One thing I love about “Wildfire” is there’s just so much exhaustion and emotional stress, coupled with the heat that you can just feel the characters are on the verge of cracking. It’s bad enough no one has had time to sleep, but now they’ve lost the Atlanta camp after the vicious zombie raid in “Vatos.” You can sense that all real logic and common sense has been depleted in a hail of shock, as the general mind set is summed up through Andrea and her refusal to leave the body of her sister Amy.
While his methods aren’t the most likable, Daryl Dixon is the only person in the group who seems to be working with some sense of reality on his side. Despite losing Merle, he understands that the bodies of Amy, and their fallen friends could jump start another walker uprising destroying the rest of the survivors. “Wildfire” is a lot of the characters walking around and processing the events of the night before, with occasional moments of real compelling drama.
The confrontation between Rick and Shane in the woods cements where they’re heading, especially with Shane’s impulse to aim his gun at Rick from afar and strongly consider murder. It’s only by Dale witnessing the scene and making his presence known does Shane pull back and try to back pedal as hard as he can. You have to wonder what would have occurred if Dale didn’t show up. “Wildfire” mostly positions the group for future episodes and lets us know where they stand, specifically. It’s also where we bid a goodbye to Jim, a mysterious but admirable character who fought for his people and suffered a vicious bite during the carnage. The revealing of his bite is both heartbreaking and filled with hysteria as the already delirious remaining survivors respond the way anyone in this situation would.
We also bid goodbye to the Morales clan, another really interesting clan of survivors that managed to stick it out thanks to their tight knit bonds. I really liked the dad and would love either a standalone novel, or web miniseries chronicling either how they survived, or where they ended up. They mention Birmingham Alabama, but they’re never seen once they drive off on their own. Their yet another group that really deserves to have the spotlight shone on them.
And though Rick is back, Lori is still not the most loyal ally he’s ever had, and there’s an interesting argument that ensues about the end result of the camp. The group was able to destroy the zombie siege thanks to the mission to get the guns back. But then again, perhaps if Rick and the group wouldn’t have left, they’d have had a fighting chance without the fire arms, but lost a lot more people. It’s a very tough topic to mull over, but no matter how it’s sliced, the end is still disastrous. It’s tough seeing Jim disintegrate in to a walker, but the best moment of the season involves Amy transforming in to a walker before our eyes.
The special effects paired with Emma Bell’s amazing performance really adds a horrific beauty to a gorgeous young woman whose corpse emerges from a hazy sleep. She seems confused and distant at first but immediately begins snapping at Andrea when she notices she’s nothing but fresh meat. The scene between Holden and Bell plays out wonderfully and is a heartbreaking glimpse at the difficulty of losing someone you love to the infection. Bells pantomime of rising from the dead is masterful method acting and for a brief millisecond you almost hope Amy has risen with some sense of her personality in tact. Then Andrea is forced to put her down, which I assume Andrea thought would be a dignified final moment for her little sister.
“Wildfire” is the indication from the writers that no one on the cast is safe. After many decades of shows eliciting the deaths of key characters as stunts or easy outs for cast members, “Wildfire” shows that no matter the importance or popularity, no character is safe in the zombie apocalypse. Not the handy Jim or the spunky Amy. The final scene is a wild direction to go in and one that initially left me stunned upon my first viewing. I’m still not sure if I love or hate the direction the first season goes in to, but it certainly is unexpected.