On Sunday, October 12, “The Walking Dead” will return to AMC for its fifth season. The series is based on The Walking Dead comic book by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. “The Walking Dead” is also far and away the biggest scripted drama on basic cable, with ratings that dwarf even the broadcast networks’ most popular hits.
Why is “The Walking Dead” so huge? Zombies!
Actually, it’s more than just zombies. At its core, “The Walking Dead” is a well made drama with compelling characters and high production values. The zombies are always there, but they’re largely in the background of this ugly new world in which survival is never guaranteed. Even characters who never died in The Walking Dead comics aren’t safe! But when the zombies do show up, make up veteran and executive producer Greg Nicotero and his team deliver innovative and unforgettable designs.
Most of all, “The Walking Dead” is just a badass show that goes places most TV series could never even dream about. The zombie kills provide a visceral thrill, but there are times when “The Walking Dead” is so daring that it’s practically a miracle that it made it on to TV. This is not a show for the squeamish. However, it is a rewarding experience for fans who can take it.
Ahead of the new season of “The Walking Dead,” CraveOnline has selected the Biggest Badass Moments from the first four seasons of the series. And there were a lot to choose from! So feel free to share your picks the biggest badass moments of “The Walking Dead” in the comment section below.
“The Walking Dead” returns this Sunday, October 12 at 9/8c on AMC.
The Biggest Badass Moments of The Walking Dead
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Merle Cuts Off His Hand - Season 1 Episode 3
Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) managed to alienate Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and the other survivors very early in the series. Rick handcuffed Merle to a pipe on the roof of a building and they were forced to leave him behind when the key was dropped.
In the opening moments of episode 3, Merle desperately tried to get loose and Rooker delivered a powerhouse performance in that brief scene. By the end of the episode, viewers learned that Merle cut off his own hand with a hacksaw to escape, much to the horror of his brother, Daryl (Norman Reedus).
We never actually saw Merle do the deed, but this was an early defining moment for the series.
As for Merle, he was pretty far from done with Rick and his friends...
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Shane Leaves Otis Behind - Season 2 Episode 3
Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) accidentally shot Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs) in the woods. But to make up for it, Otis accompanied Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) on a dangerous mission to retrieve some much needed medical equipment for Carl from a high school that was overrun by walkers.
With both men injured and almost out of ammo, Shane turned on Otis and shot him so the walkers would eat him alive while Shane got away. Shane didn’t do it out of revenge or spite. He did it because it was the expedient thing to do and he had little or no remorse for his actions.
Morally, it was reprehensible. But you’ve got to admit, it’s pretty badass.
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Daryl Goes Solo - Season 2 Episode 5
The second season is where Daryl really came to the forefront, especially while leading the search for the missing girl, Sophia (Madison Lintz). However, Daryl was badly injured in the fifth episode and he was forced to make his way back to the farm by himself.
While suffering from a fever and hallucinations, Daryl killed two walkers and he made a necklace out of their ears before stumbling back to the farm... where Andrea (Laurie Holden) shot him after mistaking him for a zombie.
It was a darkly funny moment, but Andrea only grazed Daryl’s head and he went on to play a much bigger role in the show.
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RicK Puts Down Sophia - Season 2 Episode 7
The first half of the second season was dominated by the disappearance of Sophia. The girl had seemingly vanished forever... until her shambling walker corpse emerged from the Barn in the midseason finale.
Despite all of his bluster, Shane couldn’t bring himself to shoot Sophia. Nor could Daryl pull the trigger. In the end, it fell to Rick to do what had to be done. He pulled out his gun and shot the child that he had so desperately tried to save when she was alive.
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Rick Vs. Shane - Season 2 Episode 12
Shane used to be Rick’s best friend, but he wanted Rick’s wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) for himself. And Lori kept giving Shane the false hope that they could be a family with her son, Carl... if Rick was out of the way.
There is actually quite a bit of debate among “The Walking Dead” fans about how culpable Lori was for the whole situation. But Shane was the man who had murder in his heart and he lured Rick away from the farm to carry out his execution. Faced with his own demise, Rick calmly talked Shane into lowering his gun... right before Rick stabbed him to death. When Shane rose again as a walker,.it was Carl who put him down a second time.
Unfortunately for them, the noise attracted a herd of walkers who ended up destroying the farm.
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Glenn Breaks Out of The Chair - Season 3 Episode 7
Merle captured Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) before bringing them back to Woodbury. At the behest of the Governor (David Morrissey), Merle brutally interrogated Glenn to make him give up the location of Rick’s group.
When Glenn refused to break, Merle set a walker loose into the room while Glenn was still tied to a chair. In his biggest moment ever, Glenn managed to get loose from the chair and he put the walker down before screaming in triumph and pain.
Respect!
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Michonne Vs. The Governor - Season 3 Episode 8
This list could have been easily filled up by Michonne (Danai Gurira) and her many, many zombie kills. But in the interest of spreading the spotlight to several characters, we will stick to Michonne’s most memorable moment.
The Governor made two big mistakes in the early part of season 3: he made an enemy of Michonne and he didn’t finish her off himself. Instead, it was Michonne who snuck back into Woodbury and waited for the Governor to return to his home.
Their face-off did not disappoint. And in the battle for her life, Michonne put out one of the Governor’s eyes with a shard of glass. That instantly put her in “The Walking Dead” Badass Hall of Fame.
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Merle's Last Stand - Season 3 Episode 15
For a while, Merle actually lived with Rick’s group. Rick even trusted Merle enough to get him to turn Michonne over to the Governor in a misguided attempt to spare the group from a war with Woodbury. Merle correctly guessed that Rick wouldn’t go through with it and he ended up kidnapping Michonne to do it himself.
Yet even Merle couldn’t send Michonne to her death. Instead, he let her go and set up an elaborate trap for the Governor and his men. Merle almost pulled it off too, thanks to the large crowd of walkers that he led to the Governor’s ambush site.
However, the Governor proved to be a bit more ruthless than Merle when he bit off two of his fingers during their fight. But Merle refused to back down even in his dying moments.
The amazing thing is that this episode actually made people care about Merle as a character. That’s why it was so soul crushing when Daryl tracked down his brother and discovered that he had become a walker himself.
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The Walkers Crash The Supermarket - Season 4 Episode 1
At the beginning of season four, Bob Stookey (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.) accompanied the group on a supply run. Bob’s alcoholism led him to nearly take a bottle of wine off of the shelf. But when he tried to put it back, the entire shelf collapsed on him.
Moments later, the group was terrorized as walkers fell through the roof of the store while the entire building threatened to collapse upon itself. It was one of the most innovative action sequences in “Walking Dead” history.
And true to form, not everybody made it out alive.
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Rick Bites Joe - Season 4 Episode 16
Rick learned a long time ago that he and everyone else in the world were already infected by the virus that causes the dead to rise. That means that everyone will eventually become a walker unless they are put down when they die.
But Rick got a jump on the flesh-biting when he and his son, Carl faced death alongside Daryl and Michonne at the hands of Joe (Jeff Kober) and his “Claimers.” One of Jeff’s men even tried to rape Carl, and Rick just wasn’t having any of that crap.While fighting with Joe, Rick fatally bit him in the throat before brutally stabbing the man who dared to molest his son.
As Rick went on to say later in the episode, “"they're screwing with the wrong people."
