Wildfire

The camp buries its dead, Jim hides a bite, and the survivors head for the CDC.

"Wildfire" is the fifth and penultimate episode of the first season of The Walking Dead, first aired on AMC on November 28, 2010. It was written by Glen Mazzara and directed by Ernest Dickerson. After the walker attack on their camp, the survivors decide to move to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hoping to find a cure for the infected Jim.

Quick Facts

Series: The Walking Dead
Season: 1
Episode: 5
Air date: 28 November 2010
Writer: Glen Mazzara
Director: Ernest Dickerson
Photographer: David Boyd
Editor: Julius Ramsay

Lore & Background

The survivors bury their dead and burn the walkers' bodies; Andrea stays with her sister Amy's body until it starts to re-animate, then shoots it, and Carol destroys her husband Ed's corpse with a pickaxe. Jim reveals that he was bitten; when Daryl wants to kill him, Rick stops him, saying they don't kill the living. Shane, resenting Rick's return, aims his gun at Rick but stops when Dale spots him.

Reader's Guide

Morales and his family set off on their own toward Birmingham, while the rest drive to the CDC; on the way Jim asks to be left under a tree by the road. At the CDC, the lone scientist Edwin Jenner, studying the "Wildfire" epidemic after more than 190 days, has lost his last samples and is contemplating suicide when Rick's group appears outside; with a horde approaching, he opens the doors and lets them in.