Seeing as this coming Sunday is the start of season four for AMC’s The Walking Dead, I thought it fitting this week’s Top Five Friday be inspired by what happens to be my favorite show on television. Here, I count down my picks for the top-five jaw-dropping moments on the show thus far. And a fair warning: *SPOILERS AHEAD!* If you haven’t fully caught up on the show through the end of season three, you might want to tune out for now.
5. Amy Gets Bit
Back in the first season, we were still getting to know the group of survivors. We had Rick, his family and a rag-tag bunch of people who banded together in a makeshift camp on a wooded hill outside of Atlanta. In the fourth episode, we had Rick and a few of the men of the group who are in the city to retrieve two important things: a bag of guns and ammo and Merle, a (say this loosely) member of the Grimes Gang. Meanwhile, back at the camp, after a strenuous day of people wigging out, the rest of the gang is around a campfire, enjoying a fish dinner. Amy, who’s Andrea’s sister and who’s shaping up to be a core member of the group, gets up to go to the bathroom in the nearby RV and upon coming back out, she pauses, arm outstretched and holding open the RV’s door – and she gets bit. My jaw dropped. It was the first moment I realized, much like in any George R.R. Martin novel, no one on this show was safe.
4. Andrea Almost Makes It
You know the scene in a horror movie when you think the main character is okay and you can breath again, but then there’s that last,final oomph – that last, final scare? The Walking Dead did this last season in one of my favorite episodes, “Prey.” In it, Andrea, who’s spent a very tense night trying to make it to the prison while dodging the uber-smarmy Governor, gets within sight of the prison . . . and promptly gets ambushed by the Gov.
3. Lori’s Death
In season three, the Grimes Gang decides to make a go of setting up a post-apocalyptic household in a prison. But before they can get really settled in, someone gives them a housewarming present they could do without: a blare of the prison’s alarms and a ton of walkers. The gang, caught unaware, is divided within the prison, and, of course, Lori goes into labor. She has her pre-teen son Carl with her and Maggie, and convinces Maggie to do a rude, crude C-section on her to save the baby . . . and then Carl does what he feels he has to do to take care of his mom and ensure she doesn’t end up a walker. Lori was one of those characters I thought would be around for a long time to come, so her end, so sudden and so quick into the third season was really shocking – at least, for me. An added bonus: Rick’s reaction to this in a later scene is one of the most heart wrenching scenes ever put on the small screen.
2. Sophia’s in the Barn
In season two, we settle into a farm with the Grimes Gang – everyone except Sophia, the tween-ish daughter of gang member Carol. Much of the first part of the season focuses on where Sophia is; she got lost in the first episode of the season following a duck-and-cover response to a walker horde moving through the survivors’ location. (It’s a bit more complicated than that. Rick kinda sorta lost her trying to save her from some very persistent zombies. Anyway.) The group searches the area surrounding Hershel’s farm. And searches. And searches some more. Turns out, she was right near them the whole time . . . in the barn . . . where Hershel kept the walkers who happened to stray onto his property. A few radical members of the group decide the barn needs to be cleaned out (and I don’t mean the hay), the walkers tumble out, and then comes Sophia, a heartbreaking figure in her little girly rainbow tee and a nasty bite wound. Not sure that anyone really saw this one coming!
1. Shane Shoots Otis
This scene still stands out as the best I-did-not-see-that-coming scene of the whole show to date. From the second season, Shane and Otis (a man who accidentally shot Carl when hunting deer) take off to find the necessary medical supplies to save Carl’s life. The only problem? The supplies are within a walker-infested FEMA shelter at a nearby high school. Shane and Otis find themselves surrounded by walkers at every turn and are in a time crunch to get the supplies back for Carl. The two are hobbling along, beaten up, almost out of ammo, a horde of walkers steadily gaining on them, and Shane shoots Otis in the leg and takes off – leaving Otis to be a -er – diversion for the walkers. Oh. My. Goodness.
So there you have it, my top five “Oh, no they didn’t!” moments of TWD. Any other “Dead” fans out there? What moments would you have put on your list?
Mindy's Musings 