"The Walking Dead" Season Premiere Recap EP 301

Janes Notes: As Season 2 of "Paranormal Witness" draws to a close, Mob Mistress asked me if I wanted to recap AMC's "The Walking Dead". I honestly have never seen the show but after hearing what it was about, I was ready to jump on it! So you think the thrills and scares are over? Well, think again! After doing some zombie homework, I'm looking forward to tuning into this show every Sunday at 9pm! Without further ado...

Rick comes upon a potential sanctuary and pushes the group to secure the area

WARNING: This show is rated TV-14 but does contain an excessive amount of violence, blood and slight gore. I leave the reader up to their own discretion. 

The eyes of a zombie are looked upon. Rick once again leads the way armed with a firearm as his son Carl follows suit with T-Dog and Daryl marching behind armed with spears and a crossbow, ready to secure the residential home. The crew, including the adolescent Carl, have no hesitation taking out zombies standing in their way (and live owls for food courtesy of Daryl). Following the four are Maggie and Glenn. The house is cleared of zombies and the rest of the crew (Lori, Beth, Hershel and Carol) follow suit. The crew huddle around in the entryway, wondering what to do when T-Dog spots a herd of zombies approaching. The crew set out and go in three separate vehicles while Daryl sets out on his motorcycle (At this time, somewhere in California, Jane Doe is falling in love with Daryl).  

The crew drives off and park in the middle of a rural road. Maggie unrolls a map and the crew plans on what area to go next while Carl and Beth stand on guard. Rick suggests the group suggests going westward instead of going from house to house. Meanwhile, Hershel’s main concern is Lori due to her healthy and pregnancy. Rick and Daryl decide to go through the woods to see what they can discover. They walk alongside a train track when they see a prison in the distance…along with zombies sprawling the prison yard. The group then joins them and they break into the gates prison walkway, killing zombies in their way. Glenn and Rick secure up the cut gate and walk through the passageway, zombies approaching the gate and clawing at them. The crew reaches a dead end when Rick sees the main gate into the prison.  Rick comes up with a plan to secure the prison yard perimeter.  He suggests Maggie, Beth, T-dog and Glenn distract the zombies one way (as they are the fastest) while Daryl, Hershel, Carl and Carol secure the towers and set up a shooting spree on the zombies below. Meanwhile, down below, Maggie, Beth, T-Dog and Glenn are on a zombie slashing spree. Lori opens up the main gate inside the prison as Rick sneaks around and runs through, killing zombie prisoners. Rick successfully gets in one of the towers as the crew continues to shoot and slay zombies. The whole crew kills off the zombies and secure the jail perimeter. The crew leaves the tower and head towards the prison (but not without Glenn taking a last shot at a zombie’s head for the finale). 

Home sweet home?

Its night time as Daryl guards the secured perimeter, with Rick walking around the perimeter and the rest of the crew enjoy a campfire in the middle of the yard. T-Dog and Hershel suggest digging a canal under the prison for fresh water and to plant seeds such as tomatoes for food. Lori mentions this will be a good, safe place to raise the baby. Meanwhile Carol talks to Daryl and confesses that she was surprised that Mike took them as far as he did. She mentions her shoulder hurts from the rifle. Daryl caresses it and Carol jokes how he’s romantic and they should screw around. (At this point, Jane Doe becomes possessed temporarily by this newfound love for Daryl and yells “hands off my man, girlfriend!”) 

Back at the campfire, Hershel wants the girls to sing old campfire songs. Beth resists but ends up singing a song from the past. Maggie joins in; it’s a haunting tune that is soothing and yet eerie as the zombies gated in the prison wander around in the background. Rick, Carol and Daryl walk back to the sound of the girls’ singing. Rick insists that while they had a great victory, they need to rest so they can raid inside the prison which is a “gold mine” full of beds, food and water, medicine and other necessities. Hershel mentions how ammo is scarce when Rick suggests then the crew go “hand-to-hand” with the zombies and encourages them, reminding them how far they’ve reached. In a private moment, Lori confides in Rick about staying outside the prison yard for a few days. Lori’s baby is about to arrive and Lori is worried about hers and baby’s health. Rick feels annoyed that Lori is being demanding to him after all he’s done. Lori apologizes and Rick goes back on watch. 

Wondering what the future holds around a campfire

In another scene, zombies linger inside a two-story building when Michonne makes her appearance, roundhouse kicking the zombie into a bookshelf before decapitating it. She stabs and decapitates two more zombies, leaving an array of blood and severed zombie heads in her mist.

"Larry, which one did you say had the donuts?"

Meanwhile, back at the prison, Rick opens the gates as Mike, Glenn, T-Dog, Daryl and Maggie make their way in and Hershel shuts the gates. The fab five go on a zombie killing spree. The rest of the crew is outside the gates, antagonizing the zombies away from the five to kill them. The five continue to infiltrate inside the prison, with T-Dog picking up a new piece of equipment: a prison riot shield. Rick commands the group to stick together in a unit. Prison guard zombies are now the next enemy to tackle. Defeating the prison guard zombies tends to be a bit of a difficulty due to the extra armor and riot helmets so the crew decides to take off the helmets and stab the zombies in the face. The next mission is a courtyard invaded by prisoner zombies and they discover civilian zombies also must be inside. Rick leads the crew to an entrance in what appears to be an empty prison. Rick goes in the control room and realizes a warden zombie has already been slashed. Rick takes the keys and opens the doors.

Taking Control...

The crew’s first location is C-Unit. More zombie prisoners are found already slashed. 

Rick and Daryl go to the second story where they do see more live zombies in cells and slash them. C-Unit is secured. The rest of the crew joins insides and tries to settle down. Rick’s plan the next day is to invade the cafeteria. The group settles in, with the crew pairing off in cell bunks (with Hershel reminding Carl to get his own once he catches him in Beth’s room). Glenn and Maggie go inside a blood-stained cell and comfort one another. 

Settling in...just another day...

Meanwhile, Michonne is still flying solo, with katana armed. She enters a goods store where she sees two armless zombies chained up. She sees a sick Andrea sleeping in a corner. Michonne gives her medicine with some water and places the water around her face to cool her down. Michonne mentions to Andrea that they should leave the place in a few places. Andrea tells Michonne to go and to let her died because Andrea would slow her down. Michonne tries to give her more water but Andrea throws the water back, telling Michonne to screw herself and to leave her be. Michonne reassures her they will leave in a few days. Andrea wanrs Michonne that she will die if they continue to stay. Michonne then opens a backdoor, takes the chained zombies with her alongside Andrea and leave.

Michonne and her partner-in-crime, her zombie slaying Katana...

Back in the prison, the men find a room full of equipment used by the prisons guards from flash grenades to batons and helmets. Carol walks up and asks the men if Hershel is there. Meanwhile, Lori is telling Hershel that she feels she lost the baby and couldn’t feel it move. Hershel tries to comfort her as Lori is thinking of worst-case scenarios. Lori expresses her last wishes that if anything were to happen to her and the baby, that the men would put Lori and the baby out of her misery. Lori is terrified that her baby is infected and will tear her apart. Lori is thinking about the worst-case scenarios in terms of the delivery and makes Hershel promise that if her life and baby’s life is at risk, to give her a “mercy murder”. Hershel convinces her that she’s suffering from serious exhaustion and malnutrition and just needs to rest. 

Downstairs, the men and Maggie gear up to infiltrate deeper into the prison. 

Operation Prison Seize....

Rick tells Carl to stay behind and be the “last man standing”. Carl closes the prison gate behind Rick, T-Boy, Daryl, Hershel, Maggie and Glenn as they march on. Nighttime is falling as the six, armed with flashlights, go throughout the rest of the prison to secure it. They find that there are corpses of slayed zombies and pools of bones and blood with every turn. Glenn spray paints arrows on the wall to serve as signs for the crew to follow if they need it. Around the corner is a group of prisoner zombies. The group backs up and runs away. But as they are walking down a hallway, a group of prisoner zombies surprise attacks the group, causing Glenn and Maggie to separate from the rest.  Rick, Daryl, Hershel and T-Boy are fortunate to find a small empty closet to lock themselves in for Plan B. They decide to search for Maggie and Glenn before continuing on. The four walks out as Hershel passes a dead zombie….except the zombie is still alive, springs back up and takes a nasty chunk out of Hershel’s leg. Maggie and Glenn hear Hershel’s screams and join the rest of the team as they take Hershel’s body, run through a group of zombies and lock themselves in the cafeteria. Rick pulls out his belt to serve as a tourniquet, takes an axe, and severs off Hershel’s leg from the knee down to prevent infection. Daryl then notices a group of zombie prisoners looking through from the cafeteria and tells the group to duck. 

A picture of Jane Doe's future husband (he just doesn't know it yet)

Daryl walks forward and realizes that as one of the prisoners exclaims “holy sh*t”,  that they aren’t zombies but surviving human prisoners….

Picture Credit: AMC/Gene Page

Follow me @janedoeghost 

Personal blog: The Ghost Machines