Judge, Jury, Executioner

Plot

Daryl beats Randall in the barn and interrogates him. Randall confesses that he belongs to a bigger group of men who once found two girls and raped them while their father watched. The group decides Randall is a serious threat. Rick thinks they should kill him but wants to wait until sunset.

Dale sees that most of the group sides with Rick and tries to change their minds by talking about humanity, civilization, and morality. Most still agree with Rick for different reasons, but Shane says he will back Dale if Dale can convince the others. Meanwhile, Beth has gotten better after her suicide attempt. When Glenn checks on her, Hershel gives him a family heirloom to show he approves of Glenn dating his daughter Maggie.

As the day goes on, Rick’s son Carl gets bored and sneaks into the barn to look at Randall. Randall tries to talk Carl into letting him go, but Shane finds Carl and yells at him. Outside, Carol tries to cheer Carl up by saying Sophia is in heaven, but Carl is disgusted that she seems calm about losing her daughter and snaps at her. Carl then takes a gun from Daryl’s stash and goes alone into a nearby swamp.

He finds a walker stuck halfway in mud. He throws rocks at it to taunt it, then moves close to shoot it in the head. The walker suddenly frees one leg and lunges forward. Carl panics, drops the gun, and runs back to camp without telling anyone.

At sunset, the group talks about what to do with Randall. Dale’s arguments have not changed anyone’s mind, so he storms off. Rick, Shane, and Daryl go to the barn. Rick is about to shoot Randall when Carl runs in and tells his father to do it.

Rick is horrified and stops the execution, which annoys Shane. Dale walks alone in the fields to cool down. He finds a cow with its stomach torn open. He realizes the danger and starts to head back, but a walker attacks him.

The group hears his screams and runs to him. Daryl quickly kills the walker. Carl realizes it is the same walker he found in the swamp. Hershel sees that Dale’s injuries are too bad and he will not survive. The group agrees to put Dale down, but Rick cannot pull the trigger. Daryl takes the revolver and shoots Dale.

Production

"Judge, Jury, Executioner" was directed by Greg Nicotero and written by Angela Kang. The episode became Nicotero's first directing credit for a full-length television episode of the series; he had previously conceived and directed the six-part web series The Walking Dead: Torn Apart. As part of a promotional campaign, cast member Norman Reedus participated in a live chat on Entertainment Weekly coinciding with the airing of "Judge, Jury, Executioner".

This episode addresses the death of Dale Horvath, who is attacked and ripped open by a walker. Jeffrey DeMunn was "furious" about the firing of longtime friend Frank Darabont, who developed and previously acted as showrunner for the series, and asked to be let go from the show. In a 2018 interview with The Plain Dealer, DeMunn said, "I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realized, 'Oh, I can quit.'

So I called them and said, 'It's a zombie show. Kill me. I don't want to do this anymore.' It was an immense relief to me."

Since writer Robert Kirkman felt that Dale epitomized a character of morality and humanity, much of "Judge, Jury, Executioner" explores themes related to the declining morality of individuals during a catastrophic event. Kirkman proclaimed that Dale's death was a momentous occasion, ultimately marking a turning point for future development of The Walking Dead. "Dale's character has been the heart and soul of the show," he iterated. "He's definitely the moral compass.

He's the guy that, more so than anyone, has been warning people to be careful how you let this world change you and monitoring what lengths people are going to survive. His loss is going to mean a great deal for all the characters in the show and is definitely going to represent a turn to a darker space. His death means a lot." Kirkman added that it was difficult to release DeMunn from the cast.

He stated: "It's heartbreaking to lose Jeffrey DeMunn. He's really given us a lot, these last two seasons on the show. It's been amazing to work with him and get to know him and he's an awesome dude and we're definitely going to miss him."

Reception

"Judge, Jury, Executioner" first aired on AMC in the United States on March 4, 2012. According to Nielsen ratings, 6.771 million people watched it live, and it earned a 3.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, meaning 3.5 percent of that age group tuned in. That made it the highest-rated cable show of the day, beating out programs like Storage Wars on A&E and Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo. It also outperformed every other cable program during the week of March 4. However, its viewership and rating were a moderate drop from the previous episode, "18 Miles Out," which had 7.04 million viewers and a 3.8 rating in the same demographic.

Critics generally praised the episode. Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald called it an "incredible episode," adding that The Walking Dead "again proves it is one of the best dramas on TV and almost makes me feel good about paying my cable bill." Rene Guzman of the San Antonio Express-News wrote that it "delivers all that messy drama in spades with a true gut-wrenching end to one of the series' core characters." Molly Friedman of Wetpaint said the audience "finally had a reason to shed some tears and remember just how much we care about the original gang of apocalyptic misfits."

Kevin Yeoman of The Christian Science Monitor and Tierney Bricker of E! Online both noted that the episode effectively surprised viewers. Cyriaque Lamar of io9 disagreed, calling it inferior to its predecessor and claiming it "served up a bunch of quasi-entertaining scenes of people arguing and capped them off with one of the most accidentally funny closers ever committed to basic cable." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave it a B+ and said the episode continued the series' trend toward a more focused direction.

Josh Jackson of Paste praised its exploration of morality in an apocalyptic setting. Eric Goldman of IGN was far more critical, giving it a 6.5 out of 10 and calling it "especially dull" compared to the previous installment.