Secrets
Directed by David Boyd
It's early morning, and the two groups are setting about their daily tasks. Maggie approaches Glenn and begs him not to tell the others about the walkers in the barn. At the same time, Carl and Lori are discussing the farm's chickens, while elsewhere, Patricia is breaking the chicken's legs and throwing them into the barn to "feed" the walkers.
The recovering Daryl is visited by Andrea, who apologizes for nearly shooting him by giving him a book as a present, and he says it's fine because she was just looking out for the group. Glenn goes to Lori and and asks if she needs more supplies, then says that she should really tell Rick about her pregnancy.
Meanwhile, Shane has set up an impromptu shooting gallery, and elects to teach the younger members of the group how to aim and fire effectively. Although Lori is bothered by Carl taking a gun from Dale's RV and wanting to learn how to shoot, she reluctantly gives him permission.
Afterwards, Glenn is approached by Dale, who heard the conversation between Lori and Carl and asks Glenn what else he knows. Reluctantly, Glenn tells him about the walkers in the barn and Lori's pregnancy. At the firing range, the group is practing shooting bottles, and Andrea quickly proves herself to be a capable shot.
Dale goes to Hershel and tries to get him to see that the walkers are not people anymore, but Hershel remains steadfast in his belief that they are still people, and tells him to keep his opinions to himself if he really wants to help. Hershel later goes to Lori and, in spite of her thanking him once again for his hospitality, says that he expects they will be moving on soon.
At the firing range, Shane is trying to goad Andrea to fire on a moving target by bringing up Amy's death, but Andrea is incensed and walks off. Shane follows her and convinces her to help search a housing project for supplies with him. As they drive off, Dale confronts Lori about her pregnancy, and asks whose child it belongs to. She contends that it belongs to Rick, but they both are disquieted when they realize how difficult it will be to raise a child for a long time in their current circumstances.
Soon after, Lori goes to Glenn and asks him to retrieve more supplies for her. Glenn sets out again with Maggie for the same pharmacy, and they argue about the walkers in the barn. When they reach the pharmacy, they continue searching for supplies, but she is attacked by a walker that was laying dormant by a nearby shelf, and is almost bit until Glenn leaps in and dispatches it.
At the housing project, Shane and Andrea are searching the various lots for supplies when they are suddenly beset with incoming walkers, and are forced to exit. As they move to their car, Shane uses the opportunity to force Andrea to defend herself by firing on moving targets, explaining that she needs the right motivation, especially after her gun jams. She responds by taking out multiple walkers, which impresses him. As they ride back from the site, Andrea brazenly grabs Shane's crotch, and they stop the car and begin having sex in the front seat.
Glenn and Maggie return from their trip, and the latter goes off on Lori for needlessly risking their lives and treating Glenn like an errand boy. After she leaves, Glenn gives Lori the item she asked for - morning-after pills, as well as some prenatal pills if she changes her mind. Lori tries to take the morning-after pills, but can't bring herself to do it and forces herself to vomit them back up.
Later that day, Rick returns to his tent and discovers the bottle of opened pills, and goes to talk with Lori about her pregnancy. They argue over whether it's right to bring the baby into such a dangerous world, but he feels it's worth the effort. Lori then reveals that she slept with Shane while he was in a coma, but Rick says that he already knew, and walks off...
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Response: Dale is firmly silenced when Lori asks if it's worth trying to bring a baby into such a horrible world.
- Artistic License – Medicine: Justified; the morning-after pills wouldn't have done anything to stop Lori's pregnancy at this point, but with no access to any other kind of medicine or doctor, it's also the only option Lori really has.
- Auto Erotica: Shane and Andrea's Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex happened this way.
- Badass Boast: It seems that Daryl can't resist getting one in despite forgiving Andrea for shooting him.Daryl: Shoot me again? Best pray I'm dead.
- Blood Knight: Andrea displays these tendencies after landing her first kill, zoning out and calmly delivering headshot after headshot while the walkers keep coming and Shane urges her to get in the car.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Glenn, who admits that he can't even play poker because to him it's too much like telling a lie.
- Combat Pragmatist: Glenn uses a piece of shelving to dispatch the walker that attacks Maggie in the pharmacy.
- Continuity Nod:
- Andrea apologizes to Daryl after accidentally shooting him in "Chupacabra".
- Maggie and Glenn return to the same pharmacy they visited in "Cherokee Rose".
- Andrea asks Shane what made him decide to stay after overhearing him tell Lori that he planned to leave the group in "What Lies Ahead".
- Dale challenges Shane on his attempt to murder Rick in "Wildfire".
- Shane mentions Amy while giving Andrea a Training from Hell.
- Crapsack World: Lampshaded by Lori, who is reluctant to bring her pregnancy to term as a result of this trope.Lori: You want to bring a baby into this?
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Shane towards Andrea when he's teaching her how to shoot. He realizes he's crossed a line when he brings up Amy.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Maggie takes issue with how the rest of the group treats Glenn, believing that they take him for granted.
- Easily Forgiven: Daryl doesn't hold a grudge against Andrea for accidentally shooting him in the head in the previous episode as he understands that she was trying to protect the group.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: Discussed. Shane tells Andrea that she needs to get her emotions under control if she wants to be a better shot. When Andrea points out that he is hardly one to talk about not letting emotions get the better of him, he insists that it doesn't matter how he feels the rest of the time so long as he is able to switch it off and act rationally in life-or-death situations.
- Friendship Moment: A few between Lori and Glenn. He is clearly concerned about the stress she is putting herself under both emotionally and physically while she is pregnant, they share a hug when Glenn offers to make a run to the pharmacy for her, and after affirming their friendship Glenn encourages her to confide in Rick rather than trying to deal with everything on her own.Glenn: We're friends, aren't we?Lori: With everything that we've been through, yeah.
- Gangsta Style: Jimmy holds his gun this way during target practice. Immediately lampshaded by T-Dog, who calls him out on it, and his aim improves once he starts holding his gun in the correct way.T-Dog: Come on, don't give me that gangster shit.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Andrea and Shane engage in this after surviving the attack at the housing development.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Lori swallows several morning-after pills in the hopes that it will terminate her preganancy, but then has a change of heart and throws them back up.note
- Guile Hero: Lampshaded by Dale, who tells Lori that Glenn "has no guile". Dale himself probably counts too, what with the way he tries to persuade Shane to leave rather than threatening him outright.
- The Gunslinger: Andrea displays a natural aptitude for firearms, hitting a much smaller target than the rest of the group at the firing range and landing several headshots in quick succession once she gets the hang of hitting moving targets.
- Heel Realization: Shane has a minor one when Andrea storms off after he uses Amy to try and motivate her.
- Hollywood Healing: Averted with Daryl, who is shown recuperating in his tent after being severely injured in the previous episode and remains absent for much of the episode's action. Seemingly played straight with Carl, however, who appears to be fully recovered despite having recently suffered a near-fatal gunshot wound.
- Horseback Heroism: Maggie and Glenn once again ride to the pharmacy on horseback.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Carl is insistent on learning how to shoot after getting back on his feet.
- After being this for much of the previous episode, Andrea winds up being quite the badass.
- It Is Dehumanising:Glenn: Then what do you call them?
Maggie: Mom. Shawn. Mr and Mrs Fisher. Lacey. Duncan... - Jump Scare: A walker reaches through the shelving to grab Maggie at the pharmacy, resulting in this.
- My Beloved Smother: It's implied that Carl feels this way towards Lori regarding her reluctance to allow him to learn how to shoot.
- Mythology Gag
- Andrea hitting several walkers from a distance is a nod to her comic counterpart's sniper abilities.
- After Shane and Andrea came from their scouting, Dale immediately figured out that the two had sex and confronts Shane. Shane then mockingly asked him if he's jealous, nodding to Dale and Andrea's relationship in the comic.
- No-Respect Guy: Maggie thinks that Glenn is this, pointing out that the others take advantage of him and treat him like an errand boy when he has it in him to be a leader.
- Oh, Crap!: Dale has a moment of this when he confronts Shane over his attempt on Rick's life in "Wildfire", among other things. Shane points out that if Dale truly believes him capable of killing his best friend, then it follows that he is more than capable of killing somebody he doesn't even like. The look on Dale's face says it all.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Once again, it's established that only the latter works; Glenn practically decapitates the walker in the pharmacy, but it keeps on coming until he succeeds in inflicting actual brain damage.
- Room Full of Zombies: Andrea and Shane encounter one while searching for Sophia at the housing development.
- Screaming Woman: Maggie when she's attacked by a walker at the pharmacy.
- Secret-Keeper: Glenn is forced into this role by both Lori and Maggie regarding Lori's pregnancy and the walkers in the barn. Unfortunately he's terrible at it and ends up blurting out the truth about both to Dale.
- Secret Relationship: Subverted; Lori thinks her affair with Shane is this, but when she admits the truth to Rick, he reveals that he knew about it already and had in fact figured it out almost as soon as he was reunited with them in Atlanta. Dale also indicates that he knew about it all along when he attempts to counsel Lori regarding her pregnancy.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Shane deliberately lowers his gun when he and Andrea are surrounded by walkers so that she will be forced to shoot and prove herself in a real high-stress situation.Andrea: Are you kidding me?!
- Spotting the Thread: Dale confirms Lori is pregnant by recognizing her disgust with the smell of cooking meat, a reaction his wife had years ago.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The reason Lori is reluctant to keep her baby.
- Took a Level in Badass: Andrea in spades. This episode marks the point at which she becomes a credible Action Girl.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Lori forces herself to be sick in order to get the emergency contraception out of her system when she changes her mind.
- Wham Line: Not so much for the audience, but definitely applies in-universe for Dale:Glenn: There's walkers in the barn and Lori's pregnant.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Lori calls Rick out on keeping the news that Hershel wants the survivors off the farm to himself.
- Rick later calls Lori out on keeping her pregnancy a secret from him, and prods her to come clean about things with him. This leads to her revealing about what happened between her and Shane (which Rick apparently was already able to infer by that point).
- Maggie also angrily yells at Lori. After Glenn and her go into the city to get some supplies for Lori, and Maggie almost gets killed during it, she storms up to Lori throwing all the supplies at her feet, and calling specific attention to the abortion pills, not letting her say anything, and telling her the next time she wants something to "get it [her] damn self" instead of using them as her personal "errand boys".
- What You Are in the Dark: Dale attempts to intimidate Shane into leaving by letting on that he knows Shane killed Otis and tried to kill Rick.Dale: I know what kind of man you are.
- Who's Your Daddy?: Lori is adamant that Rick is the father of her baby, despite the fact that it's equally likely to be Shane.
- Zombie Advocate: Hershel believes that the walkers are sick people who can be cured and that Rick's group are barbaric for killing them, refusing to listen when Dale attempts to explain why keeping them in a barn might not be such a good idea. Maggie also qualified, but to a much less extent than her father; she chastises Glenn for using the term 'walkers', but she is clearly having doubts, especially after she is attacked at the pharmacy.
