“The Walking Dead,” Season 2, Episode 5, “Chupacarbra” begins with the exodus out of Atlanta and the last-ditch effort by the military to suppress the Walkers by dropping napalm on them. It is a searing scene from the end of the world.
Spoilers follow.
Most of the episode concerns the misadventures of Daryl, who is horribly injured while of search for Sophia. He is beset by hungry walkers and an apparition of his evil brother Merle who taunts him for being a sissy. This taunting actually has a beneficial effect of motivating Daryl to pull himself back up from the creek and to set him stumbling home. Then, irony of ironies, he gets shot by Andrea, who mistakes him for a walker. It is only a graze, but Andrea is mortified. Dale tries to comfort her by suggesting that everyone has wanted to shoot Daryl at one time or another. Daryl does, however, bring back a doll owned by Sophia, evidence that she may still be alive.
Shane, having crossed a moral line with what he did to Otis, is starting to argue that it may be time to give up the search for Sophia. He points out that in the old world, after 72 hours it is a safe assumption that the victim of a child abduction is likely dead. The new, walker-infested world is far more dangerous. Rick, however, is having none of it. He is still not ready to give up.
Tensions between Hershel’s group and Rick’s are starting to increase. Hershel is rather adamant that the interlopers need to be gone, the sooner the better. He is also not pleased that Maggie has had a rendezvous with Glenn. That sort of attachment can lead to nothing but trouble.
Glenn and Maggie, though, seem to want to have another go. However, Glenn’s choice of the barn as a trysting place turns out to be a turning point and a revelation. Before Maggie can stop him, Glenn finds that Hershel has been keeping some walkers in the barn. Why would he do such a thing? Perhaps we’ll know the answer next week.