Better Angels

"Better Angels" is the twelfth episode of Season 2 of The Walking Dead.

Plot Synopsis
The group holds a funeral for Carina. Afterwards, Sophia announces that they are going to prove her wrong by showing the group can still work together. A scene running alongside the funeral shows Paquete, Gonçalo, Sophia and Kiko eliminating a group of walkers.

Hershel permits all but Paquete to move into his house. Gonçalo plans for himself and Kiko to bring Randall out to a nearby town and leave him there, and ask for Daniel's permision, he accepts it. Cassandra, feeling guilty about Carina's death, one of her best friends, goes to Leandra and tells her about how she knew of the walker, and that she stole a pistol from Kiko's bike. Leandra, afraid of Cassandra, decides to tell Daniel about Cassandra's confession. Daniel declares his main concern is desposing of Randall, but Daniel scolds Cassandra and tells her that she's "a dumb bitch" and that she should never hold a gun again. Cassandra starts crying and searches comfort in Cristina's arms, even though she's scared of Cassandra for causing Carina's death, she still hugs her.

Paquete goes into the barn and watches Randall, discovering that he was trying to slip out of his restraints. When Gonçalo and Kiko prepare to leave, Fábio and Alexis are sent to get Randall. They discover the barn empty. Paquete has brought Randall into the forest, informing him that he is done with "his" group and wants to join with the others. This is merely a ruse as Paquete breaks Randall's neck, killing him, and strikes his own face off a tree to make it seem he escaped.

A thorough search of the farm shows no sign of Randall. Paquete buries his gun and shouts to the group that Randall escaped and is armed. Daniel assembles Gonçalo and Sophia to go with him and Paquete to track him down and instructs Cristiana and Mariana to order everyone to stay inside the house. Gonçalo and Sophia come across where Randall was last seen and the area shows signs of a struggle. A walker appears and they take cover behind some trees. The walker is Randall and tries to attack them, but Sophia impales a knife into his head, killing him. An examination of the body showed no sign of bites or scratches, and that his cause of death was his neck being broken.

Daniel picks apart Paquete's story and comes to the conclusion this was a ruse to lure him out into the field, where Paquete would kill him. Paquete tells Daniel he is a better leader for the group than he is, and ever since he came back, all Daniel did was to try to steal his place and that Daniel's return only messed things up. Daniel makes it seem as though he's handing Paquete his weapon. Once his gun is in Paquete's hand, Daniel pulls out his knife and stabs Paquete. Paquete then dies. As Daniel tries to cope with what happened, Bruno appears, shocked to see Paquete dead. He aims his gun at what at first we assume to be Daniel, but is actually a now-zombified Paquete.

Bruno pulls the trigger, killing Paquete. This alerts a mass crowd of walkers, who converge on Daniel and Bruno as they bend over the corpse of Paquete.

Deaths

 * Randall (Alive & Zombified)
 * Paquete (Alive & Zombified)

Trivia

 * Last appearance of John Paquete. (Alive)
 * Last appearance of Randall.
 * The name of the episode, "Better Angels," comes from American President Abraham "Lincoln's Inaugural Address of 1861, 'by the better angels of our nature." Writer Evan Reilly came up with the episode's name.
 * The Cover of this episode features Tiago, Fábio, Alexis, Paquete, Gonçalo, Sophia and Johanne.
 * The meaning of this cover might be about Paquete's death, showing him and some of his friends who saw him like the group's leader.
 * This is the first Cover where Tiago, Fábio, Alexis, Paquete, Gonçalo, Sophia and Johanne appear.
 * This is the first cover where Tiago appears, even though he was already dead before this episode.
 * Paquete is the first main character to die.
 * This episode possibly confirms that survivors are already infected themselves to a degree. Another possibility is that the infection is airborne, specifically effective on the dead. Both theories are implied and partly justified by the fact both Randall and Paquete are both reanimated without being bitten.
 * Robert Kirkman explained, "There was actually another death in this episode that at the very last minute, after the script was written, we decided not to do. So we were going to have three major deaths in these two episodes but then that was decided it was just too much." It was later explained by Glen Mazzara on The Talking Dead that Leandra was originally written to be killed by Randall as he escaped in this episode. The writers had difficulty completing the scene and instead decided to allow Leandra to live due to the dramatic possibilities that would face the friendship between Cassandra and Leandra in the next seasons.
 * Glen Mazzara responded about Paquete becoming zombie in, "Better Angels," much faster than Illyana, and not getting bit: "We worked hard to make sure that revelation landed. We knew what we were doing there. We knew it would land a punch. Those [rapid flashes of zombie mayhem] represent the storm in Paquete’s brain to some extent … Illyana was a weaker character. Paquete is in a murderous rage … he’s going to reanimate quicker. There’s just more life in that zombie, believe it or not. We do have internal rules for that."