The Walking Dead - Episode 1.01 - Days Gone Bye - Recap

Mattv here with another set of recaps for a show that is very close to my heart. The Walking Dead is one of my favorite comic books and at first I was worried about the tv show staying truthful to the comic book, but after tonight I am not worried. Onward with the recap!:


The episode starts off with our new hero Rick Grimes as he scours a gas station for fuel. We can see that this station has been significantly roughed up thanks to the zombie-pocolypse and a nifty little sign informs Rick that there is no fuel. Rick is upset until he sees a little girl with her teddy bear. Finally another person in this crazy zombie Georgia! Well unfortunately for Rick this is a zombie little girl and as soon as she turns around and shows him her zombie face she is also running towards him to eat his flesh. It is right at this moment that we realize two very important things about AMC’s new original: 1. That the focus is going to be on the characters reacting realistically and emotionally to the crazy world around them and 2. That AMC is not pulling any punches when it comes to violence. Zombie girl’s head gets ‘ploded and we see it all. And cue the intro music…

Once the intro is over we flash back to pre-zombie-clypse era Georgia where good cop Rick is eating and talking with his partner and friend, Shane. Rick asks Shane what the difference is between a man and a women and goes on to talk a little bit about himself and his life Lori. It turns out things are a little heated in the Grimes household and Lori has no problem belittling Rick in front of their young son Carl, something Rick asserts a man would never do. This introspection is cut short when over the radio the officers hear of a high-speed chase heading their way. Time to throw away the burgers! Once a perimeter is set up we get a nice look at Rick’s weapon of choice, a magnum revolver. This gun is super nice looking and even though Rick doesn’t know it yet, will be used a lot during this episode. The bad guys come barreling down the highway and are run off the road/flipped over courtesy of police spikes. After the procedural “put your hands in the air!” fails Rick and the other officers start shooting and seemingly get all of them. Rick even gets shot by one of them, but is saved thanks to his bulletproof vest. Unfortunately right when Rick looks away another bad guy comes out of the car and shoots him right in the mid-shoulder region, where unfortunately for Rick, he is not so covered by his vest. Shane dispatches the bad guy and tells Rick to hold on as he starts to bleed out and lose consciousness….

Cut to a little while later… In a 28 days later style Rick gasps for breath and wakes up to find himself in a seemingly deserted hospital. His calls for nurse go unanswered and he is forced to yank out all of his IV’s and tubes attached to him. Thankfully AMC wisely choose to show us violence and not nudity, because we don’t have to watch as Rick takes out his catheter. Naturally Rick is a little weak thanks to the ole drug induced coma and he is very confused when he makes it out of his room, only to find that the rest of the hospital is empty and has been ransacked. In a very creepy scene Rick walks towards a door with the words, “Do not enter. Dead inside”, written on them as the overhead lights flicker on and off. A zombie hand reaches out towards Rick before he wisely runs out of the hospital and down the stairs to the parking lot, only to discovery rows of dead bodies with white sheets over them. Some of them even appear to have been shot in the head, after they were covered by the sheet. Rick continues his walk towards his house and runs across a zombie lovingly known in the comic as, “Bicycle Girl”. She is missing the lower portion of her body and slowly crawls towards Rick, which terrifies him. Rick takes her bicycle and rides off in terror…

The next stop on the disbelief tour is Rick’s house, which has also been ransacked and broken into. Rick screams with tears in his eyes as he realizes that his wife and son may be in grave danger, or worse, dead. Rick walks outside to collect his thoughts and is greeted by an incredibly strange sight. A dead or very sick looking person is casually walking down his street. Rick calls out to him, but to no response. Rick, meet the walking dead. Walking dead, meet Rick Grimes. No sooner does Rick stand in disbelief, as he is wacked over the head with a shovel, thanks to little Duane Jones. Bloody, Rick looks up and asks him if he is his son Carl, and Duane starts to freak out, realizing that he may have just killed someone who was not a zombie. Bang! Right out of nowhere Duane’s father, Morgan Jones, shoots the walker Rick saw moments ago in the head and helps his son carry Rick off to the house they are staying in nearby. The gunshot will soon attract other walkers looking for a tasty meal..

Rick wakes up to find himself tied up to a bed, shirtless, and next to Morgan and Duane who want to question him. Rick explains to them that he is looking for his wife and son and that they probably would have headed into the city if something were wrong. Morgan is a little hesitant and tells Rick that there is no way that they could be in the city because the city is full of zombies and very unsafe for humans. If they are alive they are probably somewhere on the outskirts of the city. While he is tied up Morgan gives Rick a brief history lesson on the walking dead and how he they operate. The one that Rick saw before Morgan shot it was a walker and they are attracted by sound. They are pretty slow but deadly in large groups. He tells Rick that he should only shoot them if he absolutely has too, and that a blunt object will do the trick as well. During their conversation we hear a car alarm go off and Morgan instructs Duane to lock the doors and windows and hide. A zombie most likely ran into the car and set it off, but the noise will most definitely attract more zombies who might see their house. Later in the right the door starts to open and we find out that Morgan has been keeping a secret from us. We see that the zombie outside is an African American woman who looks strikingly familiar to a picture that Duane has and that Zombies will try and return to places that were familiar to them as humans. It seems that Morgan is having a hard time thinking of his wife as no longer his wife and an even harder time killing her to put her out of her misery. Luckily she is distracted by another noise before she can try to open the door anymore…

The next morning Rick is untied from the bed and tells Morgan that he knows a place that still has electricity and a stockpile of guns and ammo, Rick’s police office. The three finally reach there and after turning on the generator rick is reunited with his lovely magnum, along with many other rifles, handguns, and shotguns. Rick tells Morgan to take as much as he can carry and tells Duane that he can take a gun also, but that he has to listen to his father and be extra safe with it. Sufficiently stuffed they head outside and find two gassed up police cruisers with working radios. They also find one of Rick’s fellow officers who has been zombie-fied. Rick takes care of him with a swift shot to the forehead and once again we are reminded of how much violence AMC is willing to show. Rick takes one of the cruisers and tells Morgan that he is heading to Atlanta to find Lori and Carl. The two depart and Rick is on the road again!

After shooting the zombie girl we see Rick driving towards Atlanta on the barren highway and calling out for help on the radio. Unfortunately Rick hangs up before Amy can pick up on the other line and tell him that she is part of a survivor group and that the city is dangerous. Another survivor comes over to find out who was on the radio and it turns out to be…Lori! Yep Lori, Carl, and even Shane are all safe and sound with about half a dozen other survivors living in tents on the outskirts of town. We soon find out that things are not quite as they appear when Shane goes to comfort an upset Lori and they engage in a passionate kiss. It seems Shane has used Rick’s MIA status to his own advantage…

Back at the Morgan house, Morgan tells Duane to go downstairs and read his comics while he sets up a chair in the attic and takes aim at the walkers outside with his new police rifle. He manages to take out two of them, but ultimately cannot bring himself to shoot his wife. The shots have attracted other zombies towards their house and the last shot we see of Duane and Morgan in this episode is them huddling together and crying as more and more zombies head towards their general direction.

Still in transit, we see Rick pull over on the side of the road and end up at a familiar location. Bicycle Girl is still crawling around on the ground and Rick walks over to her and tearfully talks to her. He apologizes to her for whatever made her the way that she is now and then takes her out of her misery by killing her. This scene is very powerful and is a good example of how The Walking Dead is different you’re your average zombie flick. The characters feel real and really feel. Eventually Rick runs out of gas and stops at a farm, which for fans of the comic book, may or may not be Hershel’s farm. Regardless, Rick wanders around and finds that the homeowners have killed themselves and cryptically wrote “God Save Us” above their heads. Rick finds a horse and with his guns packed to his back, rides off towards Atlanta like a zombie killin’ cowboy.

Unfortunately for TV lovers everywhere, John Wayne Rick is short lived as Rick finds out just how bad the city is once he arrives. There are zombies EVERYWHERE and what appears to be a remnant of a National Guard counter attack. There is even an abandoned tank in the middle of a city street. Rick’s galloping manages to catch the attention of the majority of the city zombies, which startles Rick’s horse. It also doesn't help that Rick is distracted by a possible CDC helicopter in the sky and doesn't notice the zombie attention he has recieved. Rick falls off of his horse in the confusion and his horse is then promptly fed upon by zombies as Rick crawls under the abandoned tank, leaving his big bag-o-guns behind. The horse feeding frenzy takes away most of the zombies attention but there are still a few of them who crawl after Rick under the tank. Rick prepares to end his life before apologizing to Lori and Carl, until he looks up and sees that the bottom hatch of the tank is open.

Rick quickly changes the position of his magnum from his head to the heads of the zombies around him and pops off five rounds before crawling into the tank and sealing the bottom hatch shut. Inside of the tank Rick finds some live tank shells on the ground and even better yet, finds a dead soldier with a semi-loaded semi-automatic handgun. Right as Rick is inspecting the gun we find out that the soldier is still very undead and Rick lets off his final revolver round into him, causing him to go partially deaf for a short period. With is ears still ringing, Rick notices that hungry Zombies can still get in via the open top hatch and climbs up to look outside and see his bag of guns on the street. Almost attacked, Rick seals it shut,effectively sealing himself into his own little inescapable panic room in the midst of a huge zombie feeding frenzy. Luckily for Rick the radio inside of the tank lights up and a voice on the other end informs Rick that he saw him get himself stuck in the tank and asks him sarcastically "if it's cozy in there." He might be trapped, but at least now he he knows he isn’t alone!