'The Walking Dead' Season 2, Episode 7 Recap - 'Pretty Much Dead Already'

"He was being dramatic," says Herschel, shrugging off Rick's pleading to let the group stay on the farm. He was, but that's kind of the point, isn't it? In fact, that seemed to be the theme of this mid-season finale episode: people being unnecessarily dramatic.

Take Dale, for instance. The King of Nosiness not only tried to convince Andrea not to continue her little tryst with Shane, but also took it upon himself to hide all of the guns down in the swamp.

That dramatic (and kinda passive-aggressive) move prompted Shane to track him down and, equally dramatically, strong-arm him into giving them back.

As if that wasn't enough, Shane marched right back into camp, with the guns, and busted the door to that walker-filled barn right open, letting them out through the opening to be shot in cold blood one by one, right in front of Herschel and his family. If you're going to execute a barn full of walkers, why not go up in the hayloft and fire at them from a safe distance?

Because it's not as dramatic, that's why.

Even Glenn, who tends to be anti-dramatic (his lack of tact with his "So... the barn's full of walkers" is priceless) has his big speech to Maggie. As it has been recently, those two provided the only moments of levity in this episode, even though they were still dramatic about it: Maggie's "gimme your hat" moment was great, as was Glenn's "I let them lower me into that well like it was fun! Like I was playing Portal!"

But the big question here, and what all this drama eventually leads to, is the question that has been coming to the surface since day one: is Rick fit to lead in this new world? The juxtaposition that we've seen between Shane and Rick goes even further here. We know that Rick would never have shot Otis, which means that Carl might not have survived... but does that make Shane right, or would Rick's moral compass be the right choice, even if it meant that his son might not make it?

Perhaps no image is as clear in illustrating their differences as the one toward the end of this episode. When two walkers, neighbors of Herschel's, get stuck in the creek, Herschel asks Rick to help herd them into the barn. As Rick awkwardly guides the walker onto the farm, Shane pops each walker in the head with barely a second thought.

But in opening the barn door, Shane inadvertently got a reason to leave the farm altogether: Sophia, now a walker, stumbles out last. But it isn't Shane or even Daryl who does what needs to be done... it's Rick. In a manner similar to his act at the end of the pilot episode, Rick puts her down with a bullet to the head.

What does that mean for Rick? Is this a sign that he has adjusted to this world and is ready to lead in the way that Shane thinks he should? Or has he, as Dale put it, lost himself as the world "went to shit?"

And what of staying at the farm? Herschel didn't protest much at the massacre, though it might have just been from shock. You'd have to assume that even if Herschel was okay with everyone staying, they would still pack up and go out of embarrassment over having just murdered Herschel's entire family. It didn't seem so bad until Sophia came out, did it?

This puts a new layer over the show going forward. We needed a reminder that these walkers were once people, and they're not simply killing machines. They're villains in a sense, but the real bad guys are the dark sides of these characters, the potential for each of them to lose their humanity.

Going forward, one question will be important to consider: does the title "The Walking Dead" refer to the zombies, or to the humans left behind, slowly losing themselves to this new world?

Not a bad way to end the first half of season two. That was the mid-season finale, folks, so we'll be back in early 2012 with more "Walking Dead" recaps. Try not to get bitten in the meantime.