After 11 seasons, AMC's post-apocalyptic juggernaut is nearing its end, with one final block of episodes left until the series concludes in late 2022. With all of The Walking Dead's ups and downs, it couldn't endure for eleven seasons without some bright spots and spectacular hours of television.
Amid every walker hoard, shocking character death, lull in the story, and nauseating nail-biter, The Walking Dead showcased several endlessly rewatchable episodes. Whether for shock, spectacle, drama, or gore, these are just some of the episodes that remind fans of what they love about the series.
Season 1, Episode 6 - "TS-19"
In the first season finale, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of the survivors hedged all their bets on finding sanctuary at the CDC in Atlanta, only to meet one lone Dr. Jenner (Noah Emmerich) at the end of his rope. Demanding answers about the world's fate and if there is an end to the apocalypse in sight, the group goads Jenner into giving them exactly what they asked for.
Showing them the logs of "TS-19," Test Subject 19, Jenner gives insight into how the walker virus works and tells them the end is nigh, giving them a choice to go out painlessly. Choosing to fight on, Rick convinces Jenner to let them leave, and upon thanking him, Jenner drops the foreboding line, "The day will come when you won't be."
Season 2, Episode 7 - "Pretty Much Dead Already"
Season 2's mid-season finale brings to a heartbreaking close the saga of Sophia, who had been missing the entire first half. With many characters having risked their lives and died in the search for her and frustrations with Hershel's (Scott Wilson) rules running high, the final straw comes when Glenn (Steven Yeun) drops the bomb that there are walkers in Hershel's barn.
Under the misguided delusion that walkers are curable, Hershel kept the barn of walkers a secret. Outraged, Shane (Jon Bernthal) leads the group to seize the barn and kill off all the walkers in front of Hershel's surviving family. When all is said and done, Sophia (Madison Lintz) emerges as a walker befitting the episode's title, pretty much dead already.
Season 3, Episode 6 - "Hounded"
Michonne (Danai Gurira) flees Woodbury, 'hounded' by Merle (Michael Rooker). Meanwhile, the Governor (David Morrissey) continues to seduce Andrea (Laurie Holden) and keep her ignorant of all that goes on in the shadows. At the Prison, Rick continues to suffer hallucinations in the aftermath of losing his wife. Glenn and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) go on a supply run.
After six episodes trapped by the Governor, Michonne's desperate race to stay ahead of Merle and reach sanctuary is only possible because she collides with Glenn and Maggie, who get taken instead of her. In the episode's closing seconds, Michonne finally reaches the prison, standing out among the gore-covered walkers with a bright red shopping basket of desperately-needed baby formula.
Season 3, Episode 12 - "Clear"
After all this time with flashbacks of Morgan (Lennie James) appearing as a fringe memory assumed never-to-return, "Clear" sees Rick, Michonne, and Carl (Chandler Riggs) on a supply run and at odds with a violent sniper and his paranoid cache of booby traps and guns.
Morgan's reveal comes with the literal writing on the wall, showing the breadth of the trauma he's suffered after losing his son to the undead walker of his wife. A heartbreaking performance by James to the Bear McCreary's track "The Mercy of the Living," shows a broken, exhausted man embittered by the imagined betrayal of one he once called a friend. The episode ends with them again parting ways to the haunting melody of Jamie N. Commons' "Lead Me Home."
Season 4, Episode 8 - "Too Far Gone"
Bidding an explosive end to the Prison Arc and the dastardly Governor, this mid-season finale pits the Governor's new band of misled forces in an attempt to force the group out of the prison so they can take it for themselves. With Michonne and Hershel as hostages, negotiations degrade swiftly.
The Governor's true intentions and frayed mental state are bared and with Hershel's death comes the loss of yet another tentpole character and a grounding voice of reason that dragged Rick back from the deep end more than once. Conversely, the Governor's end is a long-time coming and terribly bittersweet, with the group forced from the prison and scattered to the winds.
Season 5, Episode 1 - "No Sanctuary"
After one of The Walking Dead's infamous cliffhangers left most of the group trapped in a train car, "No Sanctuary" is a bombastic battle with the people of Terminus, orchestrated by Carol (Melissa McBride) after her banishment by Rick in season 4.
The cannibalism of Terminus is more teased than given a proper stage just yet, with most of the episode concerned with the group's mad-dash escape of the compound stuck between guns and a hoard of walkers. After half a season's worth of buildup for the "Sanctuary for All," the bloody end to Terminus is sealed by Rick defacing one of their many signs and dashing hopes for all else who stumble upon it.
Season 5, Episode 10 - "Them"
A brutal sun and scarcity of food make the defeated slog by the exhausted group every bit as painful as it looks. Sparing as much energy as possible to survive by avoiding confrontation with walkers, all remains bleak until it starts to rain, and the group finds shelter in a barn. For five and a half seasons, The Walking Dead got its title presumably for the undead corpses shambling around on the screen.
"Them" sets the record straight. With a rate glimpse into the lives of the group pre-apocalypse, Rick tells the story of his grandfather in World War II, who declared himself a dead man walking. Sitting around the fire, Rick claims, "We are the walking dead," believing that they must do the same to survive. Culminating in a frenzied group effort to survive a hoard of walkers and a tornado, the episode ends with a sunrise and a new beginning.
Season 6, Episode 9 - "No Way Out"
"No Way Out" opens with Daryl blowing up Saviors with a rocket launcher and doesn't drop the nail-biting energy for the rest of the hour as one of The Walking Dead's highest-rated episodes. Surrounded by walkers that broke through the walls of Alexandria, Rick reuses the "guts" trick from the season 1 episode of the same name as he and the other Alexandrians struggle to make it through the hoard and figure out a strategy to drive them out.
The gruesome end of Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her sons snowballs into Carl losing an eye and an eleventh hour final stand to save Alexandria. With nearly every member of the community taking up arms against the backdrop of a lake on fire, the episode showcases the resilience of humanity in a poignant way that The Walking Dead hadn't seen before.
Season 6, Episode 10 - "The Next World"
An off-beat episode, "The Next World," introduces Paul "Jesus" Rovia (Tom Payne) as he, Daryl (Norman Reedus), and Rick squabble over the contents of a supply truck in a rather ridiculous race of increasing hilarity. The levity of the episode is a break between the politics of Alexandria and the upcoming arcs with the Hilltop and the Saviors, full of quips and a neck-and-neck possession of the truck like a football.
True to form for the show, Rick, Daryl, and Jesus' squabbling eventually sends the truck rolling into a lake and all its contents out of everyone's reach. The episode ends with the long-awaited Rick-Michonne kiss after two seasons dancing around each other, and, of course, Jesus to ruin the moment.
Season 7, Episode 2 - "The Well"
The introduction of The Kingdom survivor community and Shiva the CG tiger, to boot, bring some much-needed optimism to The Walking Dead. The Kingdom's King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) is a borderline absurd, bombastic leader Carol just can't take seriously.
Ezekiel eventually shows her the man behind the curtain; a zookeeper made larger than life for the benefit of his people. Compared to other self-aggrandizing leaders on the show like Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), The Governor, and Gregory (Xander Berkeley), Ezekiel is a refreshing dose of sincerity in a world so full of doom, gloom, and betrayal.
Season 7, Episode 7 - "Sing Me A Song"
One of the few Carl-centric episodes, "Sing Me A Song," follows Carl sneaking into the Savior's compound as a one-person army, surprising and impressing Negan enough to take him under his wing. For the entire episode, Negan's balancing on the edge of a knife, swaggering about and showing off while also humiliating Carl by demanding he sing and not hide his still-healing eye.
Meanwhile, a captured Daryl finally has his chance to escape the torture of Dwight (Austin Amelio). The episode ends with Negan making himself at home with Judith sitting on his lap, impatiently waiting for Rick to return to the shaking foundations of Alexandria.
Season 8, Episode 4 - "Some Guy"
In the aftermath of the deadly assault on the Saviors, Ezekiel is left among the bodies of his people who died to protect him and the symbol he is. The episode follows a broken and battered king taken prisoner and rescued by the endearing Jerry (Cooper Andrews). Meanwhile, Carol, Rick, and Daryl help liberate the Kingdom from the Saviors' invasion.
The king declares himself just "some guy" not worth following, not worth sacrificing for. In attempt to sacrifice himself to prove it, Shiva gives her life to protect him. Bookended by Ezekiel's rousing speech to his people and his defeated return home, the episode is one of season 8's best.
Season 10, Episode 23 - "Here's Negan"
After so many seasons of despising Negan, a love-to-hate character that puts the protagonists through hell and beyond, "Here's Negan" successfully gives him his humanity back. Mostly a flashback episode of self-reflection, Negan's past is revealed in chunks of his life with his wife, Lucille.
Without outstanding performances from Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his real-life partner Hilarie Burton, against all odds, Negan's character is given startling depth and nuance in less than an hour of television. Often regarded as one of the best episodes of the series, the episode manages to make a near-irredeemable man just some guy, like everyone else.