Wildfire opens at the break of dawn. Rick calls out to Morgan on the radio, warning him that Atlanta is overrun. Thankfully he did find his family though.
While Rick is trying to catch up with Morgan the rest of the crew is busy. They are cleaning up the dead from the zombie attack. I really appreciate the fact that Daryl is spiking heads with a pick axe. Because you don’t want to be picking up a zombie to find out its only mostly dead, know what I mean?
The clean up is mostly done when the survivors turn to focus on Andrea. She refuses to leave her sister’s side. Even going so far as to pull a gun on Rick and reminding him she now knows how the safety works. Daryl wants to put a bullet in Amy’s head from a distance. He stalks away in disgust when the others disagree.
Bitten
As the clean up crew is working Jacqui sees blood on Jim’s shirt and panics. He starts yelling out to the others that Jim was bit. T-Dog grabs Jim’s arms so Daryl can lift up Jim’s shirt as he begs that he’s okay.
Daryl is proposing direct action. Pick axe blows to heads, and Dale regretfully agrees. Rick hasn’t lived through people turning from bites yet. He naively thinks there is maybe help to be had at the CDC. Shane would rather go to Fort Benning. He believes the military would be their best hope of finding other survivors and safety. Fort Benning is a lot further away than the CDC in Atlanta though.
After Rick takes Jim someplace safe Dale goes to talk to Andrea. He tells her about his wife, and how mad he was when his wife died of cancer. He tells Andrea that her and her sister were the first people that he dared to care about. Andrea pulls out Amy’s birthday present, feeling guilty for all the missed birthdays in the past. Glenn leaves her to her mourning as Andrea puts the mermaid necklace around her sister’s neck.
We then get to see Carol take out years of abuse on her husbands corpse. She swings Daryl’s pick axe with enough fervor to make even Daryl raise an eyebrow.
Letting Go
Andrea is still beside Amy when she turns. Amy’s eyes twitch slowly before her eyes open, slowly turning to stare at her sister. Andrea apologizes as Amy lifts her head, trying to take a bite of her sister. The others turn, realizing what’s happening, afraid Andrea isn’t going to be strong enough to do what is needed.
In the end Andrea does the needful and puts a bullet into her sister’s head. If you watch the shot closely it looks like she would have put a bullet through her other hand in the process though. That would have 100% infected hers in the process.
As Shane and Rick are burying the dead Shane blames Rick for taking half their manpower to go look for Merle. Rick pushes back that without the guns they would have been in even more trouble. While they are arguing Daryl piles in saying they need a leader. That the camp needs to know the rules. This is when Lori chimes in, telling Daryl they need to bury their dead, because its what people do.
Not far off Jim is suffering from a fever. He’s seeing flashes of walkers as the virus eats away at his brain. Rick comes to talk to Jim, but Jim’s in a fever dream, not fully aware of where he is. While Rick is talking to Jim, Lori and Shane are talking outside. This almost leads to Rick finding out just how well Shane was taking care of his wife while he was almost dying in the hospital bed. Shane short circuits the conversation after Lori chimes in to support Rick’s CDC plan. This leads the two old friends to head out into the woods to do their security sweep.
In Shane’s Sights
This leads to a very nerve wracking moment where Shane is clearly tempted to kill his old partner.
When Shane lowers the weapon, Dale is there, having seen the whole thing.
Shane tries to play it off, pretending he thought Rick was a walker. Shane comments that they might have to start wearing reflective vests, but Dale’s face says it all. He doesn’t believe Shane any further than he could throw him.
When they get back to camp everyone groups around the fire. Shane says that he thinks they should all stay together. That means agreeing with Rick’s plan to head for the CDC. Rick shares the news with Morgan on the following dawn, telling him he left a map behind if he wants to follow.
The caravan has formed up, and everyone except for Morales and his family are going to head for the CDC. Rick and Shane gives Morales a revolver and half a box of shells as a farewell present.
Roll Out
The caravan rolls out, on their way to the CDC as Jim burns with fever in the back of the RV. They don’t get far before the RV blows its radiator hose. Shane goes to find parts when Jacqui comes out to get Rick, Jim isn’t doing well. Jim has a moment of clarity, and begs Rick to leave him behind. He’s in pain and every bump in the road is an agony.
In the end the group agrees to let Jim make the decision and leave him propped up against a tree as they roll away.
Dr. Jenner
We are then introduced to Jenner, the sole survivor at the CDC facility. He is alone and his affect seems off.
Jenner is recording his updates and we learn that he’s concerned about saving power. Jenner is also having trouble sleeping due to being underground. We then see him working in a biohazard lab in a space suite when there is a small accident. This shows us how any breach in protocol leads to his experiments being burnt in a decontamination cycle.
This leads to Jenner voicing his loneliness and desperation, which ends in him admitting he’s considering suicide.
Back on the surface the survivors have made it to the CDC. There is evidence of a fierce, last ditch effort to defend the installation outside its walls.
There are bodies everywhere, as well as what’s left of defensive positions. As the group approaches Jenner is pulled to monitors by motion alarms. We see the team get to the doors of the CDC. The doors are closed and sealed with protective shutters.
The team is just about to flee in a panic when the camera moves. They can’t be in the city when night falls. Rick bangs on the shutters and begs to be let in, they are out of gas and supplies. Jenner watches as Rick begs, and opens the doors just before the team is forced to flee the city before nightfall.
The episode ends with the survivors looking into the CDC as the doors open, flooding light out into the coming darkness.
Wildfire Scoring
Wildfire is Worth Your Time and scored a 95/100. There is so much depth to every scene and the acting and writing is just top notch. The only thing that would have pushed this amazing episode up to a 100/100 would have been getting to see some flashbacks or security footage of the CDC compound being overrun.
| Season | Episode | Episode Name | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Days Gone Bye | 100 |
| 1 | 2 | Guts | 100 |
| 1 | 3 | Tell It To The Frogs | 95 |
| 1 | 4 | Vatos | 94 |
| 1 | 5 | Wildfire | 95 |
| 1 | 6 | TS-19 | 99 |
| 2 | 1 | What Lies Ahead | 95 |
| 2 | 2 | Bloodletting | 91 |
| 2 | 3 | Save The Last One | 83 |
| 2 | 4 | Cherokee Rose | 94 |
| 2 | 5 | Chupacabra | 97 |
| 2 | 6 | Secrets | 85 |
| 2 | 7 | Pretty Much Dead Already | 100 |
| 2 | 8 | Nebraska | 88 |
| 2 | 9 | Triggerfinger | 76 |
| 2 | 10 | Miles Out | 90 |
| 2 | 11 | Judge, Jury, Executioner | 70 |
| 2 | 12 | Better Angels | 75 |
| 2 | 13 | Beside the Dying Fire | 100 |
