idea that Shane, while tough and determined, isn't always morally true.

-"Wherever you wander, wherever you roam, be happy and healthy and glad to come home." -The cross-stich in Herschel's house.

-Is it me, or was Maggie getting a little flirty with Glenn? Go Glenn!

-Rick is a walking blood bank. How is he still on his feet?