Secrets (The Walking Dead)
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| "Secrets" | |
|---|---|
| The Walking Dead episode | |
 | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 6 |
| Directed by | David Boyd |
| Written by | Angela Kang |
| Cinematography by | Rohn Schmidt |
| Editing by | Hunter M. Via |
| Original air date | November 20, 2011 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Secrets" is the sixth episode of the second season of the post-apocalyptic television series The Walking Dead. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on November 20, 2011. In this episode, Glenn (Steven Yeun) tells Dale Horvath (Jeffrey DeMunn) that Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) is pregnant and there are numerous walkers in the Greene barn. Dale confronts Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson) about hoarding walkers in his barn. Meanwhile, Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) attempts to teach Andrea (Laurie Holden) how to use weapons and Lori agonizes over the decision to terminate her pregnancy or keep the baby.
The episode was written by Angela Kang and directed by David Boyd. "Secrets" touches on various themes, including abortion, romance, and confession. In preparation for filming, producers initially converted a vacant building in downtown Sharpsburg, Georgia into a temporary pharmacy in July 2011. Principal photography for the episode occurred a month later in August.
"Secrets" attained mostly positive reception from critics, who praised the character development and the storyline progression. The episode attracted criticism from political commentators, who denounced the show for its misleading perception of emergency contraception. Upon airing, "Secrets" garnered 6.08 million viewers and a 3.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen ratings. It became the second highest-rated cable program of the day, as well as the fourth most-viewed cable program of the week.
After Glenn inadvertently discovers the presence of walkers in the Greene barn, Maggie begs him to keep it a secret. Dale quickly notices Glenn's nervousness, and when he talks privately to Glenn, Glenn blurts out about the walkers as well as his knowledge that Lori Grimes is pregnant. Dale confronts Hershel about the walkers. Hershel believes they are still people, including his wife and stepson, and can be cured, and refuses to kill them after Dale explains the danger.
Rick, Shane and T-Dog give gun training to Jimmy, Carl and the women on the farm. Shane takes Andrea aside to give her advanced training after seeing how good she is with a weapon, but she is unable to hit a moving target. Shane tries to encourage her to remember her dead sister, Amy, but this only causes Andrea to storm away. Meanwhile, Rick and Lori argue on what to do with Hershel's demand to leave the farm, now that Carl is healed.
Andrea and Shane then go off to town after Shane finds a lead on the missing Sophia, but find it overrun by walkers. They escape after Andrea rediscovers her shooting abilities, and the two subsequently begin an affair. Dale senses something amiss and warns Shane to stay away from Andrea, as well as his suspicion of what happened to Otis while he and Shane went searching for medical supplies, and his contempt for Rick. Shane denies the accusations and threatens to shoot Dale should he make any more.
Maggie and Glenn discuss the walker situation on the farm, with Maggie sharing the same attitude as her father Hershel. They go on another supply run at Lori's request, specifically looking for morning after pills. At the pharmacy, Maggie is attacked by a walker but Glenn intervenes and subdues it before it harms Maggie. Back on the farm, Maggie confronts Lori about being almost killed due to her request, and tells Glenn the rest of the group is using him as "walker bait". Glenn later tells Lori that she should tell Rick about her pregnancy soon. Lori contemplates the act of raising a child in this world, and decides to take the pills, but after a moment, runs away from their camp to immediately regurgitate them. Rick sees the pills and goes to find Lori, who admits she was in a relationship with Shane before Rick found them. Rick reveals he already knew about this.
Production
That's the risk that you take with this kind of stuff. But I think that avoiding that in order to avoid any kind of controversy is weak storytelling. There's always going to be a controversy of some kind no matter what you do. People have opinions, and that's what makes them great. You can't write a story trying to avoid anything like that because the most mundane thing can [turn into] overblown Internet hysteria. You've just got to do what you do.
"Secrets" was directed by David Boyd and written by Angela Kang.[2] It features recurring appearances from Lauren Cohan, Scott Wilson, IronE Singleton, Emily Kinney, Jane McNeill, and James Allen McCune.[2] Principal photography for the episode commenced in downtown Sharpsburg, Georgia, in August 2011. Preparation for filming began in July 2011, when producers renovated an empty building into a temporary drug store.[3] Herb Bridges, who owned the building at the time, was initially contacted by producers of the series' in January 2011, and again four months later in May. Bridges informed them that the space would be rented by a woman who would open a children's store there; however, she had not moved into the space yet.[3]
The topic of abortion is a prominent theme in "Secrets". After discovering that she is pregnant, Lori asks Glenn to retrieve with emergency contraception pills from the pharmacy. Upon returning, an infuriated Maggie shoves Lori’s pills at her. Dale gently confronts her about her pregnancy when he sees that she becomes nauseated at the smell of cooking meat, and Lori explains that Rick is the biological father of the child. Writer Robert Kirkman opined that such assertions were "wishful thinking".[1] "She was with those two men very close to each other. There was not a large span of time between her time with Shane and then Rick's return and her time with Rick. It's definitely up in the air and it’s not like there's a lot of paternity tests floating around out there."[1] Kirkman felt that he had to responsibly approach controversial issues from a neutral standpoint and insisted that abortion should warrant discussion, considering the circumstances. He stated: "As far as the abortion stuff goes, it’s really just a matter of being realistic. These are the kinds of issues that people deal with in real life and in this situation I think that that is the kind of thought process that Lori Grimes would be going through."[1]
In the concluding sequence of the episode, Lori admits to Rick that she had an affair with Shane in the belief that her husband was dead. Kirkman stated that the writers wanted to "wrap up to a certain extent", and opined that such revelations would add more tension between the characters.[1]
It was something we wanted to wrap up to a certain extent. It's a disservice to Rick's character to make him look like he's completely clueless. But this isn't really a resolution per se. It makes things a little bit more tense, moving into this next episode. Seeing Rick interact with Shane will have an extra level of tension because now the audience has one up on Shane as opposed to one up on Rick. It’s going to be fun waiting for the other shoe to drop, when Rick may or may not confront Shane with this information.[1]
In an interview with MTV News, Bernthal stated that Walsh was suffering from the "loneliness you feel when you're right there with them and you can't be with them in the way you want."[4] Bernthal applauded the writers for such changes, and felt that the storyline never devitalized. "The people that Shane loved more than anyone else in the world before the apocalypse are still very much alive and still very much with him, but he'll never be with them in the way he wants to and the way he once was. Every relationship—Shane/Carl, Shane/Lori and Shane/Rick—it's tainted and fractured. When you suffer from that kind of loneliness, it brings out the worst in you."[4]
