Days Gone Bye

"**Days Gone Bye**" is the first episode of the first season (and the first episode overall) of *The Walking Dead*.

The premiere was written and directed by the creator and showrunner Frank Darabont. It premiered on Oct. 31, 2010.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has a score of 100%, with an average rating of 8.08 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads: "*The Walking Dead*'s debut delivers intense horror set apart by its focus on tragedy and the human condition -- not to mention awesome zombie kills."

## Plot

Rick searches for his family after emerging from a coma into a world terrorized by the walking dead. Morgan and Duane, whom he meets along the way, help teach Rick the new rules for survival.

## Synopsis

On a deserted highway, Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes drives his police cruiser past overturned cars until he finds a blockade. He takes a gas can out of the trunk and walks past the remains of more wrecked and abandoned cars with corpses inside towards a gas station, where a handmade sign hanging reads "NO GAS". While searching around, Rick catches a glimpse of the slippered feet of a little girl on the other side of a car picking up a teddy bear from the ground and then calls her with some fear. The little girl turns and shows that her lower lip and half of her right cheek have been brutally torn off and is dripping blood. She starts moving towards him while growling, and a disillusioned Rick draws his Colt Python and shoots her in the head with sorrow.

Several weeks ago, Rick and his partner and best friend from childhood, Shane Walsh, eat hamburgers inside their police cruiser and joke about the differences between men and women. When the conversation turns to Rick's wife, Lori, he becomes somber and tells to his friend that Lori accused him that morning of not caring about his family in front of their son, Carl, and concludes that the difference between men and women was that he would never say something cruel to her. A radio signal informs them about a high-speed pursuit in progress and they drive away to the scene.
When they arrive, Rick and Shane lay down a spike strip in the middle of the road and meet up with their co-workers, Lambert Kendal and Leon Basset. While they wait for the car, Leon gets excited about their chances of appearing on a police chase reality show, before Rick tells him to focus. The getaway car starts approaching, pursued by two cruisers containing the Linden County officers, and speeds over the spike strip, shredding the tires and rolling over down several times into a field.

Rick carefully approaches the wrecked car when two men emerge from the vehicle and start shooting, with one of them hitting him in the bulletproof vest. The other officers immediately shoot at both criminals and Shane runs over to check on his friend. Rick gets up and tells him to never tell Lori of what just happened. Unnoticed by everyone, a third criminal emerges from the car and shoots Rick, hitting him in the side. He falls to the ground bleeding as Shane kills the man before rushing to Rick's aid, and begging him to stay awake, but Rick remains motionless and passes out. Following this, Shane delivers flowers to Rick in the hospital and talks to him, but Rick isn't fully conscious.

Some unknown time later, Rick wakes up in his hospital room, sweaty and unshaven, and responds to Shane, only to discover he is alone. He notices that the flowers have wilted, the beeping of the machines has stopped and the clock isn't working. After calling a nurse for help and getting no response, Rick tries to open the door and notices a gurney blocking the entrance. He pushes it aside and walks down the dark and disheveled hallway towards the nurse's station to try the phone, but the line it's dead. Through a doorway, Rick sees the mutilated body of a nurse missing most of her skin.

Continuing further down the hallway, the walls are covered with blood and numerous bullet holes. The double door of the cafeteria has been locked with a chain and has a disturbing message that reads: "DON'T OPEN/DEAD INSIDE." Several pale and dirty fingers start to reach through the cracks, moaning and groaning. Rick stumbles backwards scared and exits through a heavy door outside the hospital into the loading bay, where there are hundreds of decayed, fly-covered bodies wrapped in sheets and arranged in several rows and piles. He leaves the hospital and stumbles up a hill where a military helicopter and other signs of a military cordon have been abandoned.

Rick wanders down the street and manages to spot an abandoned bicycle in a park. As he reaches for it, the badly decayed and legless body of a mutilated woman turns and tries to reach for him, pathetically moaning of hunger. Startled, Rick falls to the ground confused but regains himself a moment later, mounts the bike, and hastily rides away. He arrives at his home only to find the front door open and the house completely deserted. Helpless and confused, Rick cries on the floor while shouting the names of Lori and Carl, and then starts to question if he's actually dreaming everything.

Heading back outside, Rick sees the silhouette of a man stumbling down the road and tries to get his attention when a young boy hits him in the back of the head with a shovel. Disoriented over the hit, Rick whispers Carl's name in confusion while the young boy yells at his father that he has found one of the undead. The boy's father, Morgan Jones, approaches the stumbling man Rick was waving to and shoots him in the head. Morgan is surprised that his son has found a living person and aggressively asks Rick about the bandage he was wearing. Before he can answer, Rick passes out.
That night, Rick wakes up tied to a bed while the young boy, Duane, stands guard with a baseball bat. Having changed his bandages, Morgan asks if he was bitten, but Rick remains confused and says that he was only shot as far as he knows. After checking his forehead to confirm that he doesn't have a fever, Morgan warns Rick of not trying anything because he'll kill him and then releases him.
Rick looks around and recognizes the house as that of his neighbors. Morgan claims he found it abandoned. Rick then tries to open a window before Morgan stops him and admits that he shouldn't have fired that gun in the street earlier because now they were all over the block. Rick accuses him of killing a man in cold blood, but Morgan corrects him and says that it was a walker.

While the trio has dinner, Morgan explains to Rick that the man he shot would have tried to eat them and warns him that he should not let himself be bitten by the infected, because the bites would kill and turn a person into one of the undead. After dinner, Rick talks to Morgan about his son and also reveals that he was a Sheriff's deputy. When a car alarm goes off outside, the trio turns off the lights. Through the covered windows and boarded up doors, Rick and Morgan look out at the street, which is full of walkers attracted by the noise. When a woman wearing a nightgown appears, Duane runs to hide and cries as Morgan follows to console him. Rick watches in confusion as the woman walks to the door of the house and tries to open it. With pain and sorrow, Morgan confesses to Rick that the woman was his wife, who died in that house and whom he hasn't been able to put down.

The next morning, Morgan teaches Rick how to properly kill the walkers by practicing with one that was sitting on the pavement. Although Rick has doubts about whether these people were really dead, Morgan assures him that they were and that he can only take them down by destroying their brains. Back in the house, Rick tells Morgan that he believed his family was still alive because he found the empty clothes drawers and also the family photographs had disappeared. Morgan remembers that his wife also took the photo albums when it all started and gets a little emotional. Duane suggests to Rick that his family is probably in the city of Atlanta, and then Morgan explains that the early broadcasts said that there was a shelter for survivors with military protection and food, as well as some rumors that the CDC was working on a possible cure.
Rick, Morgan and Duane head to the King County Sheriff's Department, where they enjoy a hot shower thanks to a separate propane heating system. As they dress, Morgan tells Rick that his family was headed to Atlanta too but never made it because his wife got bit, and after she died they just stayed hunkered down in that house. Afterwards, Rick packs a duffel bag with guns and changes into his sheriff's uniform and hat. He also hands Morgan a rifle and some ammunition for his protection.

After loading the weapons into the trunk of his cruiser, Rick prepares to leave for Atlanta while Morgan assures him that he will follow in a few days since he needed to teach Duane how to shoot first. Rick gives Morgan a walkie-talkie and instructs him to turn it on every day at dawn to make contact. Before leaving, Rick spots an undead Leon on the other side of the fence and shoots him in the head to put him out of his misery. They both get in their vehicles and drive in opposite directions.
Upon returning home, Morgan climbs into the attic with the rifle that Rick gave him. He looks at old family photos and starts shooting at the walkers roaming the streets while searching for his wife to finally put her down, but when he has her in his sight, he is still unable to do it and breaks down in tears. Meanwhile, Rick returns to the park where he found the half-torso walker and, after apologizing for what had happened to her, shots her in the head to put her out of her misery.
En route to Atlanta, Rick sends out a broadcast through the radio in search of other people. In a camp on the outskirts of the city, a group of survivors receives the weak transmission and a young woman named Amy tries to warn him not to go to Atlanta but fails to do so in time. Shane, Lori, and Cal are among the survivors, but they don't recognize Rick's voice due to the poor reception.

Lori thinks they should put up signs on the highway warning people not to approach the city and volunteers to do it herself if necessary, but Dale Horvath, an old man with a fisherman hat, and Shane oppose to the idea arguing that it was too dangerous. Enraged, Lori walks off to her tent. Shane follows her inside and tells her that she can't risk her life because Carl needs her since he had lost too much already. Lori relents and they kiss passionately.
After running out of gas, Rick heads out on foot with a gas can and the duffel bag full of guns, but not before making sure to grab his family photo and putting it in his jacket pocket. He arrives at an abandoned farmhouse where he discovers a couple that had committed suicide. While trying to locate the keys of the pick-up truck parked in their driveway, Rick finds a sole horse on their property and rides the rest of the way to Atlanta with the bag of guns slung across his shoulder.

When Rick finally arrives in Atlanta, he finds the city devastated and deserted with hundreds of cars burned out on the other side of the freeway. As he trots the streets and finds an overrun military blockade, Rick catches the reflection of a helicopter passing by through a skyscraper and tries to follow it but unknowingly leads himself into a massive horde of walkers. He fails to escape and falls to the ground as the walkers start to devour the horse.
While the walkers are distracted, Rick crawls under an abandoned tank, although he has nowhere to escape as he is completely surrounded. He shoots several walkers but the situation becomes unsustainable so he points his gun to his head and asks his family for forgiveness. Looking up before pulling the trigger, Rick sees an open hatch and crawls inside before the walkers can get to him.

Believing the thank to be safe, Rick takes a breath for a few seconds until he is forced to shot an undead soldier inside. Dazed and disoriented over the echo of the gunshot, he lifts his head out of the top hatch to stop the ringing in his ears and spots the bag of guns that he dropped, but quickly seals himself back inside when some walkers notice him. Unsure of what to do next and thinking that everything was lost, a voice on the tank radio asks if he was comfortable in there.

## 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* Lennie James as Morgan Jones
* Emma Bell as Amy
* Linds Edwards as Leon Basset
* Keisha Tillis as Jenny Jones\*\*\*
* Adrian Kali Turner as Duane Jones

Uncredited* Addy Miller as Summer
* Tommie Mack Turvey as Criminal 1
* Chick Bernhardt as Criminal 2
* Brent Bernhard as Criminal 3
* Melissa Cowan as Hannah
* Sam Witwer as Tank Walker

**Notes:**
\* *does not appear in this episode*
\*\* *voice only*
\*\*\* *zombified*

## Deaths

* Summer *(Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)*
* Jenny Jones *(Alive, Confirmed Fate)*
* Leon Basset *(Alive and Zombified)*
* Hannah *(Zombified)*
* Mr. Siggard *(Confirmed Fate)*
* Mrs. Siggard *(Confirmed Fate)*
* Siggard's Horse
* 3 unnamed criminals
* 1 unnamed cat *(Confirmed Fate)*

## Trivia

* First appearance of Rick Grimes.
* First appearance of Shane Walsh.
* First appearance of Morgan Jones.
* First appearance of Dale Horvath.
* First appearance of Amy.
* First appearance of Lori Grimes.
* First appearance of Carl Grimes.
* First appearance of Glenn Rhee. *(Voice Only)*
* First appearance of Jenny Jones. *(Zombified)*
* First (and last) appearance of Summer. *(Zombified)*
* First (and last) appearance of Leon Basset. *(Alive)*
* First (and last) appearance of Lambert Kendal. *(Alive)*
* First (and last) appearance of Duane Jones. *(Alive)*
* First (and last) appearance of Hannah. *(Zombified)*
* This episode is 90 minutes long.
* The title of this episode, **"Days Gone Bye"**, refers to the fact that many days have passed since Rick has been in a coma and that the old days before the outbreak are gone forever.
	+ It's also based on **Volume 1: Days Gone Bye** of the Comic Series.
	+ This is the first episode to share the same title of Comic Series volume.
* Rick's awakening in the hospital room with no recollection of prior events is very similar to the opening of *28 Days Later*, a British horror film released in November of 2002 in the United Kingdom, nearly two years prior to the comics' Issue 1's publication and eight years before the TV adaptation.
* As Rick wakes up from his coma, he looks at the clock which reads 2:17, which is the same time on the clock when explosions are heard from the same room in "TS-19".
	+ According to the first commentary track, 217 is a nod to Stephen King's novel "The Shining".
* Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert revealed that the reason why the episode begins with Rick shooting a little girl in the head was to test if the network would agree to produce a show with this kind of violence.
* The premiere was supposed to be two hours long, but the script was split into two episodes instead.
* The walker that Rick encounters in the tank at the end of the episode was portrayed by Sam Witwer. The original intention was to have a prologue in Season 2 which shows how Atlanta fell, how Witwer's character died in the tank and how Dale rescued Andrea and Amy amidst the chaos.
	+ This never materialized since Darabont was fired from the show.
* In a deleted scene, when Rick goes through the gas station at the beginning of the episode, the walkers from the abandoned cars were supposed to chase him.
* The song that plays at the end of the episode, as the camera pulls back from the tank to reveal the street covered in walkers, is Space Junk by Wang Chung.
* Rick's home in fictional King County, Georgia is actually a house located directly across the street from Zoo Atlanta where many movies and series are filmed.
	+ According to the first commentary track, King County is a nod to Stephen King's name.
* The production took over 13 square blocks of downtown Atlanta for the sequences shot in the city.
* It's revealed in the webisode *The Oath* that the sign of **"Don't Open, Dead Inside"** was painted by Paul.

## Comic Parallels

* Rick being shot by a criminal in the line of duty.[Issue 1]
* Rick waking up from a coma months later in the apocalyptic world and looking for his family.[Issue 1]
* Rick meeting Morgan and Duane in his neighborhood.[Issue 1]
* Morgan explaining to Rick the events of the outbreak during his coma.[Issue 1]
* Rick taking a bag of guns from his police armory and giving a few to Morgan for protection.[Issue 1]
* Rick finding an undead girl in a park and putting her down days later.[Issue 1]
* Rick looking around an abandoned gas station with corpses inside cars. [Issue 1]
* Rick discovering the corpses of a couple who committed suicide at a farmhouse.[Issue 2]
* Rick arriving at a desolated Atlanta by horse.[Issue 2]
* A herd of walkers surrounding Rick and devouring his horse.[Issue 2]

## Goofs/Errors

* At the roadblock, Rick advises Leon Basset to check that the safety's off on his gun. However, the gun is a Glock, which has no truly manual safeties. The only external safety is the trigger safety that is automatically disengaged when a finger squeezes the trigger.
* During the gunfight near the start of the episode, Rick is shot just below his left shoulder, in the back. After he awakens in the hospital, and thereafter, he is shown with a bandage over his lower left abdomen with the positioning suggesting that he was hit lower in the side.
* Rick is supposedly going south on I-85 going into Atlanta, but that skyline is from Freedom Parkway.
* When Rick first sees the horde in Atlanta and the horse goes on its hind legs in fright, to the back left of the screen, a walker can be seen sipping from a water bottle.

## Gallery

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

## References

1. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the\_walking\_dead/s01/e01
2. ↑ https://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-01/days-gone-bye
3. ↑ The Hollywood Reporter
4. ↑ *"...just to slow the narrative down and dig into the characters more deeply, so it's not just plot-driven, event-driven stuff. You really want to drag these characters into the equation."*AMC Darabont Comic-Con Interview
5. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj4Kt0BJQyw
6. ↑ Season 7 Press Kit

## External Links

* The Walking Dead - Days Gone Bye, Full script.