Rick Grimes

**Rick Grimes** is the protagonist of The Walking Dead who was first encountered in the first episode of the series. Rick has been described as an everyman who emphasizes moral codes and values.

A police deputy from Cynthiana, Kentucky, awakens from a coma to find the world infested with zombies. He searches for his wife, and son, and encounters many survivors along the way.

## Pre-Apocalypse

Rick was a police officer, where he was assigned a partner, and soon best friend, Shane. Life for Rick was perfect, with a burgeoning career in the police force and the happy news of Lori's pregnancy. Soon they had a son whom they named Carl.

## Post-Apocalypse

### Season 1

#### Days Gone Bye

At the beginning of the series, Rick was wounded in a shoot-out, and was put into a coma for about a month. Upon awakening, Rick finds the hospital and the rest of the town desolated and overrun by zombies. Rick remains dazed by all of the confusion as he stumbles out of the hospital and onto the streets of Cynthiana. He makes his way out of the hospital and uses a bike to get back to his house.

He arrives and finds it deserted, he breaks down and after a few minutes heads outside to think, however he is soon hit in the back of the head with a shovel. He wakes up, having been knocked out by the blow to the head, and sees that he is in the house of his old next door neighbors. He is greeted by a man named Morgan Jones, who explains that he and his son Duane Jones have taken refuge in the house. He informs Rick of the outbreak that has happened during his time in a coma. Morgan also informs him that the government was telling everyone to go to Atlanta. Rick is overjoyed upon hearing this, as he sees that Lori might have taken Carl to Atlanta to stay with her parents. He also realizes that he will need both a car and guns. To accomplish this, Rick takes Morgan and Duane to his police department and supplies them with guns, ammo, and a car. He then leaves Morgan and Duane in Cynthiana, so he can go to Atlanta. Along the way, Rick's car runs out of gas, so he decides to continue the trek on foot. Along the way he finds a farm house and goes inside to try and borrow some gas. Upon his entry, he sees that the entire family killed themselves during the initial outbreak. He goes around to the stable, and finds a horse and a hatchet (this becomes his main weapon throughout the rest of the series). He rides the horse for the rest of the trip to Atlanta.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, he finds the entire city overrun. His horse soon becomes spooked, and falls over. The horse is quickly swarmed and eaten, leaving Rick to try and fend for himself. He hides in a tank, all hope seeming lost.

#### City of the Damned

Rick, after looking around at the scene outside the tank, makes an escape from it, and begins to rush away from the dead, using his hatchet and revolver to kill the roamers. He rushes away, before a hand stops him, revealing Glenn, shocking Rick. Glenn calms him down as he catches breath, Glenn telling him, “I can get you out of here. Follow me.”, then telling him to stop using his gun. The two hurry up a ladder to the roof, and stop to catch their breaths. Rick looks down at the dead swarming the area below them, as Glenn introduces himself to Rick in a rush, before jumping across the building. Rick tells him there’s no way in hell, but Glenn informs him this is the only way off that rooftop, and it's safer to go down from this one. Rick jumps across, barely making it, before being helped up by Glenn. Rick rolls to his back, catching his breath, and asks Glenn why he stuck his neck out for him back there, to which Glenn replies, "Call it foolish, naïve hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody would do the same for me. Guess that makes me an even bigger dumbass than you," leaving him in thought.

Glenn takes Rick to where the rest of his group is, and is greeted with panicked survivors, including Jacqui who puts a gun in his face. As they begin to talk about the surrounding roamers outside, gunshots are heard, causing them to go up. They find Merle firing at walkers in the street with a scoped rifle. After a argument with T-Dog, Rick hits Merle with the butt of the rifle and handcuffs him to a pipe. "Things are different now. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart." Rick tells Merle as he holds a gun to his head. Merle challenges that he wouldn't shoot him because he's a cop, but Rick answers, "All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anyone who gets in the way of that is gonna lose." He finds a stash of cocaine in Merle's shirt pocket and tosses the canister over the roof, much to Merle's chagrin.

With the streets no longer safe, Rick suggests they try to escape underground. At the front of the store, Rick and Andrea keep watch. Rick is quiet, as he messes with his revolver. Andrea notices this, and walks up to him, and begin to introduce each other. Andrea spots a necklace with a mermaid pendant. Rick encourages her to take it, insisting shoplifting rules don't apply anymore. Andrea pockets the necklace, when the walkers break through the exterior glass doors and begin pounding on the interior set. Back on the roof, Rick spots a cube van at a nearby construction site a few blocks away. The group discusses the difficulty of moving past the walkers undetected. Rick mentions that the sound of his gun got them into this situation, maybe they can use sound to get them out of it. Glenn asks how they’re going to do that, as Rick eyes him. Glenn “Oh no… seriously, again?” Glenn asks, to which he nods. Before leaving, Rick tosses T-Dog the key to Merle's handcuffs outside of his view.

Rick and Glenn leave out the back, Rick killing one lone roamer before the two creep towards the side. Glenn asks what he was doing there, and Rick admits he was in a coma, saying he woke up in the hospital yesterday. He asks what happened to all the people here? Glenn says that’s them, pointing towards the dead. He tells Rick about the cities, and what happened, asking if he had family. Rick is shocked, and says his wife and son. He explains where he’s from, and figured they’d go to Atlanta. Glenn says he’s seen people survive crazy shit, including a man who made it out of Atlanta. He explains everyone was mostly late comers, so they set up camp, and were surviving together. Rick wipes a tear and says got to keep up hope, and right now get out of here.

Back in Atlanta, Rick and Glenn keep making their way down the street, as Morales uses the last of the ammo. Suddenly, several dead step out of alleyways in front of them, as Morales radios down that he’s out of ammo. Rick turns to Glenn, telling him to run. Rick and Glenn fight the roamers in front of them while continuing to run to the construction site where the cube van is as the group on the rooftop watches. They are able to make it over the fence uninjured. Rick shoots at roamers while Glenn locates the keys. The crowd of roamers knocks down the fence and charges at them, but they speed away in the van just in time. Rick orders Glenn to radio the group to get ready for pick-up, and mentions that they will need a way to lure the walkers away from the department store, eyeing a red Ford Mustang. Rick smashes the driver's side window to gain entry, causing the car's alarm to blare loudly. Outside the loading bay at the back entrance of the store, with the walkers lured away by Glenn's car alarm, Rick pulls the van up and the group piles in, catching their breath as they drive away from the city.

#### Our Horrific Adventures

Rick is seen driving back to camp in the Cube Van, as Morales tries to comfort him about leaving behind Merle, and that only his brother will miss him. Rick is the last to exit the van, as the others call for him. He steps out slowly, and looks up to see Shane, the two staring at each other in shock as his son Carl, and his wife Lori rush towards him. He begins to break down and cry as the three embrace. Shane walks up to them, and tells Rick how good it is to see him.

Later that night around the campfire, Rick describes waking up in the hospital alone, and thanks Shane for helping to save his family. The two quickly discuss the guns he took. He later volunteers to deliver the news to Daryl about Merle's abandonment. In the tent that night, he says goodnight to Carl before exiting the tent, and finding Lori in front of it. He tells her how he knew they were alive, and tells her it was okay they left him. As Lori returns his wedding ring, she notices how badly he's shaking. He admits he hasn't had the chance to be scared yet. Lori reassures him, and the two have sex.

The next morning, he finds Donna ironing his uniform, and thanks her. He find Lori and others preparing laundry, and begins to tell her his plan to return to Atlanta before he's interrupted with screams. After Jacqui explains there is a Roamer in the woods, he and several men rush in, and begin to attack it before Rick swipes his hatchet, and decapitates it. He is soon introduces to Daryl, and as they all walk back to camp, informs him about Merle. After Daryl is calmed down with force, they make a plan to leave to rescue him.

Rick convinces Shane, and to a lesser extent Lori that he needs to leave, and wants to also bring Glenn along. After cutting a deal with Dale for a set of bolt-cutters, the four begin to prepare to leave. Shane gives Rick a single bullet for his revolver, and wishes him luck. Before Rick can enter the van, Dale comes up to him, and warns him of Shane. Rick brushes his off, and says he's known her for years, and they're just friends. Rick gets into the van, and loads his gun as Glenn drives off. Before they can get too far, Rick asks Glenn about Jim.

In Atlanta, he and the three other survivors make their way up to the department store, only to find Merle's amputated hand, and him nowhere in sight. He watches on silently as Daryl yells in grief.

#### Inner City Blues

On the rooftop, a still raging Daryl aims his crossbow at T-Dog, prompting Rick to pull out his revolver, and aim it at him, telling him that he doesn't care if every roamer in the city hears him shoot it. The four trail the blood to a kitchen, where they find a burning blowtorch. They realized he cauterized the wound, and must've escaped. Rick agrees to Daryl to help search for his brother. After Glenn hatches a plan to retrieve the bags, Rick and T-Dog stay behind in another alley, to warn them of any dead. They leave after they realize the Roamers become aware of their presence.

Back at the store, Rick goes through the bag, and realizes a few things are missing. As they begin to leave, they realize the van is gone, and it is eventually decided that they will go to the gun store instead of heading back right away. They begin to figure out a plan to get to the store safely. Rick retrieves a roamer Daryl killed on the way in, and begins to tell them his theory on smell, and begins to chop up the roamer. He gives some guts to Glenn, and the two smear themselves in the guts and blood. Daryl places his brother's hand in Rick's pocket, and the four part ways.

As he and Glenn move toward the store, they test out the theory on a loan roamer, and realize it has no interest in them. They arrive at the store, and Rick breaks the door down with his hatchet. The two begin to collect as much as they can into a shopping cart as the roamers begin to come towards the sound. As they exit, it begins to downpour, and the roamers begin to take notice of them. Rick is forced to kill a roamer with his hatchet as the two begin to rush. The cart crashes and Rick begins shooting the roamers while Glenn picks the guns up. A roamer bites Rick's shoulder but he manages to kill it, and the pair are able to continue their escape. The two get outside of the city limits towards the spot, and Rick tears off his jacket, relieved to see that the roamer did not break his skin. Rick asks Glenn not to tell Lori about the close encounter.

#### A Matter of Time

Rick climbs up to the top of the RV at night, startling Shane, and begins to talk to him about the possibility of moving camp. The two argue back and forth for a bit, before Rick finally relents, the two settling on training the others more. Rick attempts to change the subject, before Dale comes out, and yells at them. A few weeks later, Rick is seen watching over the camp as they practice their shooting. He goes to Carl, who excitedly rushes off to practice his aim, much to the dismay of Lori. Rick watches as Carl practices, and before the camp starts to head back, announces Carl will have his own gun, and asks for help watching him. Lori, still upset, walks off without him, and he and Dale walk back together.

Once arriving back, Rick greets Allen, before Shane walks up to him, and alerts him of the need of firewood. The two former cops, along with Dale, go out to chop it, talking to each other about camp drama. A comment Rick makes sets off Shane, who storms off back to camp. As they arrive back to camp, Jim is spotted digging holes. He goes with Shane, but watches as Shane handles Jim. He later is apart of a few men that discuss what to do with him. Daryl brings up the need for more food, and Rick asks to tag along with him to hunt

In the woods, the two men talk about his thoughts on moving camp, along with other things. The two return as the rest of the camp is at the fire, and Rick begins to ask the others about their backstories. After Carol shares her story, Amy gets up, heading to the RV, but is bitten by a roamer. Rick and Shane react quickly, and begin shooting at the dead, but are quickly overwhelmed as the camp begins to panic. Rick rushes to Amy, but informs Andrea that she had died. After the camp clears the dead, Lori rushes over and hugs Rick, apologizing for being so mad at him, and that she's sorry. The two embrace as Jim is discovered to have been bitten.

## Killed Victims

This list shows the victims Rick has killed:

* Bicycle Girl *(Zombified)*

## Relationships

### Shane

Shane is Rick's best friend. He was the one who took Rick to the hospital after getting shot in the line of duty.

### Morgan Jones

One of the single most important survivors of the zombie apocalypse in Rick's life. He owed Morgan his life after leaving the hospital in Cynthiana after the surviving Jones family received him. After filling him in on the current situation of the world, Morgan and his son Duane would part ways with Rick and remain dormant.

### Glenn

Glenn saved Rick's life in Atlanta, and later helped him escape the city, inviting him back to his camp.

## Appearances

### The Walking Dead

#### Season 1

* Days Gone Bye
* City of the Damned
* Our Horrific Adventures
* Inner City Blues
* A Matter of Time

## Trivia

* Rick is the first person to speak in the series.
* As of episode 5, Rick is the only person to appear in each episode of the series.