AMC’s The Walking Dead shambles back with season 2 tonight! Prepare yourself for its premier with a brief recap of season 1.
I Feel Like Death When I Get Up, Too
If you slept through The Walking Dead‘s first season, it could have been worse. Imagine slumbering through corpses reanimating then treating the world like a brain buffet. That’s how the show opens, with sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes shot in the line of duty, falling into a coma and reawakening to an undead extravaganza.
The Lost City of Atlanta
Looking for his wife Rick meets survivors Duane and Morgan Jones. They brief him on the current situation and point him towards presumed safe – zone Atlanta, saying they’ll follow in a few days. However, the ATL has also been overrun by flesh eating zombies which really isn’t that big a change.
After bolting from an undead surprise party and dropping a large bag of guns in the process, Rick runs into other survivors. There’s Glenn whose knowledge of the area from his pizza delivery days make him the group’s Mapquest, ex-civil rights lawyer Andrea, T-Dog and Aryan aficionado Merle. The latter tries but fails to take over the group and gets left handcuffed on a roof with only a hacksaw keeping him company. Would you like to play a game, Merle?
While You Were Sleeping
Escaping from Atlanta back to his new friend’s camp reunites Rick with his wife Lori, son Carl, best friend Shane and assorted others. Shane’s been kindly taking over Rick’s husbandly duties with Lori. This isn’t mentioned to Rick because this is the zombie apocalypse and not an episode of Maury.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
We also meet Dwayne, a crossbow – toting redneck. He convinces Rick and a few others to go back and look for Merle with the dumb reason that Merle’s his brother or something unimportant like that. That and everyone wants those guns Rick dropped. They find the guns and and Merle gives them a hand. Well, the one he cut off to escape anyways. Merle’s fate is still at this point undetermined.
Zombies Love The Outdoors Too, You Know
Everyone’s thrilled to see them back at the camp. Especially the zombies, who stop in to say hi and grab a bite to eat. Andrea’s sister and a disliked wife – beater make up the victims, with Jim bitten but not killed in the fray. Seeing this as a small hint they aren’t welcome in the neighborhood anymore, the crew set out for the Center for Disease Control hoping to find a way to help Jim.
I’ve Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription is Braaaaaaains
Remember in the Oregon Trail games how you decided whether to give family members a proper burial or leave them on the side of the road after they died? The groups chooses the second option at Jim’s behest when his condition worsens. Finally making it to the CDC finds them lone survivor and scientist Jenner along with a lot of booze. Shane’s beer goggles make Lori desirable to him again, which she rejects.
Going Out with a Bang
Luckily, things aren’t awkward between them after learning the entire building’s about to self – destruct. Once its emergency power runs out, the CDC basically nukes itself to prevent any viruses that turn people in zombies from getting out .Think the government named it the “Shutting Barn Door After Horse Bolts” protocol.
Jenner and the crew’s resident depressed member Jacqui stay behind to see how cool the explosion looks from the inside. Everybody else narrowly escapes, and the season ends with a giant fireball.
Which leads us to season 2. Now that everyone’s up to speed again on The Walking Dead, what are we in for now?Will Merle return now that he’s can replace his severed hand with a chainsaw a la Evil Dead? Is Rick ever going to learn of Shane’s cuckoldry? Give us your thoughts on where The Walking Dead‘s headed next, and make sure to catch the premiere tonight at 9pm on AMC!
Daniel Mikelonis
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of AMC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
