SEASON 3

Comic pages from The Walking Dead No. 34; art by Charlie Adlard and tones by Cliff Rathburn.

Season Three

Cutting to the Quick

Brothers reunited, then lost; a community controlled by terror, another by fear; and new friends, greeted with suspicion. TWD’s third season explored the horrors that hide in the human soul

HEADS OR TAILS After leaving Andrea behind at Woodbury, Michonne (Danai Gurira) divides and conquers outside the prison.

THERE ARE FEW METAPHORS MORE POTENT than a prison. After an emotionally draining stay on the farm and months on the road, Rick and Daryl stumble upon the large, imposing West Georgia Correctional Facility, which would serve as the group’s new home and fortress. Freedom, they believed, could be found in jail.

But life had other plans for the survivors. Season 3 bid an early farewell to Lori, who was unable to pull through an emergency C-section. (The baby, however, lived.) “The Walking Dead has broken more hearts than I’ve ever seen,” actress Sarah Wayne Callies says of Lori’s demise. “You give your love to a character . . . and then—poof—there’s a hole where they used to be.” For the series it was a poignant focal point; for fans it was a precedent-setting tragedy that proved no one on the show is guaranteed to stick around.

The cast also received some new blood. Michonne, the fierce warrior beloved by book fans, lived up to expectations. Wisely, Zimbabwean-American Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, underwent sword training for the role. “The essence of the character—her personality, her motives, everything that makes Michonne Michonne—is intact from the comics,” says Robert Kirkman, who also assured viewers they’d “get to know her a lot faster than comic-book readers did.”

Other additions were a new kind of terror: the human variety. “The zombies are always a huge problem, but they have become a known quantity,” showrunner Glen Mazzara said at the time. “What’s unknown is the darkness of humanity and the evil that other people can do.”

As the dictator of a fortified town called Woodbury, the Governor (English actor David Morrissey) ruthlessly maintained power by any means necessary—including an all-out war against Rick’s prison camp. The good guys prevailed but not without casualties, including Andrea and Daryl’s brother Merle.

There were losses behind the camera as well. Before the season had even finished airing, Mazzara announced in a joint statement with the network that he would be leaving the series due to “a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward.” TWD was losing its second showrunner in as many years. The move left many wondering why AMC’s highest-rated title was beset by so much backstage drama—and what the change might mean for the show’s future.

Despite the departure of two showrunners, the hit drama continued to shatter ratings records, and in 2012 TWD’s brand had spread as fast as the zombie virus it depicts, spinning off a companion recap show, Talking Dead; multiple video games; and an exhibit at Universal Studios’ theme parks. “It’s definitely cool to see The Walking Dead grow into what it has grown into,” said creator Kirkman in 2012. “But . . . I do feel a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t get too out of hand. There are things like perfume and energy drinks that I’m like, ‘That’s going too far.’ ” —RAY RAHMAN

IT DOESN’T ABODE WELL The crew susses out the prison during the season premiere.

During the explosive “Welcome to the Tombs,” the residents of the prison defend their new home from the Governor.

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME The Governor grooms his undead daughter Penny (Kylie Szymanski).

After Penny’s death the Governor leads the people of Woodbury in a retaliatory attack on the prison.

Maggie faces off against a guard.

BRAWL IN THE FAMILY The Dixon boys band together when the Governor forces Merle to prove his loyalty inside his undead-gladiator pit.

ARRESTING DEVELOPMENTS While on a supply run, Rick encounters now-mentally-unstable friend Morgan Jones (Lennie James).

Steven Yeun (Glenn) takes a break between scenes.

Rick’s hallucinations, including those of his dead wife, begin to impact his leadership while at the prison.

EASTER EGGS

WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

The series is packed with quirky cameos and clever allusions. Here are our favorite under-the-radar references. How many did you catch?

LIKE A PRAYER

Father Gabriel Stokes’s church is stuffed with zombie . . . allusions. Above the altar is a passage from the Bible, John 6:54: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” On the hymn board are references to other quotes, including Matthew 27:52 (“And the tombs were opened”) and Revelation 9:6 (“They shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them”).

COMIC TIMING

Before Robert Kirkman made it big on TWD’s comics, he worked on Invincible with Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley and Bill Crabtree, a comic series that featured a main character obsessed with an in-world comic called Science Dog. Carl Grimes is spotted multiple times wearing a Science Dog T-shirt and paging through comic books—including Invincible.

BREAKING DEAD

References to AMC’s other blockbuster show abound— including a glimpse of Walt’s blue meth—leading fans to theorize that TWD is set in Breaking Bad’s future. Glenn’s getaway car in season 1 is the same model purchased by Walter White.

HEAD SHOTS

Season 6’s “Not Tomorrow Yet” featured a sneak cameo of director Greg Nicotero—as one of the severed heads. The gruesome prop was a hit on-set. “Norman kept saying he wanted the heads when we were done shooting,” Nicotero added.

The Moment

NORMAN REEDUS Q&A

Daryl Mourns Merle

THE NEW GUY IN TOWN It’s ironic that Daryl Dixon has become such a fan favorite, considering he wasn’t even supposed to be on The Walking Dead to begin with. Reedus’s audition impressed the producers so much they created an original role that didn’t exist in the comics—a badass with a heart of gold. “Norman brings a cool factor,” said season 3 showrunner Glen Mazzara. “He kicks ass. He’s fearless. We’ve seen him heartbroken. [The character is] emotional, but he is afraid to show that. We’ve never seen him afraid of the physical danger, and yet we’ve seen him pull away when something becomes too emotionally painful.”

He’s been called The Walking Dead’s resident badass, but noted tough guy Daryl Dixon (played by Norman Reedus) also has a very tender side. That vulnerability was laid bare in a heartbreaking scene in the episode “This Sorrowful Life” in which Daryl not only discovered his brother Merle (Michael Rooker) had turned into a walker, but then had to finish the job—mixing stabs and sobs as he tearfully killed his zombified sibling in one of the show’s most devastating moments. We spoke to Reedus about his preparation for that emotional day of filming, and what it meant for both him and his character. —D. R.

What do you remember most about filming this incredible scene?

I remember when we got that script and reading it. And just thinking how hard this day was going to be and how I wanted to pay respect to Michael as an actor. I was a big fan of his even before the show, and this was at a time when he and I were really starting to hit it off. We were really starting to bond and become good friends, and we were having dinner together quite a bit. He really was like a big brother. That day was so hard. It was a very intense, very sad, emotional day for everyone involved.

It’s really a tragic end to this complicated relationship between brothers.

I had to play that out as the brother of Merle, and what those two characters have gone through up to that point. And it is also about the changes in Daryl and how he’s no longer under the thumb of his brother. His brother had recognized that he was starting to become his own man now, and it was Merle’s previous absence that actually made that happen. So I just remember shooting that and [director Greg Nicotero] said, “You’re not just stabbing him to kill him. You go on a rage and stab him, and you’re stabbing the circumstances. You’re hating the world at this point and what the world is now, and what the world’s led you to have to do.”

You had a Willie Nelson song queued up before you filmed that scene, right?

Yeah, I played it over and over. We use music a lot of the times to get in the right state, and a lot of times it’s not the song that you think you would play. You would imagine I would play a really sad, depressing song, but I played a very uplifting Willie Nelson song because it reminded me of something. It was a song my dad used to like. I remember him playing it when I was a kid. It could lead to a happy moment, which led me to a sad moment, but sometimes it’s not the obvious choice.

This scene is about Daryl having to say goodbye to his brother and their whole very complicated relationship. It’s interesting how you used your relationship with your father to help you connect the dots.

After you do this a while, you learn things about yourself, and sometimes to go to a sad place you’ve got to go remember something happy that you lost. I lost my father too young and I was dealt a bad hand, and that’s what I thought about for that scene where my brother’s taken from me. It is all connected in a weird way.

Is this the hardest scene you’ve ever had to film on the show?

I’ve filmed so many hard ones—hard in different ways. Carrying Beth out [of the hospital] in season 5 was hard. I just looked at her and went away and cried for a long time and then came out and did it. But that was different because I didn’t want to break down on camera, I wanted it to look like I had already been crying for half an hour. They’re all different, and you approach them in different ways.

It’s interesting because some actors would really look forward to doing a big scene like that to show off their chops. Were you feeling that way on the day you did the Merle scene? Or were you kind of dreading it, knowing the places you were going to have to go emotionally to pull it off, while also saying goodbye to Rooker?

I hated that day. I hated it. I’m not one of those people that can turn it on and just cry a flood of tears and then just turn it off and go have a coffee and be cool again. I go to bed thinking about it and I have a knot in my stomach, and I wake up and I don’t want to go to work. I don’t want to do it, and we’re about to film it, and everything floods to the front and I’m just miserable. I mean, I have to get miserable to play miserable, and that day was miserable for everybody. I think that’s what made that scene so good.