The fifth episode of The Walking Dead contains the series' most effective moment to date. There have been other memorable scenes -- Rick executing an undead toddler, the half-corpse crawling across the grass, the survivors covering themselves in gore to smother the smell of the living. These cheap thrills are the stuff of all good zombie films. With a big enough budget, they can all be bought, rather than earned.
But when Andrea cradles the corpse of her sister Amy, desperately hoping for some small spark of recognition in her glazed, lifeless eyes, the audience is cringing not of mere shock or disgust -- but out of genuine horror. Andrea is about to be eaten by her sister, and she is too paralyzed by grief to act. When Andrea finally raises her gun and tearfully euthanizes Amy with the deliberate resolve of a hooded executioner, we begin to see the reality of the apocalypse stripping away the sentimental creature who once lingered on her sister's love for mermaids. Less obvious is that no character in the series has yet made so difficult a choice. Certainly not Morgan, who faltered when given the opportunity to put his wife to rest.
There is something of Robert Kirkman's clever subversion of gender in this moment -- which is all the more effective because it's so apolitical. The effective use of violence has more to do with the will to act than merely having the means to do so. Now we know: Andrea is a survivor.
