City of the Damned

Poster used for the second episode.

"**City of the Damned**" is the second episode of the first season of *The Walking Dead*. It is the second episode of the series overall.

## Plot

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

## Synopsis

In a camp set in a forest outside of Atlanta, survivors are busy with various tasks. From the roof of an RV, Orlando watches the perimeter of the camp, while Dale sits, messing with a radio. A young blonde woman walks up to him, asking him why he keeps messing with that thing. “You haven’t heard anyone in weeks!” She says playfully, while he shrugs her off and keeps messing with the radio. Another survivor, Jim, can be seen eating a can of beans a few feet away from them.

Suddenly, a garbled message plays over the radio, much to the shock of the four able to hear it. Dale quickly picks it up, attempting to contact the man, but is unable to do so. Dale continues once more, before giving it up, saying he must be barely in reach of them, and wonders if he’ll attempt another message. He playfully teases Amy back, to which Amy claims it’ll he just got lucky. Orlando shouts down at them, telling Amy “Be nice! Let the old man have his fun!”

Back in Atlanta, Rick sits in the tank, the sound of the dead flooding back to him as he still regains his hearing. He slowly opens up the hatch, spotting the bag of guns, past where the dead were mainly collected around, eating the horse, but still surrounded. He eyes a small opening, quickly hurrying out of the tank, and down below onto the street. He kills one with his hatchet, but gets stuck in its neck. He quickly pulls out his revolver, firing three shots at the dead, killing them all, before finally freeing his hatchet as the dead quickly surround him.

As he rushes down an alleyway, a hand reaches out to stop the panicking Rick, who yells in shock. 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. Glenn begins to sass him, calling him Clint Eastwood and cowboy. 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 urges him along, mentioning that his group is up ahead. Glenn worries that there’s still a lot of dead around, much more than before. T-Dog steps out from the building, and yells inside that Glenn is back. The three rush in as dead rush towards them, T-Dog locking and securing the door. Inside, Jacqui points a gun at him, "We're dead because of you," she tells him. Morales gets her to back off, but informs Rick that his gunshots have attracted numerous hordes of geeks. "You just rang the dinner bell," The group's attention turns to a crowd of roamers outside that are slamming themselves against the outer set of glass-pane doors, furiously trying to gain entry. They begin to question what he’s doing wandering around the city like that as gunshots are heard overhead, "Oh god, is that Dixon?" Andrea says in disbelief, as they all leave to investigate.

On the rooftop, the group finds Merle firing at walkers in the street with a scoped rifle. Morales and T-Dog chastise Merle for wasting bullets and attracting more walkers. Merle scoffs at them and calls T-Dog "n\*gger," triggering a fight. Merle easily subdues T-Dog and presses a handgun to his forehead, before spitting on his chest and proposing a change in leadership. The group is forced to vote in favor of Merle being their new leader. Suddenly, 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.

Later, Morales informs Rick there's no refugee center and that they are part of a larger group of survivors staying outside the city, but T-Dog can't reach them on the radio. Merle, still handcuffed to the pipe, insults Andrea by calling her a whore, but she stands her ground. "We're on our own," Rick says. With the streets no longer safe, Rick suggests they try to escape underground. Jacqui, who formerly worked in the Atlanta zoning office, mentions that the old building might have a flood tunnel that would provide access to the sewers, prompting the group to head back downstairs to the basement. T-Dog stays behind to keep an eye on Merle, and to continue attempting to make contact with the rest of the group outside of Atlanta.

In the basement, Glenn, Rick, Andrea, Morales, and Jacqui stand at the top of a ladder that descends into darkness. Glenn infers that they all seem to expect him to be the one to explore the depths and concocts a plan to send Rick and Andrea to watch the storefront, Jacqui to stand atop the ladder to warn of danger, and Morales to come with him into the sewer.

On 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, asking him his name. He tells her his name, and asks her the same. She tells him, and proceeds to tell him the others. “There’s more back at our camp… including my sister.” She tells him. Rick asks how many of them there are, and she tells him just over twenty something.

Back on the roof, T-Dog is still unsuccessfully trying to radio the others, and Merle tries to convince him to get the hacksaw in the bag of tools to set him free. He scoffs at Merle's offer. "I guess you want me to get that rifle over there, too, so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up." Meanwhile, Glenn and Morales travel through the sewer until they reach a grated barrier. They discuss ways to cut through, but they soon abandon the idea when they see a walker devouring a rat on the other side. The roamer reaches at them through the grate and they step back.

In the store, Andrea spots a necklace with a mermaid pendant. "My sister, she's still such a kid in some ways... She loves mermaids." She says. 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. Glenn, Morales, and Jacqui arrive to report that the sewer is not an option.

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. Morales says maybe we can just try to force our way through, killing them, but is shot down by Jacqui for being too dangerous. Merle says we can use live bait, motioning towards T-Dog, who tells him to go fuck himself. 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 says he forgot to ask, and he knows the others were trying to ask… but what the hell was he doing out here. 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.

Glenn radios back up to the top, where Morales sits with a rifle. He tells him to begin shooting, and he does, quickly shooting out a car window. The sound attracts a few away, as another shot pops off, a few more leaving. Rick and Glenn hurry out of the alley, seeing the road towards the truck beginning to thin out from the dead. Back in the store, T-Dog tries again to radio the others. Merle gets let in on the plan for the first time, and he scoffs, "That asshole's out on the street with the handcuff keys?" T-Dog holds up the key and dangles it tauntingly. Merle's face drops.

Back at camp, Amy frets over the whereabouts of the group and her sister. "It's late. They should have been back by now". Dale, working on his RV's troublesome radiator hose with Jim, reasons with Amy that worrying won't make it better. Suddenly, the radio crackles and squeaks, and T-Dog's garbled transmission comes through, explaining that they're trapped in the department store, surrounded by hundreds of walkers. Allen responds to the transmission but only radio silence follows.

Back in Atlanta, Rick and Glenn keep making their way down the street, as Morales uses the last of the ammo. He asks Merle if he has any more ammo, but Merle says he just used the last of it. 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. On the roof, the group worries that they're being left behind.

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 Dodge Challenger sports car. Rick smashes the driver's side window to gain entry, causing the car's alarm to blare loudly.

The group grabs their bags and rushes from the rooftop toward the loading dock, with no concern for unlocking Merle's handcuffs. T-Dog reluctantly turns back as Merle begs and runs with the key in hand to set him free. In the midst of all this, he accidentally slips on the roof and drops the handcuff key down a drain while also dropping the tool bag, making the hacksaw and other tools spill out. "I'm sorry," T-Dog gasps, while Merle accuses him of dropping the key on purpose. He runs back to the stairwell and starts going down again while hearing Merle screaming in rage. He goes back up and chains the door shut so that the roamers can't get to him.

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. They look around at one another and a guilt-ridden T-Dog admits to the others he dropped the key, leaving Merle trapped on the roof, still handcuffed to a pipe. Andrea then asks, "Where's Glenn?"

On the road, Glenn drives the red Dodge Challenger and speeds out of Atlanta while screaming in celebration.

## Credits

* Rick Grimes
* Glenn
* Dale
* Amy
* Orlando
* Jim
* Allen
* T-Dog
* Andrea
* Morales
* Jacqui
* Merle Dixon
* Rick Grimes' Horse (Dead)

## Mentioned

* Lori Grimes
* Carl Grimes

## Trivia

### First and Last Appearances

* First appearance of Glenn
* First appearance of Dale
* First appearance of Amy
* First appearance of Orlando
* First appearance of Jim
* First appearance of Allen
* First appearance of T-Dog
* First appearance of Andrea
* First appearance of Morales
* First appearance of Jacqui
* First appearance of Merle Dixon
* Last appearance of Rick Grimes' Horse (Dead)

### Other Trivia

* First episode to be only 60 minutes long.
* The title of the episode, **"City of the Damned"**, refers to the setting of the episode, Atlanta.
* Merle's introduction is the first time a human antagonist is featured in the series.