Guts

"Guts" is the second episode of Season 1 of The Walking Dead.

Plot Synopsis

Surrounded inside a police station, Daniel says over the CB radio: "Whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here." A teenager's voice replies that Daniel is surrounded by walkers and advises him to make a run for it threw the back door.

Daniel collects different weapons from the police station, puts them in a bag and runs through the back door of the station. He runs down a nearby sidewalk toward an alleyway, shooting zombies along the way with his new glock 17. Quickly turning the corner, Daniel is surprised by another human form, but Daniel has his gun pointed at the guy's face, ready to fire. Equally surprised, the man exclaims "Whoa — not dead!". They both take a better look at each other and realize that they knew eachother, the young man was Gonçalo, one of Daniel's former classmates from the 9th Grade. He reveals himself to be the one talking to Daniel earlier over the police station's radio.  They race up a ladder to the roof, stopping to catch their breath on a platform halfway up. Daniel thanks him for saving his life. As they walk across the roof, Daniel asks Gonçalo why he stuck his neck out for him back there, to which Gonçalo replies, "Call it foolish naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody would do the same for me. People need to stay together and help eachother."

Gonçalo leads Daniel down a staircase to an alley, which is free of all but four zombies thanks to a bus blockade. When they reach street level,  Rick and Glenn rush into the building.

Inside, he finds more of his former classmates from the ninth grade: Sophia, Leandra and Carina, and also finds one of his former classmates mother known as Zita who is furious at his reclessness. "We're dead because of you" she tells him. "good to see you guys too" Daniel tells them. Sophia informs Daniel that his gunshots have attracted scores of walkers and they didn't had time for hugging and crying. "You just rang the dinner bell," Zita seethes, as the group's attention turns to a crowd of zombies outside that are slamming themselves against the outer set of glass-pane doors, furiously trying to gain entry.

Gonçalo asks Daniel where did he learned to shoot a gun, "Actually I was lucky, this is the only gun a I know how to use" Daniel replies. Sophia informs him that no one from their group knows how to shoot a weapon, to wich Daniel replies that he isn't great at it eather since that was the first time he ever shot a gun.

The group questions Daniel about what he was doing roaming around the streets of Atlanta aimlessly, given the current circumstances. Daniel tries to explain, saying he was trying to flag down a helicopter. Another girl in the group, Leandra, suggests that it was just an hallucination. "I saw it," Daniel insists forcefully.  A girl, revealed to be Carina, is trying to make radio contact with another unknown group, but fails to get a signal, wondering if they might have better luck on higher ground. Gunshots are heard. "Oh god, is that Marcelino?" Sophia says in disbelief, as they all leave to investigate.

The group's suspicions are confirmed as they emerge onto the rooftop and find John Marcelino firing aimlessly at zombies in the street with a M1911A1 pistol. Gonçalo and Sophia chastise Marcelino for attracting more walkers by shooting a gun that he doesn't even know how to use. Marcelino tells them that he learned to shoot the gun by himself and points the gun at Gonçalo.  And proposes a change in leadership. Brandishing a gun and holding Gonçalo hostage, the group is forced to vote in favor of Marcelino being their new leader.

Suddenly Daniel intervenes, hitting John with the butt of the rifle he brought in his bag and handcuffs him to a pipe. "Things are different now," Daniel tells Marcelino. "There's us, and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart. I knew you before all of this happened, you were not like this"  He holds a gun to Marcelino's head to cool him down, but when Marcelino challenges that he wouldn't shoot him because he's to chicken, Daniel answers, "All I am anymore is a guy looking for his family and friends.  Anyone who gets in the way of that is gonna lose." He finds a stash of cocaine in Marcelino's shirt pocket and tosses the canister over the roof — much to Marcelino's chagrin.

Hearing that, Sophia informs Daniel that they are part of a bigger group staying outside the city and the group consisted on the students who were evacuated from the schools but then were left behind by the military after an undead attack. But Carina can't reach them on the radio. Daniel asks them if Mariana, Cristiana, Diana and Inês were with them. Sofia tells him that Mariana and Cristiana are with them but they never saw Inês and Diana after the incident with the military. Daniel adds if his brother was with them but they say that they don't know who his brother is but is highly unlikely, since most of the kids who were evacuated from the other school were devoured. "We have many people there, some kids from the other school survived, he might be one of them" Leandra adds, giving some hope to Daniel.

Carina stays in the roof to keep an eye on Marcelino, and to continue attempting to make contact with the rest of the group, presumably somewhere outside of Atlanta, and Merle tries to convince her to get the hacksaw in a bag of tools on the roof by telling him, "I'll be all Sammy Sunshine positive for you. There's no reason we can't work together in parlay as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved."

"I guess you want me to get that rifle over there, too, so you can shoot Daniel when he comes back up." Carina tells him

In the store, Zita spots a necklace with a mermaid pendant. "My daughter, she's already 19 but is still such a kid in some ways," Zita says. "She loves this stupid things." Sophia encourages her to take it, insisting shoplifting rules don't apply anymore. As Zita pockets the necklace, walkers break through the exterior glass doors and begin pounding on the interior set. The walker holding the rock leads the pack.

Back on the roof, Gonçalo spots a cube van at a nearby construction site.  Believing the keys to be kept nearby, it could be their best option to escape.  However, the construction site is a few blocks away and the street is overrun with zombies.  The group discusses the difficulty of moving past zombies undetected; If they hear you, see you, or smell you, they eat you. "They smell dead," Leandra says. "We don't. It's pretty distinct."  Daniel latches onto the concept of scent and how the dead use it to differentiate between themselves and the living.

Wearing rubber gloves and rain jackets, Daniel and Gonçalo collect a dead corpse belonging to a zombie that had been dispatched earlier in the alley where Rick and Glenn had entered.  Inside, Daniel and Gonçalo are about to butcher the corpse with Sophia's and Carina's Fire axes. After the group shares a solemn moment of reflection, Daniel begins hacking the dead body to piecies with the axe.  Sounds of crunching bone, squishing and girgling prompts gasps and retches from the group.  After a few agonizing blows, Daniel and Gonçalo smear guts on themselves, disgusting everyone, especially Carina.  "Oh, this is bad.  This is really bad." Says Leandra.  Daniel suggests a distraction, "Think about something else - Puppies and Kittens."  But Leandra says "Dead puppies and kittens."  making Carina vomit.  Before leaving, Daniel tosses Carina the key to Marcelino's handcuffs.

Outside, Daniel and Gonçalo crawl under the bus blocking the alley, and gingerly shuffle into the streets, mixing into the crowd of zombies virtually unnoticed.  Though a few zombies sniff the air curiously, the guts that the pair smeared on themselves earlier seems to be camoflaging their scent effectively, while the others race to the roof to follow Daniel and Gonçalo with a pair of binoculars, and Carina tries again to radio the others. Marcelino gets let in on the plan for the first time, and he scoffs, "That asshole's out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Carina holds up the key and dangles it tauntingly.  Marcelino's face drops.

Back at camp with skies graying quickly and thunder audible in the distance, Cassandra frets over the whereabouts of the group . "It's late. They should have been back by now". Tiago, working on their RV's troublesome radiator hose with a guy known as Kiko, reasons with Cassandra that worrying won't make it better. Illyana's doing laundry. Suddenly, the radio crackles and squeaks, and Carina's garbled transmission comes through, explaining that they're trapped in the department store, surrounded by hundreds of walkers. Johanne responds to the transmission but only radio silence follows. "We do not go after them," Paquete insists. "We do not risk the rest of the group," confirming that the group Daniel has joined at the Department Store in Atlanta and the survivors at the rock quarry are linked.

"We're just gonna leave her there? She volunteered to go to help the rest of us," Illyana argues.  Paquete responds, "She knew the risks. If she's trapped, she's gone; you just have to deal with that." Illyana is furious, exclaiming "That's my mother, you son-of-a-bitch!" and storms off. Johanne follows, presumably to comfort Illyana, but also seems angry with Paquete's decision.

Back in Atlanta, Daniel's plan seems to be working, as he and Gonçalo have made considerable headway through hostile territory, utilizing the guts of a dead corpse as camoflage and are able to get to the construction site as the group cheers them on and get worried as dark, ominous clouds gather overhead and distant rumbles of thunder forewarn of an impending rainstorm. They find the keys to the van, take off their jackets filled with zombie guts and the guys get into the van as the rain starts falling.and speed away.

As the van drives away from the department store to avoid the horde, the group still on the roof worries that they're being left behind. But Daniel orders Glenn to radio the group to get out of the building and get ready to run to the van who will be left a few blocks away from the store since Daniel doesn't know how to drive, and mentions that they will need a way to lure the walkers away from the department store, eyeing a red Dodge Challenger sports car.  Daniel 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 Marcelino's handcuffs, but Carina reluctantly turns back as John begs. The group continues quickly down the stairwell as Carina moves to set Marcelino free, accidentally slipping on the rain-soaked roof and dropping the handcuff key down a drain. He also drops the tool box, as the hacksaw and other tools spill out.

"I'm sorry," Carina gasps, while Marcelino accuses him of dropping the key on purpose. He runs back to the stairwell and chains the door shut to keep walkers out, but Marcelino is left screaming in rage, handcuffed to the roof. Carina races to join the group just as the walkers break through the final set of glass-pane doors and enter the department store.

Outside the loading bay at the back entrance of the store, with the walkers lured away by Gonçalo's car alarm, Daniel gets to the group and leads them to the van and the group piles in, catching their breath as Zita drives them away from the city. They look around at one another and a guilt-ridden Carina admits to the others he dropped the key, leaving Marcelino trapped on the roof, still handcuffed to a pipe. Then Sophia asks, "Where's Gonçalo?"  A loud engine roars over the sound of a car alarm as a red Dodge Challenger speeds out of Atlanta with Gonçalo inside, screaming in celebration.

Deaths

• None.

Trivia

• First appearance of Gonçalo.
• First appearance of Sophia.
• First appearance of Carina.
• First appearance of Zita.
• First appearance of Leandra.
• First appearance of Kiko.
• First appearance of Tiago.
• First appearance of Cassandra.
• First appearance of John Marcelino.
• The cover of this episode features several characters of the show: Fábio, Caramelo, Inês, Diana, Gonçalo, Cristiana, Alexis, Johanne, Sophia, Cassandra, Daniel and Cristina.
  • Even though Diana, Inês, Alexis and Cristina weren't with the group this season, they're still featured in this cover.
  • Many people thought that the people featured in this cover would be the last survivors from the group. This idea was proven wrong after the death of Cristina, followed by the deaths of Alexis and Johanne.
• The title of the episode, "Guts," may refer to the fact that Daniel and Gonçalo had to smear guts onto their bodies to assist with their group escaping Atlanta.