Don't let the focus on narrative fool you into thinking this is an overly talkative episode, though. As with all things The Walking Dead, character moments are interspersed with intense action; when that action arrives, it's more subdued but hits much harder than the over-the-top gore of last episode. The stakes also feel higher since the game has now provided more opportunity to care about characters whose lives are very much at risk.

Episode 2 ratchets up the tension smartly, one notch at a time, so even the most mundane, seemingly safe scenes hum with a nervous energy — a constant reminder that things will, inevitably, go terribly wrong. And so they do. The payoff in "A House Divided" is stupendous, hitting a climax with multiple conclusions that is honestly one of my favorite moments from either season of The Walking Dead to this point.

Much of Episode 2's explosive build-up rests on the shoulders of a creepy villain introduced herein. This love-to-hate-him antagonist is similar to those seen in the Robert Kirkman comic that The Walking Dead is based on — a brutal head of a community who will go to extreme, morally questionable lengths to protect his people — but it's a story thread the game has never explored. I can only hope this brilliant bad guy sticks around for many episodes to come.