Wildfire

"**Wildfire**" is the fifth episode of the first season (and the fifth episode overall) of *The Walking Dead*.

The episode was written by Glen Mazzara and directed by Ernest Dickerson. It premiered on Nov. 28, 2010.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has a score of 91%, with an average rating of 8.37 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads: 'With *Wildfire,* *The Walking Dead* continues to prove it isn't your average horror story, with a focus on three-dimensional characters in a well-rounded drama."

## Plot

Rick leads the group to the CDC after the attack. Jim must make a terrible life and death decision.

## Synopsis

The morning after the massacre at the camp, Rick stares at the sunrise over Atlanta as he tries to reach Morgan on the walkie-talkie. He tells his friend that he managed to find his family in a camp with other survivors and also warns that the city was not what they thought and that it belonged to the dead now.

At the campsite, Andrea cradles Amy's body as Lori approaches to give her condolences and tries unsuccessfully to convince her to let them take Amy. Nearby, Daryl swings at dead walkers' heads with a pickaxe as Glenn and T-Dog throw the bodies into a fire. Rick, Lori, and Shane discuss what to do with Andrea since it was only a matter of time for Amy to become a walker and then Rick tries to approach her, but she pulls a gun on him and warns that she knew how to use the safety now. Rick backs off.
Continuing with the cleanup, Morales and Daryl drag the body of a dead camper toward the fire, but Glenn yells that they were not burning their own but burying them. Frustrated from the heat, Daryl accuses the group of reaping what they sow for leaving his brother for dead and storms off.
As Jacqui and Jim pile up bodies, she notices fresh blood on Jim's shirt. Although he tries to convince her it was not his, a terrified Jacqui quickly announces to everyone that a walker had bitten him. Daryl and T-Dog force Jim to lift his shirt and discover a bite wound on his abdomen.

The group discusses what to do with Jim. Daryl wastes no time in offering to stick a pickaxe in his skull, but Rick thinks the CDC, roughly 25 miles away, could help him. Shane believes the army base Fort Benning, located 100 miles in the opposite direction, is a better option. Irritated over the apparent change of topic, Daryl heads toward Jim with his pickaxe, but Rick points his revolver at him and reminds him that they don't kill the living. Jim is then moved inside the RV for his safety.

Dale sits next to Andrea to give his condolences and tells her that he lost his wife after a hard battle with cancer. He reveals that when his wife died he was upset for a long time and that from that day until now the first people he truly cared about have been Andrea and her sister. Andrea takes out the mermaid necklace that was meant for Amy and puts it around her sister's neck, confessing that she felt a lot of guilt for missing many of her birthdays.
Nearby, Daryl continues to pierce the skulls of the corpses. He raises the axe over Ed's head, but Carol stops him and tells him that he was her husband, therefore she should take over. Sobbing, she picks up the axe and swings it down on Ed's skull repeatedly, taking out years of abuse in this final act to ensure he'd never reanimate, as Daryl observes the scene in silence.

On the ground, Amy finally begins to move. She opens her gray eyes and moans softly as she tries to reach Andrea. From a distance, the group stands with their guns prepared to intervene. Andrea apologizes for not being there for her and shoots her sister in the head at the last moment. Shortly after, Rick and Shane dig some graves near the camp. While they work, Shane complains to Rick for not having been during the attack and blames him for the deaths. Rick counters that without the guns that he brought with him, the losses could have been much worse. Meanwhile, Jim is hallucinating inside the RV with terrifying visions of the dead.

The survivors stage a funeral. After the ceremony, Carl asks his father if they were safe now and Rick promises that he will never leave them again. Privately, Rick asks Lori if she also blames him for not being in the camp during the attack and asks her to support his decision to head for the CDC. While she doesn't blame him like Shane did, she doesn't know if she could follow him to the CDC on blind faith. Lori asks him to tell her something with certainty and Rick replies that he loved her.
Heading into the RV, Rick assures a feverish Jim that they're going to get him help, but Jim is delirious and starts to rave nonsense. Outside, Shane asks Lori to convince Rick that the CDC was a bad decision, cautioning her about choosing her marriage over peoples' safety. She tells him that the people around her could decide without having to involve her marriage as Rick suddenly emerges from the RV. Annoyed by Shane's comment, Lori immediately supports her husband's plan.

Rick, Shane, and Dale depart to sweep the forest for walkers. Alone, Shane tries to convince Rick to change his mind but Rick insists that he was going to do what was best for his family and inadvertently adds that Shane did not understand because he did not have his own. This offends Shane, who snaps and reminds Rick that he kept Carl and Lori safe as if they were his own. Rick tries to apologize but they're interrupted by a sound in the bush and separate to investigate.

As they each scan with their guns raised, Shane aims his shotgun at Rick for a few seconds from a distance but eventually lowers the gun. He notices Dale looking at him in dismay. Shane shrugs it off, musing that they need to get reflective vests for the woods. Back at the camp, Shane announces that they should follow Rick's plan and that they would leave for the CDC in the morning.

At dawn, Rick tries to reach Morgan to make him aware of what they were going to do but gets no response. He adds that they will leave a map taped to a red car with their route drawn out for him to follow. As the group prepares to leave, Morales announces that his family won't be joining them because they want to be with their other relatives in Alabama. Rick hands him a gun asking him to watch out. After an emotional farewell, everyone leaves the campsite.
On their way to the CDC, the RV's radiator hose bursts. While Shane and T-Dog drive ahead to find replacement parts, Rick checks on Jim, who is in agony and pleads to be left there. Rick refuses to do that and then Jim insists that he just wanted to die in peace and reunite with his family.

Listening to Jim's pleas, Rick decides to consult with the others and Dale suggests respecting his wishes. Lori agrees as well and the group carries Jim to a nearby tree on the side of the road. Jacqui gives him a kiss in the check and Dale thanks him for fighting for them while the others tearfully say goodbye one by one. The group drives away as Jim is left behind to die peacefully.

Elsewhere, a video monitor is turned on. A scruffy man, Dr. Edwin Jenner, speaks into the camera and mentions that it has been 194 days since Code Wildfire was declared and 63 days since the disease abruptly went global. He also reveals that there has been no clinical progress to report and states that due to a lack of sleep he has finally figured out how to shut down the scrubbers in the east sector of the building to save power.

Dressed in a biohazard suit, Jenner enters a laboratory. He opens a tissue sample labeled TS-19 and begins an experiment. While reaching for a beaker, he accidentally knocks a corrosive liquid onto the sample. An alarm goes off and Jenner quickly goes to the decontamination chamber and takes off his suit. Through the window, he watches helplessly as his entire laboratory is engulfed in flames due to an automatic safety protocol. Afterwards, a drunken Jenner speaks into the monitor and regrets that all the TS-19 samples are gone, saying that he might commit suicide in the morning.
Rick's caravan approaches the CDC, where hundreds of bodies lay dead on the ground. The group sneaks up on the building, which is completely locked. Inside, the proximity alarm alerts Jenner to the presence of the group and he looks at them in amazement through the cameras.

Several walkers take notice of the group and begin to surround them. Panicking, Shane suggests heading to Fort Benning but Andrea stresses that they will not make it as they are almost out of fuel. Despair seizes the survivors and then Rick notices the movement of the security camera and begs whoever was inside to let them pass. He continues to plead as Shane tries to force him to leave when suddenly the doors open and a light illuminates everyone completely.

## Cast

* Jon Bernthal as Shane Walsh
* Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes
* Laurie Holden as Andrea
* Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale Horvath
* Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee
* Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes

Guest Starring* Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon
* Emma Bell as Amy\*
* Andrew Rothenberg as Jim
* Juan Pareja as Morales
* Noah Emmerich as Edwin Jenner
* Jeryl Prescott Sales as Jacqui
* IronE Singleton as T-Dog
* Adam Minarovich as Ed Peletier\*\*
* Madison Lintz as Sophia Peletier
* Maddie Lomax as Eliza Morales
* Viviana Chavez-Vega as Miranda Morales

Uncredited* Noah Lomax as Louis Morales

**Notes:**
\* *zombified*
\*\* *corpse*

## Deaths

* Irma Horvath *(Confirmed Fate)*
* Amy *(Zombified)*
* Jim *(Alive)*

## Trivia

* First appearance of Edwin Jenner.
* Last appearance of Jim. *(Alive)*
* Last appearance of Amy. *(Zombified)*
* Last appearance of Miranda Morales. *(Alive)*
* Last appearance of Eliza Morales.
* Last appearance of Louis Morales.
* The title of this episode, **"Wildfire"**, refers to the name of the virus study given by the CDC. The origins of its name could be due to the fact that Jenner explains that the infection spreads like a wildfire.
	+ Wildfire is also a reference to the secret government biological lab in the Andromeda Strain.
* It is established in this episode that it's been six and a half months since the start of the outbreak.

## Comic Parallels

* Rick trying to comfort Andrea as she holds Amy's body.[Issue 5]
* The group discovering Jim has been bitten during the attack.[Issue 5]
* Andrea putting down an undead Amy.[Issue 5]
	+ In the original issue, Andrea puts her sister down before reanimation.
* Rick and Shane arguing about who should be held accountable for the camp attack.[Issue 5]
	+ In the original issue, they engage in a brutal fight.
* The group leaving the camp to find a new refuge.[Issue 6]
* Jim being left to die and reanimate under a tree as his last wish.[Issue 6]

## Goofs/Errors

* When Andrea is sitting by Amy's body, and Rick goes over to talk to her, she draws a handgun on him. She visibly doesn't cock the gun as she draws it, but the racking of the slide is still heard.
* Before Amy reanimates, she can be seen breathing on some shots.
* One of the machine guns set up to defend the CDC in Atlanta is a Soviet DShK machine gun. This weapon would not be in use by US troops in a US city.

## Gallery

The following are all the photographic stills released to promote this episode.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the\_walking\_dead/s01/e05
2. ↑ https://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-05/wildfire
3. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Kevin. The Walking Dead Comics-to-TV Comparison:"Vatos", *Ugo* (November 29, 2010).