The Walking Dead 2.11 ‘Judge, Jury, Executioner’ recap & review: deadly decisions

“It’s like I said. Group’s broken.” – Daryl, with this episode’s succinct one sentence recap of this episode.

Open to sweaty, angry Daryl, who is “interrogating” That Guy, but I doubt that’s the standard operating procedure for an interrogation. We learn that That Guy’s friends include about 30 or so men with heavy artillery who seem pretty cool because they took him in and helped him survive. Oh, well, there is this one thing where The Other Guys And Totally Not Him Because He Wouldn’t Do That came across this dude and his two “real cute” daughters and they pretty much raped them…and they didn’t even kill them after. Daryl appropriately kicked him and looked disgusted, rightly so, after hearing that story and left to go tell the rest of the group. Basically, if That Guy’s friends rolled up on them the men would end up dead and the women would wish they were, which is a pretty accurate assumption. Safe to say these guys are so not cool.

The obvious and most sensible decision is to, as Rick put it, “eliminate the threat.” Everyone else was pretty much on board and it was all settl–oh WAIT, remember that homeless guy with the piece of cardboard with “THE END IS NEAR” written in permanent marker on it? Yeah, Dale wasn’t okay with this choice. His reasoning? “We can’t!”

Hitler himself would’ve been moved by that incredibly logical, reasonable and moving speech.

Nobody listens to him at first, collectively, but Dale, being hellbent on the idea that killing That Guy was all Shane’s plan even though anybody with ears could tell it was Rick’s, went and tried to coerce every single member of the group to spare That Guy’s life. He even tried to get Daryl on his side…you don’t try to get Daryl to do anything. Ever. This should be a rule. Daryl is no help because he’s Daryl and only cares about himself and sees no point in anything except defending himself. I love how he’s not even grumpy most of the time, just annoyed. I just love Daryl okay?

Meanwhile, in Tension City, poor Shane is having a tough time grappling with the fact that he has to follow Rick’s orders and he’s not in control of anyone anymore, and he’s not dealing with it in the best way. Or at all. Instead, he’s whispering in Andrea’s ear about who the “real” source of all the problems are, about how nobody’s truly safe, about how he needs to be the king of Pride Rock and all that. I love Shane so much, but he’s starting to cross that good/bad line, and he’s not even wading in the gray area anymore. He’s swimming all the way to the other side, and I have a feeling he won’t stop till he’s the boss again. I can feel trouble coming, can’t you?

That Guy, whose name we learn is Randall, continues to reinforce his good-guy image by trying to manipulate Carl, an impressionable young boy, into letting him free so he can get some supplies and bring him back to his friends. Carl doesn’t fall for it because he’s kind of like a mini-badass and then Shane comes in and disrupts the girl talk by placing a gun in Randall’s mouth. Again, standard procedure. Randall looks like he’s pretty tired of being tied up by this point.

There was some Carol-Carl drama which was just Carl being a little shit, crushing all hope and sentiment of a grieving mother, and Carol getting mad, not mad enough. Rick puts the two chapters of Parenting For Dummies he read to good use by telling Carl that his actions have consequences and he needs to think about what he’s doing. This became a lot more important later, but I feel like that scene was just there to provide Carl with a reason for getting away.

He goes for a stroll through the woods and comes across a Walker, snarling and jaws snapping and hands all grabby–only he’s got his feet stuck in the mud! I was actually laughing for a minute, then Carl decided to up his Little Shit status and throw rocks at him. That’s just mean. 

Dale confronts Shane about “his” idea to kill Randall and he’s all kinds of worked up. Shane’s response to the personal attack is brilliant. He’s just calm and smiles, patiently pointing out that Dale can change everyone’s mind about Randall but when they keep him alive and he ends up killing someone, that blood’s gonna be on Dale. I love how in arguments, the wrong person’s face is completely washed over with that expression “oh.” It’s pure entertainment.

Carl expected the Walker’s feet to be lodged in mud until the end of time and was actually surprised when one of his feet became free and he lunged at him. I’m making fun of this, but I definitely shrieked at that point. Carl took out a gun to shoot him, but did not have the balls to do so, so he just ran back to the farm. I’m sure the Walker just died there in the mud, and everything about this is fine.

The group is hung about the decision on whether or not to kill Randall, after Dale talks about humanity and right and wrong forever, of course. They debate it for a few more minutes and, growing sick of Dale’s voice/face/argument, the group sides with Rick in killing Randall. Only Andrea ended up being on Dale’s side, which led to Dale shouting, “You were right, Daryl. This group’s broken!” And Daryl just blinked, looking bored and slightly annoyed. Why was he even there?

Rick, Shane, and Daryl drag Randall out to the barn to kill him and because Rick’s now wearing the pants, he has to be the one to shoot him. He hesitates. Shane’s just looking so annoyed and although I hate to bring up his dirty past, he should have just done it, he’s got experience! Rick waits a few, then is finally about to–nope, Carl walks in and says, “Do it, dad!” and because hearing your son tell you to kill a man isn’t going to win you the Dad of the Year Award, Rick tells him to leave and spares Randall, much to Shane’s aggravation and Daryl’s boredom.

Remember that Walker that was definitely gonna disappear, never to be seen again? He showed up on his way to the house but Dale got in his way and he ended up trying to eat him and things got pretty messy. In all seriousness, I can’t say I was too sad to see Dale die, but that was a terrible way to go, very unexpected, unfair and again, messy. Carl realized how much of it was his fault (all of it) and confided in Shane about it the next day, and the pain on Shane’s face when he realized Carl’s guilt was almost tangible.

This was a very tense, emotional and more heart-wrenching episode than exciting, intense, and stomach-dropping like it usually is, which is the direction a lot of the episodes lately are heading in, a very welcome change.

The most chilling, sad, and all around best scene of the episode, in my opinion? Daryl, doing the deed, raising a gun right to the camera and, right before pulling the trigger, uttering a solemn, “Sorry, brother.”