'The Walking Dead' Season 3 Episode 1: 'Seed'

With much of season two of "The Walking Dead" being wasted on filler episodes and the search for Sophia (who was hiding the barn the entire time, tee hee!) I was a bit hesitant to allow myself to get all geeked up for the premier episode of season three. Thankfully, the first episode of season three of "The Walking Dead: Seed" does not disappoint.

I actually loved the fact that the first five minutes of the episode didn't have any dialogue whatsoever as Rick's group goes through a house in silent precision, taking out walkers quietly and scavenging for food.

For the first time since the show's inception, Carl Grimes is a useful member of the group. He takes out walkers, shooting them with little hesitation and searchers purposefully for food while the others sit down in the house for what little rest they can get.

It is soon clear that they have been avoiding the walker herds all winter, and that as soon as they spot a few stragglers, the group is out the back door, running to the next way point.

Rick has gotten smart about running the group, putting two people on look out for walkers while they plan their next course of action. Afterward, he and Daryl go hunt for food while the others use the local stream to clean up. While they are out in the woods, they spot the prison on the horizon.

Rick decides that it's time to head over there. Lori is now very pregnant, her belly swelling with child, and she can't handle running around for very much longer or the stress could kill the baby, and possibly her too. They've been avoiding entering the prison for a while now, due to the fact that there is an unknown number of walkers inside, and the yard is just full of them.

Rick believes that there will be medical supplies and food inside the prison, and that securing it is their best course of action. With a solid plan of attack, Rick, Glenn, Maggie, Daryl and T-Dog enter the fence that runs around the perimeter of the prison yard and start putting the walking dead down.

Once the entrance way is secure, Rick sends Daryl and Carol to one of the guard towers, and Carl and Hershel to another to start shooting the walkers, while the others draw the undead prisoner's attention to one side of the yard so that Rick can enter it and run over to the next guard tower.

Here, we learn that Carol has become a pretty good shot with a rifle. This is probably due to the fact that she's been hanging out so much with Daryl lately.

That night, they have a short respite around a camp fire and Beth and Maggie sing a song for their daddy. Aww...

Rick then joins the group and tells them that they just need to push themselves a little further and they can secure the area and have a save place to stay, and possibly grow their own food.

Carol joins Daryl on a tipped over vehicle and gives him some food. It's clear that they've grown closer to each other, when he rubs her sore shoulder and she then jokes about him being romantic with her and asks if he wants to mess around. Daryl just scoffs at her and leaves. It's kind of a cute moment.

Lori tries to talk to Rick and thanks him for all that he's done, but he gives her a cold shoulder and tells her that he's doing what needs to be done for the safety of the group and walks away. It's clear that the tension caused by her having Shane's baby has forced them apart. Even Carl won't talk to her now.

In between the group's attempt to take the prison, we see Michonne scavenging for pain killers and bringing it back to Andrea, who is hiding in a meat packing plant. Andrea, apparently  has become deathly ill and has a terrible cough, which makes me believe that she has bronchitis caused by an infection that occurred while she had a cold. Without antibiotics, an infection like that can spread to your bloodstream and kill you. Andrea and Michonne have been watching out for each other over the winter, and moving ahead of the walker herd as much as possible. When Andrea tells her that she doesn't want to die in a meat locker, they move on.

The next day, Rick's group attempts to draw the attention of the walkers near the doors to the prison and encounter undead prison guards in full riot gear and one particularly iconic looking one in a gas mask, which makes them difficult to kill.

It's Maggie that figures out how to kill these walkers. She's a great fighter!

Personally, I wouldn't have wasted so much energy on them. Their faces are blocked and their hands are covered with thick gloves, so they can't bite or scratch anyone without a heck of a lot of effort on their part.

Anyhoo, the makeup for the zombies in this action sequence is pretty darn good if I do say so myself! Check it out!

Rick's familiarity with the prison and it's layout helps with figuring out which gates on the fence need to be secured and locked shut.

Once inside, they secure a cell block and make it home base for the evening.  Carl tries to bunk with Beth, but Hershel scares him off. It's clear that he likes her a lot and that they've grown close as well.

Rick sleeps by himself in the hallway, sitting against the wall.

By this point it's clear that Lori has completely estranged her husband and son. Carl hasn't said a single word to her. Rick will speak with her, but only gives her curt replies, and he certainly won't comfort her anymore. She knows that it's all her fault, but, being the idiot that she is, she won't ever be capable of figuring out how to mend her broken relationships.

While the guys are checking out the riot gear and other weapons that they took from the remains of the prison guards, Carol comes to fetch Hershel for Lori.

Lori tells Hershel that she hasn't felt the baby move and she fears that it's stillborn. And, if it's dead inside of her and they're all infected, she believes that it will become a walker and chew it's way out of her body a la "Dawn of the Dead." She begs Hershel to put her and her baby down if there's any chance of either of them dying during childbirth. She doesn't want to attack her family or anyone else in the group. Hershel agrees and  goes to examine her to see if her child is still alive. It isn't said if it is or not, so I'm going to assume that it still is. Little Shane won't go down so easily.

With everything that Lori has done to Rick, it's no surprise that both he and Carl are shunning her. She has gone from being the wife of the group leader to pregnant outcast, and it's all her fault.

Last season, she revealed that she was pregnant, but only after she asked Glenn to get her morning after pills and took them, then threw them up. Rick was shocked by her actions, but wasn't angry with her for sleeping with Shane, as they thought that he was dead.

However, this quickly changes after she tells Rick to kill Shane. When he informs her that he killed him, she pushes him away and becomes outraged with him, even though he did exactly what she asked him to do. Because she's a moron.

Unfortunately for us, Lori and her pregnancy is going to be the main plot line of the third season. Glen Mazzara revealed this during the Talking Dead episode that aired directly after the show. Which means that she probably won't die until the last episode, or like Shane, the episode prior to the last one of the season. Yay.

While many people are cheering for Carl to get eaten by a walker, I'm hoping that it's Lori.  It's highly likely that Lori will bite the dust first. At least, she does in the comic during the last action sequence at the prison. But, since the show is so unpredictable, it's hard to say exactly who will die, other than it will be one of the main characters of the show.

The next day, Rick, Glenn, Maggie, T-Dog, Hershel and Daryl go to explore the prison and attempt to find food and medicine, which brings me to the only thing that didn't make sense in this episode.

If Hershel is so important to keep around, being the only doctor of the group, why did they risk his life? Why not send Carl and leave Hershel to hold the fort and keep their cell block secure? Heck, with as good of a shot as she is, Carol could've protected the cell block while they awaited their return, all by herself.

So, this is where Rick's reasoning goes out the window. I mean come on! Tactically speaking, the last thing you'd want to do is put your only doctor in harm's way. And as you can guess, because Hershel was put in harm's way, he is the one that gets hurt. The only reason I can think that they would do this is because he's so important to the group and we need MORE drama! Right? Ugh...

During their exploration, they see dead, badly decomposed bodies lying about on the floor, but none of them are reanimated. Eventually they come to a dead end and attempt to return to their cell block.

Unfortunately, all that noise that they're making (which, by the way, doesn't make sense either, seeing as how they kept so quiet during the first scene of the episode while they were entering the house), draws the attention of the walkers.

They turn a corner, the music gets tense and really loud, only to show nothing. Then, around the next corner, the sound is quiet and bam! there's a huge group of walkers crowding the hallway and blocking their passage. So they turn around and head back, only to come across another group of walking dead. Panic ensues and they start to run. Maggie and Glenn are separated from the group and hide in a closet.

Hershel notices that Maggie and Glenn are gone and they go back to find them. He hears her voice and starts walking her way, stepping over what appears to be a dead body. Unfortunately for him, it's not. The walker grabs his leg and bites off the back of his ankle. Daryl takes out the walker, and Hershel is on the floor, screaming in agony and terror.

Maggie and Glenn catch up with them and help carry Hershel to the cafeteria. There, Rick takes the hatchet from Hershel's medical bag and hacks off his leg in a very brutal fashion. They create a makeshift tourniquet  with a belt for his amputated leg, but they can't stop the bleeding.

The episode ends with several living prisoners walking up to the fenced off food line to take a look at Rick and company.

They aren't alone. And it's up to Daryl to keep the prisoners at bay.