Vatos (Episode)

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

The episode was written by the comic creator Robert Kirkman and directed by Johan Renck. It premiered on Nov. 21, 2010.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has a score of 91%, with an average rating of 8.32 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads: "*Vatos* establishes an early *The Walking Dead* benchmark, with plenty of action moments, rising character arcs, and a final scene that packs a wallop."

## Plot

Rick's mission to Atlanta is jeopardized when things go awry. Jim becomes unhinged in camp.

## Synopsis

Andrea and Amy are sitting in a canoe on the quarry lake fishing. They talk about how their father taught them different fishing knots based on Andrea's need to catch the fish, and Amy's need to throw them back in the water. Both feel nostalgic when they realize that their entire family was possibly dead and that now they only counted on each other. In the distance, Dale is keeping watch on top of his RV when suddenly he notices Jim furiously digging holes in a nearby field above the camp.

On the rooftop in Atlanta, an enraged Daryl points his crossbow at T-Dog but eventually relents when Rick aims his revolver at him and threatens to shoot. Daryl puts his crossbow down and then asks T-Dog for a do-rag in which he proceeds to fold up Merle's hand and place it in Glenn's backpack. They notice a trail of blood heading towards the door and decide to follow it to find Merle.
Back at the camp, Dale approaches to talk to Jim, who refuses to answer why he was digging the holes. Meanwhile, Amy and Andrea present the group with their large lines of fish they obtained. Carl asks them to teach him how to fish like that while Lori remains impressed by the sisters' efforts. Dale interrupts the excitement to express concern over Jim and points him in the nearby still digging.

In the store, Daryl shoots another walker with his crossbow and notes that his brother managed to kill two other walkers in the room. The trail of blood leads them to a kitchen, where they find Sterno cans burning next to a piece of iron crusted with skin. They speculate that Merle had cauterized his stump and had escaped from the building through the window. Rick agrees to help Daryl search the streets for his brother but T-Dog replies they need to retrieve the bag of guns first.

At the camp, the group approaches Jim to find out what was happening, but he continues without explaining why he was digging. Lori tells him that he was scaring the kids and Shane suggests taking a break. Jim refuses to obey asking defiantly if he was going to beat him just as he had done with Ed and then swings his shovel at Shane, who tackles him. Subdued, Jim cries over the death of his wife and children, revealing that the only reason he managed to escape alive was because the walkers were busy eating his family.
In an abandoned office in Atlanta, Glenn outlines a plan to retrieve the bag of guns on an old whiteboard. Daryl will cover his back from the alley behind the store, while Rick and T-Dog will cover him from a second alley two blocks away. Daryl asks him his profession before the outbreak and Glenn answers that he delivered pizzas, which impresses both Rick and Daryl.

Glenn carries out his plan and runs to the tank. In the alley, a teenager named Miguel sneaks up on Daryl from behind. Daryl quickly turns and points his crossbow at him, so Miguel begins to scream for help in Spanish. Glenn picks up the bag of guns and Rick's hat just in time and heads back to where Daryl was. Upon hearing the screams, Rick and T-Dog run towards the alley as well to find out what was happening. Daryl is jumped by two men, Felipe and Jorge, looking for the bag of guns, who attack Glenn when he arrives at the alley. Daryl manages to shoot an arrow into Felipe's hindquarters, causing him to drop the bag while yelling in pain. Felipe and Jorge instead kidnap Glenn and drive away, leaving Miguel and the bag of guns behind. Daryl closes the gate as walkers arrive.

At the camp, Shane has tied up Jim to a tree and is offering him some water. Jim apologizes for scaring the children before and then Dale asks him again why he had been digging the holes. Jim reveals that it was because of something he had dreamed of the night before, but that he no longer remembered. Shane concludes that he possibly only suffered from heatstroke and promises to release him once he feels better. When everyone leaves, Jim again apologizes to Lori but ominously tells her not to let Carl out of her sight no matter what.
Back inside the abandoned office building, Rick and the others are confused about what just happened and then they decide to hatch a plan to rescue Glenn. Although Miguel initially refuses to collaborate with them, Daryl persuades him by scaring him with Merle's severed hand.

A tied-up Miguel leads Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog to an abandoned factory, where the leader of the enemy group, Guillermo, emerges. Rick proposes trading Miguel for Glenn, but Guillermo demands that he also wants the bag of guns and gives them two options: either next time they return with Miguel and the bag of guns in return for Glenn or they return armed and ready to fight.

The group retreats to a nearby office, where Daryl argues that the guns are more valuable than Glenn, but Rick insists he owes him his life and tells Daryl and T-Dog to head back to the campsite. They refuse to let him go alone and decide to follow him. Carrying the guns on his back, Rick escorts Miguel into the warehouse and cuts him loose. He then demands one last time for Glenn to be released. Guillermo still refuses and both groups raise their guns at each other.

An old woman wearing a nightgown shuffles into the middle of the standoff and asks Felipe for help with Mr. Gilbert. She notices Rick's uniform and begs him not to take Felipe away. Rick tells her that Felipe is helping him find a missing person and she reveals to know where Glenn is. The woman leads Rick into the auditorium of a nursing home, where several elderly people and Glenn are gathered around an asthmatic man. Felipe helps the man with an inhaler. In private, Rick berates Guillermo for having almost started a meaningless war, but he says he was only trying to protect the residents and explains that the staff abandoned all the patients, leaving only himself and Felipe behind. Rick then decides to share half of the guns with them.
Walking back to the van, Glenn jokes that Rick only returned back to Atlanta for his hat. They discover that someone had taken the van and Rick blames Merle directly. Daryl predicts that he could possibly exact revenge at the camp and they take off running for the hills with no other cars in sight.
Back at the camp, Andrea searches through the RV looking for wrapping paper. She reveals to Dale that her sister's birthday was the next day, showing him the mermaid necklace she took from the department store, and he assures her that he'll find something. Outside, the group is preparing for a fish cookout while Carl walks to the tree with Shane, who frees Jim and invites him to the fish fry.

In the Peletier family tent, Ed, with his bruised and swollen face, broods in his bed and angrily rejects Carol's invitation to join the group at dinner. He grabs Sophia by the arm and tells her to keep him company that night, which prompts a bewildered Carol to forcefully take her daughter away from him and leave the tent.

Sitting around the campfire, Morales asks Dale why he still wears his watch every day. Dale replies that it is important to keep track of time, paraphrasing a Faulkner parable about a father giving his son a watch: "the mausoleum of all hope and desire". Not understanding what he meant, Amy calls him weird and then gets up to go the RV to use the bathroom. Meanwhile, Ed hears rustling outside his tent and when he unzips it, he finds a walker who topples on him, biting his neck as more walkers swarm inside the tent devouring him.

Amy emerges from the RV, complaining that they're out of toilet paper, as a walker approaches from behind the door and bites her arm. Her screams sents the campsite into panic as walkers attack from all directions, grabbing and devouring people. Shane orders Lori to get Carl into the RV as he fires his shotgun. Jim and Morales beat down walkers with baseball bats while Dale helps defend a scared Carol and Sophia. A great massacre breaks out.
As they run towards the camp, Rick and the others hear gunshots in the distance and speed up their pace. Back at the RV, Amy screams in pain as a large chunk of her neck is bit by the same walker who bit her arm. Jim manages to get to Amy and ends with the walker attacking her. Tearfully, Andrea runs to help her sister but there is not much she can do as Amy is dying from blood loss.

Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and T-Dog arrive and shoot at the remaining walkers. The survivors begin to catch their breath as Rick reunites with his scared family and calms them down. With her last strength, Amy touches Andrea's face and dies. Sobbing, Andrea screams her sister's name and the group looks on in sadness. Jim finally remembers his dream and why he dug the holes.

## 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
* Noel Gugliemi as Felipe
* Adam Minarovich as Ed Peletier
* Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier
* Jeryl Prescott Sales as Jacqui
* Madison Lintz as Sophia Peletier
* Maddie Lomax as Eliza Morales
* Neil Brown Jr. as Guillermo
* Anthony Guajardo as Miguel
* Gina Morelli as Abuela
* James Gonzaba as Jorge

Uncredited* Viviana Chavez-Vega as Miranda Morales
* Noah Lomax as Louis Morales
* Unknown as Mr. Gilbert
* Greg Nicotero as Walker

## Deaths

* Jim's Wife *(Confirmed Fate)*
* Jim's Two Sons *(Confirmed Fate)*
* Ed Peletier
* Amy *(Alive)*
* At least 13 unnamed Atlanta camp survivors
* Several fishes

## Trivia

* First (and last) appearance of Guillermo.
* First (and last) appearance of Felipe.
* First (and last) appearance of Miguel.
* First (and last) appearance of Jorge.
* First (and last) appearance of Mr. Gilbert.
* Last appearance of Amy. *(Alive)*
* Last appearance of Ed Peletier. *(Alive)*
* The title of this episode, **"Vatos"**, refers to the name of the opposing group that Rick encounters.
	+ Oddly enough, in the previous episode, Morales described Rick as a "crazy vato".
* This is the only episode of Season 1 written by Robert Kirkman.
	+ According to Kirkman, this episode caused him nostalgia and satisfaction when he wrote it because he had to work again with characters who were already dead in the Comics.
* Greg Nicotero portrayed the walker that kills Amy.
	+ Emma Bell stated that Nicotero placed a prosthetic around her neck, which consisted of a layer of red liquid. Once it was bitten into, the prosthetic exploded and resembled a severed flesh wound.

## Comic Parallels

* The group having a bonfire and sharing stories.[Issue 5]
* The walker attack on the Atlanta camp during the night.[Issue 5]
* Amy being bitten on the neck by a walker and dying of blood loss.[Issue 5]
* The survivors in shock during the aftermath of the camp attack.[Issue 5]

## Goofs/Errors

* Once Shane tackles Jim, pinning him down after he is digging holes, Jim expresses what had happened to his wife and sons. In this shot, we see him pinned down to the ground, his hat knocked off. But in the next shot, Jim's hat is back on his head.
* In several close-up scenes of Daryl with the crossbow, you can clearly see that it's not loaded correctly. The nock of the bolt is resting well above the bowstring and no way would it fire properly.
* When Abuela appears during the stand-off, Rick lowers his rifle towards the ground, away from Guillermo. In the next shot, there is a jump-cut, as the rifle is suddenly back up, pointed at Guillermo again. We then see Rick lowering the rifle a second time from a different angle.

## Gallery

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

## References

1. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the\_walking\_dead/s01/e04
2. ↑ https://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-04/vatos
3. ↑ Blogs AMC
4. ↑ Inside The Walking Dead: 104, "Vatos", *AMC* (November 21, 2010)