CHARACTERS

Rick Grimes:

A small-town sheriff's deputy who is wounded in the line of duty and wakes to a zombie apocalypse.

An everyman, Rick struggles to cling to his moral code in the face of increasingly dire circumstances. "We don't kill the living," he tells Daryl at one point, only to retract that philosophy later on when "the living tried to kill us."

As the group's de facto leader, Rick is charged with keeping everyone safe as well as finding them a secure home. When his son Carl is shot by a man living in a secluded farmhouse, Rick thinks he's found just that. But the farm eventually proves vulnerable and falls to a massive herd of walkers, once again exiling Rick and the other survivors to the road.

Daryl Dixon

He is a part of this group of people who fight agaisnt the dead living. He insists on going back for his brother, but they fail to find him. Without Merle's bullying presence, Daryl is able to step out of his big brother's shadow and develop relationships with the other survivors — particularly Darol, with whom he becomes close after fervently searching for her missing daughter, Sophia.

Over time, Daryl proves himself a worthy ally to Rick — especially while Rick grieves over Lori, who dies in childbirth. Daryl quickly grows attached to the baby, leading a mission to find formula and even bestowing upon her the nickname "Lil' Asskicker."

Daryl learns that his brother Merle is still alive and living in Woodbury. He tries to find Merle but is captured by the Governor, who accuses both Dixon brothers of treason and sentences them to fight to the death. Rick and Maggie mount a rescue, but refuse to allow Merle at the prison. Daryl leaves with Merle.

Carol Peletier

Carol, her husband Ed, and their daughter Sophia meet shane, lori and Carl on the road to Atlanta. Taking pity on them, Carol offers to share her husband's rations until he chastises her for compromising their "operational security."

The wife of an abusive man, Carol is meek at the outset. But when Ed is killed in a walker attack, and later when Sophia is lost in the woods after fleeing the CDC in Atlanta, she finds a new inner strength.

In Sophia's absence, Carol bonds with Daryl, who's determined to find her daughter. After one particularly perilous search, Carol thanks Daryl for "doing more for my little girl today than her own daddy did his whole life."

Carl Grimes

At the outset of the apocalypse, Carl flees his small town with his mom, Lori, and his dad's best friend Shane, who soon becomes a surrogate father to the boy.

Carl worships both Shane and his father Rick, who he believes is indestructible. Carl proves equally resilient after he's accidentally shot while searching for his friend Sophia. Waking up after surgery, Carl remarks to his dad that "I'm like you now," since they've both been shot. "Then you get to wear the hat," Rick replies, giving his son his iconic Stetson.

Carl is a kind boy — inquisitive and intelligent — but struggles to maintain his innocence in the face of unspeakable horror. When Sophia turns up a walker and Rick shoots her, Carl confides to his mother that "I would have done it too."

Over time, Carl insists on handling more and more dangerous responsibilities — much to the chagrin of Rick and Lori, who would prefer he stay away from the front lines. Carl is present when Lori goes into labor during a walker attack. After Maggie performs a C-section on Lori, he sits by his dying mother's side. "You are going to beat this world, I know you will," Lori tells him. After Lori dies, the responsibility for shooting her falls on Carl.