On AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, the third season started off with a bang on October 14^th.  The show has become much more popular this year, with its premiere episode bringing in a whopping 10.9 million viewers, doubling from the 5.3 million that were watching in 2010 during the first season’s premiere. There has been non-stop action and romance in the last two seasons, and the third has been the most intense yet.

The show revolves around Georgia sheriff Rick Grimes and his group fighting for survival after the zombie apocalypse. They include Rick’s pregnant wife Lori, his son Carl, Hershel Greene and his daughters Maggie and Beth, Maggie’s significant other Glenn, Carol Peletier, and T-Dog. Also, Daryl Dixon has become one of the most important fighters of the group, his crossbow proving to be a very useful weapon.

After the last season ended with the group leaving the farm, this season began eight months later with them heading to a zombie-ridden prison. There they took up residence, after clearing out a cellblock for themselves and discovering a few trapped prisoners in the cafeteria. Mutiny erupted from the prisoners and a few of them had to be killed. Rick then successfully added the remaining prisoners, Axel and Oscar to their group. In the same battle, Hershel ended up in a “stump” of a situation.  Finally thinking they had a moment of peace, everyone relaxed and let their guard down, which ended up being a bad idea. A surviving prisoner from the mutiny had planned a walker ambush upon the group.  The alarm was set off and panicked, as a herd of zombies headed toward them, the group split up. The attack ended with the unexpected deaths of T-Dog, as well as Lori in childbirth, as Beth and Carl had to perform an emergency C-section to save the baby’s life.

Upon learning of the death of his wife, Rick slowly lost his sanity, going on a killing rampage of any walker in his sight. He then began receiving phone calls from Lori and other deceased members of their past group. Finally getting his conscious under way, he found the other survivors and was happy to see them taking care of his new baby daughter.

At the conclusion of the last season, Andrea was separated from the group, where she ran into a mysterious stranger named Michonne. This samurai sword-wielding wanderer is not one to mess with. While looking for the wreckage of a fallen helicopter, she and Andrea found their way into the suspicious town of Woodbury run by the secretive Governor. This seemingly perfect haven of about 70 inhabitants isn’t all that it seems. Andrea soon found that Merle, Daryl’s supposedly dead brother from Season 1, had survived and was living in Woodbury as the Governor’s right-hand man. The Governor, a seemingly gentle man, hides more than a few dark secrets in the gates of Woodbury. For one, the town held a sort of party where they watched Merle and another fight while zombies surrounded them, which Andrea later admitted to having enjoyed.

Yet, unknown to Andrea, who developed a relationship with Governor, he still held on to the past, keeping his now zombie daughter in captivity, as well as taking pleasure in looking at disembodied heads in fish tanks. He also killed the one survivor of the helicopter crash, only after he told him where to find the rest of his military crew, who the Governor then killed as well. On the other hand, Michonne saw through the Governor’s lies and decided to leave Woodbury without Andrea. He then sent Merle and a few others out to find and kill Michonne, but expecting this, she cleverly wrote, “Go back” using the body parts of walkers, which only taunted Merle even more into finding her.

The attack ended with all three of Merle’s party dead, besides Merle himself, who succeeded in shooting Michonne in the leg. While escaping, Michonne witnessed Merle capturing Glenn and Maggie, who were out looking for baby formula. Merle then proceeded to return to Woodbury with his prisoners and the claim that he killed Michonne.

Michonne then found her way to the prison, where a reluctant Rick took her in. She informed him of Glenn and Maggie’s capture by Merle, which prompted him to take her as well as Daryl and Oscar to Woodbury on a rescue mission. They succeeded in freeing the couple, only after Maggie told the Governor about the prison. A shootout commenced in the middle of Woodbury, which Michonne used as cover to sneak away to the Governor’s home, where she found out about his daughter and the heads.

Unexpectedly, he found and attacked her after she killed his zombie daughter, but the conflict ended with her stabbing him in the eye. Outside, through a cloud of gas set up by Daryl, battle raged and Andrea, oblivious to the fact that she was fighting her own friends, joined in with the Woodbury fighters. The prison group made an escape, at the cost of Oscar’s life. Daryl decided to stay back to look for his brother. Back at the prison, a strange new family of people found their way to the prison, which Carl helped to escape a group of walkers, but locked them in their own cell block separate from his own.

The midseason finale ended with an angry Governor turning the people of Woodbury against Merle, saying that he helped the prison group get in because Daryl is his brother, but he was actually just enraged the Merle had not killed Michonne as he said he had. He then brought in Daryl and left it to the people to decide whether they lived or died.

This season of “The Walking Dead” has been the most intense yet, and it’s only half over! Rick and the Governor still haven’t met face-to-face and with Daryl’s life at stake, the second half of the season is surely going to be a nail-biter. Also, the arrival of the mysterious new group at the prison will definitely be interesting. Stay tuned and be sure to watch the mid-season premiere on February 10th, 2013!