The Walking Dead

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The Walking Dead is a Live Action Adaptation television series based on the comic of the same name.

It premiered October 31st, 2010 on AMC, and is produced by Frank Darabont, Glen Mazzara and Gale Anne Hurd. Robert Kirkman is also heavily involved with the production, including being the writer of the fourth episode. The show is currently running its second season; a trailer for this season can be viewed here.

The series homepage can be found here; it includes a series of "webisodes" and other extra content.

Also check out the Character page.

This series contains the following tropes
  • Abandoned Hospital: Rick wakes up in one of these.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The series introduces new characters and scenes in addition to the ones that showed up in the comics, intentionally only following the comic in Broad Strokes so those who have read the comic don't assume the outcome of the series is a foregone conclusion.
    Just from the pilot, there is a scene where Rick is taking cover from the zombies in the abandoned tank, and a scene of him shooting a little girl zombie.
  • Action Girl: Andrea and Maggie.
  • Adaptation Displacement: As usually happens when a non-superhero comic is adapted.
  • Adult Fear: During "Bloodletting," T-Dog looks through a car for medicine, then notices a baby's car seat in the back seat. A car seat splattered with blood.
  • All Asians Are Alike: In "Vatos":
    Daryl: pretty brave for a Chinaman.
    Glenn: I'm Korean.
    Daryl: Whatever.
  • All There In The Manual: The story of how Hannah became the "Bicycle Girl" zombie is in the webisodes.
  • Almighty Janitor:
    • After Glenn comes up with a good strategy (of military efficiency) to get Rick's bag of guns off the swarmed street, somebody asks him what he used to do for a living. He says he used to deliver pizza.
    • The leader of the Vatos used to be a custodian.
  • An Axe To Grind:
    • Rick uses one to chop up a dead body as part of a plan to sneak past the zombies and escape Atlanta.
    • Daryl in "TS-19" uses one on the door to the CDC, a walker in midrun, and almost Jenner's head because it's not designed to withstand a rocket launcher. One of his axe kills actually has him using two axes to behead one zombie in one swing.
  • And The Fandom Rejoiced:
    • At the news that Frank Darabont, maker of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, two of the greatest films of The Nineties, was the executive producer. And at the fact that Robert Kirkman was directly involved as a part of the creative team. And at the fact that AMC is not holding back one bit on the violence. Really, just about every announcement that came out of the project was met with this reaction.
    • A more minor one, but Bear McCreary getting the job of composer raised some enthusiasm.
  • Annoying Arrows: Averted. The crossbow is used effectively against the undead.
  • Anyone Can Die.
  • Apocalyptic Log: Dr. Jenner's recordings of everything he has done by way of research and study while locked up in the CDC facility.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: There's discussion on whether the Chupacabra is real, and lampshaded that they're having this conversation in a world where the dead walk.
  • Ass Pull: Merle's stash of prescription medication. Justified since it had no relevance until T-Dog is at risk of dying from an infection.
  • The Atoners: Shane (on and out) and Otis. And then you put them together...
  • Attack Attack Attack: The criminals in the opener. Their car is turned over, they're outnumbered by cops, and each cop has a weapon aimed at them, and they come out shooting anyway. Two are promptly gunned down. The third, who goes entirely unnoticed in the initial shootout, and could have gotten a decent head start since nobody had seen him yet, breaks from cover and starts shooting.
  • Audience Sucker Punch: In the mid-season finale for season 2, it's discovered that Sophia was turned into a walker.
  • Automaton Horses: Real horses don't even take well to living crowds without special training, yet the one Rick appropriates walks into a city crawling with zombies with barely a snort of nervousness. When the zombies attack it, it just stands there whinnying hopelessly and gets eaten alive rather than kicking, bucking or fleeing.
    • Justified since it was running until it got cornered. On the practical side, realistic bucking/kicking would need a very skilled stunt rider.
    • And then averted by "Nervous Nelly" who spooks at a snake and throws Daryl.
  • Award Snub: Despite getting positive reviews from critics (though generally regarded as being inferior in regards to pacing, characterization, dialogue, etc in comparison to AMC's other series) and gaining great ratings from audiences, the only Emmys it received were two nominations for Visual Effects and Sound Editing and a win for Makeup (which was really impressive, but still...)
  • Awesome But Practical: As Daryl points out, crossbows are far better for killing zombies than firearms: they make less noise and you can reuse the shafts.
    • Made Awesome But Impractical by its mortal enemy, though a nearby second zombie.
      • This is becoming more and more pronounced as the series goes on, because he keeps losing bolts. He was down to a single shaft three episodes into season two. One wonders if he'll find a stash of new bolts as a reward for his Badassitude.
    • Rick makes the mention of using knives to not attract more Walkers while seeing one in their line of slight. Shane uses a knife on a Walker and is amazed by how well it works. Never mind the fact that he was trapped inside an empty school bus where several Walkers were outside, trying to get to him.
  • Badass Biker: Daryl becomes one is season 2. Apparently the bike used to be Merle's, so he probably counts as one too.
  • Badass Boast: Rick and Shane get two epic ones - see character page for details.
  • Badass: Rick, Daryl and Merle get their moments.
  • Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: At the end of season 2.
  • Bang Bang BANG: Warning -- firing a gun inside a tank may cause pain and temporary hearing loss.
  • Batter Up: Bats are occasionally used as weapons, with ep 2x2 having one woman on a horse charge up and whack a zombie upside the head that was threatening one of the group.
  • Betty and Veronica: Andrea and Rick's wife.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Played with. Rick, T-Dog, Daryl and Glenn return to camp just in time to save the camp from a walker attack, but in the next episode Rick and Shane have an argument as to whether the losses would've been greater or worse if the group had never left the camp in the first place.
  • Big Good Duumvirate: Rick and Shane have this for a while. It... goes sour, fast.
    • Rick and Herschel are on their way of being this.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Shane and Andrea. They're starting to act as Foils to their Cains.
  • Big No:
    • Merle gets a few in when he's stuck on the roof.
    • Daryl does it too upon reaching the roof and finding Merle's severed hand. It must run in the family.
  • Big Ol Eyebrows: Holy hell, Dale all the way.
  • Book Ends: The first and last episodes of season 1 both feature scenes of characters enjoying the now-rare luxury of a hot shower.
    • The third episode of season two opens with Shane shaving his head. At the close of the episode, Shane just begins to shave his head, explaining the earlier scene and revealing his reason for doing. So Yeah (Interestingly enough, while preparing for a hot shower.)
  • Boom Headshot: With zombies, it's the only way to be sure.
  • Bound And Gagged: Randall (the kid they saved in "Triggerfinger").
  • Cain And Abel: Rick and Shane, again. Rick tries to get Shane back "to the flock", but would do what he'd have to if he'd still be possesive of his family...

...and their respective Love Interests are becoming this.

  • Camera Abuse: Blood and/or brains are often splattered onto the camera, usually resulting from a gunshot, blunt object, or axe to the head.
  • Canon Foreigner: Quite a few -- Merle, Daryl, Ed, the Morales family, Jacqui, Jenner, the Vatos...
  • The Cavalry: When Andrea is ambushed by a walker in the forest, Maggie suddenly comes riding in on a horse and armed with bat.
  • Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys: Turned on its head. According to Dr. Edwin Jenner, as far as he knows France was not only the last country to fall to the zombies, but they kept on working to find a cure until the end, while most of the American CDC scientists were running for the hills. In other words, it was the brave French and the cowardly Americans, a total inversion of the stereotypes.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The grenade Rick picked up in episode 2 gets used in episode 6 to blast open an escape route.
    • Rick's Sheriff uniform, which he consistently wears rather than more practical or comfortable gear, ultimately defuses the situation with the Vatos, when their grandmother recognizes him as a police officer and asks for his help.
    • Another was loaded and set on the mantelpiece when Dr. Jenner whispered in Rick's ear.
  • Christianity Is Catholic: In the 2nd season premiere, the gang stumble across a small country church, which is explicitly identified as being "Baptist" on it's signage. Inside on the alter is a very large crucifix. Baptists are one of the least like Protestant denominations to have something so "Roman" in their church.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Glenn and Rick.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Andrea, to Dale. Justified, in that Andrea only left the CDC with Dale because he refused to leave without her.
  • Comforting The Widow: In the time Rick was in the hospital, Shane and Lori were beginning to form this kind of relationship.
  • Conspicuous CGI: The wrench that Shane hurled at Rick in "18 Miles Out"
  • Cool Hat:
    • Rick's police hat. Glenn even jokes that Rick risked going back into Atlanta not to recover his lost guns but the hat instead.
    • Dale's hat is either thought of as this or thought to look goofy by the characters themselves.
  • Cool Car: The car that Rick and Glenn use to draw the zombies away with the car alarm is a brand new Dodge Challenger. Glenn is understandably happy over being able to drive out of Atlanta with nothing but open road in front of him.
  • Cool Old Guy: Dale.
  • Couldn't Find A Pen: The farmer and his wife's suicide note, in the series premier, is written on the wall in blood.
  • Cowboy Cop: Glenn asks Rick if he considers himself one. Not surprising, considering his grand entrance in Atlanta.
  • Crapsack World: Par the course for any Zombie Apocalypse tale.
    • Some work hard to make it a World Half Full, Vatos and the farmers demonstrating.
  • Creepy Child: The zombified little girl that Rick shoots in the opening scene.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Accidentally revealed if you're paying attention to teeth in episode 4 while Amy is in the boat.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Morgan's zombified wife, who looks fairly normal except for rings around her eyes and the expression on her face. She is one of the more recent victims, and hasn't yet decayed as much as the others.
  • Daylight Horror.
  • Dead Little Sister: Amy to Andrea.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Glenn.
  • Death Seeker: Andrea becomes one at the end of the first season, following Amy's death. She really, really doesn't appreciate having her gun taken away, either.
  • Deep South: The show takes place in Georgia, thus many characters have southern accents.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Jenner, Jacqui, and Andrea before Dale shakes her out of it.
  • Determinator: Merle may be an ass, but one has to admire his stubborn refusal to die. He cut his own hand off because he didn't have time to get through the cuffs. He then took out at least two zombies singlehandedly, then cauterized his stump, and managed to reach--and drive away in--a vehicle. It hasn't been shown whether he has since attached a chainsaw to the stump.
    • Daryl too. He's so determined to find Sophia, that when he falls down a small cliff and gets impaled on one of his own bolts, he manages to climb out and walk back to the farm, killing two zombies on the way.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: On every episode. Things get worse as the series progresses, and when something good happens, it doesn't last.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: When Ed tried to drag away his wife for a beating and slaps her, Shane intervenes and (proportionately) knocks him to the ground, beats and kicks him, then (disproportionately) threatens to beat him to death if he sees it again. This came shortly after Lori told Shane she wanted nothing to do with him, and to stay away from her family. In other words, Shane was using Ed as a punching bag to vent.
  • Domestic Abuse: Ed hits his wife Carol in the third episode. Comments between the characters indicate that he has a history of doing this.
  • Dont Come A Knockin: The car Andrea and Shane do it in.
  • Driven To Suicide:
    • Jenner says that the majority of the CDC staff chose this rather than fall to The Virus; while Jenner himself thought that "tomorrow I'll blow my brains out." Later on, Jacqui stays behind with Jenner to die in the CDC building. Andrea wanted to stay, but was talked out of it at the last minute.
    • As the beginning of Season 2 shows, Andrea still wants to die, and resents Dale talking her out of an easy and quick death.
  • Due To The Dead: Surprisingly, towards one of the zombies in the second episode. Rick is about to dismember it with an axe before he stops himself, checks the zombie's wallet, and does an impromptu eulogy about how once, he was just like them. He concludes by saying if the plan works, he's going to tell his wife and kid that it was thanks to him. Then Glenn points out that his driver's license says he was an organ donor and they start chopping up his body.
    • Later, some of the camp members agree on not burning their own, but shooting them through the head and burying them.
  • Dying Alone: The reason Rick decides to rescue Merle is because as much of a jerkass he is, nobody deserves this fate.
  • Eaten Alive: What with a zombie apocalypse happening it's implied this is the fate of many people. Shown to disturbing effect as the fate of Otis.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The apparent twist in "Vatos" when a grandmother comes out of nowhere and manages to defuse the impending shootout between Rick's group and the Latino gang. Then subverted when it is revealed that the gang were actually good people all along trying to protect the residents of an elderly home.
  • Executive Meddling: Recent conflicts with AMC regarding the second season's budget eventually resulted in the departure of pilot director and first season showrunner Frank Darabont.
  • Eye Scream: In the Season 2 opener, Andrea repeatedly stabs a walker in the eye with a screwdriver.
  • Fake Nationality: British actors Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and Lennie James (Morgan Jones) can pull off a convincing Southern accent. Played straight, however with Steven Yeun, as he is Korean-born.
  • Failsafe Failure: Played with and averted - the problem in the first season finale is that the CDC failsafes are working perfectly, but they are intentionally excessive because of all the volatile materials.
  • Fanservice: It may be the end of the world, but that won't stop fanservice!
    • Rick is mostly in his underwear for the first part of the very first episode after he wakes up and escapes the hospital. He's completely topless once he reunites with his wife.
    • Daryl doesn't own anything with sleeves and has a rather large female fanbase despite being an acerbic redneck.
    • The opening and closing of the second season's third episode has major fanservice devoted to Shane's shirtless self.
    • In the episode "Cherokee Rose": Maggie undressing to have sex with Glenn.
      • In an interesting aversion of this trope, there is hardly any female fanservice whatsoever. A very rare trait indeed.
  • Five Man Band:
  • Foreshadowing: Glenn tells Rick after rescuing him, that he puts his neck on the line for others in the admittedly naive hope that they'd do the same for him one day. Rick rescues Glenn two episodes later.
    • In the first episode, before the outbreak, we see two crows eating a dead animal in the road. Later, after the outbreak, there are two crows eating a dead human in Atlanta.
    • Before leaving Cynthiana for Atlanta, Rick gets some advice from Morgan when dealing with walkers: "They may not seem like much one at a time. But in a group, all riled up and hungry? Man, you watch your ass." Upon arriving in Atlanta, Rick saw that Morgan was right.
    • When Daryl come across Cherokee roses, he says that they will find Sophia soon. They do, though she is a walker.
      • When Daryl brings Carol the rose, he specifically says that the roses bloomed for the dead children.
  • A Friend In Need: Rick's reasoning to go rescue Glenn, since Glenn could have easily left Rick to die in the tank but instead risked his life to rescue him.
  • Gang Bangers: In the episode "Vatos", at first the trope seems to be being played straight, but it turns out that the gang is really just acting that way to protect an old folks home whose residents were abandoned by the staff when the zombie apocalypse hit.
  • Genre Blind: A lot of the problems the group encounters is because of this, borders on being TooDumbToLive sometimes. These are a few of the more common examples:
    • Walking around alone, especially at night.
    • Never, ever stopping to check their surroundings.
    • Not carrying a melee weapon - Not even a pocket knife or a stick.
    • Never making sure a corpse is actually dead before messing with it.
  • Genre Savvy: Comes and goes, but leans more toward it generally.
    • When Glenn and his group rescue Rick, they wear sports pads and helmets to protect themselves from zombie bites and scratches. Why they ditch the protective gear later is never explained.
  • Give Me A Sign: In "What Lies Ahead", Rick Grimes expresses his doubts about his leadership in a church, asking a wooden figure of Jesus for "a nudge... anything... to let me know I'm going in the right direction."
  • Gonna Need More Trope: After painting himself and Glenn with zombie gore, Rick gives their disguise a critical eye and concludes "We need more guts".
  • Good Cop Bad Cop: Daryl and Rick do this with the captured vato. Neither of them seemed to be acting, although Daryl did use his brother's severed hand to threaten the kid, claiming that he did it to a man that crossed him.
  • Guile Hero: Glenn.
  • Half Truth: "I told you: once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again." Sure Doc, the real meaning of those words was so obvious then.
  • Heel Realization: Herschel, Rick and Shane have it towards the end of the 2nd season. Shane forgets about it by the next episode.
  • Heroic BSOD: Andrea has one after her sister Amy dies
    • Lori and Shane have one in "Save The Last One"
  • Heroic Sacrifice: It appears as if Otis performs one to allow Shane to get away with the medical supplies needed to save Carl's life in actuality it's a subversion, as Shane shot Otis so the zombies chasing them would swarm Otis as opposed to him.
  • Hero Of Another Story: The Vatos forted up in Atlanta in an old folks home. Morgan and his son also qualify.
  • Hero Stole My Bike: Rick pulls one of these on a zombie. Of course, it's not like she had any legs to pedal it with.
  • He's Dead Jim:
    • Justified as a necessity to make sure everyone who has died does not get up and start shambling.
    • In the intro for episode "TS-19", it's shown in flashback that Shane didn't just automatically assume Rick was dead before leaving him. He did check for a heartbeat after the power failed for the instruments monitoring Rick, and didn't hear one, then barricaded his room with a gurney before leaving him.
  • Hilarious In Hindsight: The last survivor of the CDC plays a major in the finale of season one. In May 2011, the real life CDC issued its own Zombie Preparedness guidelines. (Don't follow them, you'd die)
  • Honor Before Reason: Rick Grimes, natch.
  • Hope Spot: At first the series leads you to believe that the CDC may still be operational and working on a cure to the zombie plague. Then it shows that the entire building is staffed by one lone scientist whose sanity is obviously beginning to crack.
  • Hot Mom: Lori Grimes, Hannah to some, before becoming the Bicycle Girl Zombie, and Judy, before she got her face chewed off.
  • How We Got Here: 2x10 starts like this.
  • I Choose To Stay: In "TS-19", Jacqui and Andrea choose to stay in a building about to explode because they have lost hope and don't want to run any more. However, Andrea is convinced to leave when Dale threatens to do the same.
  • I Did What I Had To Do: Shane, in the course of an episode, is shown how he actually saved Rick and abandoned him when he actually thought it was dead, as opposite of what Rick's wife leads us to belief, that he's a Jerkass that let Rick die. Then, he lets the fat guy be eaten by the zombies so he can get away, thus crossing the Moral Event Horizon he was shown to have averted with Rick.
  • Idiot Ball:
    • Who brings a crazy redneck who's gonna jeopardize a scavenge mission with them? If Rick hadn't come along, Merle certainly would've killed them or gotten them killed.
    • Morgan, driven to despair over his wife's reanimation, retreated to the attic and started popping shots at several zombies in an attempt to attract his undead wife's attention. While he intended to kill his undead wife, not only did he ultimately fail to follow through with it but he had alerted every zombie within earshot to his and his son's presence. This after he had warned Rick about gunshots attracting zombies, too.
  • Impairment Shot: Rick's during-the-hospitalization view of Shane before he responds months later in the now long empty hospital.
  • Important Haircut: Shane shaving his own head at the end of "Save The Last One."
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: The only way you're going to pull off an accurate headshot with a pistol while running is pure luck. These guys do it all the time.
    • Inverted in the opening shootout, when the Deputies in proper firing positions miss the criminals wildly.
  • Improvised Weapon: Axes, picks, and bats. While not designed as weapons are readily adapted to this use.
  • Infant Immortality: Averted from the first scene.
    • Played straight with the rest of the series so far, which is a step up from the comics. They had far less...restraint.
  • In Name Only: The TV show has taken some considerable breaks from the comic. Sure, they say it's to avoid Foregone Conclusion, and that is reasonable. Still, it's distancing itself from the comic enough that it qualifies.
  • It's The Only Way To Be Sure: If you kept a collection of potentially world-ending pathogens in your basement, you would set up a high-impulse thermobaric device to prevent them from escaping too.
  • Jerkass: Both Merle and Daryl Dixon.
  • Jerkass Has A Point: Daryl may be a caustic redneck, but he is usually the only one of the group to recognize the gravity of their situations.
    • Recently, Shane falls into this, as well as Dumbass territory.
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Daryl is pretty much a racist redneck like his brother Merle, but he continually goes out of his way to help others in the group, such as helping Rick rescue Glenn from the Vatos, saving T-Dog's life several times, and even revealing Merle's secret drug stash when T-Dog gets a nasty infection.
  • Karmic Death: Ed the abusive husband gets eaten by a Walker just one episode after he slaps his wife.
    • And notably, he gets killed because he's alone in his tent - he is refusing to eat with the others since Shane beat him for hitting his wife, and his wife and daughter don't want to spend time around him.
  • Kick The Dog: The military get one big moment in the prologue of "TS-19". Rather than putting the expected brave fight to protect the innocent, they panic and execute hospital personnel en masse before getting screwed big time by actual zombies.
    • That seems to be almost a theme for the authorities in the show. Aside from the soldiers, Dr. Jenner mentions how the CDC just fell apart in the months following the disaster. Tons of people simply abandoned their posts in the facility, and more than a few committed suicide.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Shane beating the crap out of Ed probably had a little more to do with his own frustrations than with doing the right thing, but damned if he didn't pick a deserving target.
  • Kill The Cutie: Amy.
  • Kill It With Fire: What happens when something important blows up (the CDC self-destruct goes off), creating a ball of fire that burns the air and everything in the immediate radius.
  • The Law Of Inverse Recoil: Season 2 ending.
  • Leave No Survivors: In a flashback from Shane it shows the army lining civilians up against a wall and executing them then shooting them in the head to be sure.
  • Left Hanging: As of the first season finale we still don't know what happened to Merle, what exactly Jenner whispers into Rick's ear, or what happened to Morgan and his son.
  • Life Or Limb Decision: Merle.
  • Like You Would Really Do It:
    • You didn't really think that they were going to kill off spoiler:Dale and Andrea so early, did you?
    • Or the main character in the pilot, for that matter.
  • The Load: Discussed what to do with them in some situations, although never refered to them as bluntly. About half the crew has been in this position. The central point is that it often polarizes Rick and Shane to how to deal with the situation. Shane says screw anyone who drags us behind except Rick and his family, while Rick says, yeah he loves his family and wants them to have the best life (and chance at it) he can give them, but if he can save as many people as he can in the process, the better.
  • Love Triangle: A type 4 between Shane/Lori/Rick -- now that Lori's husband whom Shane and Lori thought was dead has returned and the affair with Shane ended.
  • Made Of Iron: Merle.
  • Magic Countdown: The CDC is set to blow itself up when the backup generators providing emergency power run out of fuel -- a countdown starting at when there's only an hour of power left. A little tidbit the resident (Dr. Jenner) didn't bother to tell anyone when he let them in.
  • Memetic Badass: The "bulletdeer" from the second season premiere is quickly becoming one, with fans jokingly suggesting that the deer itself actually shot Carl
  • Meaningful Name: Edwin Jenner was named after Edward Jenner, the "father of immunology".
  • Men Are The Expendable Gender: While doing the group's laundry, the women complain amongst themselves about the "division of labor" while, with the exception of Andrea, they are quite happy to stand back and let the males do the dangerous work - like fighting the Walkers. On the other hand, this is Georgia, the South, where women are expected to be ladylike and genteel, and men are expected to protect their women.
  • Mercy Kill:
    • Rick pulls one off on the zombie whose bike he took, even taking the time to apologize to her before pulling the trigger.
    • At the police station Rick killed the former cop who in the intro had talked about being on video, specifically stating that while he thought the guy was an overexcited rookie, he didn't deserve to be shambling around as a zombie.
    • Dr. Jenner tries to present death by fuel-air explosive as this to the survivors.
  • Mexican Standoff:
    • Between Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, and the Vatos when arguing over the gun bag.
    • Daryl seems to attract these. It happens two more times between him and Rick - first when he threatens T-Dog, then later when he wants to mercy kill Jim.
  • The Mountains Of Illinois: Atlanta residents were amused to see the picturesque Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre masquerading as CDC headquarters, miles away.
    • In Guts, the Georgia Dome is seen in the background.
    • In the opening scenes of the Season 2 opener, Grady Memorial Hospital is seen while Rick is on the radio.
  • Near Rape Experience: A drunken Shane nearly forces himself on Lori in "TS-19", until her resistance makes him stop and think about what he was doing being wrong.
  • Never Trust A Trailer: The season finale trailer heavily implied that Andrea was infected.
    • Likewise, the trailer for "Save the Last One" implies Shane might be infected. He's not but he was injured by Otis.
  • Nice Job Breaking It Heroes: The main characters try to pull a fat zombie out of a well in an attempt to prevent the well from getting contaminated. It rips in half, pouring guts and blood all over and in the well.
    T-Dog: Good thing we didn't do anything stupid, like shoot it.
  • Noble Bigot: Daryl certainly seems to qualify as one. While being no fan of Glenn or T-Dog he won't simply stand by and withhold assistance if either one of them is in need, even if it means putting his life on the line.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Judy from the webisodes is zombified by giving CPR to what she thinks is a collapsed woman
  • Not A Zombie: Thankfully tame in general.
    • In the intro for the premier episode, while looking beneath a car Rick sees a little girl's feet shuffling along. However, once he sees her fully after standing up and she turns to his voice, he realizes she's a zombie, and promptly blows her head off.
    • Inverted in the second episode of the first season, where Rick is initially mistaken for a zombie and gets whacked in the head with a shovel. A few moments later, it's noted that as Rick was talking before being knocked unconscious, he's unlikely to be a walker, as they don't talk.
    • Daryl gets one of these in the season two episode "Chupacabra." After falling down a hill twice and getting impaled by one of his arrows as a result, he limps back to the others, dirty and bruised. When the others rush out with melee weapons, they realize he's not dead. Andrea, however, has taken aim with a rifle and nearly takes the poor guy's head off for all his trouble.
    • In the webisodes, the second wife finds out the hard way she was wrong about that fallen person needing artificial respiration.
  • Nothing Is Scarier/Quieter Than Silence: Used to underscore the complete lack of anyone living around Rick when he's in the hospital and at several other points.
  • No Periods Period: Glenn indicates he read somewhere that women spending time in proximity to each other will have their cycles all line up and he wonders if that means all the women in their group will "go hormonally crazy" at the same time.
  • Not So Different: When Rick and his group confront the Vatos, they find out that the gang is actually protecting the elderly residents of a retirement home. They put up a tough image in order to chase away raiders and thieves.
  • Not So Stoic: Dr. Jenner. It's obvious despite his deadpan demeanor that Patient TS-19 was someone important to him when he can describe how long from death to reanimation down to the second... and he only loses it in private with her photo and when the survivors realize he intends to lock them in for the end of the countdown.
  • Not That Kind Of Doctor: Dr. Hershel Greene reveals to Lori that he's a veterinarian, not a practicing surgeon. This does not comfort Lori at all considering that he's about to attempt a complicated surgical procedure on a critically injured Carl.
  • Not Using The Z Word: So far, "Walkers" and "Geeks". This is reminiscent of the comic, where every group encountered seems to have a different name for the zombies, although the z-word is still used there. See Word of God below.
  • Not With The Safety On You Won't:
    • Rick says this almost word for word to an overexcited cop during the high speed chase at the beginning of the first episode.
    • He does it again in the second episode to Andrea after she apologizes for pointing a pistol at Rick.
      After Amy dies, Rick tries to talk to Andrea about her coming back, but she points a gun at him and tells him that she knows how the safety works.
  • No Zombie Cannibals: Explained as being the result of the zombies only being attracted to the smell of the living.
  • Oh Crap:
    • Started with a Hope Spot when Rick, while in the Atlanta, see a helicopter and tries to follow it, then promptly hits the skids when he turns a corner and sees a mob of zombies in front of him.
    • The second episode has a sudden rainstorm pouring on Rick and Glenn, who have covered themselves in gore to fool the zombies. The rain dilutes and washes off the scent, giving them away, and they quickly have to book it.
    • Everyone in episode four during the fish fry, just before a large group of zombies suddenly descends on the camp and starts biting people left and right.
    • The survivors discover what happens when the CDC countdown clock reaches zero.
    • Rick and Dale's reactions upon seeing a horde of zombies shambling in their direction in the Season 2 opener.
    • When Shane and Otis try to salvage medical supplies from a FEMA camp, they realize there are a lot more zombies than they anticipated. They get another moment when the distraction they set up for the walkers doesn't last as long they hope.
    • At the end of Cherokee Rose, Lori finds out she is pregnant. If you read the comics, Word Of God states that the child is Shane's.
  • One Bullet Left: Otis and Shane as they escape from the zombies. Shane uses his on Otis, so he can get away.
  • Open Heart Dentistry: Hershel is a veterinarian. He's also the only medical practitioner available to save Carl.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies in the show are surprisingly smart and agile. Some can run (though they're not as fast as the usual "sprinter" zombies, and it takes awhile for them to pick up speed; it's more like a jog than anything), crawl without having their lower halves blown off, and climb objects (such as cars and ladders) that are at their height.
    • They can also pick up objects (such as the zombie girl from the first scene picking up her teddy bear), use crude melee weapons (such as rocks to bash through glass doors) and turn door handles, making these zombies as smart as Velociraptors. A few can even climb over fences.
    • They also attack animals (mammals at least).
    • The zombies are created by a bizarre disease that infects the brain, kills the victim and then reanimates them by resurrecting limited parts of the brain. The body continues to rot like a normal corpse, albeit one that moves. The head stays alive even if a zombie has been decapitated, and the only way to kill one is by damaging the brain.
    • The zombie disease is definitely spread by biting, and it is implied that getting infected matter into open wounds will also cause infection - two zombies were seen in season 2 that had scratches instead of bites. It's left unclear if people who die without being infected or having their heads destroyed reanimate.
  • Painting The Fourth Wall: The car alarm blaring from Glen's ill-gotten sports car matches the beat of the background music perfectly.
  • Pants Positive Safety: Basically everyone but Rick, who has his hip-holster from his old uniform. Most notable with Shane, who used to be his department's firearm safety instructor.
  • Perpetual Motion Monster: The dead are hungry, but never actually starve to death.
  • Poor Communication Kills: "When this door closes, it will not open again." Jenner meant that literally.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: While the overall story is the same, there are a number of differences from the comic like specific events and the introduction of new characters. Word Of God says that this was to prevent readers of the comics from thinking the whole series was a Foregone Conclusion.
  • Pretend We're Dead: Played For Drama; this is how Glenn and Rick get everyone out of the store. The two cover themselves in zombie gore then make their way through the undead crowd toward a parking lot with the scent masking their presence. It works, until it starts to rain. Justified, in that Atlanta summertime weather does go from hot and dry to sudden thundershowers just like that. There was also a bit of foreshadowing earlier with storm clouds. Also something of a Deconstruction, since they first have to smear themselves in dismembered zombie bits to get the proper scent going.
    • Daryl Dixon pull this off by dropping a dead body on T-Dog and another on himself as the zombie herd passes on the highway. Suffice to say, it works.
  • Rare Guns: The Colt Python isn't really rare per se, but it did have a pretty small and short production run. Couple that with high demand (due to the gun's fame and popularity) and you get a pistol that is worth more than a thousand dollars, easily. Not exactly the kind of gun a police officer would carry day-to-day, especially since many police departments have retired their revolvers for semi-auto pistols.
  • Reality Ensues: In the first episode, Rick fires a gun in a tank and spends about the next minute stunned with a loud ringing in his ears.
  • Red Herring: The helicopter in the pilot episode, which is never seen or mentioned again.
  • Redundant Rescue: Searching for Merle. He cut his own hand and the crew couldn't save him. The trip was at least worth it for the guns, but they lost the van and a few members of their camp for their troubles.
  • Relax O Vision: "Picture something nice. Puppies and kittens."
  • Removing The Head Or Destroying The Brain: Only the latter works. The Walker that killed Daryl's deer got decapitated, but it kept snarling until Daryl put a crossbow bolt through its skull.
  • Room Full Of Zombies: The webisodes do a version of this.
    • Hershel's barn is also full of zombies.
  • Safe Zone Hope Spot: A recurring theme in the show as well as the comic it's based on, happening twice in the shortened first season alone.
  • Sanity Slippage:
    • Jim begins digging at the top of the mountain until Shane takes him down and ties him to a tree. He can only say that he had a dream (possibly brought on by the guilt of knowing that he only survived because the zombies were eating his family) he couldn't remember.
    • Shane doesn't cope well with losing his relationship with Lori and his position as survivor group leader at the same time.
    • Dr. Jenner apparently didn't cope well with shooting his patient, his wife, and then was cooped up with only an [=AI=] for company for two months.
    • T-Dog is showing signs of this as well, though this may just be from the fever caused by a "regular" bacterial infection.
  • Screwed By The Network: AMC allegedly decided to cut the budget for the second season while doubling the number of episodes. Whether this will affect the second season's quality remains to be seen...
    • And then Frank Darabont was fired.
  • Sealed Room In The Middle Of Nowhere:
    • Merle, with a rooftop instead of a room.
    • Dr. Jenner, though this time by "choice".
    • Technically, Rick waking up in a hospital full of zombies.
  • Shell Shock Silence: Occurs when Rick fires his gun inside the confines of a tank, after he finds out he doesn't have Steel Eardrums.
  • Shoot The Dog: Shane offers this to Jim just before his death. Daryl was also determined to do this, but just let him die peacefully.
  • Shout Out: The CDC has been referring to the zombie problem under the code name "Wildfire," and they've been studying it in their secret underground lab. "Wildfire" was also the government's code name for certain categories of pandemic, and the secret underground lab built to combat them, in The Andromeda Strain.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Rick and Shane are on the opposite ends of it. The series doesn't give clear indications of which is right or wrong.
  • Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Level 1. They can't regenerate and are implied to be rotting until there'll be nothing left. They can force their bodies to move through the really thirsty virus in their heads, but that can't overcome physical destruction forever.
  • Soft Glass: Averted hard in the season finale when they try to break open the glass windows of the CDC. They spend about a minute trying to break it until they use a grenade to blow it up.
  • Squick: It's a show about zombies. Of course this is going to pop up from time to time.
    • In the second episode, when Rick and Glen hack up a zombie body with an axe and paint themselves with the guts. Glenn and the other survivors react appropriately, with someone vomiting at the sight and smell.
    • In the first episode of the second season, Rick and Daryl cut open a dead zombie's stomach.
    • All zombies are pretty squicky, but special notice must go to the zombie the group finds in a well on Hershel's farm: after sitting in the well for who knows how long, it has become extremely bloated. When they manage to pull it out of the well spoiler: it rips in half, with a huge torrent of liquid organs pouring out as well as what very well might possibly be a whole lot of maggots. If seeing that zombie won't make you lose your appetite, nothing will.
  • Suicide By Cop: An interesting interpretation on why Rick and Shane wait around 5 minutes to shoot each other. They both probably hoped the other would just end his misery and take the entire responsibility for the family.
  • Tanks But No Tanks: Anyone familiar with tank warfare might spot that the tanks are not only the wrong nationality - British Chieftains in Atlanta? - but that their tracks are surprisingly clean. Tanks can kill soldiers with machine guns, super sized buckshot, or simply by driving forwards. The tracks would miss the heads more often than not, but not arms, legs, and spines. It would be simple for soldiers to follow behind to finish the job, and this is one of the first things tankers would think of.
  • Team Dad: The straightest example is Dale, especially to Andrea and Amy. After Amy dies Dale tries to help Andrea through it the best he can.
  • Tempting Fate: Rick's reassurance to the horse that the zombies are few and slow and they can flee them easily. Cue Oh Crap moment.
  • That Came Out Wrong: At least 3 examples so far. Show loves This Trope.
    • Rick has one of these when he tells Shane that he wouldn't understand his plan to go to CDC because Lori and Carl aren't his family, when it was Shane that took care of them while he was gone.
  • There Are No Therapists: Justified, it's the end of the world. Mass PTSD and Sanity Slippages ensue.
  • Thicker Than Water: Merle and Daryl Dixon, especially Daryl's attitude towards Merle.
  • Throw It In: As mentioned in an Entertainment Weekly story, Rick's deadpan line, "We need more guts" from the episode "Guts" was ad-libbed by Andrew Lincoln during filming. The director liked it so much that it was kept in the final cut.
  • Too Dumb To Live:
    • Even when you're having a feast, always watch the perimeter. Taking active measures to prepare a defensible area instead of acting like it's just another camping trip in a normal world, where the biggest concern is a wild animal wandering into camp or some drunken idiot crashing the party, is a good idea, too.
    • In a flashback soldiers are too busy executing hospital staff to watch the doors behind them.
    • Andrew in the Webisodes: walking alone, without a flashlight, into a dark basement, during a Zombie Apocalypse. The crunch followed by the scream was no surprise.
    • The women and children don't know how to forage for food in the wilderness, or even have blunt weapons on them. This would be perfectly believable if it hadn't been over two months since the zombie apocalypse happened.
    • Pretty much everything that happened in Season 2 after the herd left could be placed on Sophie. If she had stayed under the cars until everybody was sure it was safe to come out, the walkers would have never noticed her, which would have never resulted in her running off into the woods. Then when Rick tells her to stay hidden until he comes back or for five minutes before going back to the road, she leaves the second the walkers were out of sight and wandered off into the woods in some random direction. Although to be fair, she was probably pretty panicked at the moment.
    • Randall jumps off a high wall without properly looking at what's below, and gets his leg impaled on a spiked fence. He would have bled out or become zombie food if Rick didn't decide to help him.
  • Trailers Always Spoil:
    • The trailers showed both the wasteland of Atlanta with radio transmissions warning people away and shots of Rick getting shot down by gunmen. The truth about Atlanta was only revealed about halfway through.
    • Double subverted - Rick getting shot actually happened twice. The first time it hit his jacket and the second time it puts him into a coma. Viewers who thought they'd been spoiled by the trailers OR the comic actually had their expectations blown away, along with bits of Rick's shoulder and lung.
  • Twenty Minutes With Jerks: Totally averted. We get one scene of expository dialogue, an action sequence, an Impairment Shot in the hospital, and then Zombies.
  • Underestimating Badassery: In "Nebraska" and "Triggerfinger," the "Philadelphia boys" (on two separate occasions) believe that Rick, Glenn and Hershel will roll over and give them what they want. In the first case, it was two guys who underestimated the sheriff with plenty of experience in headshots (not to mention putting their weapons down), and in the second, Hershel proves to be a capable shot as well.
  • The Virus: They went so far as to indicate "it infects the brain like meningitis". Note that meningitis doesn't involve the brain, but the meninges (the membrane around the brain and spinal cord).
  • Vomit Discretion Shot:
    • Glenn, when he and Rick hack up a zombie body with an axe and paint themselves with the guts.
    • Jim after becoming infected.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Adrea in the second season, courtesy of Daryl seeking payback for her laughing over a mishap he had as a child.
  • Weapon Of Choice: Daryl's hunting crossbow, though he will readily use any other weapon that comes to hand. This may be a choice more from practicality than preference - crossbows are quieter than guns and arrows are easily recovered and reused so ammunition is less of a concern.
  • We Used To Be Friends: The friendship between Rick and Shane is tense since the outbreak. Shane having slept with Rick's wife in his absence while he was believed dead doesn't help.
  • Wham Line: Jim may have been delirious and trying to make sense of thing, but "I remember that's why I was digging the graves" was creepy as hell.
  • What The Hell Hero: Lori chews out the rest the group for their lack of faith in Rick's leadership ability, telling them that if they really thought that, they were free to leave at any time.
  • Who's Your Daddy: In Episode 4 of the Second Season ("Cherokee Rose"), Lori's new pregnancy kicked this off.
  • Word of God: On an episode of Talking Dead, creator Robert Kirkman stated that in the universe of the TV show, the George A. Romero Living Dead series was never created, and there was never a boom of zombie pop culture like in our world. This is why the word "walker" is more commonly used, as none of the characters have any knowledge of the concept of "zombies".
  • Yank The Dog's Chain: Happens once an episode, with the most notorious one being the CDC event.
  • You Dont Want To Die A Virgin Do You: Glenn and Maggie.
  • You Fail Biology Forever: The CDC scientist gives us a shot through a microscope of the zombie infection spreading between a cells in an impossible, oversimplified way. Justified by Artistic License, since, as stated an episode later, it apparently doesn't fall under any of the categories of infectious material that we know.
  • Zombie Advocate: Herschel and what's left of his town have a barn full of walkers locked up, including his wife and son.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: The biological infection version, as revealed in the CDC exposition, as opposed to the comic's use of the Romero rules (everyone who dies comes back as a zombie).
    • Of course, even then there's no guarantee the show doesn't use Romero rules and the CDC sequence just shows the results of a bite.
    • Robert Kirkman's appearance on Talking Dead did provide some possible Word Of God (he didn't really seem that interested in explaining it) that the corpses in the cars on the highway didn't reanimate because they died in crashes, implying that they won't reanimate unless they're infected.
  • Zombie Gait: Some of the walkers do this, and Daryl too, due to his injuries and the ordeal he endured to get back to the farm.
  • Zombie Infectee: Jim, who tried to hide it then begged the person who found out not to give it away. However, she was Genre Savvy enough (or just plain scared, not thinking and too conformist) to tell the rest of the group immediately.
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