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) after the jump. For previous recaps see 1.01

And we’re back after a week of waiting with bated breath to see what would happen next in AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, last night we picked up where we left off. You know, when the shit was going down? Rick was trapped in the tank by ravenous Southern zombies, someone knew he was in the tank and his wife was playing hide the banana with his former partner. And… GO!

Episode 1.02, “Guts”

We pick up back with Lori and Carl (Rick’s wife and son if you don’t remember) at their little survivor camp. Oh sure, leave me hanging with zombies and tanks, then pick back up with hunting for mushrooms in the forest. Damn you, AMC!!! Of course, things get sort of scary  when Lori goes off into the woods, hears sounds and decides to hook up with Shane. Ew. At least they have the decency to be slowed down by seeing her wedding ring, but that ends soon enough.  Your husband has been “dead” for how long, Lori? Yeah, not okay.

Meanwhile Rick is still in his tank surrounded by zombies. Yay! His outside friend on the radio tells him to make a run for it and he realizes he has a grenade. Nice!! Love a grenade for zombies. Rick does as he’s told and starts across the city, firing off rounds until he bumps into a real live person, a kid named Glenn who helps him escape to a bunker of sorts where he meets some other survivors who are a little pissed that Rick brought the “Walker” cavalry with him. Zombies who are slowly breaking into their hideout. Oops.

They go up on the roof where we meet Dixon, a pretty dead-eyed sniper and a racist played by Michael Rooker (who also played the psycho dad in Mallrats, little trivia there). Looks like the survivors are turning on each other just as they always do in these situations. But Rick sort of takes care of Mr. Racist Jerk and makes up for a lot with his new little tribe of survivors. But there are still zombies. Yeah, so that’s an issue.

Rick makes the very good point that there might be subway or sewer tunnels and so they head to the basement to see if there’s a connection to the building. Glenn is the man with a plan and down he goes into the sewer while Rick and the others guard against the endlessly maurading zombie horde outside. They really want in, it must be a hell of a sale  in that department store the survivors are in. And unfortunately, the sewer thing doesn’t really work out and the zombies are starting to get inside.

Rick, though, is a man full of ideas and once some conversation is had about how the zombies use scent to find humans, the group decide to desecrate a corpse and use its scent to escape. So after a powerful scene where Rick looks at the driver’s license of the corpse they bring in, Glenn and Rick are ready to run for it and get themselves a truck from the construction site next door. Also, they are REALLY GROSS. And… it works. The zombies think they smell like zombies and they get through. Classic Zombie Fakeout.

Back at the survivor camp with Lori and Carl, it turns out that the survivors that are with Rick are… tada… with Lori and Carl’s group. Looks like Rick is going to find his family after all, but only if they can make it out since Shane and the others aren’t going to go in to help them.

Yeah, and then it rains. Oh crap. See when you cover yourself in guts to fool the zombies, rain is not your friend. I would think that scent would need soap to really come off, but not so much. The zombies start to notice them and follow them and then chase them. More running, more scary, more “oh dear God, not zombies!!” But they somehow make it to the construction site, which luckily has a fence that slows the zombies down long enough that Glenn and Rick can get keys to a truck. The others think they’re leaving, but really they’re just off to set up a series of distractions to lure the zombies away. Nice thinking, boys.

The other survivors have to leave the Racist Jerk behind (who was handcuffed up on the roof) and I’m sure that’s going to come back to haunt our friends later, but thanks to Glenn and Rick, the rest make it out and they head back to camp where Rick is sure to find Carl and Lori… but will he realize the role his former partner has taken in their lives… yeah, I’m going to guess… not.

Things I Liked:

The sense of humor when Rick first interacts with Glenn over the radio. Maybe that’s just because I write zomedy, but I like a little lightness in the midst of the “oh my God, this is so powerful and awesome and gross!” It makes the characters more human and likeable and right now Rick is hella likeable, partly because he doesn’t have to save the day all the time, he trusts his companions. Which I think is actually pretty realistic. A guy like him would have to depend on others and would know how to delegate. Plus, that scene where he looks at the zombie’s driver’s license before they use his “scent” is so powerful. This matches and continues the thread of “feeling for the zombies” which we started on last week.

Plus, there was an Adam and Eve commercial. Weird combo with the zombies, but 50% Off and Free Shipping, so there you go. Zombie Fans Need Love Too.

Bottom Line Grade: A