Guts
Directed by Michelle MacLaren
Andrea: You just rang the dinner bell.
At the survivors' camp outside of Atlanta, Lori is talking to Amy about getting more food for that night's dinner. She walks out into the woods to search for plants and berries, and is surprised by the appearance of... Shane. It is revealed that the two planned to meet beforehand for a secret tryst. As they begin having sex on the ground, Lori takes off her wedding ring from her neck and places it on the ground in front of her...
In the tank, Rick is still trapped inside. The voice on the radio tells him that although he is surrounded, he can still escape because the walkers are feeding on the horse. Rick grabs his weapon and a grenade off a shelf in the tank before opening the top hatch and climbing out. He runs down the street, shooting walkers along the way and runs into a young man, who quickly tells him to follow. Together, the two men climb a service ladder before the horde catches up to them. On top of a building, the man tells Rick his name is Glenn, and that he's part of a larger group that came to Atlanta to scavenge supplies.
Rick and Glenn make their way through the streets until they come to the group's hideout. Several members wielding baseball bats and wearing riot helmets dispatch several walkers and bring Rick inside, where he is held at gunpoint by a woman named Andrea. She tells him that his antics have compromised the group's safety, but the situation is disregarded when another of the group members begins taking potshots at the walkers from the roof of the building.
On the roof, resident Jerkass Merle Dixon is sniping walkers, making lots of noise and hurling racist remarks at an African-American man named T-Dog. In the rush to stop him, a man named Morales is beaten before Rick clocks Merle and handcuffs him to the roof. Rick assumes leadership over the group and tells them that they have to find a way to escape.
Glenn and Morales search the building's sewer connection looking for a way to avoid the walkers on the streets, only to discover an immovable metal grate with a walker behind it that has been feeding on rats. Seeing that the walkers are trying to break through the building's glass doors, Rick improvises a plan where he and Glenn (covered in the blood and guts of a dead walker) will sneak to a construction site and steal a truck then drive it back to rescue the others.
The pair head out and begin walking through the horde, who ignore them because of the smell. They near the construction site, but a snap rainstorm begins washing off the blood and guts. The walkers notice this and begin moving towards them, forcing the pair to break into a run. Rick gets into the truck and drives it back towards the building, after hotwiring a nearby sports car for Glenn to use as a distraction to draw the attention of the horde.
Rick brings the truck into the building's garage and tells everyone they have to leave now. T-Dog is guarding Merle on the roof when Jacqui tells him to flee, but he drops the key to the handcuffs into a vent in his haste. Unwilling to stay behind, T-Dog instead locks the door to the roof to prevent the walkers from attacking Merle. He, Andrea and Jacqui run to the truck while the horde smashes through the doors, and they barely manage to escape.
Just outside the city limits, Glenn speeds back in the sports car cheering with happiness while the truck follows behind...
Tropes:
- Accidental Adultery: Lori and Shane have started a relationship, unaware that Rick survived the onset of the zombie apocalypse and awoke from his coma.
- Batter Up!: Morales prefers to use a baseball bat to dispatch walkers, by beating them over the head relentlessly.
- Black Comedy: The group butchering the dead walker and covering Rick and Glenn in the innards is pretty funny in a disgusting sort of way.
- Bottomless Magazines: Merle is shown to fire many more rounds than his rifle could conceivably hold.
- Break the Haughty: Merle, being a smug Jerkass throughout the whole episode, is left alone on the roof, handcuffed to the pipe, and breaks down in anger after everyone has left.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- On his way out of the tank, Rick pauses to take a grenade sitting on the shelf beside the dead soldier, reasoning to himself that it could come in handy. Five episodes later...
- During the first scene of the episode, distant thunder can be heard in the background, and follows through several more scenes that take place in the city. Midway through Rick and Glenn's trek to the construction zone, the thunder gets louder and manifests in a rainstorm, which washes off the blood and gives away the duo's identity to the walkers.
- Just before he flees from the tank, Rick asks Glenn over the radio whether he can get to the bag of guns he brought. Glenn tells him it's not an option, and Rick is forced to flee without reclaiming it. He later goes back into the city with other characters to retrieve the guns (and rescue Merle) in the following episode.
- Contrived Coincidence: The rainstorm just happens to hit as Glenn and Rick are walking through the horde (while disguised in guts) to get to the construction yard, and only lasts just long enough to wash the scent off them.
- Also, later episodes reveal that there are other survivors in the city, yet the ones Rick runs into just happen to be the same ones who can lead him back to his wife and son.
- Due to the Dead: Rick insists on giving this to the dead walker they use to disguise him and Glenn, going through the guy's wallet to make the point that it was once human and had a family just like the rest of them. Then Glenn points out that it was an organ donor, and they hack it to bits.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The zombies are much faster and more agile than in the rest of the series, and exhibit behaviour that they are incapable of doing in later episodes. Notably, several walkers climb over the fence to the construction site, while several others can be seen using rocks as bashing implements to get through the front window of the store.
- Several walkers also start to climb up the ladder after Rick and Glenn.
- The way the show approaches the usage of zombie "guts" worn by survivors changes in later installments. In this episode, Rick and Glenn dress up as members of the undead, with their bodies covered with sheets "painted" in gore. Likewise, the walkers seem to notice them much more than later instances other characters go through. When the rainstorm hits, it seemingly washes away their "scent" and instantly gives them away to the walker horde. Later episodes establish that you can walk in a zombie herd as long as (a) you surround yourself with "loyal" walkers that have had their arms or jaws cut off (Michonne, Andrea), (b) paint your face with zombie blood (Nick in Fear the Walking Dead) and/or (c) move and look convincing as one (The Whisperers in Season Nine onwards).
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The Georgia Dome can be seen in the background (and slight focus) of several shots during the episode.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Glenn risking his own life and jeopardizing the scavenger mission to save Rick, a total stranger, sets him up as the Nice Guy, while his quick thinking and ability to sneak through the streets of Atlanta unnoticed establishes his role as the resident Guile Hero.
- Andrea brandishing a gun in Rick's face in a convincingly threatening manner only for it to be revealed that the safety was on and she doesn't really know how to use it establishes her role as the Faux Action Girl who just wants to be badass.
- Merle shooting walkers from the rooftop while out of his mind on drugs before letting loose with racial slurs and attacking T-Dog sets him up pretty nicely as a violently racist Jerkass.
- Faux Action Girl: Andrea manages to be convincingly threatening pointing her gun in Rick's face, but he later tells her that the safety was still on, revealing that she has never actually used the weapon, which was a gift from her father.
- Gonna Need More X: As part of the Title Drop, Rick tells the group that, "We need more guts."
- I Work Alone: Glenn insists that he works better alone, as his previous solo scavenger missions have gone off without a hitch, yet the first time he brings others with him they run into trouble.
- Male Gaze: There is a shot that follows Amy while she is walking to Lori with a bucket of mushrooms. You are able to see her butt while she is walking for about 20 seconds in this scene.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Glenn comments that Rick's decision to go "John Wayne" on the walkers as he flees from the tank has made the situation more difficult for the survivors in the department store, as the walkers have moved towards the noise and blocked their intended exit point.
- Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Said almost verbatim by Rick to Andrea.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Merle begs the group not to leave him alone, chained to the pipe on the roof at the end.
- Pretend We're Dead: Rick and Glenn do this in order to pass through the horde of walkers undetected, covering themselves in the blood and viscera of another walker to disguise their scents. It works surprisingly well, until it starts to rain and the disguise is washed off.
- Relax-o-Vision: Rick's advice to Glenn to help him through the ordeal of being covered in gore. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work.Glenn: Oh, this is bad. This is really bad.
Rick: Think of something nice. Puppies and kittens.
T-Dog: Dead puppies and kittens.
Glenn: *pukes* - Screw the Rules, It's the Apocalypse!: Discussed between Rick and Andrea
- Second Episode Introduction: Glenn (though his voice was heard on the radio at the end of the previous episode), Andrea, T-Dog, Morales, Jacqui and Merle.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Merle, to the point that production commentary on the DVD set said they had to edit down Michael Rooker's language to keep the censors happy.
- Spiteful Spit: Merle spits on T-Dog when he has him pinned to the ground at gunpoint.
- Squick: The group's in-universe reaction to slathering Rick and Glenn in zombie guts.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: T-Dog advising Glenn to think of dead puppies and kittens while he's being painted in gore is what finally sends Glenn over the edge.
