Breaking Bad is gone. The Walking Dead is back. All is right in the universe.
We pick up in a prison that’s seemingly thriving – the former Woodbury citizens are integrated into the group and Rick’s authoritarian ruling style is gone. A council of five now makes decisions for the group, and Rick doesn’t even carry a gun anymore. Probably for the best, considering how insane he was going last season. Sure, there’s still a horde of walkers outside the fence, but they seem to be holding. The living line up in butcher’s aprons to stab them through the skulls and thin the herd.
We also meet some new faces – nerdy Patrick, Zach (who is dating Beth apparently), and a few new folks we don’t get formally introduced to.
The basic rhythms of the show are unchanged – a safe place to hide coupled with necessary excursions for supplies. A local Sam’s Club-esque store was targeted for stockpiles, with a group of familiar and new faces heading out to loot it. This then kicked off one of the most amazing and epic action scenes the show’s ever seen. You see, a helicopter crashed into the store’s roof, letting a horde of walkers rain down from the ceiling. This was awesome, especially Daryl standing on a pile of beer cases slaughtering zombies.
Maggie and Glenn are still together, but all their sexing gives them a brief pregnancy scare. After what happened to Lori, the concept of having a baby is a little much for them to deal with, but they also don’t want to just give up on being human because of it.
Speaking of giving up on being human, Rick runs into a survivor outside, a woman, who asks if she and her husband can find shelter in the prison. Unfortunately, her husband is a walker. Sorry, lady, that’s not going to fly. She chooses to kill herself rather than let Rick split them up.
All’s not well down on the farm either, as one of the prison pigs seems to be ailing. Pigs and humans have a very close biological relationship and trade diseases easily, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re getting some kind of “outbreak” storyline.
At the end, an ill-feeling Patrick skips storytime to take a shower – where he dies and then immediately wakes up as a walker. Oh, boy.