10th: The Storyline
Everybody who said to himself “Let’s give this show a shot” and watched the first episodes, knows that it was hard to let go of it by the end of season one. At that point you know you can’t let go of it anymore. And for those who didn’t get until season two, there is good news: the show gets only better. The production team saw some flaws in the series and corrected them, taking their fans seriously and perfected the episodes from the next seasons, making the premiere of season five one of the best episodes from The Walking Dead.
The story
Sheriff Rick Grimes wakes up alone in an abandoned hospital after a coma in which he stayed for weeks and missed the outbreak of the infection. He wanders off and sees everything he knows has turned into a post-apocalyptic warzone along with some occasional zombies. After getting the first contact with another human being, Rick finds shelter at the man’s house and learns that his wife and son might be dead by now.
If there is any chance that they might still be alive its’ in Atlanta where the quarantine zone CDC is set. Meanwhile Lori and Carl are sheltered in a camp with other survivors along with Shane, Rick’s partner and best friend. After being swamped by a horde of walkers in Atlanta, Rick is saved by another group of survivors which takes him to the camp where his wife and son are.
After they reunite, the camp is also compromised being discovered by walkers and the group run to the CDC. Here all they find is a doctor with a few details of the virus but no cure. They are forced once again to leave the center because its safety protocols when it runs out of fuel and barely get out alive before the whole thing blows up. This is how season one goes.
Season two
Season two consists mostly out of finding Carol daughter, Sophia, which runs off into the woods when they head to the nearest military base. A large group of walkers ambushes the Interstate which they were on and scare little Sophie off into the woods. Meanwhile Carl gets shot by accident and Rick and Lori go to a farm where a veterinarian named Hershel hosts them while he tries to keep their son alive. The group stays at the farm for a while but tensions keep rising and searches for Sophia keep going by the heated Daryl.
Lori finds out that she is pregnant but doesn’t know if the father is Rick or Shane. Maggie and Glenn start a relationship but Glenn finds out that the barn is full of walkers and after opening the door with the intension of killing them all, the searches for Sophia finally stops as she comes out of the barn as a walker and Carol sees her daughter getting killed. Daryl is forced to kill Dale, as he gets bitten.
The group learns that once you are bitten you are as good as dead and changes the way of seeing things for everyone. Shane is constantly feeling threatened by the return of Rick, because of his relationship with Lori and Carl before he woke from the coma. He lures Rick far away from the farm to confront and kill him but Rick sees Shane’s intentions and kills him first. After Shane awakes as a walker, Carl who was near has to shoot him in the head, making all the walkers from around to come to the farm and attack everyone.
After the group is separated they try to figure out why Shane woke up as a zombie since he wasn’t bitten and it’s then when Rick tell them the secret from CDC: they are all carrying the virus. Meanwhile Andrea tries to survive on her own when she comes across a woman with two walkers on chains and a samurai sword. Yes, this is how Michonne enters the show. The next step is finding a secure place to live.
Season three
Season three consists in making a living out of an abandoned prison, safety which Rick is trying to ensure since season one. Here we find out that zombies aren’t their biggest problem, being introduced to the Governor’s heartless world. The Governor has a town of his own and followers which includes Daryl’s brother, Merle, who survived after all.
Carl has to kill his wounded mother after him and Maggie help her give birth to Judith. Andrea and Michonne are taken to the Governor’s town. The two camps get into a war, as Michonne kills the Governor’s most precious person alive: his walker daughter held captive in his room.
Hershel is taken hostage and killed by the Governor in front of his daughters as he swamps the prison with his men, weapons and tanks. As soon as the shooting starts the walkers crawl in and their secure home is once again gone.
Season four
In season four Maggie and Glenn are separated and search for each other, Rick tries to find a new place to hide but the course of the events get a downfall in Rick’s mind, suffering from a breakdown after losing his wife. After nearly getting shot by his own son, Rick sets his mind straight with the help of Daryl who previously had to kill his brother. Maggie and Glenn are reunited but they still had to rescue Beth from the Grady memorial Hospital and escape Terminus, as there was no safe place to live there at all.
New episodes
Since season five has started, fans have gone crazy and say it is the best yet. Carol is born once again and this time she takes Daryl’s steps into becoming a cold-hearted warrior and a wise person who has won the hearts of many fans and impressed us too. While almost every character has a meltdown, season five is announced to be a comeback from all. All we want is to see more of them.
So, what makes the Walking Dead such a great show? The strong characters? The weak characters? The insight that the theme of the show gives us every episode? Or is it the thrill of killing zombies? I think by season five, we can easily say we’ve learned that every aspect of it make The Walking Dead what is today and we wouldn’t wanted any other way. So keep your hopes up and eyes popping for the new episodes of season five that can be seen every Sunday night.
9th: The Plot Twists
Along with the show “Game of Thrones”, “The Walking Dead” is one of the few TV-series that has so many plot twists it’s hard to keep count. If it’s one thing the show provides, shock would caption it all but, as if terrifying zombies and a post-apocalyptic world, wouldn’t be enough, the show also comes with a series of plot twists that adds drama to the disturbing story. Moments like Carol killing Lizzie and Daryl killing his walker brother keep us on our toes. And we have a feeling there are yet a lot to come.
Shocking moments
One of the first and memorable shocking moments was the death of Lori. Yes we know, she has been annoying from the first episode to the last one, still her death came as a surprise since the fans were still hoping that after all their struggle and after all their running thing will be ok. More than that, the way she died was even more devastating. While pregnant with Judith, Maggie and Carl had to do a C-section on Lori in order to save the baby before she would die and transform into a walker.
Poor Carl had to deal with many of these scenes along the show but the credits goes to Chandler Riggs who delivered an amazing performance. This wasn’t the first time Carl had to assist to a scene so gruesome. In season two when Shane went a bit crazy right before his death, Carl had to point the gun at his father after he brutally killed his best friend, Shane, but this one came back as a zombie and Carl had no option but to kill the man who was like a second father to him.
Shocking news came when the group arrived at the CDC where scientist Jenner told something only to Rick that he later revealed to the group. After the building along with Jenner blew up in the air, the team was on the run again when Rick admitted to everyone that they are all infected with the virus. That being the reason why Shane came back as a walker after being killed which breaks a few scientific rules but will let it pass for the sake of the show.
Season two was all about finding Sophia, Carol’s daughter and that is why it came as a shock when they finally found her a zombie. When she came out of the barn as a walker, Daryl shot her in the head right under Carol’s eyes, making it one of the devastating scenes.
Horrific death scene
From the horrific death scenes we mention the decapitating of Hershel not for the fact that he was decapitated in front of his daughters but because the Governor partially did it the first time and finished the job leaving the head to Michonne to spare it from its reanimated condition. Obviously a shocking scene was the one in which Carol kills Lizzie in season four. Lizzie loses it and raises a walker for her own, after killing her sister and Carol finds the strength to kill her as she tells her to just look at the flowers.
In season four Carl spends a lot of time with his dad trying to find food and shelter after the prison was doomed and Rick is pretty bad injured. Carl tries to hold on to his father but his condition gets worst until one night when Carl is convinced his dad is dead and has turned into a zombie and was so close of killing him.
Fortunately for Rick, he wakes up and Carl calms down, calming all the fans down that Rick isn’t dead. Season five comes with the promise of another place they can call shelter at Terminus but things turn out for the worst. It appears that the people from Terminus are eating alive people and the group appear as a fresh meal to them.
Hard decision
The Walking Dead never stops surprising us, pulling out of their hat a series of weird yet terrifying turns of events. For instance, a memorable moment was when Daryl had to kill Merle in season three after he turned into a zombie and ends up with Daryl crying his heart out over his brother.
Staying alive in The Walking Dead is a challenge many fail to achieve but apparently some do it like Morgan from season two did it. His return gave the show a weird yet hopefully turn. It would be hard to pick only one scene that shocked the viewers the most, because everybody has their favorite characters and every death scene or shocking scene affects everybody differently.
8th: Rick and Daryl Friendship
Speaking of powerful relationships between the characters of the show, I think it is only fair that we mention Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon’s newly formed friendship, as fans favor these two. It is safe to say that these two have carried the weight of other characters as well as the whole show’s for a couple of seasons now.
Strong characters
Unlike the power couple Maggie-Glenn, these two have been strong characters since the beginning of the outbreak. Except for Daryl who needed to figure out which team he roots for at the beginning but then again so did Rick at some point and it is totally understandable since I can’t imagine even a day in a post-apocalyptic world of zombies.
Rick gained his strength not only because of his former job as a sheriff or because he had a family to fight for but mostly because, taking the lead on a group made him go through many stressful and terrifying situations that made him the man he is today.
We could say that he was forced to develop and become stronger but fortunately it all turned out for the best since he is now the strongest he’s ever been. He has done more than enough for the group, keeping it still together after months of surviving and has recovered well after the loss of his wife, killing his best friend and almost losing his son.
It was expected for Rick to be crushed by Lori’s death but The Walking Dead is the only show that allowed a character to utterly break in pieces after such a hard loss, an amazing performance given by the talented Andrew Lincoln. The moment was followed by his breakdown when he went on a zombie killing rage being driven by his grief. Rick and Daryl truly bond at the end of Rick’s killing spree episode, when he comes in his help.
The charismatic Norman Reedus, gives a stunning performance as the redneck turned hero. Daryl always appears as the cold-hearted hunter that could kill without a single muscle in his face moving. His first interaction with Rick wasn’t the friendliest one, finding out that his brother is captive on a rooftop with no weapon to defend himself.
He goes on a saving mission along with Rick and a few but finds him no more where they left him. After he realizes that Rick might be right about Merle, he changes teams and sticks with Rick being loyal ever since. Seeing Daryl upset, even crying, made a lot of fans love him even more for overcoming his weaknesses.
Same morals
They have been side by side for a while now, helping each other every time. And they stand for the same morals and goals. They both want to fight for the good reasons and will give their last breath to same every one of their team, as they have proven before. Now that Daryl’s brother is dead, he could make place for a new brother, after all that is what Rick said to him, right?
Watching the two work as a team would give hope to every group of survivors. They have saved each other’s asses too many times to count but we have a feeling that if either one of them would have another relapse again, the brother would step in to help every time. When you see their bromance expressed through the “I got you” looks you know they will keep hope through the rest of the group as they did so far.
7th: Glenn and Maggie
We have character that we love for their leadership skills, for their heroic acts and for their survival stories. But there are characters whom we love as a couple not only for their romantic relationship but for what the two stand for in this show. Although there are great characters, Maggie and Glenn represent the true hope in this horrible world, showing us that love can triumph over any chaos.
To be more precise on the power of these two, let us detail a few of aspects. The former-pizza boy wasn’t initially perceived at his true value. He was sort of live bait for the group when he first met Rick, being a true nerd but underneath a strong man with so many to offer. He met Maggie at Hershel’s farm saying to the group when he first saw her: “This chick came in like Zorro”, while she came on a horse to meet the new survivors.
Sweet sceene
They taunted each other at first but when they got a moment alone, Maggie revealed her young beautiful body and left Glenn completely stunned. She might have done it because he was the only man she have seen in months since the outbreak and the scene was even more awestruck for Glenn since the only bodies he has scene in a while were decomposed. But the scene is completely sweet and it was the first time they made love since at first when he saw Maggie he couldn’t say a word.
Later at the farm they had their real first talk, discussing the issue of God. They slowly form a relationship based on a friendship, Glenn beginning to desire Maggie even more. When Hershel is constantly referring to Glenn as “that Asian boy”, Maggie stands up to her father saying that “His name is Glenn!” another proof that their relationship becomes a serious one and it’s not just a hookup made out of lust.
Torture
Things get a bit better for the group in the first three seasons before they start to get bad. While in their prison home, they consolidate their relationship even more and the two start to realize how much they mean to each other. Merle kidnaps Glenn and Maggie and tortures Glenn while stripping Maggie. The scene is a hard one to watch, especially for Glenn who is forced to watch Merle and other touching his naked girlfriend. Luckily for them, Rick, Daryl and Michonne come in their rescue, but for the couple it’s just another reason to love and cherish each other even more, as they realize everything could end in a second in their world.
Reunite
Hershel understands that Glenn means a lot for Maggie and also starts carrying for the “Asian boy”, as he saves him and gets decapitated for it, leaving the prison a not so safe home anymore. When the group splits up, Maggie and Glenn get separated too but that doesn’t stop them for making a goal out of their lives to find each other again.
Knowing themselves so well they leave clues for the other to find and reunite as they are stronger as a pair. Glenn is tortured by the fact that he is not with Maggie and that he doesn’t know if she is alive or not anymore. We see here Glenn evolving from the “Asian boy” to the strong man Maggie needs.
It started as a game, but their relationship has been the reason fans still have hope for the whole team. They set an example as they find love in this crazy world, proving us they are have strength and perseverance. Honestly, how close we’re you to tears when you saw the two reunite after the long search? I know the heartbreaking scene made me tear up a bit. They aren’t only an example for a couple in a zombie world, in fact many couples of today’s world could take them as an inspiration.