Season 2

S2E1 · What Lies Ahead

Rick leads the group out of Atlanta towards Fort Benning. They hide from a herd of walkers, but Carol 's daughter Sophia is chased away and goes missing. Meanwhile, Andrea blames Dale for preventing her suicide at the CDC. Dale withholds her gun from her. Shane resents Rick for usurping his leadership over the group and his intimacy with Lori and Carl and plans to leave. Rick and Daryl lead a mass search effort for Sophia. Rick prays for a sign that he is leading the group on the right path. Minutes later, Carl is shot.

S2E2 · Bloodletting

Otis, the accidental shooter, directs Rick to a farmstead owned by veterinarian Hershel Greene. Hershel stabilizes Carl but requires further medical supplies to operate. Rick searches for hope while Hershel tries to persuade him that mankind will cure the disease. Shane supports Rick and vows to save Carl. Otis leads Shane to a local FEMA shelter to retrieve the supplies for Carl, but they become trapped inside by a walker horde.

S2E3 · Save the Last One

In a flashforward, Shane shaves his head. While searching for Sophia, Andrea finds a hanged walker and again ponders suicide. Glenn leads the others to the farm and probes his own faith with Hershel's daughter Maggie. Lori doubts whether Carl should live in this world, but Rick convinces her to maintain hope. Shane returns alone with the medical supplies, claiming that Otis sacrificed himself. Hershel saves Carl. In a flashback, Shane sacrifices Otis and leaves him as bait so that he can escape. Otis rips out a clump of Shane's hair in a failed last-ditch effort. Shane shaves his head.

S2E4 · Cherokee Rose

Carl Grimes recovers from his operation to remove fragments of a bullet, which he had received earlier when encountering a deer. He asks his father Rick if his friend Sophia Peletier is alright. Since Sophia is still missing, Rick reluctantly lies to Carl and tells him that she is fine. Dale Horvath, Daryl Dixon, Andrea, and Carol Peletier move the vehicles and set up camp at the Greene home and are introduced to the Greene family. There, they lead a funeral procession for their ranch hand, Otis. Shane Walsh is asked to share Otis' final moments; Shane sticks to his lie that Otis had sacrificed his life to save Carl, while in reality Shane sacrificed Otis.

Along with Hershel Greene and his daughter Maggie, the group organize Sophia's search. Since Shane is still injured and Rick is too weak from blood loss, Daryl ventures out on his own. Daryl eventually finds an abandoned house, but does not locate Sophia. He finds a cherokee rose, which he describes as a sign to uplift mothers' spirits associated with the Trail of Tears, and gives it to Carol.

Maggie asks the group for help removing a bloated walker that fell into a freshwater well before it contaminates the water. After unsuccessfully using food as bait, Glenn is lowered down as live bait but the others lose their grip on the rope, causing Glenn's legs to be grabbed by the Bloated Zombie, causing him to panic. Glenn is managed to be pulled out, having put the rope on the walker. The group pulls the walker out, but to everyone's dismay, its body is ripped in half, its lower half falling back into the well and contaminating it.

Maggie and Glenn decide to venture to the local pharmacy to find more supplies. Before he leaves, Lori asks Glenn to find a pregnancy test for her. At the pharmacy, Glenn finds the pregnancy test, and afterward finds a bag of condoms, which he is caught holding by Maggie. Not able to explain himself, Maggie believes they were for her, and the pair have sex.

Rick and Hershel tour the farmland, where Hershel reveals that the group has to leave once Carl fully recovers. Rick manages to convince Hershel for the group to stay in the meantime. However, there are rules they must follow. Rick pleads with Hershel to not force them to leave and to reconsider his request.

Later on, Rick is up in the room where Carl is recovering in bed. Once Carl wakes up, Rick admits that he lied to him about Sophia; Carl reveals that his mother already told him the truth. Meanwhile, the pregnancy test reveals that Lori is pregnant.

S2E5 · Chupacabra

In the opening flashback, Lori and Shane, escaping to a refugee center at the onset of the walker epidemic, watch in horror as military helicopters drop napalm on Atlanta.

In the present, the survivors continue their search for the missing Sophia. Hershel expresses his concern to Rick that his group has gotten too comfortable on his farmlands. Hershel is particularly concerned on how close Glenn and his daughter Maggie appear to be. Meanwhile, Glenn accidentally learns Lori is pregnant, and she asks him to keep it a secret from Rick.

During a search party, Shane tells Rick the search is pointless and they should continue on to Fort Benning. Rick later confides in Lori that Shane may be right. Lori privately confronts Shane, reminding him that her and Carl's well-being are no longer his problem.

Daryl goes out on horseback searching for Sophia, eventually coming across her doll in a river bed. As he follows the river, a snake frightens his horse and he is thrown, and is severely wounded by one of his crossbow bolts in the fall. He starts to hallucinate his missing brother Merle, who berates him for spending more time searching for Sophia than him. Daryl wakes in time to find a walker chewing on his shoe; he quickly dispatches it and another approaching walker, and takes their ears as a trophy necklace.

Daryl limps towards the farm, and from a distance, is mistaken as a walker; Andrea shoots him, grazing his head and knocking him unconscious. Rick reaches Daryl first, and hides the walker ear necklace before Hershel can see it. Daryl is treated and when he wakes, tells Carol what he had found, for which she is grateful.

Carol and Lori attempt to repay Hershel for his hospitality by cooking dinner, but tensions remain high. Maggie discreetly passes Glenn a note asking him when they can have sex again. However, both Hershel and Dale Horvath witness this. Glenn writes a reply and returns the note. After dinner, Maggie reads Glenn's reply and is horrified as he promised to wait in the barn for her. She rushes to try to stop him but is too late as Glenn discovers the barn is filled with walkers.

S2E6 · Secrets

Glenn sits nervously on the secrets of Lori's pregnancy and the barn walkers. He eventually spills them to Dale, who learns that some of the barn walkers are Hershel's family. Glenn and Maggie return to the pharmacy to retrieve supplies for Lori but Maggie is attacked by a walker. Shane threatens Dale when he probes the story of Otis' death. Lori grapples alone with her pregnancy but Rick finds out and confronts her. She reveals the affair with Shane and Rick accepts it.

S2E7 · Pretty Much Dead Already

Glenn reveals the barn to the group. Shane is furious, urging the group to kill the walkers or abandon the farm. Rick confronts Hershel, who believes the walkers to be curable. After her encounter at the pharmacy, Maggie opposes this view. In love with Glenn, she discourages Hershel from exiling Rick's group. Rick reveals Lori's pregnancy to Shane, who becomes unhinged and overprotective. Dale foresees Shane's actions and tries to hide the gun bag in the swamp, but Shane follows and steals it back. Hershel takes Rick to capture walkers for the barn, but Shane shoots them and proves that they are incurable. Shane opens the barn and massacres the walkers inside. The final walker is Sophia. While the others freeze, Rick steps forward and puts her down.

S2E8 · Nebraska

The group mourns their losses. Beth collapses into a catatonic shock at the loss of her mother, who was in the barn. Meanwhile, Hershel flees to the local bar in town, relapsing into old drinking habits to mask his guilt and hopelessness. Lori learns that Shane sacrificed Otis. She tries to rescue Rick and Hershel herself but crashes her car. Rick and Glenn find Hershel and convince him to return to the farm but two strangers, Dave and Tony, enter the bar and aggressively question them. Rick is forced to kill them.

S2E9 · Triggerfinger

Shane rescues Lori and, in love with her, argues that they should be together. At the bar, Dave and Tony's friends investigate the gunfire. Rick attempts to negotiate but a shootout ensues. The enemy group leaves, abandoning an injured teenager named Randall. Rick saves him and brings him back to the farm, where the group debates whether Randall poses a threat. Shane predicts a violent conflict with Randall's group. Lori fears Shane and urges Rick to confront him.

S2E10 · 18 Miles Out

Rick confronts Shane for killing Otis and advancing on Lori. Shane apologizes and seemingly submits. They move to exile Randall, but he reveals that he knows Maggie and Hershel. As they dispute Randall's fate, Shane contends that Rick can't protect the group and they fight. The brawl unleashes a pack of walkers. Rick is tempted to abandon Shane but rescues him and offers him a second chance. Meanwhile, Lori and Maggie try to inspire a suicidal Beth. Andrea lets Beth make her attempt and she changes her mind.

S2E11 · Judge, Jury, Executioner

Daryl tortures Randall and learns that he is from a large group of unruly men. In a rare occasion, Rick and Shane agree that he must be executed. Dale tries to convince them to spare Randall, probing the group's humanity, but he and Daryl see that the group is broken. Meanwhile, Carl steals a gun and aims to shoot a walker in the swamps but gets scared and flees. The group votes to execute Randall, but Rick refuses when Carl encourages it. Dale is gutted by the walker from the swamps. Daryl mercifully puts him down.

S2E12 · Better Angels

Rick vows to honor Dale by "unbreaking" the group. Carl avoids his gun and regrets Dale's fate, but Rick encourages him to protect himself. Lori thanks Shane for saving her and Carl during Rick's coma. Rick and Daryl plan to abandon Randall, but Shane, moved by Lori's speech, kills him and frames it as an escape attempt. Daryl and Glenn find Randall as a walker despite having no bites. Meanwhile, Shane leads Rick deep into the woods to kill him, but Rick stabs Shane and blames him for forcing this upon them. Carl finds Rick mourning at Shane's body. To Rick's surprise, Shane reanimates, and Carl puts him down. The gunshot draws a local herd of walkers towards the farm.

S2E13 · Beside the Dying Fire

Rick and Carl escape the walker herd. Hershel leads an effort to defend the farm but is forced to evacuate. Andrea becomes separated from the group and meets a mysterious hooded woman. The group reunites on the highway, where Daryl reveals Randall's fate. The group poses questions. Rick reveals that everyone is infected and will reanimate after death, a fact he learned from Jenner at the CDC. The group is shaken by Rick's secrecy and question his leadership. Rick reveals that he killed Shane, upsetting Lori and Carl, and invites everyone to leave. When they stay, he declares himself dictator. In the distance, the prison looms.