After fleeing the Center for Disease Control in Georgia, Rick and his group of survivors find themselves stuck on a highway of abandoned vehicles. When a large horde of the undead converge on them, young Sophia runs off into the woods. They spend days looking for her but no luck--and Rick feels responsible. Then, Carl is accidently shot by a guy named Otis, who then leads them back to the farm of Veterinarian Hershel Greene. Eventually, the others make it back to this farmland as well, though Sophia is still missing. The Vet manages to save Carl's life and Rick and his wife are thankful. But there's a secret Hershel is keeping-- there are zombies being kept in the barn, including his own dead wife and relatives. He thinks there will be a cure. It isn't until asshole Shane unlocks it and they storm out that he's convinced otherwise. All the zombies are destroyed--including Sophia, who'd they'd been searching for all this time.
Everyone seems to be safe on the farm. It's isolated and far away from the hordes of zomibes. But there's potential problems from Shane, who thinks Rick is lousy leader and says as much. He wants to rekindle his relationship with Rick's wife and son--and even believes that the baby she's pregnant with is his baby. He wants his former partner out of the picture and Rick gives him every chance to redeem himself. He never does.
At the end of the season there's an expected--and unexpected death--of two of the main characters. In the last episode a huge herd of zombies descends upon the farm, forcing the survivors to leave in a hurry.
My main gripe is that too much is changed from the comic book. The girl Sophia is killed off (she's still alive in the comic) and the whole thing with Shane is dragged on too far too long. That was really boring. This aside, this second season is far better than the first.The last half of the series makes up for the slow first half and the ending gets back on track to a few of my favorite aspects of the graphic novels--the Prison and machete wielding Michonne.