[Note:  Once again, in a short amount of time, I have cobbled together something resembling a review, hopefully it's not too lengthy or unfocused.]

Well it would seem like at least the first half of this episode should have solved many of the issues that some seemed to have had with last week’s mid-season premiere.  It was packed with suspense, action, and zombie gore.  The back half reinforced a lot of the characters (despite the continued lack of characterization for a lot of the cast) and set some things in motion as well.  Overall, I was pretty satisfied with Triggerfinger, finding it to be another example of how a fairly strong episode of The Walking Dead should play out.

I’ll try to keep the synopsis down to the basics.  Picking up where last week's episode, Nebraska, led off, foolish Lori awakens from her car crash ordeal, only to find that a walker is all up in her grill (well, actually her windshield, the grill was probably ruined in the crash).  Meanwhile, in town, Rick, Hershel, and Glenn have to stay holed up in the bar, after the handling of their “outsiders situation” (y'know, blowing away Dave and Tony) has only led to more outsiders arriving in town with questions they want answered.  And back at the farm, everyone has become concerned with why Rick and Glenn are taking so long and the sudden realization that Lori is missing.

 What I really admired about what was going on in the earlier half of this episode was the genuine suspense and tension that was created from the situation these characters were in.  Rick, Hershel, and Glenn facing off against another group of humans played out well on screen, ditching the notion of pondering about how bad things could be and dealing with it head on.  Shots being tossed back and forth, even as Rick tried his best to shout out reasons why this was a worthless cause, worked at being a pretty tense to watch.  Given that the comic has always done a good job of providing surprises in regards to the fate of all of its characters, I felt like that tone was legitimately seen on screen during this sequence.  When Glenn falls behind the dumpster, for example, I was really concerned with whether he had been hit or not.  Adding walkers into this whole bit only complicated things further.  Ratcheting up the tension even more by throwing in an injured enemy and deciding whether or not to take him with, as walkers surround everyone, was very exciting as well, but also a good showcase for who Rick is as a character.

I was also happy to see Lori’s “car trouble” plot wrapped up pretty quickly.  The last thing I would have wanted was another character to be lost in the woods for weeks.  I will admit to screaming at the television, as Lori dealt with her own walker encounters, but I was also really satisfied with the zombie effects on display.  Not much was more graphic (and cooler) than seeing a walker shove his face through a windshield and seeing the skin scrape off his face (though seeing the guy in town who got shot play a little game that I'll call "Nose Goes" was pretty hardcore as well).  Once Shane pulled up in his Hyundai and found her, I was satisfied that this whole ordeal was over though, but this only leads to another aspect of the show. 

“Stay back at camp, you wont need a map.”

Shane will probably continue to be my favorite subject of this show to think/write/talk about.  Andrea made some good points this week concerning his character.  Shane has made a lot of good calls, which benefit the group, but he does have issues with how to present his argument without causing a good portion of the group to be disturbed by him.  I continue to find Shane to be the most interesting character on this show and I also still tend to agree with a lot of the choices he made (perhaps not morally, like with the Otis situation, but in the wake of the zombie apocalypse, who knows what someone would do (the "Lori rape thing" is another story completely).  When Shane lied to Lori about Rick being back at camp, it made absolute sense to me that he needed to do what he could to get her back to the farm in a short amount of time.  His argument about why it was a bad idea to take in and fix up an injured boy, who was already taking shots at Rick and the gang earlier, also rang true.  Now I am not saying that Shane is a completely reasonable individual who I would always want to follow (I've mentioned two examples of why not already), but I see where he is coming from, even if some of his choices have been questionable.  Regardless, Jon Bernthal has been absolutely fantastic in this role and I am very curious to see where he ends up by the end of this season.

As everyone got back to camp, the rest of the episode was basically divided into scenes where one character would deliver a monologue to another.  (I may list some of these out of order)  Daryl being harsh towards Carol was pretty harsh, but does a good job showing where his character's mind is set; Glenn explaining his distressed nature to Maggie was decent enough, mainly because Steven Yuen has been a reliable actor; Shane delving into his feelings about Lori certainly factors into how the ending plays out; and Maggie’s story about her sister gave Lauren Cohen something else to do, despite having it be all about a character we don't know.  These were all nice moments that felt well informed by the writer’s intentions.  It was certainly a reverse in pacing, compared to how the show started off, but enough insight was provided for these key individuals, even while some of the others (T-Dog) are given little to nothing in how to develop their characters.

There are two main issues I had with the episode.  The first is more nitpicky.  Glenn was way too accurate with his shotgun from long distance.  I’m sorry, but those head shots were pretty dead on.  But on to more important things:  It pains me to say this, but I just don’t like Dale anymore and I think he needs to shut his face.  It is irritating, because he seems to fall into a similar area that other AMC characters have fallen into.  I am referring to Skylar on Breaking Bad and Betty Draper on Mad Men.  All three of these characters are somewhat right in their convictions…to an extent, but they are written in a way that makes them incredibly unlikable.  Dale is correct in what he has assumed, but the fact that he is slowly spreading around these concerns about Shane (which he has jumped to the conclusion of), working his own angles to have the group break away from him; it is very disconcerting, but mainly annoying.  It is a shame, because I love the comic version of Dale, but in a show that continues to have issues with making its characters likable, Dale is pretty far down my list right now.

My final thoughts are in regards to the ending.  Essentially, Lori has had enough of Shane at this point.  Given her own history with him and the information that Dale has shared, Lori is now working on Rick to see that Shane is evil that must be dealt with (why she wouldn't discuss the actual rape attempt that is, y'know, true, in order to completely convince Rick is beyond me).  Regardless, the ending of this episode is certainly sets up things to come in terms of throwing a true divide between Rick and Shane and it was pretty creepy to see Lori quietly manipulating Rick with some soft hints in that regard.

Overall, I would give this episode 4 Busters (though I’m leaning towards 4 ½).  It has all of the good elements that I would like in a Walking Dead episode.  There was tension, some fine work from a lot of the actors, and plenty of zombie gore where it counted.  And one last thing, can Carol and Daryl stop being weird at each other and do it already?