AMC’s “The Walking Dead”: Season 1 Recap and Spoilers – E02 December 13, 2010 This article is about AMC’s “The Walking Dead” Season 1 Episode 2 and is Part 2 of 6 articles. After watching the pilot episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” I was constantly thinking about what would be in t he second episode of the season. Having read the comic books and seeing the similarities between the pilot and the first volume of the Image Trade Paperback, I was excited for the show’s continuity and to see how much it would parallel the comic in the second episode. After watching the episode, my opinion of the show changed drastically. At first I was excited about how strictly the show seemed to stick with the original storyline of the comic, but after I was even more excited to see that the show has been somewhat re-conceptualized to elaborate on parts of the story that were not yet written. An example of this is how the AMC program depicted Shane and Lori’s relationship. In the comic book, the relationship between Shane and Lori was cut very short, as Shane was killed off very early by Rick and Lori’s son, Carl. In the AMC program, however, it was more elaborated on how intimately they were involved and how Shane had strong feelings for Lori; not just sexually, but very passionately. Another notable aspect of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” was the addition of some new characters we did not see in the comic series, particularly Merle Dixon, played by Michael Rooker. After Rick is rescued by Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, and taken to the department store where the rest of the group was waiting, Rick was involved in solving an altercation between the racist and frustrated Merle Dixon and the victimized T-Dog, played by IronE Singleton. In the end of the fight between Merle and T- Dog, Rick handcuffs Merle to a pipe in order to restrain him from attacking T-Dog again. With Merle no longer a threat, the group was able to formulate a plan. I thought Merle was a great addition to the group of post-apocalyptic survivors. In the comic book, there really was not a character that was easy to hate besides Shane. Merle goes against the morale of the group and demonstrates what happens to a person when they lose hope. Because he lost sight of hope when he saw the ever increasing number of walkers outside of the department store, he lost his humanity, and his racism and animalistic qualities began to show. He was no better than the walkers who were after their brains. And so, Rick did what all of them would have, but none could have. With the formulation of a plan leading nowhere, they try one last time to escape the building; this time through the sewer system. Glenn leads the search party through the sewer until they hit a dead end, and are forced to return. At this time, it seems the group has lost hope, until Rick comes up with a plan that is crazy enough to just might work. Rick notices that the walkers do not attack each other, and he wondered whether it was because they could smell fresh meat. Figuring it was their only chance; they grab an already-downed walker and drag him to a safe spot. Rick takes a moment, reaches into the corpse’s pocket and removes his identification. At this moment in the episode, Rick humanizes the dead man. Although it appears to the audience that this is not what someone in that situation would do, the director includes this scene for a very important reason. Humanizing the corpse before they were about to butcher it symbolizes the true difference between the survivors and the undead. The undead kill indiscriminately and without mercy. The living kills out of necessity and recognize the person of whom they are destroying, and being as respectful as the situation permits. After the moment ofhumanization, Rick and the others proceed t o dismember the corpse with an axe. Aside from noted mix- ups in the shots in regard to consistency with blood spatter and helmet wearing, it was a great sc ene; very powerful and disturbing.
Transcript
8/8/2019 AMC’s “The Walking Dead” Season 1 Recap and Spoilers – E02
AMC’s “The Walking Dead”: Season 1 Recap and Spoilers – E02
December 13, 2010
This article is about AMC’s “The Walking Dead” Season 1 Episode 2 and is Part 2 of 6 articles.
After watching the pilot episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” I was constantly thinking about
what would be in the second episode of the season. Having read the comic books and seeing the
similarities between the pilot and the first volume of the Image Trade Paperback, I was excited for the
show’s continuity and to see how much it would parallel the comic in the second episode. After
watching the episode, my opinion of the show changed drastically. At first I was excited about how
strictly the show seemed to stick with the original storyline of the comic, but after I was even more
excited to see that the show has been somewhat re-conceptualized to elaborate on parts of the story
that were not yet written. An example of this is how the AMC program depicted Shane and Lori’s
relationship. In the comic book, the relationship between Shane and Lori was cut very short, as Shane
was killed off very early by Rick and Lori’s son, Carl. In the AMC program, however, it was more
elaborated on how intimately they were involved and how Shane had strong feelings for Lori; not just
sexually, but very passionately.
Another notable aspect of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” was the addition of some new characters
we did not see in the comic series, particularly Merle Dixon, played by Michael Rooker. After Rick is
rescued by Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, and taken to the department store where the rest of the
group was waiting, Rick was involved in solving an altercation between the racist and frustrated Merle
Dixon and the victimized T-Dog, played by IronE Singleton. In the end of the fight between Merle and T-
Dog, Rick handcuffs Merle to a pipe in order to restrain him from attacking T-Dog again. With Merle no
longer a threat, the group was able to formulate a plan.
I thought Merle was a great addition to the group of post-apocalyptic survivors. In the comic
book, there really was not a character that was easy to hate besides Shane. Merle goes against the
morale of the group and demonstrates what happens to a person when they lose hope. Because he lostsight of hope when he saw the ever increasing number of walkers outside of the department store, he
lost his humanity, and his racism and animalistic qualities began to show. He was no better than the
walkers who were after their brains. And so, Rick did what all of them would have, but none could have.
With the formulation of a plan leading nowhere, they try one last time to escape the building;
this time through the sewer system. Glenn leads the search party through the sewer until they hit a
dead end, and are forced to return. At this time, it seems the group has lost hope, until Rick comes up
with a plan that is crazy enough to just might work. Rick notices that the walkers do not attack each
other, and he wondered whether it was because they could smell fresh meat. Figuring it was their only
chance; they grab an already-downed walker and drag him to a safe spot. Rick takes a moment, reaches
into the corpse’s pocket and removes his identification. At this moment in the episode, Rick humanizes
the dead man. Although it appears to the audience that this is not what someone in that situation would
do, the director includes this scene for a very important reason. Humanizing the corpse before they
were about to butcher it symbolizes the true difference between the survivors and the undead. The
undead kill indiscriminately and without mercy. The living kills out of necessity and recognize the person
of whom they are destroying, and being as respectful as the situation permits. After the moment of
humanization, Rick and the others proceed to dismember the corpse with an axe. Aside from noted mix-
ups in the shots in regard to consistency with blood spatter and helmet wearing, it was a great scene;
very powerful and disturbing.
8/8/2019 AMC’s “The Walking Dead” Season 1 Recap and Spoilers – E02
Rick and Glen cover themselves with the dismembered parts of the corpse in order to disguise
the smell of their living bodies. They theorize that in order to freely walk among the undead, they must
smell like the undead. They reach inside the corpse, pull out its guts, smear them all over their bodies,
and hang the entrails around their necks. They sever hands and put them in their pockets to concentrate
the stench. They smear coagulated blood and putrid body fluids all over themselves, in the meanwhile
vomiting all over the floor in disgust. This scene seems to be in the film for no other reason than the
pure, imaginative gore that is happening. You visually see the characters swinging the axe and you know
the corpse is on the floor, but what you do not see is the corpse actually being bludgeoned by the axe. I
wanted to mention this because it is the ultimate psychological scare tactic. What they do not show you
must be filled in by your own imagination, and let’s face it, what is more scary than that? Evidence of
this claim is when you watch the scene, picture what the axe must be doing to the body. When they
actually show the body you will find that you were completely overshooting how intense the scene
really is. It is very horrific and disgusting nonetheless. This scene is where the episode gets its title:
“Guts.”
As Rick and Glen are on their mission to leave, T-Dog returns to Merle with the key to free him
from being handcuffed to the pipe. As he runs across the roof, T-Dog trips and accidentally drops thehandcuff key down the sewer drain. Unable to free Merle, T-Dog strands him on the roof, handcuffed to
the pipe. As he is fleeing the roof, T-Dog chains the doors to the roof shut so that no walkers can get
onto the roof and attack Merle. When he eventually reconnects with the rest of the group but without
Merle, they are all suspicious that he left Merle on the roof because he was the direct victim of Merle’s
violence. T-Dog confesses that he did it accidentally and says that he accepts full responsibility for his
actions. He is confident that when they return to save him, he will be perfectly safe. By looking at T-Dog,
you can see that this is something he will be carrying with him for the rest of his life if they are
unsuccessful in rescuing him.
Meanwhile, the best attempt at a plan of escaping the department store is about to be in action.
Rick and Glen are making their way down the street slowly, covered in guts, walking unnoticed amongstthe living dead. The plan is relatively simple; Glen is to steal a car and make a lot of noise to distract the
walkers from Rick, who will be driving a truck up to the loading dock to load up the remaining survivors.
As Rick and Glen are getting close to their destination, it begins to rain, washing the smell of the undead
off of them and drawing the attention of hundreds of hungry walkers. They scramble to complete their
plan, fighting off walkers along the way. Rick hotwires a sexy, red, Dodge Charger for Glen, who hopes
inside and distracts the walkers with the car’s alarm. Rick gets a truck, backs it up to the loading dock,
loads the survivors and heads back to camp. The last scene of the episode is of Glen driving out of the
city at top speed, coming down the opposite way in which Rick rode in on his horse in the end of
episode 1.
I thought this episode was also very exciting. Even though the episode was not by-the-book with
the original comic, I believe the writers of the series did an excellent job creating tension and keeping
the audience engaged. The contrast of having a horrific scene at one moment of T-Dog abandoning
Merle on the roof and a hilarious scene at another, such as Glen roaring out of the city screaming at the
top of his lungs with his car alarm blaring was very effective at getting an emotional response. The
flashes of the other survivors at camp throughout the episode, including Rick’s wife and son, without the
knowledge of Rick was also very suspenseful. By the end of episode 2, Rick still had not been reunited
with his family and his best friend. We, as an audience, know what he will find at camp, but he does not.
It is in this information lies the deepest tension of this episode.
8/8/2019 AMC’s “The Walking Dead” Season 1 Recap and Spoilers – E02
