There a few things in life I get more excited about than The Walking Dead, and Sunday night’s season premiere hit the spot. Season 3 starts off with Rick Grimes and crew having survived the last few months of winter. The group has been slowly chipped away, and the roster stands as thus: Rick, Laurie and son Carl Grimes, Hershel, Maggie and Beth Greene, Daryl, T-Dog, Glenn and Carol. Despite the loss of people, the gang has finally got their act together and started kicking ass! Silencers, melee weapons and Call of Duty style breaching are all things this group has been afraid of in the past. Carl Grimes is also coming into his own, and takes part in the breach and clear with the front group(which is nice to see. He’s been a little whiney in the past). After clearing a house, the group piles in and settles down for a nice dinner of wet dog food. They are of course chased out by a walker heard, but the real gem in this opener is that the group acts like a well oiled machine. As soon as the front team clears, the rear team moves in, with go bags at the ready. In the past, this group was a dysfunctional mess. Looks like Rick whipped them into shape.
Unfortunately, a diet of dog food doesn’t contend well with the others. Rick and Daryl decide to go a-hunting for wascally wabbits and stumble on a giagantic prison that was right behind them at the end of the Season 2(wtf?). Rick and gang decide that the prison would be a swelltastic place to chill for awhile. After mowing through a prison yard full of walkers, they manage to secure it, and decide it would be a good place for Laurie Grimes to have her baby. After all, nothing says “comfy birthplace” like a prison yard. However, Rick isn’t satisfied, and decides they need to clear the entirety of the prison. Couple dozen awesome kills later, they find themselves in a prison cell block, which is their fangled home.
Ah, but as any fan of the show knows, everything goes to hell when you least expect it. Laurie tells Hershel that she is fairly certain she has had a miscarriage. What this means however, is that she could be giving birth to a zombie baby, as everyone on Earth is infected with the virus.
That situation is put on the back burner, in favor of getting supplies. Rick and his group of fighters take to the dark corridors of the prison, and are of course separated, attacked, and suffer a casualty: Hershel’s ankle becomes puppy-chow for a walker. Rick wastes no time, and amputates Hershel’s leg, 127 Hours style. Watching all of this from behind a grate is a group of unknown survivors, which ends the episode in a cliffhanger.
WAIT! There’s a second storyline! How can we forget everyone’s favorite zombie-slaying blonde, Andrea. The Season 2 finale saw her being saved by a mysterious, katana clad woman leading zombies on chains. This is her character poster. According to her Wiki page, her name is Michonne. Shes a B.A. to say the least. Andrea and Michonne live in a logging lodge, and Andrea doesn’t seem to be doing well. Their story ends with Michonne packing up ands walking off Andrea and the two chained-up zombies into the distance.
I’m not going to lie: I loved this episode. There was more satisfying action in this one episode then there has been in the entire series. It’s not unnecessary action however: it shows how far the group has come. And, of course, this episode does what The Walking Dead does best: just as you feel hope for the group in their new found home, somebody gets injured, and Laurie ruins any good feelings with her news. I’d say the one thing I am disappointed in is the introduction of Michonne. She’s awesome, no doubt about it. However, she and Andrea are only in the episode for like, 5 minutes. I suppose it just breeds more questions. I for one cannot wait to see what becomes of the legless Hershel (too soon?), the new group of survivors (like the Others on Lost...hm...), and of course, katana swinging Michonne.
P.S. I’m going to give each episode a rating based on the amount of walkers that are awesomely slain. Seeds gets a 5-star rating, with special mention to Michonne decapitating 2 zombies at once.