SEASON 1
The first season of The Walking Dead, an American horror–drama television series on AMC, premiered on October 31, 2010, and concluded on December 5, 2010, consisting of six episodes. Developed for television by Frank Darabont, who wrote or co-wrote four of the season's six episodes and directed the pilot, the series is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. It was executive produced by Darabont, Kirkman, David Alpert, Charles H. Eglee, and Gale Anne Hurd, with Darabont assuming the role of showrunner. The season received very positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama and received nominations at the 63rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in several categories and won for Outstanding Prosthetic Make-up for a Series, Miniseries, Movie, or Special. The pilot episode received 5.35 million viewers, and the finale garnered six million viewers, including four million viewers among adults ages 18–49, making it the most viewed basic cable drama series at that time. Based on its reception, AMC renewed the series for a second season consisting of 13 episodes, which premiered on October 16, 2011. The season follows former sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from his coma into a post-apocalyptic world filled with flesh-eating zombies, dubbed "walkers". Rick goes on a search to find his family and to discover the origins of the walker virus.
PLOT :
Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes is shot and wounded in an altercation with criminals. After slipping into a coma for an indeterminate amount of time, Rick awakens in an abandoned hospital to find a post-apocalyptic world overrun by infectious zombies, colloquially called "walkers". Rick discovers that his wife and son are missing and meets survivors Morgan Jones and his son Duane, who take him in and explain the situation to him. Rick leaves Morgan with a radio in order to keep him updated, as he heavily arms himself from the police station's armory and sets off on a perilous journey for Atlanta, Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is rumored to have set up a quarantined safe zone in the city and Rick believes that his family may be there. However, he soon discovers that the city has been overrun with walkers and is no longer safe. After being rescued from a horde of walkers by Glenn Rhee, Rick meets part of Glenn's group, Andrea, Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas, Morales and Jacqui who had set themselves up in an Atlanta department store. However, walkers attack, forcing them to escape while reluctantly leaving behind Merle Dixon, who had been handcuffed on the roof by Rick due to his unstable and violent behavior. A few miles outside the city, in a camp with the rest of the survivors from Glenn's group, Rick's wife Lori and son Carl have been hiding with Shane Walsh, Rick's former police partner and best friend, who is now her lover after they presumed Rick to be dead. After escaping Atlanta and being reunited with Lori and Carl, Rick assumes a command position with Shane and must take responsibility not only for his wife and son but for the survival of the group as well. Part of the group led by Rick goes back into Atlanta to reclaim the weapons bag and to rescue Merle, but find that he has escaped somewhere by sawing off his hand. On their return, however, they find that their camp had been nearly overrun by walkers and Ed, Carol's husband, and Amy, Andrea's sister, have been killed. In the hope of finding answers and medical treatment for Jim, an injured member who sustained a walker's bite, the group plans to return to Atlanta and seek aid from the CDC. After one family sets off alone to find their relatives, and Jim requests to be left on a road after beginning to succumb to the infection, the group continues towards the CDC. In the CDC, all but one staff member, Dr. Edwin Jenner, have either fled or committed suicide. Dr. Jenner explains his research on the zombie apocalypse and that it has not yielded a cure. He explains that the French may have found a cure, as they were the only nation whose scientists stayed in their labs. Lack of fuel for the emergency generators soon initiates the building's safety protocols, which will trigger decontamination: an explosion designed to destroy the facility and prevent the escape of deadly diseases. Without hope for a cure and the future, Jenner elects to stay and die. Although they are nearly trapped in the building, Carol reveals a grenade she took from Rick's clothing, and the group is able to use it to blow out a window. Before the group leaves the building, Dr. Jenner whispers something into Rick's ear, while Andrea and Jacqui decide to stay with Jenner as they have also lost hope. Dale refuses to leave Andrea behind and elects to stay as well, so Andrea reverses her decision only to save Dale. She and Dale escape just before Jenner and Jacqui are killed by the building's self-destruction, as the survivors look on from outside.
SEASON 2
PLOT :
The second season begins with Rick and his group of survivors leaving Atlanta. They decide Fort Benning will be their next destination. Along the way, they encounter a traffic jam of abandoned vehicles on I-85. The group loots several vehicles and as a large horde of walkers approaches, is forced to hide under the vehicles. Carol's daughter, Sophia, chased away from the highway by two of the remaining walkers, runs off into the woods. Carl is accidentally shot during a search for the missing girl, and Rick and the others take him to a large, isolated farm owned by a veterinarian named Hershel Greene and his family, who reluctantly removes the bullet from Carl. The remainder of Rick's group moves to the farm while Carl recovers. The group tries to co-exist alongside Hershel's family, but dangerous secrets and disagreements over leadership cause tensions to rise. Daryl leads the initiative to search for Sophia and becomes close to Carol as a result. Glenn builds a romantic relationship with Hershel's daughter Maggie and discovers that Hershel's barn is full of walkers, many of whom in life had been Hershel's friends and relatives; Hershel maintains that the infection that plagues the walkers is treatable and refuses to kill them. When Shane forces the walkers out of the barn, and the group opens fire, Sophia appears as one of the undead, and Rick shoots her. The bonds of the group are tested in the aftermath of the showdown at the barn. Carol, in her grief, withdraws, as does Daryl, who claims that the group is "broken". Hershel, reacting to what has happened, orders Rick and his group to leave immediately, before disappearing to grieve for his family. Rick and Glenn find Hershel drinking at a local tavern, but in trying to convince him to return, discover that they have been found by members of another group of survivors, intent on locating their camp as Fort Benning is overrun with walkers. They kill two of their members, the rest fleeing and leaving one of their own, Randall, behind. Rick cannot consciously leave Randall to die, so they blindfold him and return with Hershel to the farm. With their location potentially threatened, the group struggles with what to do with Randall, with Shane and Rick having strong differences of opinion. After one botched attempt to abandon Randall, they decide to restrain him in the barn until they come to a decision. Carol overcomes her mourning and rejoins the group with new resolve, coaxing Daryl to come back into the folds. Hershel's daughter Beth attempts to commit suicide over the hopeless situation but regains the will to live. Rick decides he needs to execute Randall for the protection of the group, unaware Carl is watching. However, at that moment, Dale screams for help as he is attacked by a walker, one that Carl had the opportunity to kill but did not. Daryl euthanizes Dale, who was disemboweled by the walker, and after his funeral the group realizes they must regain their humanity. Rick goes to deal with Randall and finds him missing, unaware Shane had released him and taken him out into the woods to kill him. They discover Randall's reanimated corpse nearby, neck broken instead of bitten; they discover that the dead can reanimate even if not bitten by walkers. Shane attempts to use the distraction of the search to kill Rick, but Rick kills him first. Carl, watching from a distance, shoots the reanimated corpse of Shane when it tries to attack Rick. The gunfire attracts a large horde of walkers that begin to swarm the farmstead. Hershel and his family are forced to abandon the farm and join with Rick's group as they scatter and flee; Andrea ends up on her own, separated from the others, until she is rescued by a mysterious hooded person with a sword, leading chained, armless, walkers. The others regroup back on I-85 at the traffic jam. As they camp that night, Rick reveals what Dr. Jenner told him at the CDC: that each and every one of them is already infected with the plague that has ravaged the world, and that dying for any reason will cause them to reanimate as a walker. A large prison looms in the distance.
SEASON 3
PLOT :
Eight months after abandoning the Greene farmstead, Rick leads his near-term wife Lori and the other survivors to a large prison complex. They systematically clear it of walkers, though are forced to amputate Hershel's foot when he is bitten by a walker. They encounter a group of surviving prisoners Rick is highly distrustful of, and kills their leader and abandons another, Andrew, when they try to assassinate him. Andrew, bitter, leads a group of walkers to a breach in the prison's fence, infesting the prison at the same time Lori enters labor while T-Dog sacrifices himself to save Carol just after getting bitten. Maggie is forced to perform a caesarean section to deliver the child which kills Lori; Carl is forced to shoot Lori to prevent her reanimating, and Rick, after killing Andrew and the walkers, is devastated by the loss. Rick starts to have visions of Lori, and the rest of the group question his leadership abilities. Meanwhile, Andrea, separated from Rick's group after fleeing the farmstead, has befriended Michonne as they travel. The two are captured by Merle, Daryl's brother who survived being stranded in Atlanta by Rick. Merle takes them to Woodbury, a small fortified community of survivors led by the Governor. Though welcomed by the community, they are appalled at the Governor's ruthlessness, sending his men to kill other survivor camps to gain their supplies, and learn that the Governor is bitter over the loss of his family, keeping the reanimated body of his daughter Penny locked up. Michonne urges Andrea to leave with her, but Andrea is exhausted from the last eight months and stays behind to try to convince the Governor to change his ways while confiding with his assistant Milton on his dangerous personality. Michonne witnesses Glenn and Maggie get captured by Merle and taken to Woodbury; there the Governor uses brutal methods to interrogate them about Rick's group. Michonne goes to the prison to warn Rick; though not fully trusting her, Rick and Daryl go with Michonne and launch an attack on Woodbury to rescue Maggie and Glenn. During the attack, Michonne kills Penny and stabs the Governor in one eye. Glenn and Maggie are freed and, after Daryl is briefly captured, he and Merle are reunited and also escape. Andrea recognizes Rick's group but stays quiet, fearing the Governor's reaction. Meanwhile, another group of survivors led by Tyreese and Sasha enter the prison via the breach. Hershel and Carl allow them to stay, but Rick, during one of his visions of Lori, commands them to leave. Tyreese's group comes across Woodbury, and to gain the Governor's trust, Tyreese offers details of the prison's layout. The Governor launches a preliminary assault on the prison, leading Andrea to try to negotiate peace between the two sides. The Governor offers peace if Rick's group turns over Michonne, whom the group now judge as a valued asset. Rick, still trying to make decisions for the group in his remorseful state, arranges a plan to turn her over but changes his mind. However, Merle secretly kidnaps Michonne to take her to the Governor. Michonne convinces Merle to let her go. Having had a changed of heart, Merle instead uses the situation to take out many of the Governor's men before being attacked by the Governor who, while struggling with Merle, bites off two of his fingers before shooting him dead. Daryl finds Merle reanimated and, sadly, kills him by stabbing him multiple times in the head with his hunting knife. The Governor becomes more unhinged. After discovering Andrea's betrayal, he forces her into a makeshift torture chair and locks her there, planning on using Milton, whom he killed for his betrayal too, to reanimate and kill her. Milton regains his wits long enough to guide Andrea on how to escape the chair. The Governor launches an all-out attack on the prison but Rick and his group repel it, sending the Governor and two of his commanders fleeing. On the way back to Woodbury, the Governor forces his convoy of vehicles to pull over before turning on his own people, who arguably refuse to assist the Governor in going back, and gunning them down. Rick and others take Woodbury to rescue Andrea, and find they are too late, as Andrea has been bitten by Milton. Andrea says her goodbyes to Rick and Michonne before killing herself. Rick's group help escort the surviving Woodbury citizens to the prison to integrate them into their group.
SEASON 4
PLOT :
Some months after bringing in the remaining survivors of Woodbury to the prison, Rick has stepped down as leader of the group. A flu-like contagion breaks out in the prison, fatal to many and compounding the problem when those that die reanimate as walkers and attack the others. The infected are isolated as the survivors seek medical help. Carol purposely murders two of the infected and burns their bodies to protect the group, but Rick banishes her for this decision. Eventually, they are able to treat the contagion, though have suffered great losses. Meanwhile, the Governor is abandoned by his henchmen Martinez and Shumpert following the prison attack. He discovers the Chamblers, consisting of sisters Tara and Lilly, Lilly's daughter Meghan who reminds the Governor of his daughter Penny, and their dying father. The Governor adopts a new identity, befriends the family, and helps to deal with their father when he dies and reanimates. When the Governor leaves, the Chamblers decide to stay with him. They eventually come onto a well-armed camp run by Martinez (who later reveals that he killed Shumpet after the latter got bitten unseen). The Governor kills Martinez, takes over control of the camp, and considers using their armory, including a functional tank, to take back the prison as a place for the Chamblers to stay. As he leaves with army, Meghan is attacked and killed by a walker much to Lilly's horror. At the prison, the Governor finds Michonne and Hershel outside the fence and captures them. He uses the two as hostages to demand Rick's group leave the prison, and refuses to accept Rick's offer of co-existence. Lilly runs up with Meghan's body, and the Governor, no longer interested in simply taking the prison, decapitates Hershel and orders a full-on assault of the prison. The battle is bloody, and Rick's group is forced to scatter, with Rick and Carl distraught they cannot find their infant Judith. The Governor's militia are killed and the prison is overrun with walkers. At which point, The Governor comes close to killing Rick after pinning him down in a fistfight, but gets mortally stabbed by Michonne before being confronted by a silent Lilly while dying. Without hesitation or saying, Lily fatally executes the Governor, who finally gets his comeuppance for what he previously did and committed just moments ago. Though splintered, the members of Rick's group all start seeing signs directing them to following train tracks to Terminus with the offer of shelter and safety. Rick and Carl reunite with Michonne and have a run in with a group of bandits known as the Claimers, led by a man name Joe. Daryl protects Beth while she helps him to open up about his tragic past and overcome the death of his brother Merle. However, while fighting off walkers, Beth is abducted by men in a car, and Daryl finds himself captured by the same Claimers Rick faced. Daryl and Rick are able to overpower the Claimers by murdering Joe and his entire group. After the massacre, Rick, Daryl, Michonne and Carl continue their journey towards Terminus. Tyreese is shown to have rescued Judith along with young sisters Lizzie and Mika; they come across Carol who joins them. They discover that Lizzie has an unhealthy fascination with the walkers, and when she kills Mika to see her reanimate as one, they are forced to kill her. Glenn has rescued Tara who had hidden herself away during the prison attack, and they join up with Abraham and Rosita who are escorting Eugene, a scientist, to Washington, D.C. as he claims to know how to stop the walkers. Maggie, Sasha, and Bob eventually join them, with Maggie and Glenn elated to find each other again. The various groups discover Terminus at different times; it appears as a large fortified train yard, its occupants happy to welcome the new visitors. When Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl arrive, Rick is suspicious of the place and secures a stash of weapons outside Terminus before they enter. They are greeted by Gareth, the leader of Terminus, who takes them on a tour of the site. Rick becomes angry when he sees gear belonging to Glenn and Maggie nearby, and Gareth orders them to drop their weapons. They are secured in a boxcar along with Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, Bob, Tara, Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita, and Rick confidently states that they have messed with the wrong people.
SEASON 5
PLOT :
Rick and many from his group have been captured at Terminus and are being held prisoner in a boxcar. They learn that their captors engage in cannibalism and lure survivors to the fortified city to satisfy the practice. While Tyreese stays a safe distance away with Rick's child Judith, Carol launches an attack, enabling them to escape while a horde of walkers descends on Terminus. Rick and the others regroup with Carol and Tyreese, and Rick is elated to see that Judith is still alive. They decide not to chase after Gareth and the rest who have survived from his group. Instead, they make plans to escort Eugene to Washington, D.C. in pursuit of a cure that Eugene says exists there. They find shelter in a nearby church occupied by Father Gabriel Stokes, who has been struggling to cope with his religious beliefs in wake of the walker outbreak. He is also tormented by an event that occurred shortly after the outbreak in which he barricaded himself inside his church refusing to help others being attacked by walkers outside. Meanwhile, Gareth's men have regrouped and stage attacks against the church. Rick and the others manage to finish off Gareth and his group, losing Bob in the process. Daryl, noticing that Carol has grown distant, follows her to a car that she was planning to flee in. As they were talking, a vehicle with the same cross markings of the one that abducted Beth drives past, and both of them drive off in close pursuit. Rick attempts to convince the group to fortify the church and wait for Carol and Daryl's return, but with D.C. in mind, Abraham presses them to leave. Glenn defuses the situation by offering to go with Abraham while Rick stays behind to wait. Tara and Maggie decide to join them, and Abraham gives Rick a map of the path they plan to take, along with a handwritten note showing his appreciation of Rick's leadership skills. Not long after leaving, however, they find their route completely engulfed by walkers making passage nearly impossible. Amid an argument between Abraham and Glenn, Eugene reveals that he is not a scientist and fabricated the claim about a cure. Rattled by the revelation, Abraham strikes and severely injures Eugene. Meanwhile, Daryl and Carol have tracked the car to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Noah, who had escaped from the hospital, tells them that it is run by a group of corrupt police officers led by Dawn. They are using the hospital's scant resources to save as many as they come across, but force those that they save to work as nurses and other laborers in return. In an attempt to save Beth, Carol is run down by a police car and taken to the hospital, where Dawn prohibits Beth from giving her proper care. Daryl and Noah return to the church and enlist the help of the others. Rick and Dawn's groups find themselves in a standoff to exchange Beth for Noah. During the exchange, Beth stabs Dawn, who instinctively reacts by shooting and killing Beth. Dawn is then killed by Daryl and Rick's group solemnly leaves the hospital carrying Beth's body, as Maggie grieves hysterically. Regrouping at the church, everyone agrees to head north. Noah convinces them to travel to his home community in Virginia that he claims should be well-protected, but when they arrive, they find it has been overrun by walkers. While scavenging the town, Tyreese is killed protecting Noah; Sasha becomes withdrawn after losing her brother. Continuing further down their path, the group encounters a lone traveler by the name of Aaron, who invites them to his home in Alexandria – a walled-off community protected from walkers. Inside they are met by their leader Deanna Monroe, who offers them sanctuary in return for protection. Though the community functions well and benefits from solar power and clean water, they lack the necessary training to survive outside the walls. During a run, one of Deanna's sons, Aiden, is killed and Glenn, Noah and Nicholas are trapped in a revolving door. Though Eugene manages to lead the walkers outside away using the vans radio, Nicholas panics and abandons Glenn and Noah, and Noah is subsequently devoured by the walkers. Deanna assigns members of Rick's group to different roles throughout the community and convinces others within her inner circle that Rick's group is critical to their survival. The idea doesn't sit well with some of Alexandria's inhabitants. Rick's group discovers evidence that a savage group of human survivors known as the Wolves are located nearby. Rick discovers that Jessie Anderson's husband Pete who suffers from alcoholism has been abusing her, and under Deanna's request, kills him during a violent episode in which Pete accidentally kills Deanna's husband. The rest of the community witnesses everything in horror. Meanwhile, Rick's group has been followed by Morgan Jones, the first survivor Rick encountered after waking up from his coma. Morgan, who was hot on Rick's trail earlier, discovered the map that Abraham left at the church and the note addressed to Rick, and has been following them since. He walks up to Rick just as he shoots Pete.
SEASON 6
PLOT :
The sixth season begins with the escape of a large herd of walkers that had gathered in a quarry. Rick used the impending threat to take control of Alexandria's work force and crush dissent, dominating the residents who are shocked by deadly violence and walkers within their community and who Rick feels are unprepared to survive and thereby expendable. Rick's plan to lure the walkers away in a "parade" fails when the rear half of the herd are drawn to the noise of a Wolf invasion of Alexandria, where Carol leads a deadly counterattack while Morgan struggles to save lives on both sides. Michonne and Heath try to lead others back to Alexandria with heartbreaking sacrifices. Rick returns just ahead of the herd which surrounds Alexandria's walls, trapping them. Glenn, who had covered for Nicholas' wrongdoings and tried to help him redeem himself, is swarmed by the herd when Nicholas commits suicide. Maggie and Aaron try to sneak out of Alexandria to search for Glenn but find it too risky with Maggie being pregnant. Carl wants to search for Enid, who fled following the Wolves' attack, but Ron dissuades him and informs Rick. Called to answer for letting Wolves escape, Morgan provokes Rick to question his conscience having earlier experienced a period of self-examination while Michonne criticizes Rick for not including the Alexandrians in his plans. Deanna, who had been in a depression since her husband's death, is pushed by Maggie to look toward the future again. Glenn narrowly survives the herd and is found by Enid; they return to Alexandria to find it besieged by the herd. Daryl, Abraham and Sasha finish luring the front half of the walker parade away when they are shot at by armed men in vehicles. Daryl is briefly captured by Dwight who is trying to escape these same men, and considers recruiting Dwight but is turned upon. Meanwhile, Abraham, who had been traumatized by Rick's execution of Pete and volunteered to accompany Sasha because of her PTSD, learns to find his calm. Daryl rejoins them in one of the fuel trucks Dwight had been seeking, but they are stopped by a motorcycle gang of Saviors; Daryl blows them up with a rocket-propelled grenade. A sudden structural collapse opens Alexandria to the herd. Several residents shelter in Jessie's house where Ron has a breakdown and fights with Carl. The house soon becomes overrun, forcing them to leave disguised in walker guts, while a bitten Deanna makes a last stand. Morgan helps Carol into his house but she attacks him to get to the injured Wolf he had secretly been holding prisoner and attempting to reform. Morgan overpowers Carol but the Wolf knocks him out and takes Denise hostage. Carol later shoots the Wolf, realizing afterwards that he'd changed and was saving Denise's life. A coddled Sam panics amongst the walkers setting off a chain-reaction that results in his family being killed and Carl losing an eye. Rick makes a desperate stand joined by many Alexandrians; they are nearly overwhelmed when the walkers are diverted by burning fuel brought by Daryl, Sasha and Abraham. Rick admits he was wrong about the Alexandrians, now seeing that they have what it takes to live. Two months following this brutal 3-day period that left thirty Alexandrians dead, the community is facing a food shortage. Rick and Daryl meet Jesus and, moving past adversarial reactions, accept his invitation to trade for food at The Hilltop. Learning the Hilltop is being extorted, they make a deal to kill Negan and take-out the Saviors for half of the Hilltop's supplies. Rick and more than a dozen of his best people make a well-executed attack on the Saviors compound, wiping it out, and while Carol and Maggie are taken hostage the two women are able to kill their captors. Having killed nearly twice the largest number of Saviors seen by Hilltop residents, including one who claimed to be Negan, Rick's group feel they have eliminated them as a threat and Alexandria relaxes into easy routines. Rick and Michonne become a couple, while Abraham leaves Rosita for Sasha; Rosita rebounds with Spencer, while Tara has begun a relationship with Denise and Carol with Tobin. Denise is praising Daryl and Rosita on the way back from a supply run when she is killed by a scarred Dwight who is leading a group of Saviors. Holding Eugene hostage, Dwight demands that Daryl and Rosita take him back to Alexandria, but Eugene distracts them enabling Abraham, Daryl and Rosita to fight back, and Dwight withdraws with the surviving Saviors. With plenty of supplies Rick puts Alexandria on lockdown but Daryl goes out to avenge Denise and is pursued by Glenn, Michonne and Rosita, all four becoming captured by Dwight. Meanwhile, Carol suffers a crisis of conscience and flees; she is confronted by a group of Saviors and guns them down. Rick and Morgan leave Alexandria to look for Carol, find her car and the dead Saviors, and follow a bloody trail they hope will lead to her. The lone surviving Savior also follows the trail. Morgan eventually convinces Rick to return to Alexandria when they disagree over killing people. Morgan finds Carol, kills the Savior following her, and encounters a group of armored survivors willing to give Carol medical assistance. When Maggie suffers complications from her pregnancy, a small group led by Rick head to the Hilltop to give her medical assistance. However, the Saviors block every route leading there, taunting and psychologically manipulating them with each encounter, until they are cornered and surrounded by the gang. Rick's group and the survivors captured by Dwight are lined up as the Saviors' leader known as Negan introduces himself and asserts his demands for Rick, although he says he has to kill one of them as punishment for killing his men. Negan randomly chooses one member of the group and beats the person with his baseball bat as the group is watching in horror.
SEASON 7