Jesse Petersen is the author of MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES and the forthcoming FLIP THIS ZOMBIE. Like many of us here at Orbit HQ, she’s also a fan of The Walking Dead on AMC. She’ll be offering recaps of each week’s episode here every Monday. This post will contain SPOILERS (also zombies). For previous recaps see 1.01 , 1.02, , 1.03, and 1.04.

Hello zombie fans!

When last we left off Rick and some of the gang had gone back to Atlanta to get the guns and try to rescue Dixon. Instead they found Dixon’s severed hand and some vatos who turned out to be not so bad. Dixon stole their car, they had to walk back and zombies attacked the camp, killing a bunch of people. Also, I ate too much turkey and strained a muscle in my back (not related to the turkey eating, at least I don’t think). So here we go with…

The Walking Dead 1.05: Wildfire

We open with Rick trying to reach Morgan and his son on the radio he recovered and tell them not to go to Atlanta. Everyone in camp is still freaking out over the invasion by the “Walkers” the night before and the dead. Andrea (older sister) isn’t handling Amy’s (younger sister) death well even though they need to, you know… destroy her brain before she starts eating everyone. In fact, she’s a bit trigger happy when confronted regarding this issue. Meanwhile Daryl thinks this is retribution and Jim got bitten by a zombie during the attack. Sheesh, these people can’t catch a break.

So this leaves us with our first discussion about maybe finding the CDC (Center for Disease Control), which they think might be in a military establishment a hundred miles away, and maybe see if they can cure Jim and find some safety. But they still have some skulls to bash in and Amy is starting to zombiefy, so there is PLENTY of gore and horror left in Camp No Fun.

But once that’s done Shane and Rick have it out over whether or not he ever should have left to get the guns. “It’s your fault, no it’s your fault…” Boys bumping chests insues but they stop long enough to bury their dead and burn the others. Lori plays middle man between Shane and Rick (surprise, surprise) and discourages Rick from the “find the CDC” idea because the others are afraid.

Jim vomits a lot (thanks show!) and gets all weird while Rick is pensive. Shane tries to talk to Lori and get her to take his side. So that encourages her to say, “Let’s find the CDC.” Awesome. The cops go off together and talk some more about this CDC thing. Their friendship is slowly unraveling and poor Rick doesn’t even know why. Nor does he realize that Shane is seriously considering shooting him. Yeah, he must REALLY like Lori.

Rick leaves a message for Morgan and the group huddles up to plan their exit. A few decide not to go, but for the most part everyone is on board. Off they head toward what they hope will be safety. But this is a zombie show, so you know that isn’t going to work out!!! Dale’s RV breaks down and Jim is going all zombie-rific in the back. He wants them to just leave him behind and he makes a pretty good case for it. So they do it.

Back from commercial we see Jenner for the first time, recording some kind of diary/record, he’s obviously a governmental type who is studying the disease and poking around brains in an underground lab (hey, I have one of those in FLIP THIS ZOMBIE WOOHOO!). But he’s tired and he screws up and “full decontamination” gets put into effect, which means they blow up the lab and all his work is gone. He decides to maybe kill himself the next day but before he can, the Scooby Gang reaches the military installment where he’s holed up and it’s all locked up. There is much freaking out until Rick notices the camera at the door moved. His pleas work and the door opens.

But what will end up being inside? Probably bad things if the preview is any indication.

What I Liked:

I loved the way Dale opened up the discussion with Andrea about Amy. Once again, the human element makes the viewer feel the loss and the regret that any survivor experiences when facing a sudden and violent death. The same is true with Dead Abusive Ed’s wife, Carol. Although he hurt her, her feelings toward him and his death are still complicated. And I love that about the show because it feels raw and real.

Jim’s transition to a zombie was pretty awesome, too. You rarely get to see that from a main character perspective, so the flashes of him changing were pretty creepy. But his end, oh his end. Sitting under another tree, enjoying the breeze and waiting… waiting… and refusing a weapon and saying goodbye. Wow. Just… wow.

Bottom Line Grade: A