Rick Grimes is a small-town sheriff's deputy who is wounded in the line of duty and wakes to a zombie apocalypse. Alone, he sets off in search of his wife, Lori, and young son, Carl.

Rick is an everyman — smart, calm, just, a good friend and father — but will often stubbornly cling to his personal strong moral code. "We don't kill the living," he tells Daryl at gunpoint when the latter attempts to kill an infected survivor.

Rick has been partners and friends with Shane for a long time, and he is used to their easy camaraderie. Rick is thankful to Shane for looking after his family while he was comatose, but is unaware that his partner began sleeping with Lori during that time.

Rick is a natural leader — a fact that causes tension with Shane, who was in charge before Rick's arrival. Their friction comes to a head following a walker attack on the camp. Shane blames Rick for not being there (Rick had returned to Atlanta to retrieve a bag of guns and another survivor he'd left behind) and disagrees with him on the next course of action: Rick believes the group should head to the CDC in Atlanta for protection; Shane thinks an Army base 100 miles away is a safer bet.

Ultimately, the group sides with Rick and they're met at the CDC by a strange doctor, Edwin Jenner. He is the last man alive at the CDC and he tells them that there has been no progress on curing the disease and that the building will soon self-destruct from lack of power. Before the explosion, Jenner (who opts to stay behind) shakes Rick's hand and whispers into his ear.

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