The Walking Dead Season One Episode Four Recap

Episode Four:  We left off with Daryl angry that Merle is not on the roof and instead of killing everyone like he wants to, he take Merle’s hand to preserve if when they find him. Merle is nowhere to be found, but he seems to have gotten out alive.

Back at camp one of the members of the group, Jim is digging a lot of holes and that worries everyone. They try to stop him and they have to force him to stop. Meanwhile back in the city Glenn comes up with a plan to get the bag of guns. As we know nothing goes right for them. A young boy confronts Daryl and he is beat up while Glenn is taken.

The men try to get the boy to tell them where they took Glenn so they could get him back. Neither is willing to back down so Rick has to come up with what can be spared. A huge fight is about to break out, when an old woman comes in and stops everything. Turns out that the gang bangers stayed in an elderly home to take care of the people who were left behind. Ricks gives them about half their guns and ammo and walk back to where the truck was left and it is missing. They assume Merle took it and heads back to camp take his vengeance on the group. So they must hurry back.

The group is having dinner and enjoying freshly caught fish. No one is really concerned with the missing men or anything else around them. Walkers have invaded the campsite and both Ed and Amy have been attacked. The 4 men are approaching the camp when they hear Shane’s gunshots and rush towards the camp. Panic strikes everyone and no one knows where to go or what to do. The men come and kill as many walkers as they can while everyone else heads towards the RV.

The episode ends with Andrea crying over Amy and the group stunned. Jim remembers why he dug the holes.

Review: I enjoyed this episode, it's pretty fast moving and there are a few surprises that come up. I really like how the group of thugs were not what they appear to be. Okay some of them were, but it showed how, eve though the world has gone crazy people still victimize the weak. There are not changes, just the situation got dire. People would of course blame their actions on things other than who they are. 

 The whole Jim thing seems a bit... odd. It's not really a guy who has a crazy dream that turns real, even though that's what we see. It just seems like a weird idea that just didn't play well for me.

The Walking Dead Season One Recap Episode Three

Episode Three:  The episode opens with Merle still stuck on the roof, obviously has lost it. He’s still trying to get free because zombies have made it to the roof and he’s close to becoming one himself. As he lies there praying he sees a hacksaw and we can assume what he’s going to do.

Our group of survivors is making their way back towards the camp, while Shane offers to teach Carl how to catch frogs to feed the group. Of course Glenn arrives in the Charger still with the alarm going off.  We now see the family reunion Rick and Lori never thought they would get. Later on that night Rick tells everyone what it was like waking up with out knowing what was going on. 

Of course not all is good and happy at camp. There are still problems between people, too many alpha males in the camp. There is also talk about how to tell Daryl, Merle’s brother, what happen to him.

The next morning all seems fine until the children scream as they find a walker eating deer that has been shot down with arrows. The men use weapons to kill it. In comes Daryl who has just returned from his hunting trip. The guys break it to Daryl about his brother and he tries to fight Rick and Shane. Rick explains what happens and that he’s planning on going back to get Merle. Shane and others have an issue with this, but Rick, Daryl, Glenn and T-Dog decide to go.

While the four men are back in the city to get the guns and Merle, Shane teaches Carl how to catch frogs and the women talk about doing all the work around the camp and al the things they miss. Ed, who is your typically controlling husband, has to but in he tries to control the women and Shane steps in and beats Ed’s ass. Also, we have Lori and Shane arguing about their evolving relationship and how she doesn’t want him around her family.

 

The men get to the store and instead of finding Merle all they find is a severed hand and the tools. And we have the end of the episode. 

My Opinion: I like this episode because it introduces probably my favorite characters and actor on the show, who for some reason is overlooking. I guess he started out as a guess actor, but I think of him as an important main character. That would be Daryl Dixon played by Norman Reedus. I guess it's because he's in on all time favorite movie, which is not a horror film, Boondock Saints. 

I think what this episode does is shows us the kind of men both Rick and Shane are. Rick is your hero, who sacrifices everything to make sure everyone has a fair chance. Shane on the other hand is all about staying together, even though in the trailer for the second season it appears that he might leave the group. It shows how a like, but different these two friends are. 

I am not a fan of the love triangle, well if you even want to call it that. It seems stupid and I am not sure how much time most women would be willing to give themselves before they get involved with another man. I just don't know. 

I also cannot stand Lori when it comes to big emotions. She has these wide open deer in the headlight eyes that just seem to be one of her few emotions. You see it in just about every episode when something terrible, shocking or scary happens. 

 My last thought is I wonder if they will ever find Merle and/or Morgan, or if they are just forgotten now. I am not sure what to expect, it doesn't seem like there's too much talk about these characters returning, but I could be wrong. 

The Walking Dead Season One Episode Two Recap

Episode Two:  This episode lets us meet the group of survivors.  We see that some kind of relationship between Lori and Shane have taken place, though it’s one of lust. We also start were episode one left off, Rick being stuck in the tank while a voice from the radio helps him make an escape plan. Once Rick is free and meets a separate group of survivors who are not happy about Rick’s arrival.

Now our group is trapped and has nowhere to go.  Plus, there are already tensions between the members of the group. We meet Merle Dixon who cannot leave his racist opinions to himself and he suffers for it. Rick handcuffs him and he gets left behind. The group tries to use the sewers to escape. Glenn, our mystery voice and another survivor inspect the sewers while everyone, but Merle keep an eye out on the main level for walkers.

The walkers break through and the sewer is closed off.  So Rick, being the hero he is and coming up with crazy plans decides that in order for them to smell dead they will cover themselves, from the neck down of course with walker… pieces. They test it walking to the construction site to get a truck and it works pretty good… until it starts to rain.  They make it to the truck and come up with another plan to get the walkers away from the store. This of course means hot-wiring a Dodge Charger with the theft alarm sounding off.

In a hurry to meet the truck they are torn with whether to let Merle free or not. The key is dropped and Merle is left behind with walkers closing in.  They do chain the door so that hopefully Merle will not have any walkers find him on the roof.  The group pikes into the truck with seconds to spare and flies down the road back towards the camp. The episode ends with Glenn Driving the Charger back to the camp enjoying the ride. 

My Reaction:  This episode I like a lot because of the action of it. Who would think to take a walker chop them up and then slather those pieces on them so they do not smell like a human? I've seen shows or movies where people will tried to act like a zombie to get by, but never this. 

I also like how Rick is always coming up with ideas to get the group out. You can see how he is trying to get out so he can see his wife and son again. No one seems to know that his family is part of their group back at the camp site. 

I will say to go from the 90 minute season premiere to the 50 minute second episode is kind of a let down. I know shows do this a lot, but when you watch it episode by episode it takes something away. I didn't notice this the first time I watched this, but we watch the entire season is on sitting. I am doing it episode by episode so I can write these recaps. 

So this is a good episode, with some crazy gore and scary walkers. The scenes with the group back at the camp site seem a bit pointless, but I think there is a point to them. It gives you an idea of what people are doing when they are not face with the threat of walkers. 

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. 

The Walking Dead Season One Recaps

I meant to get this done earlier so I could do one post a week, the six weeks leading up to the season 2 premier, well obviously that isn't possible, so expect one or more posts a week recapping each of the six episodes. I will try to give as much detail without writing a 5 page paper on the episode and then give me views on it. This will be anything from what I like, what I hated, and anything to note. If you want to watch on your own and not have things spoiled then don't read these recaps because I may give some spoilers away. Also if you want to comment and have a discussion on each post on the episode feel free to do that as well.

So sit back and enjoy my Walking Dead Season on Recaps. Episode one will follow this post.