Season 3

Episode 1 "Seed"

The group has survived the winter with no deaths. Lori is now 8.5 months pregnant. After several months on the road, the group finds the prison. Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, Glenn and Maggie fight off walkers outside the prison. They decide to move into the prison the next day and try to make the prison into a safe fortress. Lori, thinking Rick hates her and fearful for her unborn child, confides in Hershel. Elsewhere, Michonne, with whom Andrea survived the winter, tends to a feverish Andrea as they seek safer refuge. Rick's group moves into the prison and clears a cell block for the group. Rick continues to show hatred towards Lori. Rick takes T-Dog, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, and Hershel to clear off more of the prison. They get separated inside the prison. Hershel searches for Glenn and Maggie, and Hershel gets bitten on the lower leg by a walker. They rush Hershel to the prison cafeteria, where Rick amputates the leg at the knee while T-Dog holds off the walkers. Five prison survivors, trapped in the cafeteria and surviving on pantry food, hear the commotion and come to their location.
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Episode 2 "Sick"

While Rick, Maggie, and Glenn aid the injured Hershel, T-Dog and Daryl confront the prisoners. After bringing an injured Hershel back to the group's cell block, Rick updates the prisoners on the zombie apocalypse of the previous ten months. Tomas appears to be the leader of the five prisoners. He and Rick show extreme tension. The survivors eventually come to an agreement: Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog will help clear a cell block for the prisoners to inhabit, in exchange for half of the prison's food stores. Rick also wants the prisoners to stay away from his group. While the prisoners hone their combat skills under the supervision of Rick's group by taking out multiple walkers, a prisoner named "Big Tiny" is scratched by a walker. While discussing this development with Rick, the prisoners' leader, Tomas, kills Big Tiny on the spot. Daryl and Rick see Tomas as a threat and will be willing to kill him if necessary. Thus, after Tomas sets Rick up to die in the next fight with walkers, Rick immediately kills Tomas. Another prisoner, Andrew, attempts to retaliate but finds himself outnumbered and flees into a walker-infested prison yard, where Rick leaves him to his fate. Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog leave the remaining prisoners, Axel and Oscar, in the promised cell block. Maggie fears Hershel will not survive. When Rick, T-Dog, and Daryl return to their group, Hershel, who had a brush with near-death while being watched over by the others, awakens after Lori gives him CPR. Rick thanks Lori for her heroics.
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Episode 3 "Walk with Me"

Andrea and Michonne see a helicopter crash into the forest. While investigating the crash of a military helicopter, a group of men arrive. The men kill various walkers. Michonne is forced to kill her two pet walkers in a vain to remain hidden from the group. Merle Dixon, last seen in Season 1, is revealed to be part of the group. Andrea faints, and she and Michonne are captured. They are taken to Woodbury, a small barricaded town with 73 residents. Hospitality is provided to both women. The leader of the community, known only as The Governor, tries to win over the two women, though Michonne remains wary. Meanwhile, the sole survivor of the crash, Welles, informs The Governor that he was scouting for a group of ten soldiers who survived their base being overrun. The Governor leads a team to Welles' squad and kills them all for their vehicles, weapons, and supplies. When he returns, he lies and says the squad was killed by walkers. Michonne continues to not trust the Governor, while Andrea is happy about her new "home". In his residence that evening, unable to sleep, the Governor rests with a glass of whiskey in a private room watching three rows of aquariums filled with preserved walker heads, among them that of Welles.
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Episode 4 "Killer Within"

Axel begs Rick to let him and Oscar join the group. Rick discusses this with the group. T-Dog is the only one who wants the prisoners to join, but is unable to convince the others. While the group is admiring Hershel's determination to use crutches, they are surprised by a group of walkers moving through the prison compound, and the survivors are separated while fleeing for cover. Rick, Daryl, and Glenn return from outside the fences to find that the gate was left open and chains were cut, and Rick immediately suspects Axel and Oscar. However, when more walkers are attracted by the prison alarms, Rick's group has to rely on the prisoners to help them quickly find and shut down the generators. Oscar leads Rick and Daryl to the generator room, where Rick is ambushed by Andrew, who had lured the walkers in from the other side of the prison. Oscar gets Rick's gun and shoots Andrew, siding with Rick whose group he and Axel want to join. Meanwhile, T-Dog tries to close the gate releasing walkers and is bitten. He and Carol escape, but are soon confronted by more walkers. T-Dog sacrifices himself to save Carol. Her head wrap falls off. Daryl later finds it, leading the group to assume she was also killed. Maggie, Carl, and Lori end up hiding in the boiler room. Lori goes into labor but complications prevent a natural childbirth, so she insists that Maggie perform an emergency Caesarean section. Lori does not survive the procedure. Carl has to shoot Lori, his mother, in the head before she re-animates. When the group reunites, Rick hears the cry of a baby. Maggie and Carl appear, holding the newborn. Rick learns of his wife's death and collapses in mourning. Back at Woodbury, Andrea grows closer to The Governor and puts off a planned departure indefinitely, despite Michonne's increasing suspicions of the man.
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Episode 5 "Say the Word"

The Governor hosts a picnic party for the Woodbury residents, which Andrea enjoys. Michonne breaks into The Governor's house to get her sword back. She overhears a conversation between the Governor, his assistant Milton, and Merle, which leads her to discover a half-dozen captive walkers. She goes and kills all the walkers. The Governor meets with Michonne after this incident, and asks her to stay in Woodbury. In response, she takes her sword and threatens the Governor by putting her sword up to his neck. Michonne and Andrea are ready to leave, when Andrea finally expresses that she can't take another eight months on the outside in fear for her life. She tries to convince Michonne to stay, however, Michonne decides to leave on her own. That night at a raucous gathering, Andrea is disturbed to witness that the toothless walkers are used for spectacle entertainment in staged fights to raise morale. Back at the prison, everyone is grieving their losses. Rick abandons his parental duties to kill walkers in a rage, so Daryl steps up as leader and takes Maggie on a scavenger run to obtain needed infant formula and supplies for the nameless newborn. They succeed, and Glenn, Axel, and Oscar dig graves for Lori, Carol, and T-Dog. The episode closes with Rick in the boiler room where Lori died, awakened from a daze by the ringing of an old rotary telephone, which he answers.
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Episode 6 "Hounded"

Rick talks to unknown survivors on the phone. The survivors claim to be in a safe place, away from all the walkers. Rick talks to Hershel about the phone call. Unfortunately, the survivors from the phone call are those of the dead, including Amy, Jim, Jacqui, and Lori. He accepts her death and rejoins the group. Against all odds, Daryl finds Carol, alive. At Woodbury, Andrea volunteers for sentry duty. She talks to a girl named Haley while protecting the wall. A walker appears, and when Haley fails to kill the walker with her bow and arrow, Andrea jumps down from the wall and kills the walker. She later confesses to the Governor that she enjoyed the fights, and she and the Governor begin an affair. Merle and three other men, Tim, Crowley, and Gargulio, hunt Michonne, but she ambushes them, killing Tim and Crowley immediately. They are ambushed by walkers, but Merle is able to shoot her in the leg as she she runs off. Convinced Michonne is as good as dead, Merle wants to return to Woodbury, but Gargulio wants to pursue her. They argue, and Merle kills the young man for disagreeing. Michonne flees to a nearby town where she sees Glenn and Maggie arrive for supplies. Merle arrives and after talking with them captures Glenn and Maggie and takes them to Woodbury, planning to interrogate them about the location of their group. Michonne takes the supplies and makes her way to the prison. While Rick watches the prison fences, he sees Michonne and goes to investigate.
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Episode 7 "When the Dead Come Knocking"

Rick and Carl rescue Michonne and bring her into the prison after she collapses while fighting off walkers. After being interrogated by Rick and threatened by Daryl, Michonne tells the group how Glenn and Maggie were taken by the man who shot her and offers to get them inside Woodbury (failing to mention Merle or Andrea by name). Hershel aids the injured Michonne as Rick prepares to rescue Glenn and Maggie. Rick names his newborn daughter "Judith" on Carl's suggestion. Meanwhile, at Woodbury, Merle interrogates Glenn for the location of his group. Despite being beaten and having a walker set loose on him, Glenn refuses to talk. The Governor interrogates Maggie, threatening to rape her. Maggie also refuses to talk. Merle and the Governor bring Maggie to the same room as Glenn, and threatens to kill one of them if no one talks. When the Governor puts a gun at Glenn's head, Maggie finally breaks and tells them about the prison and their group. The paranoid Governor tells Merle and Martinez to lead a group to scout the prison, inside the dangerous Red Zone. The Governor is also unsure of Merle's loyalties, since he suspects Merle's brother Daryl to come and try and rescue Glenn and Maggie. Also, Andrea assists Milton with an experiment to test whether or not walkers can retain any of their past memories. After evading a large group of walkers, Rick, Daryl, Oscar, and Michonne finally reach Woodbury's walls.
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Episode 8 "Made to Suffer"

Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Oscar invade Woodbury and successfully rescue Glenn and Maggie. Glenn informs Daryl that Merle is in Woodbury. Daryl wants to see his brother, but Rick needs him to stay with them so they can safely escape. Unfortunately, Oscar is killed in a desperate gun battle and Daryl is captured. Rick hallucinates and sees Shane. He kills "Shane", but it turns out to be a Woodbury soldier. During this, Michonne sneaks into The Governor's quarters intending to kill him. She finds the Governor's secret room of walker heads. She also discovers Penny, the Governor's daughter, who is a walker. Before killing Penny, the Governor comes and tries to convince Michonne to let her go. Michonne ignores him and kills Penny. The Governor and Michonne then get into a fight, causing all the aquarium tanks to break. Michonne takes a piece of glass and stabs the Governor's eye. Andrea walks in, and has a tense stand-off with Michonne. Then, Michonne leaves and makes her way back to Rick's group outside. Andrea comforts the Governor, who is brought to the Woodbury hospital. Five new survivors fight off walkers in a forest and find their way to the prison. The group is led by Tyreese, and consists of his sister Sasha, and another family of three, names being Allen, Ben, and Donna (who is bitten). Carl finds them in the prison and offers them food and shelter. Tyreese is forced to kill Donna before she turns into a walker. Holding a meeting at the arena, The Governor declares that Woodbury was attacked by terrorists and presents to the bloodthirsty people a traitor: The Governor accuses Merle of aiding the enemy and revealing that the attacker they captured is his brother Daryl. Both men are pushed forward in the arena, where The Governor orders them to fight to the death. The crowd chants for them to be killed while Andrea, not having seen Daryl in months, watches shocked and confused, her efforts to stop the fight thwarted by The Governor's men.
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Episode 9 "The Suicide King"

Rick and Maggie return to Woodbury to help rescue Daryl. Merle is also rescued, to the group's dismay. On the way back to the prison, tensions mount when Glenn and Michonne discover Merle is returning with them, and they refuse to take Merle back to the prison. Daryl refuses to leave Merle again and as a result, breaks away from Rick's group, even after Rick pleads with him to stay. Rick questions Michonne, who refuses to communicate, thus angering Rick, who threatens to turn her out on her own once they've patched up her wounds. Back at Woodbury, chaos erupts when all the residents become frightened and some attempt to leave through the compound's front gate. Martinez and other security enforcers block residents from leaving and threaten them at gunpoint. Amid the tension and mass confusion, one resident is bitten by walkers who sneaked in the breach Merle made when he led Rick's group out of the compound. Andrea defuses the situation and kills both stray walkers, leaving the bitten Woodbury resident pleading for help. As townspeople yell that someone should help the bitten man, a stoic Governor appears from his quarters, shoots the bitten member, and returns back inside without ever saying a word. Rick, Michonne, Glenn, and Maggie finally return to the prison, and Carol and Carl greet them. Tyreese pleads his case to stay, but Rick refuses. Hershel then pulls Rick aside, and respectfully persuades him to accept them into the prison. Rick appears to reconsider, but sees an apparition of Lori on the catwalk above. She is only visible to Rick, whose hallucination and angry, violent outbursts frighten the two groups. Tyreese's group begins to scatter and Glenn urges them to leave.

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Episode 10 "Home"

With Woodbury trying to recover from the recent attacks and The Governor emotionally compromised due to the loss of his daughter, The Governor tells Andrea he has decided to cede leadership of Woodbury to her. However, he privately confides to Milton that he does not fully trust her and leaves the town without informing her. After helping another group of survivors flee a group of walkers, Daryl and Merle begin to have second thoughts about leaving the prison. Meanwhile, at the prison, the situation is worsening as more walkers are entering from the front side of the prison and are retaking areas that had been previously cleared. Rather than take charge of the situation, Rick wanders the outskirts of the prison following his hallucinations of Lori. Suddenly, The Governor and several of his men attack the prison, killing Axel and destroying the prison's outer gates, allowing walkers to enter the outer yard. Despite losing a henchman in the ensuing firefight (killed by Maggie), the satisfied Governor retreats. Rick is cornered by the incoming walkers but is saved by Daryl and Merle. All three look on as walkers wander the outer yard.

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Episode 11 "Ain't a Judas"

After The Governor's first attack on the prison, Rick and his group debate their course of action. In a private moment, while Rick is on watch, Carl confides to his father that he feels Rick should step down from his leadership role until he recovers. In Woodbury, Andrea learns of the attack on the prison and confronts The Governor, who claims that he went to the prison to seek peace but was attacked. He begins to form a Woodbury Army from anyone in town who can shoot a gun, including young adolescents. Disturbed by this, Andrea asks The Governor for permission to visit the prison, but he refuses to give her access to a vehicle. Undeterred, Andrea asks Milton for his help in escaping Woodbury; Milton refuses to participate and reports back to the Governor, who instructs him to help Andrea escape on foot. In the woods outside Woodbury, Andrea and Milton capture a walker and disable it as Michonne had done so that Andrea may use it as camouflage amongst the walkers on the way to the prison. As they do, Tyreese's group appears from the woods and, hearing that Milton is living in a protected town, ask for shelter. Milton takes them back to Woodbury as Andrea leaves to find the prison. Rick's group opens the gate for Andrea, and she is greeted with a mixture of suspicion and warmth. Andrea tries to persuade Rick and his group to make peace with The Governor, but she is informed of the Governor's aggression, and Michonne later reveals to Andrea that The Governor had sent Merle to kill her after she left Woodbury. Carol urges Andrea to end the conflict by returning to Woodbury, sleeping with The Governor to deter suspicion against her, then killing him while he sleeps. Meanwhile Hershel tries to connect with Merle, and Merle in turn tries to make amends with Michonne. In Woodbury, Tyreese's group reveal that they have been in the prison, and they agree to help The Governor in his war with Rick's group. Rick gives Andrea a car so she can return, and he begins to plan a strike on Woodbury with Michonne and Carl. Back in Woodbury, Andrea lies in bed with The Governor who is asleep, but cannot bring herself to kill him.

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Episode 12 "Clear"

Rick, Carl, and Michonne travel back to King County, Georgia to gather weapons to combat The Governor. Along the way, they encounter a backpacker who begs them to stop, but they drive past without stopping. When they arrive at King County, a masked man attacks the group. Carl shoots the man, who turns out to be Morgan, the man who originally saved Rick. The group brings Morgan, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and was simply rendered unconscious, to his house and raids his gun supply. Carl and Michonne go on a run, seemingly to acquire a crib for Judith. But first, they go to a cafe where a photograph of the Grimes family is on display. Carl and Michonne manage to fight through the walkers inside to retrieve the photograph. Meanwhile, Morgan wakes up and has an altercation with Rick, stabbing him in the shoulder. Rick manages to talk some sense into him, and Morgan explains that his son, Duane, was bitten and infected by his turned wife, whom he had been reluctant to put down. Morgan explains that Rick told him to turn on his walkie-talkie every day at dawn, but Rick never turned it on. Rick invites Morgan to return to the prison with the group, but Morgan refuses, not wanting to witness any more death. Michonne and Carl return with supplies, and Carl tells Rick: Michonne "may be one of us". As they drive back towards the prison, they pass the backpacker's ravaged remains and his discarded backpack. They stop and take the backpack before moving on.

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Episode 13 "Arrow on the Doorpost"

Rick and The Governor meet face-to-face in a feed store to negotiate their differences. While Andrea, Daryl, Hershel, Martinez, and Milton wait outside, Beth, Carl, Carol, Glenn, Maggie, Merle, and Michonne remain at the prison. After Daryl and Martinez bond over a walker-killing contest and then smoke a cigarette outside, and Milton and Hershel bond over similar interests, Andrea goes inside to try to encourage a detente between the Governor and Rick. Her attempt fails; both men ask her to leave. The Governor gives Rick a hard choice: surrender Michonne to him, or the Governor's men will attack and kill everyone at the prison. The Governor gives Rick two days to think it over. Rick, Hershel, and Daryl make their way back to the prison, while Andrea decides to stay with The Governor. Rick - who assumes The Governor will kill them whether they hand over Michonne or not - does not tell the group the choice he was given; instead he tells them they are going to war, and the Governor wants them dead. Back at Woodbury, The Governor reveals his plan to kill the entire group excepting Michonne. Rick confides The Governor's offer, privately, to Hershel, who says Michonne has earned her place in the group and asks why Rick is telling him this. Rick replies, "I was hoping you would talk me out of it".

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Episode 14 "Prey"

In Woodbury, Andrea begins to suspect that The Governor has no intention of making peace with Rick. Milton finally reveals The Governor's plans to her but stops her attempt to assassinate The Governor. With no other choice, Andrea decides to leave Woodbury to warn Rick and the others, telling Tyreese and Sasha before leaving that The Governor cannot be trusted. Upon learning of Andrea's departure, The Governor immediately leaves to track her down. Meanwhile, Tyreese and Allen get into a fight, with Allen worried that Tyreese's suspicions about The Governor's motives risk getting them thrown out of Woodbury. Andrea finally manages to reach the prison, but The Governor captures her before she can enter it. When The Governor returns to Woodbury, he learns that somebody had burned all of the captured walkers that Woodbury had been keeping as weapons; Tyreese and Milton appear to be the likely suspects. Meanwhile, Andrea is revealed to be tied up in the Governor's secret torture chamber.

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Episode 15 "This Sorrowful Life"

Merle is asked by Rick to help capture Michonne and deliver her to The Governor. Correctly predicting that Rick won't have the stomach to carry out his decision, Merle captures Michonne and sneaks her out himself. On the way to Woodbury, Merle and Michonne discuss their situation. Michonne convinces Merle to release her. Merle leads a parade of walkers to the meeting place. As the walkers draw fire from Martinez's ambush party. Merle snipes them. Merle is attacked by a walker and then captured by Martinez's men. Merle is attacked by The Governor, who bites off two of his fingers and then shoots him. Meanwhile, Glenn and Maggie become engaged to be married. Rick confesses to the group, giving up sole leadership and saying they will have to vote on leaving the prison or stay and fight. Rick notices Michonne returning unharmed. Daryl arrives at the meeting place, where he finds Merle reanimated as a walker and kills him.

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Episode 16 "Welcome to the Tombs"

After Milton fails to prove himself to The Governor, he stabs Milton and leaves him to die and reanimate in the torture chamber with Andrea. He then leads an assault on the prison, but Rick's group stages an ambush, led by Glenn and Maggie, and repel the attack. When the surviving members of the Woodbury army express a desire to return to Woodbury and leave the prison group alone, the Governor, while Martinez and Shumpert watch in horror, guns them down and executes them all except for Karen who pretends to be dead but survives and is rescued by Rick, Daryl and Michonne; the four then make their way to Woodbury. The four then arrive at Woodbury and are allowed in by Tyreese and Sasha, who remained behind during the attack. They find Andrea, who killed the zombified Milton, but not before she was bitten by him. Andrea shoots herself with Rick's pistol in order to prevent her own reanimation as a tearful Michonne stays with her to the end. Rick's group returns to the prison along with the residents of Woodbury who stayed behind, while the Governor and his henchmen remain at large.

Season 2

Episode 1 "What Lies Ahead"

The group heads toward Fort Benning but is blocked by a pileup of vehicles on the interstate and further delayed when the RV blows a radiator hose. A depressed Andrea expresses resentment towards Dale for not being allowed to die in a way of her choosing, since he forced her to save him from the CDC explosion; contrarily, he feels he saved her. Shane tells Lori he has decided to leave the group when he has the chance. The group narrowly avoids most of a herd of walkers passing the pileup, but two of them chase Sophia into the woods. Rick distracts and kills her pursuing walkers, but she goes missing in the process. During a search for Sophia, the group stops at a rural church, at which point Andrea privately asks Shane if she can join him when he leaves the group. As the search continues, Rick, Shane, and Carl come upon a buck; as Carl approaches the animal a gunshot passes through the deer into him.
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Episode 2 "Bloodletting"

In a flashback to a time before the apocalypse, Shane tells Lori that Rick has been wounded in a highway shootout, and Lori in turn tells Carl. In the present, Carl has been accidentally shot by a hunter named Otis. Otis directs Rick, Shane, and Carl to the home of veterinarian Hershel Greene, who manages to remove one of six bullet fragments. One of Hershel's daughters, Maggie, is sent to Sophia's search party and returns with Lori to the Greene home. Rick gives blood to Carl, while Otis and Shane go to the former FEMA aid station at a walker-infested high school to gather urgently needed medical supplies. Dale and T-Dog wait at the RV; Dale fears that T-Dog may have contracted an infection from his injury, and the two search for antibiotics. Shane and Otis find the necessary supplies at the FEMA aid station; however they are forced to barricade themselves in the school's entrance after walkers surround them.
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Episode 3 "Save the Last One"

Hershel tells Lori and Rick that he might need to perform Carl's surgery without a respirator if Shane and Otis do not return soon with the necessary medical supplies. Daryl and Andrea return to the forest to search for Sophia, and Daryl shares a childhood memory of being lost in the woods. The two then come upon a zombie hanging from a tree, where he had attempted to kill himself before transforming and ended up having his legs eaten; Daryl kills the zombie, but only after Andrea agrees to answer his question concerning whether she wants to continue living or kill herself. Glenn and T-Dog arrive at the Greene home, where T-Dog's injury is treated while Glenn and Maggie talk about faith. Lori contemplates letting Carl die to end his suffering from living in the world as it now is, while Rick holds to the belief that Carl may yet live in a better future. Meanwhile, Shane and Otis fight to escape the high school, only to face more walkers at every turn. Just as they are about to run out of ammo, an injured Shane incapacitates Otis, so he can escape the walkers. Shane then takes the supplies from Otis and watches as the horde of walkers rips Otis apart. Shane returns alone to the Greene home with the critical medical supplies, just in time for Carl's surgery. Shane misleads everyone about Otis' death and shaves his head, both as a sign that he has completely changed his way of thinking in this new world and in order to eliminate the one thing (his hair) Otis was able to grasp when the crucial moment came.
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Episode 4 "Cherokee Rose"

Dale, Daryl, Andrea, and Carol arrive at the Greene home and set up camp as Carl recovers. Since Shane is still injured and Rick is weak from blood loss, Daryl decides to search alone for Sophia. He does not find her but instead finds a Cherokee rose (a Native American symbol for the tears of mothers on the Trail of Tears) and gives it to Carol. Hershel takes Rick on a tour and tells him that he and his group should leave the property after Sophia is found and Carl heals. Rick begs Hershel to reconsider, and Hershel says he will consider letting them stay if they follow his rules. While Dale and T-Dog are retrieving water from a nearby well, they realize that there is a walker inside. Since the survivors cannot kill it, as doing so might infect the water, they decide Glenn will act as bait to snare the walker, so that it can be removed from the well. They succeed in roping and raising the walker, but just as it is being pulled out of the well, its legs and internal organs break off and spill back into the well, thoroughly infecting the water. T-Dog then kills the walker. Maggie and Glenn head to a local pharmacy for supplies, where Maggie offers to have sex with Glenn and he accepts. Glenn retrieves a pregnancy test, requested by Lori; Lori later uses it and realizes she is pregnant.
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Episode 5 "Chupacabra"

The survivors continue to search for Sophia, but Hershel is growing increasingly concerned about their presence on his land for unclear reasons. Shane and Rick argue over whether or not to continue the search, with Shane arguing that it's time to cut their losses and leave. Rick is angry with him but later begins to wonder whether Shane is right. While out searching for Sophia, Daryl finds her doll but subsequently falls off a ridge and is badly injured. He has hallucinations of his brother Merle but snaps out of it in time to deal with two attacking walkers. He then finds the strength to climb up the ridge and return to the farm. He eats squirrel, raw, and as he approaches the farm, face bloodied and limping, Andrea mistakes him for a walker and shoots him in the neck, wounding him. Maggie passes a note to Glenn asking to meet for a sexual encounter. Glenn passes it back, saying to meet in the barn. A horrified Maggie attempts to stop him, but she is unable to prevent him from discovering the barn is full of captured walkers.
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Episode 6 "Secrets"

The group practices their shooting skills and Andrea performs well. Glenn tells Dale about the walkers being kept in the barn. Dale confronts Hershel about the barn and Hershel explains that the walkers in the barn are family members and neighbors and are "still people"; that they are merely sick and are being contained so they can be cured in the future. Lori sends Glenn and Maggie to the pharmacy to get morning-after pills. Maggie gets attacked by a walker and Glenn kills it. In a fury, Maggie gives Lori the pills and yells at her for almost getting them killed. Glenn gives Lori prenatal vitamins as well. Lori takes the morning-after pills, but forces herself to vomit them up. Shane and Andrea go looking for Sophia in a nearby town and are surrounded by walkers. Andrea and Shane kill enough of them to flee safely. Andrea, feeling empowered, comes on to Shane on the way back and they engage in sexual relations. When they arrive at camp, Dale recognizes something is going on between them. Out of concern for Andrea, he confronts Shane about what really happened the night Otis died, as Dale seems to have figured out that Shane killed him in order to save himself. Shane threatens Dale. Rick finds the empty morning-after pill package and confronts Lori. They debate the ethical decision of bringing the unborn child into a world infested with walkers. Lori confesses to having had a sexual relationship with Shane when she thought Rick was dead.
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Episode 7 "Pretty Much Dead Already"

When Glenn reveals to the group that walkers are being kept in the barn, Rick discusses the matter with Hershel; Rick also tries to convince him to let the group stay, especially since his wife is pregnant. Rick tells Shane that Lori is pregnant and Shane confronts her, knowing that her child may be his. Dale tries to hide the group's guns in the swamp but fails when Shane catches him. Against Hershel's and Rick's wishes, Shane hands the guns out to members of the group. Hershel tricks Rick into helping him recover some walkers stuck in quicksand, and tells him that his group can stay so long as they do not kill the walkers. As they return, Shane sees the captured walkers and becomes enraged. He repeatedly shoots Hershel's captured walker in the chest, asking why it doesn't die if it is a living, sick person. He then shoots it in the head as Hershel looks on. Shane breaks open the barn door, forcing the group to shoot all of the captured walkers. Thinking all the walkers are dead, the stunned group watches as the missing Sophia comes out of the barn as a walker. Rick remorsefully steps forward and shoots her in the head.
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Episode 8 "Nebraska"

After the destruction of his walker-family, Hershel demands that Rick and his group leave immediately. Shane accuses Rick of being just as delusional as Hershel, saying that Hershel knew about Sophia the whole time and hid her from the group. Dale tells Andrea to be careful about her relationship with Shane, since Dale knows what kind of person Shane is and now wants him gone from the group. He also reveals this to Lori, including his assumption about Otis' fate. Hershel goes missing, but Rick and Glenn find him in the town bar, drinking and lamenting the folly of his hope of a cure for his family. After Rick convinces him to return to his family, two men named Dave and Tony enter the bar and request refuge at Hershel's farm. Rick, Glenn, and Hershel learn from the two men that Fort Benning is overrun. When Rick flatly refuses them safe haven, Dave draws his firearm, but Rick is quicker on the draw and kills him and Tony. Hershel's daughter Beth is rendered unconscious from an unknown ailment, leading Lori to drive into town to retrieve Hershel. Lori hits a walker on the road and flips the car. The episode ends with Lori's fate unknown and Shane and T-Dog setting fire to the dead walkers from the barn.
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Episode 9 "Triggerfinger"

After killing their attackers, Rick, Hershel, and Glenn prepare to leave, but three other men, looking for Dave and Tony, enter the town before they can escape. Lori escapes from two walkers and continues down the road on foot to look for her husband. Rick, Hershel, and Glenn inadvertently get into a gunfight with the others. Back at the farm, Carol tries to talk to Daryl and is rebuffed the same way Lori was. When they realize Lori is missing, Shane goes down to help her and convinces her to come back by telling her that Rick and the others are already back. When she finds out he lied, he reveals that she is pregnant. Carl asks to name the baby Sophia if it is a girl. Shane and Lori talk about their past relationship; Shane is convinced it was real. In town, Hershel shoots one attacker, who is then killed by walkers. Another attacker attempts to jump from a building into their truck, but instead impales his leg on a gate, causing the third man to abandon him. Rick, Hershel, and Glenn rescue the injured attacker and bring him to the farm. Rick plans to send him away once he is healed, but Shane disagrees. Lori tells Rick that Shane is dangerous.
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Episode 10 "18 Miles Out"

Rick and Shane have a roadside discussion about Shane's feelings for Lori and about the circumstances surrounding Otis' death, with Shane questioning his friend's ability to make the hard decisions. They are taking the wounded man from the previous episode 18 miles out from the farm to abandon him. The man begs them to let him stay, inadvertently revealing that he knows the location of the farm. Shane wants to kill the man, but Rick says that he needs to think about it first; their disagreement leads to a fight, which attracts a group of walkers. All three barely make it out alive. Back at the farm, Beth has given up on life and is contemplating suicide. Both Lori and Maggie attempt to talk her out of it and want to place her under watch, but Andrea says Beth needs to find her own reasons to keep living. Beth locks herself in the bathroom and uses a piece of broken mirror to slit her wrist, but Lori manages to break open the door before she bleeds out. Maggie and Lori are furious with Andrea for not keeping an eye on Beth; Andrea defends herself by saying that Beth no longer wants to commit suicide and Hershel was able to save her. Rick tells Shane that he needs to follow his (Rick's) lead from now on. They then put the injured attacker back into the trunk and drive back to the farm.
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Episode 11 "Judge, Jury, Executioner"

The group has Randall in custody, and Daryl tortures the prisoner for information. Randall reveals that his old survivor group is heavily armed and contains thirty male members; some of those members once raped a pair of teenaged female survivors and forced their father to watch. This convinces the group that letting Randall live is a huge risk. Dale, horrified that the group is actually considering executing Randall, tries to convince everybody that they must not sacrifice their humanity. Meanwhile, Carl wanders into the forest and finds a walker trapped in mud. Carl tries and fails to kill it and flees when it starts breaking free from the mud. Back at the farm, Dale fails to convince the group to stop the execution. Rick, Shane, and Daryl take Randall to the barn to execute him, but Rick hesitates when he sees that Carl is watching. He then decides to delay the execution. Meanwhile, Dale encounters a gutted cow dying in the field. When he turns around, he is attacked by a walker and has his stomach ripped open. Daryl kills the walker, and Carl is shocked to see that it was the same one he had failed to kill in the forest. Daryl then mercifully kills Dale in order to end his suffering.
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Episode 12 "Better Angels"

The group holds a brief funeral for Dale. Rick asks the group to stay united, despite Dale's warning that the group is "broken". They work together to prepare for the coming winter, by stockpiling supplies and clearing walkers from the surrounding area. However, there is still the issue of what to do with Randall. Rick ultimately decides to honor Dale's memory by sparing Randall's life and plans to drop him off somewhere far away from the farm. However, Shane frees Randall from the barn and leads him into the forest, where he breaks Randall's neck. Shane then returns to the farm and tells the rest of the group that Randall escaped. Rick, Shane, Glenn, and Daryl go into the forest to track him down. Glenn and Daryl split off from Rick and Shane and encounter Randall, who has somehow turned into a walker, despite the lack of evidence of his having been bitten or scratched. Glenn then kills Randall again, by impaling him through the head with a machete. Meanwhile, Rick tells Shane to admit he plans to murder him. Shane holds Rick at gunpoint and they argue about who would be a better father to Carl and husband to Lori. Rick talks Shane into putting his gun down. Knowing he has to kill Shane, he stabs him in the heart. Carl arrives and appears to have pulled his gun on Rick, but then aims behind his father and puts a bullet into the head of a reanimated Shane (who, like Randall, also had no evidence of being bitten, and who - after Rick stabbed him - seemed to experience intense and disturbing zombie-like thoughts). Meanwhile, a massive number of walkers, drawn by the gunshots, are shown headed towards them.
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Episode 13 "Beside the Dying Fire"

Shortly after Shane's death, a massive horde of walkers attacks the farm. The survivors attempt to fight off the horde but are quickly overwhelmed. Jimmy and Patricia are killed, and Andrea is inadvertently left behind. The remaining survivors are forced to scatter in the darkness, but they eventually reunite on the highway where they left supplies for Sophia. Meanwhile, Andrea is still alive and fleeing from the walkers on foot. She is about to be caught by the walkers when she is rescued by a hooded figure wielding a katana and flanked by two leashed, jawless, armless walkers. The other survivors believe Andrea is a lost cause and decide to search for a new shelter, but their cars begin to run low on gas, and they are forced to stop for the night. Confronted with the knowledge that Randall turned into a walker without being bitten, Rick finally reveals to the group what Jenner had told him at the CDC: everybody is already infected with the virus (and will eventually turn into walkers when they die). He also admits that he killed Shane. With this knowledge, the group's morale begins to plummet, but Rick announces that from now on he's in charge, the group will no longer be run as a democracy, and they will find a safe haven from the walkers. As the camera pulls back, a prison complex is visible nearby.

Season 1

Episode 1 "Days Gone Bye"

Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes is walking around a gas station parking lot looking for fuel. He finds a young girl walking through the gas station who turns out to be a zombie. He shoots her in the head as she approaches him. The show then flashes back to when he is critically wounded in a vicious gunfight and slips into a coma. He later awakens in an abandoned hospital to find a world occupied by the walking dead. Grimes finds his way home, only to discover that his wife Lori and their young son Carl have disappeared. He is upset and delusional, but encounters a father and son, Morgan and Duane Jones, who have holed up in a neighbor's house on Rick's street, and learns that the CDC has set up a quarantine zone in Atlanta, Georgia. Rick departs for Atlanta in order to track down his family, leaving Morgan and Duane with some weapons and a police walkie-talkie, which he will broadcast periodically to at dawn to inform them of his location. Elsewhere, Lori has begun a romantic relationship with Rick's old partner and best friend, Shane Walsh (who has told her Rick is dead), and along with Carl and a small band of other survivors, is in hiding in a rural area outside Atlanta. Rick arrives in Atlanta and is set upon by an enormous horde of "walkers". He survives by slipping into a tank and sealing himself inside. An unknown person sends a transmission to the tank's radio, saying "Hey you, dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. Cozy in there?"
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Episode 2 "Guts"

Rick escapes from the tank aided by Glenn, the voice he had heard over the radio. Rick and Glenn meet up with Glenn's friends, a scavenging team of survivors that is a subset of the larger group that includes Lori, Carl, and Shane. Glenn's friends inform him that Rick's shooting spree has brought their hideout in a department store to the attention of the walkers. Emotions run high in the group, particularly between a black man, T-Dog, and an unhinged white man, Merle Dixon, which leads Rick to handcuff Merle to a pipe on the store's roof. As the walkers attempt to break into the previously safe store, brief radio contact is made with Shane and Lori's group who, unaware of Rick's presence, decide they are unable to help. Rick and Glenn hatch an escape plan and execute it by covering themselves in a "terminated" walker's blood and guts (to mask their scent as they move amongst the walkers), and making their way to a box truck. Glenn draws the walkers' attention away from the store by racing around in a Dodge Challenger and sounding its alarm. The group escapes the city, along with Glenn, leaving Merle chained to the pipe on the roof after T-Dog trips over a bag of tools and accidentally drops the handcuff key down a drain.
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Episode 3 "Tell It to the Frogs"

Returning to the camp with the department store survivors, Rick has an emotional reunion with his wife and son. Soon afterwards however, despite encountering a walker near camp, Rick decides to go against Shane's advice and return to Atlanta to retrieve Merle Dixon and the bag Rick had dropped in the street when surrounded by zombies, which contained guns and a walkie-talkie he needs to warn Morgan against going to Atlanta. Rick is accompanied by Merle's upset and distrusting younger brother Daryl Dixon as well as Glenn and T-Dog. Lori warns Shane to stay away from her family now that Rick has returned. Rick's return is a surprise, since Shane had told her Rick had died in the hospital. Tensions run high in the camp between a woman, Carol, and her abusive husband, Ed. A fight breaks out when Ed hits Carol and threatens the other women, and Shane takes out his anger on Ed by nearly beating him to death. The rescue team makes it to Atlanta and, once they are on the department store roof, they discover a hacksaw, Merle's dismembered hand, and blood on his handcuffs, but he is nowhere to be found.

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Episode 4 "Vatos"

While still in search of Merle, the group tries to retrieve the bag of guns that Rick had dropped on his previous visit to Atlanta. However, the group is attacked by several living Latino men who also seek the weapons. The group manages to grab an injured attacker, but several other attackers escape in a vehicle, taking Glenn with them as a hostage. After interrogating their own hostage, Rick and the others learn the location of their attackers' hideout, and head there hoping to make a prisoner trade. They are rebuffed by the Latinos, who demand the bag of guns along with a prisoner exchange. The threat of bloodshed is avoided when an elderly woman (the grandmother of one of the Latinos) disrupts the confrontation. Grimes and his men realize that the "thug" image their hosts portray is just a protective front. The Latino "gang" is made up of former employees of a hidden nursing home within which many of its elderly inhabitants are hiding. Rick leaves them some of the guns and the men exchange prisoners and depart. Upon leaving, they discover their van is missing and conclude that Merle has stolen it. Back at camp, a large group of walkers ventures up the hill and takes the survivors by surprise. Several members are killed, including Andrea's younger sister Amy, and Carol's husband Ed. Rick and the rescuers return to camp just in time to kill the remaining walkers. 
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Episode 5 "Wildfire"

While the dead are being buried, Andrea remains protective of Amy's body until it reawakens as a walker, whereupon Andrea then apologizes and kills Amy again. Jim reveals that he was bitten by a walker in the fight, and the living members of the group decide to take him to the CDC, though there are signs of conflict between Shane and Rick, as Shane believes the trip to the CDC is a dead end. One family from the group splits away, deciding to return home to Birmingham, Alabama, and the remaining members depart for the CDC. On the way there, while making repairs to the RV, Jim decides he wants the group to leave him so he can be reunited with his dead family (either figuratively in the hereafter or, perhaps, literally as a walker). The group continues on, arriving at the CDC building, where a scientist, Edwin Jenner, who isolated himself while running tests on the walker virus, has just lost his only virus test sample and is considering suicide. When the group prepares to leave, thinking the building is empty, Rick notices the camera moving and begs for his group to be allowed in. The doors open as the group of survivors looks on, astonished.
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Episode 6 "TS-19"

In a flashback to the initial walker outbreak, Shane attempts to move Rick out of the hospital but is unable to do so because of soldiers executing the hospital staff and walkers breaking into the building. Thinking Rick is dead, all Shane can do is barricade Rick's door and flee the hospital. In the present, the group enjoys an ephemeral normality amid the comforts of hot showers and wine. A drunk Shane seeks to defend his past actions to Lori, telling her that he had been certain that Rick was dead. He tries to force himself on her sexually but she fights him off. The next morning, Dr. Jenner explains to the group, using a computer model called Test Subject 19, the process in the brain that takes place when a person is bitten and then partially revived as a walker. Subsequently the group discovers that a timer in the lab is counting down to the exhaustion of the building's power supply and that when it hits zero the building will "decontaminate" by self-destructing. Dr. Jenner locks them in, telling them that such an end is humane, and their deaths will be swift and painless. The group, however, believes they can survive, and attempts to break out. Rick convinces Jenner to release them; Jenner does so and tells him something inaudible before the group flees. One of the members, Jacqui, tells them she will stay no matter what, and die with Jenner. Andrea chooses the same fate, but Dale says if she stays then he will stay and eventually convinces her to leave with them. Carol gives Rick a grenade she found in his clothes when she was doing laundry, and they blow up one of the windows and narrowly escape the building before it explodes, and then proceed to drive off.