'The Walking Dead' Season 3, Episode 2 Recap - 'Sick'

Last week's premiere offered up a pretty major bloodbath (or two, or three) and left us in quite a state: Hershel just had his leg hacked off by Rick, and that bit of impromptu surgery was witnessed by a small group of survivors who had been holed up in the cafeteria.

As it turns out, that small gang of prisoners had been locked up in there since the outbreak began. They spent the whole ten months living off the food in there (and going to the bathroom in a storage freezer), so they have no idea what has happened in the meantime.

There are some tense moments between Rick's crew and this new gang, but Rick displays his particular brand of diplomacy (with his new ruthless tinge) and offers this solution: in exchange for half the food in the cafeteria, Rick, T-Dog and Daryl will help Tomas (the gang's leader) and his guys clear out another cell block.

The whole thing is more or less a disaster. First the prisoners don't seem to understand the whole "go for the head" thing, and then one of them, Big Tiny, breaks rank and gets a nasty scratch. As Rick decides what to do with Big Tiny, Tomas brutally kills his man, putting Rick on alert. The guy is dangerous.

Things get worse when they move forward with their attack, and Tomas attempts to push the walkers right into Rick during the fray. As the two stare each other down in the aftermath, we wonder: which Rick will we see? The answer: the Rick that quick-drawed those guys in the bar last season, and who takes out his machete and decisively slices Tomas' skull. One of Tomas' men, Andrew, attempts to attack Rick and then flees, only to end up locked in the yard with a bunch of walkers.

That leaves Rick with another moral dilemma: what to do with the other two men, the ones that didn't attack him? Eventually he decides to leave them to their new cell block and stay good on the deal. We'll see how long they last.

During all of this, Hershel is in dire straits. Carol manages to stop the bleeding with the little she learned from Hershel, but he's on the brink of death for the whole episode. Maggie isn't holding out hope that he'll make it through, and even says her goodbyes and tells an unconscious Hershel that it's okay for him to die.

But eventually Hershel does pull through, only after a tense moment in which Lori administers CPR. Not the smartest move when Hershel could become a zombie any second, but heroic nonetheless. My guess is that it won't earn her many points with the fans, but bless these writers; they're trying.

So things are more or less okay at the prison, which is fine for the characters but worrying for the show: the second season suffered greatly due to the lack of danger or major conflict at the farm. Luckily, it looks as though the threats will continue, as Carol was being spied on by someone while she was attempting a practice C-section on a walker corpse. Could this be the return of Darryl's brother, Merle?

If you were wondering where the heck Andrea and Michonne were this whole time, don't worry: it looks as though next week's episode is going to be mostly about them and the Governor. Buckle up.