"Judge, Jury, and Executioner" begins with a scene directly lifted from Lost: Daryl, our resident badass, tortures Randall, the weak-seeming stranger from another group, so he'll tell a truth that seems less and less true as the torture continues. It's a lot like the time the Lost crew took turns interrogating Henry Gale during season 2. With every cut, the survivors' humanity loses strength and their prisoner's words gain wild desperation. Eventually Randall tells a bleak story about his gang happening upon a family with teenage girls and raping them. He didn't join in, of course, but why on earth would he bring this story up in the first place? To convince them to go ahead and kill him? To intimidate them?
As the episode unfolds, it becomes clear right away that this entire hour will be about killing or not killing Randall. OY. I believe that Rick and Shane decided not to kill the kid last week. Did they not bond? Are we not on Randall's side by now? After months of silence, Dale pipes up. Randall's "just a kid," Dale reminds Rick. Killing him will only teach Carl a bad lesson.
As per usual, nobody listens to Dale. So he marches right up to Andrea and asks if she remembers being a civil rights lawyer in her old life. Andrea was a civil rights lawyer?? I assumed she was a professional terrified person, like someone who works in a haunted mansion or something. At any rate, she's like "Yep, I remember, and nope, I won't guard Randall from anyone who wants to kill him." But she guards him anyway.
Spotting a golden opportunity, Shane waddles up to Andrea outside the prison shed and suggests that they take over the farm. While that conversation swirls ever deeper into the proverbial giant toilet, Carl sneaks into the shed to see what they've done to the prisoner, maybe even to shoot him (who knows??). Randall tries to sweet talk him into helping him escape, but before any serious Ben Linus stuff happens, Shane whips open the door to the shed and throws Carl out. "And Carl?" says Shane, "Stop trying to get yourself killed, man!"
Obviously that's the only thing Carl will do for the rest of the episode, starting with a bold dressing-down of Carol's intellect. When Carol assures Carl that they'll see everyone they've lost in heaven, Carl's like, "That's the stupidest thing you've ever said, ya big dummy." Carol promptly gets him in trouble with his parents, and yet again, Carl ends up more ornery than ever.
Dale starts in on Daryl, begging him not to torture Randall anymore. This is all days late and dollars short, Dale. You used to be the voice of morality, but for the past few weeks you've just been Stink Eye Magoo over in the corner. "Group's broken," mutters Daryl. Yes indeedy, didely doo!
Carl goes looking for more trouble and finds it in Daryl's SS motorcycle saddlebag. Dragging the antique-looking gun next to him, Carl wanders the woods, literally searching for danger. He quickly finds a walker stuck in the mud of a creek bank. While I'm personally frozen in terror, Carl throws rocks at the zombie and overall riles it up. Granted, it's a classic boy move to throw rocks at decrepit things. But if you're growing up in the post-Apocalypse, your rock targets will be zombies. Childhood is weird these days.
Meanwhile, Hershel makes nice with Glenn for once. He reminds him that immigrants built this country, and he tells him a story about pawning his Irish grandfather's pocket watch for liquor money. His first wife Jo had bought it back without telling him, and she gave it back when he quit drinking. I could be wrong, but I bet there's a secret meaning underneath this story. Maybe people like Glenn and the rest of our survivors are too willing to give up what's good about the past in order to keep themselves alive in the present. Maybe it's up to people like Maggie and Hershel to keep some things safe, for when they're ready for some small piece of civilization again. Yeah, that seems like what they're going for.
Back in the creek bed, Carl accidentally teases the walker into freeing one of its legs. Ravenous and wild, the zombie grabs for Carl's feet. Even though Carl aims Daryl's gun at it, he can't seem to shoot it. So instead he drops the gun in the creek and makes a break for it. Great choice, you dumb little kid.
Rick holds one last vote in the farmhouse dining room. Will they execute Randall to prevent further danger to the farm, or will they keep him alive to avoid killing someone who technically hasn't committed a crime yet? We all know where Dale stands. He doesn't want to live in a world this harsh and ugly. Somehow he manages to swing Andrea over to his side, but 2 votes against killing Randall isn't enough to keep him alive. It's time to kill the boy.
Since Dale can't bear to watch, he wanders around the grounds for a while until he hears a cow dying. He's so confused by the idea that something might have happened to the cow that he doesn't hear the walker from the creek sneak up on him. Oh crap, we're in trouble now!
Rick can't force himself to kill Randall, possibly because his son's standing in the doorway with wide, innocent eyes. "Do it, Dad. Do it," urges Carl. I guess that's Rick's final straw. 'If my kid thinks it's a good idea, I better finally take that good, hard look at what I'm doing.'
But it's too late for Dale, whose guts are currently in the hands of a rabid zombie, which is sort of Carl's fault. If only Carl hadn't riled it up, hadn't inspired it to unstick its feet, hadn't left a tasty little boy scent trail straight back to the farm...but he did, and now Dale's intestines are outside of his body. Rick wants Hershel to do surgery on him right there in the meadow. Considering Hershel's past medical feats, maybe that's not such a bad idea.
Alas, a gut wound this serious will indeed mean the end for Dale. Instead of letting him die slowly and painfully, Rick decides to use that execution bullet after all. But again, he can't make himself pull the trigger. Daryl takes Rick's gun and aims it at Dale's head, sending him into oblivion with just a tight-lipped "Sorry, brother."
It would've been cool if Rick could have been the one sending Dale off. Maybe he'd have given him a respectful "Thank you for everything you've done" or something more like that. But no, we're left with Daryl's much simpler valediction. For 15 years it's been time to make the donuts...and now it's time to die.
photos courtesy amctv.com
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