Episode 1.05 “Wildfire” Recap and Analysis by hemoWILLIEac

A Little Introduction

After a brutal conclusion to the last episode, The Walking Dead returns with another  emotionally intense episode. Some twists, some turns and some serious paranoia gave this episode a lot of moments to discuss.

The Aftermath

The episode begins with Rick making good on a promise. He tries to radio Morgan, filling him in on recent events as well as warning him about Atlanta. You can tell that Rick is feeling unsure of his ability to lead the group. Amy’s death has made him feel failure for the first time since he left that hospital.

Lori tries talking to a grieving Andrea, but she continues to sit by her dead sister, making the group worry about her well-being. Daryl starts cleaning up the corpses with a pick axe, it’s clearly “all in a day’s work” for him.

Rick decides to take a shot at talking to Andrea, which doesn’t quite pan out. For the second time now, Andrea points her gun at Rick, but this time she knows how to use it. We are definitely going to see some interesting changes in her character from this point forward. It’s going to be great watching Laurie Holden play with the character.

It’s Kinda’ Like Reefer Madness…With Zombies

The group discusses what should be done about Amy, as Morales and Daryl burn the bodies of the dead. When they go to burn a fallen member of their camp, Glenn objects. I love that Glenn refuses to be changed by the events surrounding him. This unflinching sense of morality could both be a strength and a weakness for Glenn.

Jim approaches Jacqui, who notices he’s bleeding. Whn it turns out to be a bite from the previous night’s attack, the group panics. I enjoy that the writers are playing with people’s fear of disease/infection. It’s very clever, and something that doesn’t get explored much in zombie fiction.

After more talk about what to do with Jim and Amy, Daryl freaks out and nearly kills Jim. Rick once again has to talk Daryl down (at gunpoint), and he relents. The rule of “not killing the living” is something that the show will certainly deal with again in the future.

Saying Goodbye

Dale shares an amazing moment with Andrea, telling her about his wife and his relationship with the sisters. Jeffrey DeMunn brought some intense, yet subtle emotion to this scene. It’s no wonder Darabont likes working with him so much. Andrea puts the necklace on Amy, which had me on the edge of my seat. I thought for sure she would pop back up and scare the living hell out of me. Luckily, I was wrong.

We then return to Daryl, who is still on clean up duty. As he prepares to dispose of a mutilated Ed (man, he got chowed down on), Carol approaches. She wants to be the one to take care of her husband, and take care she does. Carol goes absolutely nuts, hacking away at the corpse and relieving herself of all the stress and anger she had built up. Even Daryl looks disturbed, so you know Carol must have issues.

As we rejoin the sisters, Amy starts breathing. This sets up a very interesting idea about the physics of zombies. I guess I never really questioned whether they breathed or not, but it’s interesting to see nonetheless. In an incredibly tense scene, Andrea finally says goodbye to her sister, and delivers the killing blow.

This is the only way Andrea could say goodbye to Amy. She had to believe there was someting left in her sister that would understand the words she was saying. It was a beautiful, well played scene.

Let the Head-Butting Begin

Rick and Shane head up the hill to dig graves for their dead. Shane begins to question Rick’s decision to head back to Atlanta. He feels it caused unecessary deaths in the group, and Rick disagrees, feeling the guns were the one thing that saved lives. This is the first in a long series of arguments we will see between the two men. You can see that Rick is still very unsure of his quality as leader, and is questioning himself.

The group joins for the burials, with Amy up first. Andrea refuses any help in burying her sister, she obviously feels guilt over not being able to protect Amy from danger.

Jim is in the RV, getting feverish. Clearly his condition is worsening and it’s only a matter of time before he passes. Rick and Lori talk about his decision to get the guns, and she isn’t helping his feeling of self worth. He mentions the possibility of going to find the CDC, and Lori seems unsure of this idea. 

Rick enters the RV to talk with Jim, who is losing his mind at this point. Lori and Shane talk outside, and Shane wants Lori to convince Rick that the CDC idea is a bad one. Lori shoots him down again, and stands up for her husband. Shane is more than hurt at this point, he’s having a serious breakdown internally.

Taking Aim

Rick, Shane and Dale head into the woods for a security sweep. After the ambush on camp, this is a necessary step for safety. Rick and Shane start arguing again, and Rick says that Shane wouldn’t understand his side, since he doesn’t have a family. This sets Shane off, and his agressive reaction here shows just how much he’s losing it. He really looked insane for a moment here. Rick apologizes, and a noise seperates the two men.

Then Shane does the unthinkable. He points his gun in Ricks direction, tempted to pull the trigger. Shane regains his sanity, putting the gun down. But Dale saw the whole thing, and he’s not buying any excuse Shane is selling. I loved DeMunn’s expression in this scene.

Leap of Faith

Shane addresses the group back at camp. He tells them about the plan to head to the CDC. Rick radios Morgan once more, letting him know that they’ve left and leaving him a car if he comes looking. This is a nice set up for the eventual return of Morgan and Duane. That is, if Merle doesn’t show up and take the car himself.

As Jim’s condition worsens, the group prepares to leave. Morales and his family decide not to follow, instead going to find their extended family in Birmingham. I love how annoyed Daryl looked at the emotional goodbye. This guy just cracks me up everytime he’s on screen.

At this point, all of the “red shirts” have either been killed or decided not to follow Rick and Co. This leaves us with nothing but central characters to follow.

The gang hits the road to the sounds of music from the film “Sunshine”. If you haven’t seen it, please do, because it’s fantastic. The hose on the RV goes out, leaving the group stranded. Shane heads to find a replacement, and Jim has finally hit his breaking point.

Jim’s Decision

Jim is rapidly dying, and in one of his few lucid moments, he tells Rick that he wants to be left at the side of the road. Though the group doesn’t understand this, it is ultimately Jim’s decision. Jim hopes to meet his family again, and he feels that this is the only way to do it. I enjoyed Jim reassuring Rick that he hasn’t failed. It was something Rick needed to hear.

Shane has returned with the hose, and everyone says their goodbyes to Jim. I particularly liked Jacqui and Dale’s moments with him. Jacqui obviously cared a lot about this man, perhaps to a romantic level. Dale is losing one of his companions, and his thanks to Jim had me choking up a bit. I also loved Daryl’s silent goodbye to Jim. It shows that there is more to this character than being the hilarious, redneck badass.

Dear Diary…

After the commercial break, we are brought to what seemed like an entirely different show. It was jarring, and worked quite effectively in throwing the audience off guard.

We are quickly introduced to a CDC agent. We learn that the outbreak has been going on for quite some time. The agent is keeping a video log of his work on TS-19, some sort of tissue sample which we will learn more about in next week’s episode. The sample is destroyed in a fire, and the agent is ready to give up. He even casually mentions killing himself.

Rick and the others arrive outside the CDC building and discover nothing but corpses. The situation looks grim as the gang nears the building. The door is locked and zombies begin moving in. Everyone begins to panic, bt Rick refuses to give up. His cannot fail them, and this plan has to work.

Inside, the agent listens to Rick’s pleading, not certain if he wants to help. Just before, he was ready to die, and in this world, that might be the easier choice. However, he decides to open the door, and light spills out enveloping the group.

Wildfire

This was an interesting episode that let us say goodbye to the victims of this first season. It also set up what will likely be the focus of next week, the agent and his experiments. With one episode left, it’s hard to say how things will end, but I can’t wait to find out.

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