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Vol. 28: The Walking Dead- Twelve Years of Dirty Clothes and Loss
This whole post is about TWD, so if you don't like it, scroll to the bottom and unleash your fury. Or just give the screen that angry silent glare that I've come to know.
Now let's see if I can keep twelve seasons of plot twists, survival, death, fighting, loyalty and betrayal in order. Get comfortable and know that up ahead is nothin' but spoilers.
Walking Through the Apocalypse
Long story short, TWD is about the Apocalypse, or End
Days, whatever you want to call it. The dead get up and start moving around with one goal in their liquifying minds: to eat living flesh. For the first nine seasons, the viewer sees this world through the eyes of Rick Grimes, husband to Lori, father to Carl, then Judith. Rick is joined by various friends and enemies who die, often eaten by “walkers”, the term our group uses for the dead.
Season 1: The pilot episode of TWD aired on Halloween, 2010. Introducing a new concept to the zombie universe, that the word “zombie” doesn't exist and the very idea of what we know of zombies has never existed. There are no meta references to Night of the Living Dead in this world that comic writer Robert Kirkland created, our survivors are figuring out what to do one day at a time.
Rick Grimes wakes in a hospital room. Disoriented, he wonders why he obviously hasn't been tended to, but leaving his room leads to more questions, horrifying ones.
He meets Morgan and his son, Duane. They take him in, not gently, but with a thump to the head. After convincing Morgan that he's been in a coma, father and son fill Rick in on the walkers and the majority of the population being dead, including Morgan's wife. Rick is determined to find his own wife and son.
He takes a horse, rides into Atlanta, and meets with his first horde of walkers. Trapped, he's rescued by a voice on a radio saying, “Hey, dumbass...” It's Glenn, a pizza delivery guy who risks himself to save a stranger. He brings Rick to his group in a department store, where among others are Andrea, T-Dog, and Merle, the most racisty racist ever put on television. Very soon after he and Rick meet, Rick has cuffed Merle to a pipe on the roof and given the key to the man Merle had recently assaulted, T-Dog. What? It's unintentional that T-Dog falls and drops the key somewhere, don't read anything into it.
Rick and Glenn bathe themselves in walker gore in order to get a truck to the store's dock and get the survivors loaded, except for Merle. They race to the camp site outside the city that the group had come from, and there, to his amazement, is Rick's family, Lori and Carl. Several people, including Rick, elect to go back to get Merle because, turns out, he's the brother of scary camper Daryl.
Season 1 Plot Points: The viewer is introduced to Rick, Daryl, Carol, Glenn, Shane, Lori, Carl, Dale, Andrea and Merle. The group travels to the CDC and learn how the virus progresses through humans. Daryl is furious that his brother was left to die on the roof, but then he sees the hand, chopped off and hanging from the handcuffs. Dang, Merle may be alive. Oh, and Shane and Lori have been doing it because they thought Rick died in the hospital.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Deaths of Ed the abuser, Jim, Jacqui, Amy, Dr. Jenner, and all hope as the CDC explodes.
Season 2: Trapped on the road, the group is overtaken by a swarm of walkers. Terrified Sophia, daughter of Carol, runs into the woods, never to be seen alive again. The group searches and Carl is accidentally shot by a hunter who then brings the group to his home, a farm owned by his veterinary father-in-law, Herschel Greene. Herschel saves Carl's life, and Rick's group ends up all over the property, which Herschel hates. Shane and Otis go on a medical run, but when it comes down to it, Shane is an “every man for himself” type, and he spirals into a darker place afterwards.
Farmer's daughter Maggie and Glenn begin sneaking off together, and that's when he discovers that the Greenes have been hoarding walkers in the barn in the belief they can be cured. This proves incorrect and everyone has to flee the farm, but Andrea is left behind and Maggie's older sister is killed.
Season 2 Plot Points: The search for Sophia and the near death of Carl (children don't fare well in TWD), Lori's pregnancy, the start of Glenn & Maggie (Gaggie?), the hostage Randall, and the downward spiral of Shane. He started out as Rick's best friend but his obsession with Lori combined with the stress of the new world turned him into Season 2's villain.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Sophia in the Barn of the Dead. Shane killing Otis and Randall. Dale being ripped open, quickly followed by Rick taking out Shane. We see Daryl's stock rising as he's experienced in both violence and outdoorsy stuff, but Carol sees him as valuable before anyone else. And the last episode of the season gives a glimpse of Michonne.
Season 3: Our starving band finds a prison and decide it's perfect. But it isn't completely abandoned, as they discover a group of prisoners trapped inside, and while some are okay, a few retain the mindset that got them there. After a few episodes, just Axel and Oscar remain alive, but not for long.
Lori is nine months along, and just as the prison is attacked by a horde, she goes into labor. The scene of Maggie, Carl and Lori is one of the most brutal in the whole series. The result is that Judith is born, Lori is dead and Carl is forever traumatized. But he doesn't go nuts the way Rick does. Ring-ring.
Meanwhile, Andrea and Michonne have entered Woodbury, a town ruled by the smooth-talking Governor. Merle is a key citizen, so you know it's bad. While Michonne is wary, Andrea rolls around with The Governor. Glenn and Maggie are kidnapped and held at Woodbury, Michonne delivers the info to Rick, who leads a rescue. Michonne takes The Governor's eye and ends Penny, so now he's hellbent on revenge.
Season 3 Plot Points: There's a walled, safe town named Woodbury that is run by a sociopath who kills soldiers and saves old people. Brothers Merle and Daryl have been searching for each other for two years and are finally reunited, but Daryl has become far more of a team player. When the Apocalypse started, Andrea just knew to pack three years worth of Clairol. And she redeemed her rep as a screw-up in the last episodes.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Herschel loses a leg. T-Dog sacrifices himself to save Carol, Merle sacrifices himself for Daryl. Lori dies and TWD fans cheer, as Lori can kindly be described as an unpopular character. And in the final episode, Andrea dies a hero.
Season 4: This season has a bigger cast. Rick's group has taken in the Woodbury residents who no longer follow The Governor. A virus sweeps through the prison population. Newcomer Tyreese falls in love and Carol puts an end to that, so Rick banishes her. The Governor raises a second army to attack the prison. He's able to decapitate Herschel, which was shocking. In a fight to the death between The Governor and Rick, Michonne is the deciding factor. The prison burns, the walkers are everywhere, people are shot, and everyone alive scatters.
Carol meets up with Tyreese, who fled the prison with young sisters Mika and Lizzie, and baby Judith. Rick and Carl don't know that and mourn her death. Carol has to deal with crazy Lizzie by pointing out some pretty flowers. Daryl joins The Claimers, who will walk 500 miles to get even with Rick for killing one of their members, but Rick tears their plan a new one. And all the while, separate bands of Rick's group are moving towards Terminus, a place that advertises safety. Ha!
Season 4 Plot Points: Another battle between Rick's people and The Governor's people. We meet new heroes as Abraham, Rosita and Eugene roll up on Glenn and his new ally, Tara.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Lots of virus deaths at the prison. Other deaths were Karen, Martinez, The Governor, little Meghan, Lilly, and Herschel. And most of Terminus.
Of all the people for the supremely competent Daryl to end up on the run with, why weak link Beth? She's kidnapped, but not before Daryl seems to have fallen for her. She's a teen, ick. This is the season that saw Carol go from a background player to a fierce fighter. Also the season of the tight pants/high boots/long, loose t-shirt for the female survivors. Apocalypse fashion.
Season 5: Terminus was the opposite of the Nirvana it claimed to be, as their rules demanded new arrivals choose to be either cannibals or the food. Several of Rick's group end up seconds away from becoming a casserole but Carol rides in and saves everybody. She's back in the group and takes them to where Tyreese has been fighting to keep baby Judith alive. Rick and Carl are overjoyed to see her. Tyreese is reunited with his sister Sasha, and so are Daryl and Carol. The group meets Father Gabriel, whose cowardice makes Eugene look like Rick. Sasha's boyfriend, Bob, is captured by the surviving Termites, who have followed Rick's group. They cook and eat Bob's leg in front of him, but he gets revenge by telling them he'd been bitten by a walker and they're eating, “tainted meat!” The Termites wanted more time with Rick's group, and they lived just long enough to regret it.
Beth was taken to a hospital where she's used as forced labor. It's run by an unhinged woman who believes she's doing right by keeping people “safe” in the hospital while she doles out physical punishment. Beth makes a friend, Noah, who escapes and joins in rescuing her through a prisoner swap, but Beth couldn't walk away without a final jab, so she ended up dead.
Tyreese is taken out by a little walker in the very next episode. If the death of Shane on the heels of Dale was a shock, now the viewers realized that TWD producers were ruthless.
After the promises of Terminus, the survivors are skittish when cheerful Aaron comes out of nowhere and invites them to join his community, Alexandria. They go and find it's everything Aaron said, which is normality they haven't seen in years. A gated community run by Deanna, she has reservations about letting Rick's group in, but does because she can see they are true survivors. She makes Rick and Michonne the town security, and back in uniform, Rick sets his sights on the beautiful neighbor with the abusive “porch dick” husband. Rick kills the husband, with Deanna's permission, and lets all the soft citizens know that he's The Man, like it or lump it.
Season 5 Plot Points: We see a new horror in Terminus, as they aren't killing over the food most people want, they're luring people in to be the food. It's so well organized and efficient that I found this to be the scariest group of the series. It's strange that they weren't stretched out over more episodes.
The flipside of Terminus is Alexandria with it's ample housing and clean citizens. Rick finds an enemy in Pete, Glenn finds one in Nicholas, and the whole group learns what a snake Father Gabriel is. Oh, and Eugene's a liar!
Fans were surprised and relieved by the death of Beth. She's often singled out as the worst casting on TWD, with viewers wonder if she's smiling or grimacing in pain.
Viewers saw that Rick isn't always the good guy. Maybe he would stop any woman from being abused, but he fought harder for Jessie because he had chosen her for himself.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Bob has a gentle passing, Beth has a sudden one, and Tyreese has a slow death from a bite, resulting in one of the most touching episodes of the series. Rick's group brought about three deaths in Alexandria: Deanna's husband, her youngest son, and the town doctor, Pete. Young Noah died a horrific death at a warehouse because of Nicholas.
Season 6: The walls around Alexandria are failing, but Rick has a plan to divert the huge walker horde that is on the way. It doesn't work well, leading to the death of Nicholas. Alexandria is attacked by The Wolves, a group of feral crazies. And we have a one-off episode that follows Morgan, Rick's rescuer from the pilot episode. He is taken in by a lone survivor who teaches him to fight with the stick, along with the spiritual teachings that Morgan clings to in order to remain sane.
Daryl is held at gunpoint by strangers who steal his motorcycle. There was the apparent death of Glenn at the hands of walkers, but what a relief to find that Nicholas got torn apart instead. Alexandria's walls have been breached by walkers on a massive scale. Deanna dies after running interference for Rick, who then puts himself, Carl, Michonne, new love Jessie and her sons Ron and Sam, in gory ponchos to walk among the walkers. The group underestimated Sam's big mouth, so when he whined, “Mooom?” as they were among the horde, the cat was outta the bag. Mom and sons were torn open, but Ron shot Carl's eye out before being eaten.
Rick, Daryl and their group are in charge of Alexandria now, but Deanna's one remaining family member, Spencer, hates them. They meet Jesus, who takes them to his home, Hilltop, run by Gregory. He likes mind games, though he's an opportunist more than a genius. Gregory manages to get Rick and his group to murder some Saviors, a group that has Hilltop under their thumb. It leads to the biggest cliffhanger in recent tv history when our group is trying to get pregnant Maggie to a doctor and meet Negan and his group instead. This episode created a dire situation, then left the viewers hanging for six months until Season 7.
Season 6 Plot Points: Rick loses Jessie but falls into Michonne's arms pretty dang fast. Jesus is a good guy, but meeting him was bad, because Rick was Savior-free before that. Maggie is having a difficult pregnancy, which leads to the capture of Rick's group in the woods.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: There's the arrow-in-the-eye death of Denise, deaths of Jessie and her kids, Deanna, Nicholas, lots of Alexandrians and Wolves being slaughtered, and bye-bye to Carl's pretty blue eye! I said it before, TWD is tough on kids.
Season 7: We see who Negan chose to beat to death. It was Abraham, the redheaded veteran. You might point to Abraham's discussion of “baby batter” with Glenn as the death knell because Abraham had hope for the future with Sasha, but really, his number was up when he broke up with Rosita so brutally. It was out of character; Abraham had rough edges but he wasn't heartless, so this moment of cruelty had to be corrected by TWD universe. The second death, that of beloved Glenn, was a shock. Viewers had girded themselves for a loss, not two. Glenn, was a total surprise and made us angry.
We meet King Ezekiel and The Kingdom, a group of survivors in a school. Ezekiel is a theatrical man who sets his sights on Carol. We also meet Jadis and The Scavengers, a group of annoying survivors who speak like cavemen and loooove trash.
Season 7 Plot Points: Well, there's the little matter of Negan beating both Abraham and Glenn to death. The repercussions for that are still being felt. We learned more about Negan and The Saviors, and his penchant for enslaving people to feed his sociopathic ego. Daryl is a hostage, feed dog food and made to wear stretched out sweats. We meet The Kingdom and Oceanside. And then Alexandria, Hilltop and The Kingdom revolt against Negan.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Did I mention Abraham and Glenn? A young man from The Kingdom was killed by a Savior, leaving a brother named Henry behind. In Alexandria, Olivia was shot by a Savior, while Deanna's son Spencer was killed by Negan. Spencer was lumped in with the villains by a lot of viewers because he hated Rick's group. I always consider him Exhibit A in the argument that we are rooting for Rick's group because we've been following their story. Spencer lost his whole family directly due to Rick's group, so his hatred seems warranted.
And Sasha, depressed by losses, sacrifices herself in the hopes she can take Negan out by becoming a walker.
Season 8: War between Rick's allies and The Saviors, and it's a bloodbath. The battle to take down Negan is a long one, and we see that not everyone on his side is really on his side. Carl reaches out to a man living in the woods and is bitten by a walker. Maggie and Gregory's fight for control of Hilltop.
Season 8 Plot Points: Fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. It's like pulling a ball of vipers apart. Gregory wants Hilltop to align with The Saviors, so Maggie takes charge and put him, along with some Saviors, into a pen. Negan takes Eugene when he discovers that Eugene can make bullets. It doesn't take long for Eugene to become a Savior. But The Saviors eventually lose the battle and Negan is captured. Rick uses veto power and chooses not to kill him, and that simply delights Rosita and Maggie.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Carl's death is heartbreaking, both because he was just 16 years-old and because fans had always been told that Carl would be the group's leader when Rick eventually died. Even Chandler Riggs, the actor playing Carl, was blindsided by Carl's death. Aaron's boyfriend, Eric, is killed in battle.
Season 9: This is the season in which an injured Rick is whisked away in a mystery copter with Jadis, aka Anne. Maggie has enough of Gregory and executes him. Ezekiel proposes to Carol, who adamantly refuses. Our groups, divided between several locations, feel like broken relationships. Maggie even refuses to supply Michonne with food for her people.
There's a six year time jump between episodes 5 and 6. With episode 6, the show shoved in a bunch of poorly developed characters as if they were throwing 'em at the wall to see what stuck. For the entire season I thought Kelly was Connie's kid instead of her sister. Negan has been in a cell the whole time but getting visits from lots of angry people, and Judith. Carol and Ezekiel are married and raising Henry as their son.
A group that wears the skin of walkers moves into the area.
Season 9 Plot Points: Rick tries to bring some Saviors into his group, mainly to re-build the bridge, but the factions don't mix well. The Whisperers are more efficient killers than you'd expect from people who wear corpse skin as masks. Michonne has a young son, fathered by the long-gone Rick.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Rick just disappears into the sky. Jesus was killed by a Whisperer. Gregory gets the death he earned, and Aaron gets a baby daughter.
Season 10: Michonne goes to look for Rick. Negan cuts a deal for his freedom with Carol, which requires him to infiltrate The Whisperers, the group headed by Alpha and Beta. Alpha's daughter, Lydia, wants to get away from her mother and join Daryl's group, which leads to retaliation in the form of a whole line-up of decapitated heads on spikes, including Tara, Enid and Carol's adopted son, Henry. Hence the Carol/ Negan deal. Maggie has been away for months and is livid to return and find that Negan is out of his cell.
Eugene has been messing with a radio and gets a response from a woman. He convinces Ezekiel and Yumiko to go on a road trip to find her, and they meet Princess along the way. They're captured by soldiers who are into Star Wars.
Season 10 Plot Points: With both Rick and Michonne gone, Daryl and Carol have a council. Lydia and Negan are accepted into the group and there are way too many cast members for the audience to care about, which is why Tom Payne (Jesus) asked to be written off the show the previous season. Maggie is back. Princess is introduced and we see inside The Commonwealth. One cast member was gone from the show for a couple of episodes and returned with a different face.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Tara, Enid, Henry, Alpha, Beta, and Siddiq, Rosita's baby daddy. If The Whisperers have a point, it's that the walkers had become a sort of background noise and you can never let your guard down.
Season 11: This final season is spent in The Commonwealth, a large city that is more advanced than any community we've seen so far, with food trucks and Halloween celebrations. It would make any adult nostalgic, as long as they don't scratch the surface too deeply. Run by Pamela Milton, a glinty-eyed woman who has spent her life in politics, and her right-hand man, Lance, who couldn't look more corrupt if he had the word tattooed on his forehead.
Our group have jobs with varying degrees of power. Yumiko is legal council for Pamela Milton, a job she hates because she doesn't trust Pamela or her son, Sebastian. She's right, the Miltons assign certain citizens jobs that will get them killed. Eugene actually grows a pair to save his girlfriend from being blamed for Sebastian's death, which was a sweet death to see. Charged with murder and given a sham trial, Eugene is sentenced to public execution. Lance is outed for his corruption and is taken hostage by Carol and Daryl, who kill him once he's lost his usefulness, another death we'd been waiting for with anticipation. Pamela will kill anyone who challenges her position. A revolt is immanent.
Season 11 Plot Points: This last season has been going on for over a year due to a halt in filming during Covid shutdowns.
Pamela's exposed for the monster she is. We discover that Daryl finally had a relationship while he was away, but when he's reunited with his ex he has to take sides, her or Maggie. Princess starts up with security honcho Mercer, but he waffles when she gets in trouble. Eugene is going to be killed unless a coup is successful.
Deaths & Other Pivotal Moments: Deaths are happening quickly and will continue to the end. So far, Sebastian the Little Shit and Lance the Big Shit. Judith has been shot by Pamela, who seems genuinely horrified to have shot a kid. Jerry chopped Lydia's arm off, then left to look for her boyfriend, as you do. There is one episode left.
But What Do I Know?
What do you think will happen? I'm a bad guesser, but judging by the spin-offs in our future: the battle between our group and The Commonwealth will result a tidal wave of deaths, possibly Eugene, Princess, Mercer, and Yumiko. Pamela will have a horrible, horrible death (goody!) while Maggie and Negan escape, and I'm going to say that Negan's pregnant wife does not make it because she makes him happy. Daryl lives, of course, but is alone. I hope Carol and Ezekiel survive and meet up with Morgan on FTWD. And just maybe, Rick will show up.
After the final episode on November 20th, there will be a retrospective with Chris Hardwick. Don't cry too hard, there's a whole line-up of spin-off shows:
Fear the Walking Dead has been renewed for an eighth season.
Dead City will star Negan and Maggie for a six episode season.
Rick was initially going to star in three movie-length features, but now it's a six episode series starring both Rick and Michonne. Untitled so far.
And the series spinoff that was going to be about Daryl and Carol is now Daryl only and set in Europe. Melissa McBride was unable to move to Europe for the filming. The show is untitled so far.