I’ve been a fan of The Walking Dead since the very first episode of season one. The long abandoned country road with a sheriff car slowly approaching the intersection to find overturned and abandon vehicles captured my curiosity. It was the first five minutes of the first episode and I wanted to know what happened. Why were all these cars here? What happened to their drivers.
The driver of the sheriff car pulled up and removed a gasoline container from the truck. He maneuvered his way between the cars towards a gas station where he was met with a “no gas” sign. He started walking back to his patrol car when he heard a sound. Someone was Walking.
The sheriff, a man named Rick, dropped to his stomach and looked under one of the cars in the direction where the sound was coming from. On the other side of the car, he saw the walker’s dirty, bloodied feet just strolling along.
Rick sprang to his feet, happy to see what he thought was another human being. He harried to the back of the car. Slowly, walking away from him was a little girl. He called out to her. She stopped, slowly turning around to reveal her hideous, zombified appearance.
She began walking back towards Rick who was still in shock by her appearance. He was confused. He did not know what was happening or what was about to happen. He drew his gun and as the zombie got closer to him, Rick shot her in the head.
That was the first five minutes of the show. I was hooked.
Show after show, season after season, the writers and makeup artists pushed the envelope, doing things I personally had never seen before. There was an episode where Rick and the survivors we’re trapped in a building. They were surrounded by zombies and needed to get out. They came up with a clever plan of mutilating two of the zombies, removing their intestines and covering themselves in zombie blood and guts. The idea was to look and smell like the dead. It worked and they were able to walk out of the building surrounded by The Walking Dead.
But the writers and makeup artists had more surprises up their sleeves and in the season 4 finale, they outdid themselves.
It was the night scene. Rick and Michonne were sitting, talking. Carl was sleeping in an abandoned car nearby. Out of nowhere guns with drawn and pointed to Rick, Michonne and Carl. It seemed as if the end was near for our beloved stars. They were surrounded. There was no where to run. Things were looking bleak.
Then one of the gunners took a liking to Carl – Rick’s son – and began trying to have his way with the kid.
Yes, that was shocking indeed. These men were ruthless, but what was about to happen to Carl was something no one expected to see on television. Rick couldn’t sit by and allow what was about to happen, to haopen. A struggle ensued and Rick was standing facing one of the attackers. The man was mouthing off to Rick, Carl struggling in the background and Rick had to save his son.
He had no choice. As he stood facing the man with the gun, Rick lunged for the man’s jugular, biting deep into the man’s throat, withdrawing with a mouthful of veins and blood. He then gutted the sicko who was trying to attack Carl.
It was the craziest, most shocking thing I ever saw!
I can’t wait for season 5!
