The Walking Dead Season One Episode One Recap

Episode One:  This episode shows us the aftermath of whatever madness has happen to this small town in Georgia. We meet Rick Grimes and his best friend and partner Shane. We see the desperation people went through trying to escape and survive. Rick wakes up after being critically injured after being shoot twice while trying to capture a car full of suspects, to find things are not how they use to be.

The hospital is empty and what he does find is tons of bodies. Unsure of what has happen Rick flees uneasily towards his home to look for his wife and son. While trying to understand what is going on when his wife and son are not home he meets two survivors, a man and his son. They treat him hostilely, since they are unsure if a walker or something else wounded him. Once he has convinced them he just woke up and have no idea what has happen he realized things are very wrong.

He learns that lights and loud noises attract the walkers and not to let any of their blood get on his face. He takes the man and his son to the sheriff’s station where they take a shower and load up on guns. They part ways, Rick heads towards Atlanta, where there is suppose to be safe refuge and the CDC, and the man and his son go back to the home where he tries to cut ties with his wife who became a walker.

We meet other survivors who are outside of Atlanta with Shane. They receive a radio transmission, but are unable to communicate with Rick, neither Shane nor Rick’s wife recognize his voice due to static. There is a fight between Lorie and Shane about putting signs up to let people know that the city is not safe. Lorie and Shane obviously have a romance going on, but it seems to be out of need rather than love.

Rick comes across an abandon home, where he finds a grim situation; it appears that the homeowners killed themselves so they would not turn into walkers. Rick finds a horse at this house and uses it when he is out of gas in his cruiser. As he approaches Atlanta everything seems deserted like the town he just left, but of course the town is full of walkers. 

Seeing a chopper in the air Rick rides through the city trying to find it and let them see him, when he rides right into a huge crowd of walkers. He becomes surrounded and is knocked off his horse. He retreats under a tank, where he is cornered and has to shoot to give him a way out. As he seems to attempt a quick suicide he climbs through a hatch into the tank, where he kills a walker and because of the close quarters starts to go deaf from the bullet bouncing off the walls and creating a ringing noise. Now that his bag full of guns is in the middle of the walkers Rick is stuck in the tank. Again suicide seems to be his only option, when a voice comes over the radio. Who is this mysterious person?

My Opinions:   It is easy to see that while this is the first episode, it is not that exciting compared to the rest of the season. The reason is it has to set up the madness and what Rick goes through as he first finds out what happens while he was in a coma. With that said the walkers in the episode are still pretty cool, bicycle girl and the little girl are two that stand out in the episode. If you have the DVDs for season one watch the special features, they show you how they did bicycle girl. You will be impressed. 

What I liked about this episode that it did take it's time, as does this season explaining things to you. Some shows rush everything in 20 or 50 minutes, this show does not  d this even when the first episode is 90 minutes long. Trust me I rather them take the time to do things that rush through it and you feeling like it was too short of a ride. 

Another thing this show does well, especially with this episode and the next is using simple things to pull out emotions. When you see Shane and you assume at least two of the survivors are Rick's wife and son you hope he finds them. It's simple, but you are left with the hope that something good will come out of this madness.