History Recap / TheWalkingDeadS02E01WhatLiesAhead

!Tropes:

* ADeathInTheLimelight: Given that [[spoiler:Sophia isn't seen alive again]] after this episode, the character has much more screentime and dialogue than normal.

** In a deleted sequence, Rick's group discovers that the "Vatos" retirement community, which were last seen three episodes earlier (and, chronologically, less than two days before in-universe) are revealed to have been wiped out completely when they they [[HopeSpot attempt to go for help from them]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Rick's plan to draw the walkers away from Sophia results in her disappearing for second time. Granted, he didn't really have a lot of options, and it's likely that attempting to shoot at the walkers would have had even worse consequences.

* RIddleForTheAges: The deleted sequence involving the massacre at the Vatos community -- who wiped them out? While there are several possible answers based on later seasons (such as The Governor's people, the Grady Memorial Hospital staff or the Saviors), no answer is ever given in-universe, and no character ever remarks on it after the fact.

* RIddleForTheAges: The deleted sequence involving the massacre at the Vatos community -- who wiped them out? While there are several possible answers based on later seasons (such as the Grady Memorial Hospital staff or the Saviors), no answer is ever given, and no character ever remarks on it after the fact.

* DisasterScavengers: The group uses the unplanned pit stop as an opportunity to scavenge items and weapons from vehicles in the traffic jam. Carl retrieves [[ProductPlacement a set of knives from one vehicle]], Carol finds some new clothes, Shane scavenges several bottles of water and cans of food, and the group scavenges fuel from several vehicles.

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:Because Otis is the one who put Sophia in the barn prior to his death, and he never leaves the group's sight after shooting Carl at the end of the episode, that means Sophia was bitten by a walker and died offscreen during the events of this episode.]]

** Lori briefly opposes this, moralizing that this is equal to robbing a graveyard given they belonged to the deceased people inside the vehicles but is ignored.

* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Andrea spends much of the episode railing at Dale for rescuing her from the CDC, and complaining that he didn't give her the choice to die on her own terms. She also spends a not-insignificant portion of the episode begging Dale to give her back her gun, which the latter refuses to do on the grounds that she might shoot herself with it. Near the end of the episode, Daryl gets so exasperated with her complaining that he gives her [[ChekhovsGun the gun he found in the tent during his forest search]], causing her to roll her eyes in annoyance.

'''Season 2, Episode 01'''

-->'''As the group migrates out of Atlanta, they encounter a threat larger than any before.'''

----

Rick is on top of a building trying to reach Morgan one last time with the walkie-talkie. He speaks about his group's experiences over the [[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS01E05Wildfire last]] [[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS01E06TS19 couple]] days, as well as most of what Jenner told him at the CDC before it was destroyed. He concludes by warning Morgan that Atlanta isn't safe, and walks off.

The group pool together their remaining supplies and gas, and set off in a smaller convoy of vehicles towards Fort Benning. As they drive, Andrea is still despondent and rails at Dale for guilt-tripping her into leaving the CDC.

The convoy continues down the highway until they get to a pile-up of abandoned vehicles. As they attempt to drive through, the radiator hose on Dale's RV blows and the group is forced to stop and scavenge for supplies. Rick and the others walk through the cars and find various corpses, T-Dog finds the bloody remnants of a baby carriage, and Carl takes a set of knives from a vehicle.

As the group continues searching, Dale sees a lone walker in the distance and alerts Rick. The latter takes aim, only to discover that a large herd is right behind the walker. Rick runs to the rest of the group and tells them to hide. Everyone gets under the abandoned vehicles, while Dale lays down on the roof of the RV.

The herd begins to pass through, and Andrea freaks out in the RV and tries to hide. A lone walker enters through the RV door and tries to attack her as she hides in the washroom. Dale sees what's happening and passes down a screwdriver through a vent, which she uses to stab the walker in the eye. Elsewhere, T-Dog is not under a vehicle and tries to run, but slips and cuts his arm open on one of the vehicles. When it looks like he'll be eaten by the walkers, Daryl appears and dispatches two of them, then covers T-Dog's body and his own with the corpses as the herd passes.

Soon after, Daryl, Lori, Andrea and Carol head back to the highway. Rick, Shane and Carl head deeper into the woods, where they find a lone deer. As Carl happily tries to pet it, a bullet is fired through the deer and passes through him. Rick freaks out and cries over his son while Shane looks on in horror...

* BlackComedy: Rick and Daryl gutting the walker in the forest, mostly due to the contrast between Daryl's totally blase attitude about it and Rick's [[{{Squick}} squicked-out]] reactions.

* ChekhovsGun: Dale asked both Rick and T-Dog in previous episodes to find a radiator hose for his RV, as it was in danger of overheating. He's proven right when the hose blows out at the worst possible time, forcing the group to scavenge for supplies and leaving them open to the herd that passes through.

** When the group hears church bells ringing in the distance they take it as a sign that there are other survivors nearby, but it turns out that the church is deserted and the bells are an automated recording.

* MissingTrailerScene: The scenes of Shane attempting to outrun a horde, and Rick and the survivors firing on a group of walkers outside the Vatos retirement home, are not present in the episode itself. This is due to 2/3rds of the episode being removed during the editing process.

* PlotHole: A common criticism of the episode is that Rick tells Sophia to stay put and run back to the group for no reason, instead of staying with her while he dispatches the walkers chasing her. This would have been addressed by a deleted scene from the original season premiere, where Shane tells Rick that the walkers never get tired. This would have influenced his later choice to keep Sophia out of harm's way while he dealt with the walkers in the forest.
** It's actually addressed in the episode as Rick tells Sophia "I get winded. They don't."

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Rick attempts to call Morgan in the opening scene, [[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS05E04Slabtown Grady Memorial Hospital]] can be seen as one of the buildings in the background.

'''Season 2, episode 01'''

Following the destruction of the CDC at the end of the previous season, the remaining survivors head for the military base Fort Benning. On the way, they encounter an impassable pile-up of abandoned vehicles on the highway, and Dale's RV breaks down. The group takes the opportunity to scavenge the vehicles for supplies while Dale and Glenn attempt to fix the RV; however, they are soon set upon by a large herd of walkers.

With one of their vehicles out of commission and no means of outrunning the herd, several of the survivors including [[TheHero Rick]], [[TeamMom Lori]], [[TheLancer Shane]], [[TheSmartGuy Glenn]], [[ShrinkingViolet Carol]], [[TagalongKid Carl and Sophia]] hide under abandoned vehicles in the hopes that it will pass them by, while [[CoolOldGuy Dale]] and [[FauxActionGirl Andrea]] remain with the RV and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Daryl]] and [[TokenMinority T-Dog]] are caught out in the open. While most of the walkers pass by without incident, one strays into the RV and corners Andrea, who attempts to hide in the bathroom. In her panic, she fumbles with and drops her gun, but Dale, who is hiding on the roof of the vehicle, hands her down a screwdriver, which she uses to dispatch the walker by driving it through its eye. At the same time, T-Dog manages to slice his arm open on a piece of metal while searching for cover, inadvertently attracting walkers to the fresh blood. When one of them attacks him, he is [[BigDamnHeroes saved at the last moment]] by Daryl, who then [[PretendWereDead hides them both under dead bodies to disguise their scent.]]

When it looks like the danger has passed, Sophia begins to climb out from under the car she is hiding behind, but a couple of stragglers from the main herd spot her. Panicking, the child runs off the highway and into the surrounding forest, where she is followed by the two walkers. As Lori holds back a hysterical Carol from running after her daughter, Rick takes up the pursuit instead, managing to locate Sophia relatively quickly. However, he warns her that he cannot risk shooting the walkers in case the noise attracts more and instead encourages her to hide in a hole by the riverbank while he draws them off, but the plan goes south when Sophia disappears again and fails to return to the rest of the group.

Shane tells Lori that he plans to leave the group for good once he gets the opportunity, while Rick and [[ScarilyCompetentTracker Daryl]] continue to scour the woods for Sophia. After killing a lone walker, they decide to [[{{Squick}} dissect it to ensure that it hasn't eaten the child]]; they are able to confirm that it hasn't, but return to the highway no closer to finding Sophia and the search is temporarily called off as darkness sets in.

The following morning, Dale and the injured T-Dog remain at the highway while the rest of the group continues the search. Andrea is frustrated when Dale refuses to let her have her gun for fear that she will kill herself, and calls him out on taking her choice away from her by refusing to leave her at the CDC. After hearing church bells in the distance, the group follows the noise to its source but find only an abandoned church, where it is discovered that the bells were merely a recording being played by an automated system. After the walkers inside the church are dispatched, Carol prays for forgiveness for wishing death on her abusive husband and begs God not to take Sophia as punishment. Outside, Andrea overhears Lori and Shane arguing and discovers the truth about their affair. Once Lori goes back inside, she confronts Shane alone and offers to accompany him if he truly wishes to leave, but he rebuffs her, claiming that she will be a liability rather than a help is he has to watch her back all the time. As tensions within the group become more apparent, Rick begins to question his position as leader and asks Christ for a sign that he is doing the right thing.

After leaving the church, the group splits up, with Daryl, Lori, Andrea and Carol heading back for the highway while Rick, Shane and Carl travel deeper into the woods where they encounter a deer. Carl is clearly entranced by the sight, while both Rick and Shane seem to take pleasure in his childlike wonder. As Carl approaches the animal, however, a gunshot rings out; the deer is shot, and the bullet passes straight through to hit Carl in the abdomen. The episode ends with Rick frantic over his gravely injured son.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Subverted; it looks like this might be T-Dog's fate when he slices his arm open and the resulting bleeding begins to attract walkers, but he ultimately survives after being saved by Daryl.

** In a DeletedScene, Glenn expresses happiness that the group will be going to visit the Vatos, and Rick says he's confident that they parted on good terms. When they arrive, however, they discover that the home has been looted, all of its residents (including Guillermo) have been killed and the place is filled with walkers, forcing them to barricade themselves in for the night.

* Hypocrite: Lori is angry at Shane for ignoring Carl when she already told him to stay away from him. When Shane tells her this much, Lori brings up his drunken attempted rape of her at the CDC... Which is apparently, in Lori's mind, somehow a sign that means that Shane should be getting closer to her and Carl? Shane clearly is still guilty about it, but Lori's just giving him hell in this episode and flipping back and forth.

* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: When Rick catches up to Sophia, the first thing she does is grab for his gun. He explains that that would just draw in more walkers. He tells her to hide while he draws them off and kills them silently.

* HopeSpot: When the group hears church bells ringing in the distance they take it as a sign that there are other survivors nearby, but it turns out that the church is deserted and the bells are an automated recording.

* TheBechdelTest: Failed.

* DeggansRule: Passed.

* WhatTheHellHero: Andrea calls Dale out on his use of emotional manipulation to get her to leave the CDC, pointing out that she saved ''his'' life, not the other way around, and accusing him of taking away her choice to end her life on her own terms.

* AdultFear: T-Dog finds a blood-spattered baby seat in one of the cars on the highway and understandably freaks the hell out.

* InfantImmortality: Graphically averted when T-Dog finds a baby's car seat covered in blood and gore, including what looks uncomfortably like bits of flesh. Averted again with Sophia, though her fate is still up in the air at this point.

* BigDamnHeroes: Daryl saves T-Dpg from a walker at the last second, then conceals him to help keep him from any further danger.

* DeathSeeker: Dale believes Andrea to be one due to her [[AttemptedSuicide attempted suicide]] at the end of the previous season, and keeps her gun from her for this reason. To say that Andrea is not impressed would be an understatement.

The following morning, Dale and the injured T-Dog remain at the highway while the rest of the group continues the search. Andrea is frustrated when Dale refuses to let her have her gun for fear that she will herself, and calls him out on taking her choice away from her by refusing to leave her at the CDC. After hearing church bells in the distance, the group follows the noise to its source but find only an abandoned church, where it is discovered that the bells were merely a recording being played by an automated system. After the walkers inside the church are dispatched, Carol prays for forgiveness for wishing death on her abusive husband and begs God not to take Sophia as punishment. Outside, Andrea overhears Lori and Shane arguing and discovers the truth about their affair. Once Lori goes back inside, she confronts Shane alone and offers to accompany him if he truly wishes to leave, but he rebuffs her, claiming that she will be a liability rather than a help is he has to watch her back all the time. As tensions within the group become more apparent, Rick begins to question his position as leader and asks Christ for a sign that he is doing the right thing.

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