Guts

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

The episode was written by Frank Darabont and directed by Michelle MacLaren. It premiered on Nov. 7, 2010.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has a score of 75%, with an average rating of 7.13 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads: "*Guts* finds *The Walking Dead* settling into a well done gory groove and delivering thrilling action, even when some of its character development feels cliched."

## Plot

Rick unknowingly causes a group of survivors to be trapped by walkers. The group dynamic devolves from accusations to violence, as Rick must confront an enemy far more dangerous than the undead.

## Synopsis

In the survivors camp, Amy gives Lori some mushrooms she collected from the forest. She asks how to tell if these are poisonous and Lori replies that she only knew one way: asking Shane. Lori goes to the forest and feels unnerved by the disturbing silence. Suddenly, Shane takes her by surprise from behind and playfully throws her to the ground asking how much time they had. Lori replies that enough, and as they begin to undress, they notice Rick's wedding ring on a locket around her neck. She takes it off and lays it carefully on the grass. They then proceed to have sex.
Locked inside a tank in Atlanta, Rick talks on the radio with the young man who contacted him and asks how he could get out of that situation. The voice replies that Rick was surrounded by walkers and advises him to make a run for it while they were distracted eating the horse. Rick also asks if he has time to retrieve his bag of guns, but is told that it's not an option at the moment.

Rick takes a gun and a grenade from the dead soldier and then opens the hatch. He jumps out of the tank and runs down a sidewalk into an alley, shooting incoming walkers along the way, where he meets the young man who had been talking to him on the radio, and follows him up a ladder into the roof for safety.

While catching their breath, the young man congratulates Rick for his reflexes and introduces himself as Glenn. After thanking him for saving his life, Rick wonders why he did that. Glenn says he hopes someone would do the same for him one day. They climb down to an alley that is mostly free of walkers due to a bus blockade and wait as two men emerge from a building and beat down some of the walkers outside.

When the group enters the store, a woman named Andrea points a gun at Rick's face, furious at his recklessness. One of the men, Morales, informs Rick that his gunshots have attracted numerous walkers from all over the city to their location and Andrea accuses him of dooming them. From outside, a crowd of walkers slams themselves against the door and the glass begins to crack.
The group questions Rick about what he was doing roaming around the streets of Atlanta aimless. He explains that he was trying to flag down a helicopter, but nobody believes him. One of the men, T-Dog, tries to make contact with someone through the radio but gets no signal. He suggests having better luck in a higher area and suddenly everyone hears gunshots coming from the rooftop.

On the roof, the group finds the redneck Merle Dixon firing at walkers in the street with a rifle. T-Dog scolds him for wasting bullets and attracting more walkers, but Merle says he refuses to accept orders from a "n\*gger" and triggers a fight. Rick tries to intervene but is knocked out aside. Merle then brutally hits T-Dog and presses a gun to his head, proclaiming himself the new leader. Once again, Rick intervenes, hits Merle with the butt of the rifle and handcuffs him to a pipe. In a threatening tone, Rick reminds Merle that things were different now and that if they wanted to survive they would need to work together. Merle challenges that he wouldn't shoot him because he's a cop, but Rick answers that he was just a man looking for his wife and son.
Morales tells Rick that there was never a refugee center and that they are part of a larger group of survivors staying in a camp outside the city, but they haven't been able to contact them on the radio. Rick tells him that they were on their own now and suggests trying to escape through the sewers. A woman named Jacqui, who formerly worked in the Atlanta zoning office, mentions that the old building they were on might have a flood tunnel that would provide access to the sewers.

Most of the group heads down to the basement where Glenn concocts a plan. While standing guard on the front doors, Andrea apologizes to Rick for the way she behaved earlier and Rick replies that he understood that people did crazy things when they were afraid. However, he suggests that the next time she did something like that, to take the safety off her gun first.

On the roof, T-Dog is still unsuccessfully trying to communicate with the camp and Merle tries to convince him to get the hacksaw in the bag of tools to set him free. Meanwhile, Glenn and Morales travel through the sewer until they reach a grated barrier. They begin to think of ways to cut through it but abandon all their plans when they see a walker devouring a rat on the other side.

In the store, Andrea looks at a necklace with a mermaid pendant and mentions that her sister loved those things. Rick encourages her to take it, insisting shoplifting rules don't apply anymore, and while Andrea pockets the necklace, the walkers break through the exterior glass doors and begin pounding on the interior set. Glenn and Morales arrive to report that sewers are not an option either.
Back on the roof, Rick spots a van parked in a construction site a few blocks away and assumes that the keys should be nearby. He proposes to use the vehicle to escape and asks if anyone had any idea how to move past the walkers undetected. The group explains that the undead attack when they see, smell or listen to someone. Rick latches onto the concept of scent and Andrea quickly concludes that they don't smell dead, and that is why the walkers can differentiate between themselves and the living.

Wearing gloves and waterproof jackets, Rick and Morales drag a dead walker from the alley into the store. After the group pays tribute to the walker's lost humanity, Rick begins hacking the dead body to pieces with an axe. He and Glenn then smear its guts on themselves and prepare to go outside. Before leaving, Rick tosses T-Dog the key to Merle's handcuffs and tells everyone to be ready when they return. After passing under the bus blocking the alley, Rick and Glenn begin to walk among the walkers on the street unnoticed.

At the camp, Amy frets over the whereabouts of her companions and sister. Dale, who is working on his RV with the help of a somber man named Jim, receives T-Dog's garbled transmission informing everyone that the group was trapped in a store in Atlanta surrounded by hundreds of walkers. Although Amy wants to go rescue them immediately, Shane insists they won't do that because it was too dangerous and risky. Amy becomes furious at his decision.

Back in Atlanta, Rick and Glenn keep making their way through the crowd of walkers until rain clouds begin to form in the sky. A downpour falls heavily and cleans the guts' smell off them. With their living smell exposed, Rick and Glenn fight against the walkers and run towards the construction site, where they jump over the gate blocking their access. Once Glenn finds the keys, the duo speeds away in the van. From the roof, the group worries that they're being left behind.
Rick orders Glenn to radio the others to get ready to leave. Seeing that several walkers are blocking the entrance of the department store, Rick smashes the window of a sports car, which causes the car's alarm to blare, and gives it to Glenn to drive it away to serve as a distraction.

While the group rushes from the rooftop, T-Dog cannot bring himself to leave Merle behind after hearing him beg and runs with the key in hand to set him free. By accident, he slips on the rain-soaked roof and drops the handcuff key down a drain. T-Dog apologizes and leaves, but not before blocking the entrance with chains. Merle is abandoned and curses loudly in a rage as the walkers finally break the main set of doors of the store and enter.

Outside the back entrance of the store, with the walkers lured away by Glenn's car alarm, Rick pulls the van up and the group quickly climbs inside. T-Dog confesses that he dropped the keys and left Merle trapped on the roof. While escaping from the city, Andrea asks about Glenn. The sports car suddenly surpasses them at full speed with Glenn screaming full of happiness.

## 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* Michael Rooker as Merle Dixon
* Emma Bell as Amy
* Andrew Rothenberg as Jim
* Juan Pareja as Morales
* Jeryl Prescott Sales as Jacqui

Uncredited* Sam Witwer as Tank Walker
* Unknown as Wayne Dunlap

## Deaths

* Wayne Dunlap *(Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)*
* 1 rat

## Trivia

* First appearance of Andrea.
* First appearance of Merle Dixon.
* First appearance of Theodore Douglas.
* First appearance of Jim.
* First appearance of Morales.
* First appearance of Jacqui.
* First appearance of Glenn Rhee. *(Physically)*
* First (and last) appearance of Wayne Dunlap. *(Zombified)*
* The title of this episode, **"Guts"**, refers to Rick and Glenn using guts from a walker to cover their smell and walk among the herd so they can help the group escape Atlanta.
	+ It may also refer to the fact that Rick has the 'guts' to confront Merle and get the group out of such a dire situation at the department store.
* The Dodge Challenger that Glenn steals is the same car the character Walter White buys for his son in another AMC series, *Breaking Bad*.
	+ Oddly enough, in the Breaking Bad episode "Problem Dog", Walt is supposed to sell the car to a person named Glenn.
* The van that Rick drives the group away from Atlanta is of a company named Ferenc Builders. Ferenc is the birth name of the developer of the show, Frank Darabont.
* The scene where Merle begins shooting his gun on the rooftop in Atlanta caused a little bit of real-life chaos. Some people did not know they were filming a show and thought that Michael Rooker was a sniper and notified the police. A SWAT team actually showed up and the misunderstanding was then explained.
* The song that plays at the end of the episode, when Glenn was escaping Atlanta with the Dodge Challenger, is I'm a Man by Black Strobe.
* This is the first episode of the series where the survivors use the walker guts trick.
* When Rick asks Glenn why he tried to save him, Glenn's response was *"Call it foolish, naive hope, but if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me."* This quote foreshadows Glenn's inevitable fate in "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" and Rick reflecting on it in "Say Yes".
* In "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life", Maggie tells Rick how the decision to help him was made here when Glenn chose to save Rick's life and that everything that came after it stemmed from that decision.

## Comic Parallels

* Shane and Lori having sex in the woods believing Rick to be dead.[Issue 37]
* Glenn saving Rick's life from a herd of walkers and taking him to a rooftop.[Issue 2]
* Rick getting scolded by Andrea for using a gun in Atlanta.[Issue 2]
	+ In the original issue, Glenn scolds Rick.
* Rick and Glenn covering themselves with guts and escaping from a herd of walkers.[Issue 4]
* Rick and a group heading to the camp of survivors.[Issue 2]
	+ In the original issue, only Rick and Glenn head to the camp.

## Goofs/Errors

* Despite shaving in the previous episode, Rick sports significant stubble.
* When Rick picks up the M67 fragmentation grenade in the tank, it has a noticeably blue safety lever. This indicates that it is an M69 training grenade, which are completely blue. An actual M67 is entirely green.
* Some walkers in this episode are conspicuously more dexterous and agile than throughout the remainder of the series. This counters the conventional notion that the walkers only have enough mental capacity for their base need for food. One has the dexterity to hold a large rock overhead and smash it repeatedly into the glass door of the department store - using tools is an advanced skill. Later, one walker displays significant agility by scaling the fence at the construction site.
* When Rick and Glenn get to the truck in the construction site, they're forced to reverse from a horde of walkers. Rick looks behind him to back up even though the truck has no rear window. He would have had to look in his side mirrors to see behind them.
* Rick tells Glenn that the roll-up doors are at the front of the Department Store when they are in the back.

## Gallery

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

## References

1. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the\_walking\_dead/s01/e02
2. ↑ https://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-02/guts
3. ↑ April Sperry, Fan Theory Suggests 'Breaking Bad' Could Be Prequel To 'The Walking Dead', *The Huffington Post*, (April 1, 2014).