AMC’s hit ‘The Walking Dead’ returns Sunday (Feb. 12) for the second half of its sophomore season.

So what should we expect?

More zombies and gore, of course.

‘The Walking Dead’ received some flack this fall from certain fans that thought the show dragged at times.

I didn’t happen to be one of them.

I think the strength of the show lies in its pacing and interpersonal relationships. This may be a show based on a comic book series, but comic book pacing doesn’t work for a television serial.

Take FX’s ‘American Horror Story,’ for example. They threw everything at the wall for five episodes, essentially making the program a cartoon, and the show fizzled quickly. I don’t want to see that happen to ‘The Walking Dead.’

In fact, I’m not sure what all the complainers are really talking about. We had a missing girl, a sacrificial lamb (poor Otis, may he rest in peace), a surprise pregnancy, a barn full of walkers, a well full of bloated walker, a herd of migrating zombies, some gratuitous car sex, some raw squirrel eating and a couple of zombie massacres. There’s not a lot more that you can ask for.

That being said, I do have a wish list before the end of the season.

5. Carol and Daryl need to get it on. The unlikely couple took me by surprise. And, while I’m not a big fan of Carol, she does have a softening effect on Daryl – who is pretty much everyone’s favorite character on the show. The fact that it was Daryl that was constantly out looking for her daughter, Sophia, speaks volumes about his character development. Daryl is not his hillbilly brother Merle, and he should not be mistaken for him. Daryl is a survivor, but he’s not willing to do it off the backs of other people. Shane, Rick and even Glenn are getting some in the post apocalyptic world. Daryl deserves some loving, too. And now that Sophia is no longer with us, Carol is going to need someone to hold on to.

4. Andrea needs to stop being such a pain. I like Laurie Holden as an actress. I’ve liked her since her ‘Magnificent Seven’ days. I just can’t get on the roller coaster Andrea is riding. She’s up. She’s down. She blames Dale for not letting her kill herself. She jumps Shane in a car even though she knows he’s fairly despicable and was also sleeping with his best friend’s wife. She even shot Daryl trying to prove her worth to the group. I know, in the comics, Andrea is supposed to be some marksman genius – but they don’t have to strip everything likeable about the character to put her on this path.

3. They need to leave the farm. It was nice for the group to get a rest. This was the only location the group has stayed at for more than an episode since the initial camp in the woods outside of Atlanta. The show is migratory, though, and it’s time to say goodbye to the Greene farm. After the zombie massacre during the mid-season finale, I don’t think Hershel is going to be keen for the gun happy group to hang around anyway. I just hope they take Lauren Cohan’s Maggie with them. She’s a nice addition to the group – and her pairing with the always entertaining Glenn is growing on me.

2. Merle needs to make a comeback. I actually could care less what happened to Merle. I love Michael Rooker, but his racist character was not a favorite of mine. That being said, since everyone on every ‘The Walking Dead’ message board known to man is freaking out about his fate, we might as well find out where he is and move on. There’s a lot of speculation out there that he’ll somehow be tied to the mysterious Governor character that has comic book fans in a frenzy. Some are even postulating that he’ll be the Governor. I don’t buy that plotline. I actually don’t care how he returns – I just want him to return so someone can shoot him in the head and we’ll be done with him.

1. Shane needs to get his comeuppance. Jon Bernthal has done a fantastic job playing Shane – a character that has long outlived his comic book beginnings. Now I don’t think the show should follow the comics – mostly because there’s no imagination involved in that – but I do think Shane has went from morally ambiguous to hateful. Shane is an example of a character that lost his humanity when the world fell apart. I don’t think he can be saved. With news leaking out that Bernthal has been cast in Frank Darabont’s new project, I think we can all agree that odds of Shane living until the third season seem slim. Let’s hope that Rick is the one to take him out before it’s all said and done. As a caveat, I will miss Bernthal’s shirtless scenes. Dude is armed to the hilt – literally.

‘The Walking Dead’ airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on AMC.

What do you think? What do you want to see happen when ‘The Walking Dead’ returns this Sunday?