Cherokee Rose
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Andrea, Daryl, Dale and Carol arrive at Hershel's farm with the RV and the remainder of the group's supplies as Rick and Lori continue to sit vigil at the recovering Carl's bedside. A funeral service is held for Otis, and Hershel asks Shane to deliver a eulogy. Shane is reluctant, given his role in Otis's death, but eventually gives in as Patricia pleads with him, praising Otis as a hero who sacrificed his life to save Carl.
After the funeral, Daryl decides to continue the search for Sophia alone, while Maggie volunteers to take a trip to the local pharmacy to gather more medical supplies, leading Rick to suggest that she take Glenn with her. Hershel expresses his discomfort with guns being carried on his property; Shane and Andrea are reluctant to hand over their weapons, but do so grudgingly when Rick reminds them that they are guests on the farm. Shane then asks Lori if she meant it when she asked him to stay the previous night, and she tells him that she did.
As the others set up camp near the house, Hershel pulls Rick aside and warns him not to get too comfortable on the farm, telling him that once Carl is healed and Sophia is found, he expects they'll move on. Lori provides Glenn with a list of supplies needed as he and Maggie prepare to head into town, and also requests that he pick up a special item for her from the feminine hygiene section, asking him to be discreet about it. At the same time, Dale and T-Dog go to acquire water from one of the farm's wells, but as T-Dog is about to drink from it Dale hears the familiar growls of the undead and realizes a walker is trapped inside.
Rick and Hershel engage in a religious debate, with Rick admitting that he has lost his faith and Hershel trying to convince him that God must have had a hand in both him and Carl surviving life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, the rest of the group debate how to retrieve the walker from the well. They agree that shooting it would be a bad idea as it would contaminate the water supply, and realizing that they will need live bait to draw it out they formulate a plan to send Glenn down the well to secure a rope around it so it can be pulled out of the water. The group begin to lower Glenn into the well, but the plan quickly goes wrong when the pump that the rope is fastened around breaks, putting him within reach of the walker. After a tense moment, however, the group is able to pull him back up, and Glenn reveals that he was successful in securing a rope around the walker.
Meanwhile, Daryl finds an abandoned house in the woods, with food that has been recently consumed and a makeshift bed inside a closet big enough for a child; however, Sophia is still nowhere to be found. At the farm, the group attempts to pull the walker from the well, but in its bloated state it rips in half, sending the bottom half of the body and most of the innards back into the well. Disgusted, T-Dog destroys the brain with a pick-ax. Shane and Andrea go to the highway to find Carol, who is waiting there in the hopes that Sophia will return. As they search for a place to have potential target practice, Shane tells Andrea that using a gun is about trusting your instincts and that there's nothing easy about taking another person's life, making it clear that what happened with Otis is weighing heavily on his conscience.
When they arrive at the pharmacy, Glenn gives Maggie the list of items, claiming that he is going to have a look around as he heads to the feminine hygiene section to get Lori's request, which is revealed to be a pregnancy test. When Maggie comes looking for him, he hastily stuffs it into his bag and grabs a random box to cover himself, belatedly realizing that he has picked up a box of condoms. After watching him squirm for a few minutes, Maggie offers to have sex with him, taking off her shirt as a bewildered Glenn follows suit. Meanwhile, Rick asks Hershel to reconsider letting the group stay at the farm, which the older man reluctantly agrees to do so long as they abide by his rules.
As they return to the farm, Maggie tells Glenn that their encounter in the pharmacy was a one-time thing. Glenn gives Lori the pregnancy test away from the others, and she quickly hides it in her jeans. Daryl also returns from his search, and goes to the RV to present Carol with a single white flower inside a beer bottle. He tells her that the flower is a Cherokee rose, a symbol of hope said to have bloomed from the tears of the Cherokee mothers who lost their children, and says that he believes this one bloomed for Sophia. Rick sits at Carl's bedside as his son wakes up, and gives him his Deputy's hat to symbolize their shared experience when Carl points out they have both been shot. As night falls, Lori sneaks away to find a secluded spot in which to take the pregnancy test, and breaks down when it comes back positive.
Tropes:
- The Bait: Glenn gets sent down the well to try and lure the trapped walker out.
- Black Comedy: The group's attempts to remove the well walker are pretty amusing in a disgusting sort of way.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Daryl's softer side is evident when he gives Carol the flower.
- Brutal Honesty: Maggie seems to suffer from this; she flat-out tells Glenn that she'll have sex with him because their options are more limited these days, and afterwards she insists it was a one-time thing.
- Continuity Nod: When Hershel is convincing Rick to drop his Nay-Theist views, he brought up the latter's Abandoned Hospital Awakening in the pilot and his reunion with his family.
- Deadpan Snarker: T-Dog, after the attempt to pull the walker out of the well results in it ripping in half and contaminating the water supply with gore."Good thing we didn't do anything stupid, like shoot it."
- Doesn't Like Guns: Hershel objects to Rick's group carrying firearms on his property.
- Due to the Dead: The funeral service held for Otis at the beginning of the episode, during which the group piles up rocks as a grave marker as Shane reluctantly delivers a eulogy.
- Flashback: Shane continues to have flashbacks to killing Otis during the funeral.
- Guilt Complex: Shane's conversation with Andrea makes it clear that he feels incredibly guilty about killing Otis in the previous episode.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The well walker tears in half when the survivors attempt to pull it out.
- Horseback Heroism: Glenn and Maggie ride to the pharmacy on horseback.
- I Work Alone: Daryl.Rick: You okay on your own?
Daryl: I'm better on my own. - Intercourse with You: Maggie gets straight to the point in propositioning Glenn.Maggie: I'll have sex with you.
- Ludicrous Gibs: The gore that erupts out of the well walker's bloated body.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Maggie and Glenn have sex in the pharmacy, apparently unconcerned by the fact that anyone - dead or alive - could walk in on them. Made even worse when a later episode reveals there are still walkers in the immediate vicinity.
- Mythology Gag: Glenn and Maggie start having a relationship in the comic's 10th issue. This is the tenth episode of the series.
- Nay-Theist: Rick seems to have taken this view; when Hershel tries to persuade him that God is still present by pointing out that Carl survived getting shot, Rick responds that it seems God has a strange sense of humor.
- Oh, Crap!: Lori's reaction to the discovery that she is pregnant.
- Passing the Torch: Rick gives Carl his hat.
- Scenery Porn: God damn but Georgia offers some pretty views. No wonder Hershel wants to take a minute to chat about whatever caused it to exist (which he believes is God).
- Squick: In-universe, the group's reaction to the well walker.
- Their First Time: Glenn and Maggie's first time is hopelessly awkward.
- Toplessness from the Back: Maggie, as soon as she chooses to have sex with Glenn.
- Warrior Poet: Daryl is surprisingly eloquent in relaying the story of the Cherokee rose.
