"Ricktatorship" is my new favorite portmanteau in reference to this show...so thank you for that. :-)

Oh...and to answer your questions.:

1) The helicopter
2) Yes
3) Seems like it, but they've already taken so many detours that it's really just a baseline. I'm hoping that they re-introduce Morgan (the squatter from episode 1), but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm still wondering why they haven't introduced Tyreese yet, but beyond excited for how they brought in Michonne. Also, Lori is stupid stupid stupid and I hate having to watch her being stupid around everyone. I still have a major apocalypse crush on Daryl. Blondie McGunnerson is still being useless and continuing her permanent duckface. BUT SHIT YEAH I CAN'T WAIT FOR SEASON 3.

I am so looking forward to the next part in the series, The Walking Dead Hunger Games.

It's about young kid zombies eating other young kids who aren't zombies.

Yet ...

Season 3 is going to be brutal, I didn't think the books got too super dark and disturbing until the point the show is now heading towards (intentionally vague to avoid spoiling those who don't care to know what happens in the books).

Oh, Lori. I tried not to totally hate you, just because everyone else totally hated you.

But now - I really, really hate you.

Regarding point #3. The Kid (*kapow*) did not kill weird old guy. Weird old guy committed suicide by walking alone IN THE DARK waving a flashlight IN ZOMBIE COUNTRY.

She may be terrible Mom, but she is also terrible wife and terrible team member. And I'm thinking the writers should just go with it. The next bad guy she runs into she should just be "Junior this is your new step-dad now go play outside with the zombies while he and I have our honeymoon." "But MAWWWWWWMMMMM! Dad isn't dead! He's out picking up supplies!" "He's PROBABLY dead already and he's coming back here to eat you if you don't go outside and play RIGHT NOW!" Then after sex she'll be all "OMG!!! Where's my baby boy?!? What will I do? Do you have any meth?"

And super hero chick zombie killer ... they should have worked on that a bit.
It's bad enough that 20 (how many were there at max?) cannot keep each other from dying but now one woman has the awesome skills to just walk around killing zombies?

And in conclusion I hate all the characters and home the zombies eat them all.

Go Team Zombie!!!

Once Andrea and Michonne meet up with the main group, is Glen's first supply mission going to be to find a mall with an Excalibur Cutlery & Gifts?

Are Daryl and his crossbow going to feel inadequate when he sees Michonne and her badass katana?

Will someone finally kill Lori? Please?

Seeing as they already cast the role for the Governor and publicized it, we can definitely expect the show to follow more with the comics this next season. And, I can probably guess how the season finale is going to be - the assault on the prison and the Governor and his gang getting killed. I hope they kill off Lori as the comic does. If she survives the prison I will be pissed. She is somehow more annoying than the comic version of the character. But, it took well into Season 2 for Shane to die and he died super early in the comic, so who knows.

I really, really want to see Lori get devoured by walkers.

Last night's episode was an utter abomination. Thank god Mad Men comes back next week so there will be something to watch on the TeeVee that isn't written by complete fucking imbeciles. Honestly don't know if I will bother with Season 3 at all... But @5 is right... the prison is the darkest part of the story arc. Sigh... Who am I trying to kid? I'll be watching.

Please nobody post spoilers about anything that happens between issues 72 and 96 of the book series because I'm waiting until 2013 or whenever it comes out as an omnibus hardcover :)

Great episode, in this we pretty much figured that when you die, you basically turn into a zombie. You dont need to be bitten or scratched by them.

Also the nearby camp, which that idiot kid came from, is where the team ends up spending all of season 3 at, locked up, with all the women folks used as sexual slaves.

Towards the end of Season 3, I can see the military showing up and freeing everyone in the camp, as the camp is being overun by zombies.

Really loved last night's episode. Here's what I don't get though, the constant criticisms about character stupidity. It's a zombie show: if the characters were smart, it'd be really fucking boring (way more boring than the first half of Season 2, which I'd like to blame on Mad Men for sucking all the dollars out of the zombie budget).

The (more than) occasional stupid decision is pretty much necessary to create some conflict and tension. I'm willing to turn my cheek when Rick goes on another pointless rescue mission if it leads to some cool shit.

I don't want to watch a show where the characters spend their days fortifying their dwellings, rationing supplies, and embarking on conservative and safe foraging trips. Virtually all horror movies have some element of stupidity ("Don't go in there!!"), just deal with it and stop complaining.

Plus, sometimes you just want to root for the zombies.

I thoroughly enjoyed last night's episode, with the exception of Lori's reaction to Rick's telling her about Shane. She is insane!!! Bring on the Ricktatorship!!!

Oh and Carol bitching about Rick - seriously? He is the guy who spent days and days looking for your daughter. He was the ONLY one who went after the girl initially when she ran off. Carol has done absolutely nothing for herself or her daughter and she has the nerve to complain? Seriously?
I'm looking forward to the new female character who might actually bring some female badass to this show - because so far the way the women have been written in this show is one of the worst things about the show.

@13 - if it's like the comics, then yeah, they do.

@16
The problem is that if they do NOT do anything to improve their situation then they're nothing but a bunch of idiots with overblown senses of entitlement wandering the post-apocalyptic world looking for someone to protect them. Or a place that will protect them that is, for some reason, not inhabited by anyone at the moment.

Having one character like that would be acceptable. Particularly if that character was a woman whom one of the other characters loved. Would the tribe put up with Lori falling asleep on guard duty in order to keep Rick? But for that to work, the other characters have to be competent. Or at least less incompetent than the moron character.

If they cannot manage that, how about two characters who trust each other and work together as a TEAM to protect each other?

Rick should have told everyone that Shane pulled his gun on rick first. I actually liked that the writers/producers kept Shane for as long as the did. In the comic you don't get much of a chance to see exactly how mentally unstable Shane had become. And I agree with point/observation #9.

Great episode and I too couldn't for the living dead of me remember who the frak Jimmy and Patricia were. Actually, I do remember Jimmy. Their going to need another Jimmy.

I think that that helicopter has something to do with a news crew who get captured by the Gov. and his army.

Michonne is the lady with the sword. She makes Daryl's zombie slaughtering skills look inadequate. She will make Walking Dead awesome if the writers do their job well......and so far they have done a spotty job.