'The Walking Dead' Season 3, Episode 1 Recap - 'Seed'

It's clear from the first few minutes of the cold open, even without any dialogue, that the Ricktatorship is still in full effect. If you had any doubt that Rick's whole "this is not a democracy" thing would hold up, the moment that Carl finds some dog food to eat and Rick throws it across the room should settle it. He's still in full-on dick mode.

The gang really seems like they could have used that dog food: they've apparently been running from place to place for at least a good 4-5 months (judging by Lori's pregnantness) and been living off of what they can find (including owl meat). So when Rick sees the prison, he immediately falls in love in a way that he hasn't been with Lori in months. "It's perfect," he says.

It is sort of a zombie apocalypse dream home: Rick notes that everyone wandering around is either a guard or an inmate, so it probably fell early and was untouched by outsiders. That could mean that the armory, cafeteria and hospital on the grounds are still fully stocked.

So, they begin their attack. Round one involves cutting through the outside gate and taking as many walkers out as possible through the fence, then sending Rick into the yard to close the gate leading to the buildings. That's an easy success (though perhaps a little wasteful on the ammo), and everyone seems pretty content to sit on the grass in this area and wait it out.

Rick wants those supplies, though, so the group presses on deeper into the prison. From here on in, due to a lack of ammo, it's all hand-to-hand, and we get the delight of watching our gang of badasses take down walkers left and right with some well-placed stabs to the head. Maggie is especially awesome here, and Glenn is turning into a full-fledged zombie killer.

That gets them at least to one of the cell blocks and in possession of a set of keys, allowing them to sleep in locked cells every night. But Rick still wants to push on.

And so, they go on through the very unfortunately dark and twisting hallways, which are seemingly devoid of walkers until they turn one corner. It's sort of like that part in "Star Wars" where Han chases the stormtroopers until he runs into a whole bunch of them. Only, you know, terrifying.

The resulting scramble ends with Hershel getting a chunk of his leg bit off by a very sneaky walker who was playing dead, and we get a moment of real horror at the end of the episode: Rick, to save Hershel's life, ties off below his knee and chops off his leg with a hatchet. It takes way too many strokes.

So it goes without saying that this season is already much more action-packed than the yawner of a second season was. And yet, in the midst of all this, we're still getting some good character development. Rick has just about had it with Lori, especially after she tries to second-guess his plan; Carl is getting much more useful and is catching the eye of Hershel's other daughter; Daryl and Carol are not quite a thing yet, but getting there; Glenn and Maggie are still an item; T-Dog is still T-Dog.

One of the better non-killing scenes actually comes from Lori, despite her standing as this fandom's least favorite character. She fears that she may have lost the baby when it stops kicking, and the horror of that possibility sets in for her: if everyone is already infected, then so is the baby, so what if it becomes a walker in there and tears her apart from the inside? What if she dies during childbirth and becomes a walker herself? She makes Hershel promise to kill her or the baby if it comes down to it.

We also spend a brief few minutes of the episode with Michonne and Andrea, who are elsewhere. It looks like Andrea is severely ill, and the two have forged a pretty strong bond in the months that they have spent together. However, we don't spend that much more time with them.

The last few moments of the episode reveal another complication: there are some prisoners here who are still human (and also happen to have some pretty serious mustaches). Will they become an ally to Rick and company, or will they be one more obstacle between Rick and his goal of being Prison King?

Stray Thoughts:

- How awesome were the kills today? And taking down the riot gear zombies? Amazing.

- I was just thinking how Hershel's new beard would make him a great pirate, and then he lost his leg. Please tell me he gets a peg leg.

- Rick pulling that one walker's face off. Yeugh.

- Where did they get those silencers from? Carl's looks like something you would attach to a trumpet.