Fire in the Hole

Recapped by Angel Cohn · Aired 12-05-2010 · S01E06

In a flashback, we see that Shane sorta tried to rescue Rick from the hospital, while it was under attack by walkers and the military, but thought he was dead and just left him. At least he kindly put the hospital bed in front of the door so that the walkers wouldn't attack him.

Inside the CDC, Jenner lets them retrieve their supplies, forces them to take a blood test and then locks them all in. They look less than impressed to see that he's the only one around. But then he gives them wine and food, and everyone is fast friends. Until stupid Shane brings the room down asking where all the people are who are supposed to be trying to save the zombies, getting his digs in at Rick. Everyone enjoys the hot showers, except for Andrea… and me, because I have to watch Rick and Lori making out.

Drunken Shane finds Lori in the library and seems to admire her knee socks and oversize shirt. He locks her in and demands that they talk. She's still pissed that he said that Rick was dead. He says that he lied so that Lori and Carl would come with him. She does her bug-eyed look. Can the new writers season find a way to get her to make more facial expressions. Then Shane nearly rapes her, making me wish even more that he died like he did in the comics. But she claws him, he walks away, and she stares after him all bug-eyed. Naturally.

The morning they're hung over, and they basically request that Jenner explain what's up with the whole cure thing. He takes them into the computer room and shows them some computer imagery of some brains. The scans are of TS-19, a test subject who worked there who let them record what happens after infection. At least we learn that resurrection time can vary from three minutes to eight hours. That's an interesting factoid to learn at the end of the season. They don't know what causes it. And he basically hits them with the fact that there is nothing left in the whole world. Dale spots a countdown clock, that only has an hour on it. Basically that's when the generators go out… and the place gets decontaminated.

The power starts shutting itself down, and Jenner goes to his office and gets dressed in his nice work lab jacket. Everyone freaks about the lack of air. We also learn that the French were the last people he knew that were remotely close to a solution, but they ran out of power. [Aw, hell -- they better not try to make it to France. - Zach] They try and get out, but Jenner locks them all in the computer lab. He says that it is better that they all die together, since all the gates are locked and they can't get out.

As the boys try to ax through rocket-launcher-proof-doors, Jenner explains that the burning up is a better solution than getting eaten by zombies. That this zombie infestation is an extinction event. They all plead with him to open the doors, except for Shane and Darryl, who want to kill the Doc. Rick has to forcibly stop them. And it finally dawns on these idiots that TS-19 was Jenner's wife. God, they are so freaking slow.

Jenner gives them a chance to escape, even though the top doors aren't controlled by him, opens the nearest gate, says he'll regret it, and then whispers something in Rick's ear. Then Jacqui and Andrea decide, with only four minutes left, that they are going to stay, so they don't turn out like Jim and Amy. Dale tries to sway Andrea, while the rest make it to the surface and open a window with the help of that grenade Rick picked up in the tank. Dale tells Andrea that if she's staying he's staying, too. This convinces her to come, and at 21 seconds Jenner and Jacqui look at the screen happy to see they got out. Then the entire CDC explodes in a pretty awesome way. Good job, special effects crew. And our last shot of the season is the little caravan heading out, with the black smoke of the CDC billowing up in the air. [Oh, and on the way out, they actually shot a few zombies. - Z]

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This is the last episode of this abbreviated first season, and I'm excited, until I see that it kicks off with a flashback involving Shane. He's at the hospital where we saw Rick wake up, and Shane's running around looking scared and hiding out from military people who are going crazy and shooting people with machine guns. Sure some of those people are walkers, but it doesn't look like they particularly care. Shane snatches a hospital bed and wheels it over to Rick's room, presumably to get his good buddy out of there. But he has no idea what wires to disconnect, and when the army looking guys come in, he ducks, and they don't make any effort to go in. He yells at Rick to wake up, but then the power goes out. He tries to hear a heartbeat, and although he's clearly no doctor, he decides his comatose friend is dead and leaves the room. He shuts the door and, after seeing some walkers coming down the hall, puts the hospital bed back in front of the door. On first viewing, I thought it was because he thought Rick might be alive, but on repeated viewing, I realize Shane is an idiot, but at least had the decency to hope that his presumed dead friend didn't get turned into a zombie.

Back in real time, we're at the CDC when we see Shane and company heading in to the silent building. Jenner wants to know why they're there, and Rick says they just want a chance. Jenner says that's asking a lot, but they can stay so long as they submit to a blood test. He also tells them to get whatever supplies they need from the trucks, because once he shuts the doors, they're staying shut. Oohh... foreshadowing.

He takes them down in the elevator, and the ungrateful members of the former Camp Terror crew have the nerve to question why he's carrying a weapon. Um, what if one of them turned out to be a zombie? Or Shane? I'd want to reserve the right to shoot them. Anyway, Jenner, who is clearly more patient than I would be, tells them there were a lot lying around after all the people hit the road or got turned into zombies, and he's had some spare time, so he learned how to use a semi-automatic weapon. See, Jenner doesn't just decide that putting up some tin cans is an effective way to keep zombies at bay. He's much more proactive. And Jenner kind of jokes around with Carl, and it is fairly adorable.

Once out of the elevator, Carol so astutely realizes that they are underground. Yes, the CDC and all of their gross diseases is known for keeping all of the plagues of the world underground. Anyway, she's claustrophobic, and my hero Jenner tells her to suck it up. Where is my sweet Glenn in all this? Just kind of hanging out and watching things unfold. Minding his own business. Good boy.

Once they get to the room with the computers, a.k.a. Zone 5's "big room," Jenner calls out for Vai, his handy helping computer. She turns on the lights. Rick wants to know where everyone is, and when Jenner says that it's just him, Lori wants to know about the Vai person he was talking to. Has Lori never seen a science-fiction movie? Ever? Why am I not surprised. Good lord, Vai's a computer. Deal with it. Jenner, to his credit, does not call her a moron straight to her face. Andrea also thinks Vai is real, but her question seems more desperate.

As Jenner draws Andrea's blood, she wonders why he's bothering. Jenner likes rules. So do I. Don't ask stupid questions is rule 1. As she gets up, she stumbles a little woozily, and Jacqui says it is because she hasn't eaten in days. In fact, none of them have. This is patently untrue. The big fish fry/zombie attack dinner was like at MOST a day and a half ago. And did they not have rations still to snack on?

Jenner, again being a more decent human being, decides to feed them and ply them with wine. Against Lori's wishes, Carl gets to take his first sip of the hard stuff... and promptly decides that it is disgusting. Kids, they don't appreciate anything. Then racist Darryl decides to joke that he'd like to see how red my sweet Glennn's face can get. Meanwhile, Jenner just sits on looking bored of this whole situation. I am totally with him on this point.

Rick sees Jenner looking sullen and decides to propose a toast to their savior. Everyone excitedly chimes in, except for Debbie Downer Shane who wants to know why the CDC is totally empty. Time and place, Shane. Learn these things. Carl is better behaved. Rick tries to explain this to him, and Shane gets all uppity saying that finding the doctors working on a cure is why they came to the CDC instead of going to the military base. Yes, that was their purpose, and it was Rick's bad idea, but everyone else has totally forgotten about poor, dead-on-the-side-of-the-road Zombie Jim and moved on with their lives and, and now they've willingly decided to side with the guy who's an idiot, but not a total asshole.

Jenner calmly copes with Shane's rude table manners and a dig at his science skill, to explain that most people left when the going got tough in order to be with their families, and then the walkers made it through the military barricade and people ran scared and/or killed themselves He quietly describes this as a bad time. He says that he stuck around in order to do some good. And he did save their asses, so even though I don't necessarily consider that all good, you'd think those who had their asses saved would be a little bit more grateful. Right, Shane?

By Angel Cohn

Then Jenner kindly walks them through the area where they will be living, and there's a rec room with video games (but he advises the kids not to play them because of a lack of power). He then mentions the words "shower with hot water," and my sweet Glennn and T-Dog look very excited. Then we have to watch people making their "O" faces while getting washed clean. Shane brings a bottle of liquor in with him, and Andrea just sits on the bottom of the shower all curled up. Seems like a waste of the hot water that Jenner just said not to waste.

A few minutes later we hear Andrea puking and Dale comes over to help her... but doesn't have the decency to hold her newly rinsed clean hair. She's upset because the world is all over. She probably says something else, but she's doing that sobbing/talking thing that I hate, so I'm ignoring her. I'm sure it has something to do with Amy and/or freaking mermaids.

Rick finds Jenner looking over the blood samples. Rick's polishing off a bottle of vino and tells Jenner that he can't possibly understand what it is like out there. He says that it was only a matter of time before they died in the outside world given the amount of walkers wandering free. He then tells Jenner some stuff about his regrets in life; he's had a few. Jenner assures him it will all be OK. Sure, suicide is painless, doc.

Lori goes into the rec room excited for books. I'm so sure that she reads. Carol's with the kids and then takes them away thrilled that they can get a good night's sleep without the threat of her abusive husband or the walkers. Guess she got over that whole claustrophobic thing pretty quickly. Lori drunkenly says she's going to stay and browse. Maybe they have some Danielle Steel on audio tape for her. That seems about her speed.

When Rick returns to his room, he sees Carl and Lori both in bed, and he sees her tears and says she doesn't need to be afraid. Nope, not of walkers, just your dick of a best friend.

The morning, everyone is hungover, including my sweet Glennn. Shane walks in, and T-Dog wonders where he got his scratches; Shane chalks it up to a sleepscratch. Rick says he's never seen him do that before, and I'm not sure why, but that stuck me as the dumbest piece of dialogue in an episode of dumb dialogue. [Did Rick watch Shane sleep a lot? - Z]

Jenner walks in, and Andrea and Dale decide they want him to answer some questions, stat. Let the guy have his coffee first. You two are almost as bad as Shane.

In the big room, Jenner shows them video of "an extraordinary" brain as it goes from human to walker. Patient TS-19. Jenner is able to dumb down brain chemistry and waves and synapses enough that even these idiots can understand it. The gist is that once you're turned into a walker, most of your brain activity is kaput. Yup, figured that out. Also figured out that TS-19 was Jenner's significant other, and it was confirmed when he says that he lost someone, too. We do learn that resurrection time can vary quite a lot. And then we get to see what a bullet looks like on X-ray. That's cool.

He doesn't know what caused the walkers to become walkers, if it was microbial or an act of God. They all grasp at straws wondering if there are other facilities who are working on researching this. Jenner said that there could be a few people, but communication completely went down for a month. They all realize that there is nothing left for them.

Dale wants to know what is up with the clock on the wall that's counting down. Jenner says that when it hits zero, the backup generator will have run out. He walks away. Rick asks Vai what it means, and she said that when it runs out, the whole building will be decontaminated. We did see his whole lab go up in flames, and that doesn't look like it would particularly be fun.

Rick, Glennn, T-Dog and Shane go downstairs to see if he's telling the truth. There's one small barrel of fuel left. Lori's in her room, with her big bug eyes, trying to figure out why the air conditioning went out. Jenner is at his desk staring at a picture of a woman saying he hopes she'd be proud.. He says he thought he'd have more time, as a section of power goes out. Nicely edited. They all chase after Jenner through the hallway, trying to request more details on why systems are shutting down. Jenner walks and talks to explain that only the most essential items, like the computer, stay on to the very end.

By Angel Cohn

Jenner (who has wisely taken to drinking again) says that the French were the last people who had any luck with the research... but then they ran out of power... and the lab exploded. Just like this one is going to. [That seems like a terrible way to preserve research. - Z] Then he delivers a lecture on fossil fuels. Rick screams at Lori to get her stuff so they can get out of there, but Jenner quickly locks them all in the big room together. Then he starts trying to do his last video log, before the Camp Terror crew starts physically attacking him. He just sort of sits and takes it and pleasantly explains that, even if he lets them out, there's no way out topside because all the street level windows and doors are sealed shut. He reminds them in a very Willy Wonka way, that he told them that the door would never open again. Oh, does this mean there are going to be Oompa-Loompas now?

Jenner tries to tell them that it's better this way. They want to know what happens in 28 minutes, because Rick's still kind of slow on the uptake. Jenner finally gets a little angry and says that with all of the ebola, black plague, fun contagious viruses and weaponized smallpox and the like, the system has a plan to destroy the building and everything inside so that shit doesn't get out. Sure it sucks for these guys (especially Rick who had the bright idea to come here in the first place), but the last thing zombies need is to start becoming ebola carriers as well. Then he gives them a dumbed-down lesson on HIT's, with the help of Vai. Basically they just set the air on fire. Jenner thoughtfully says that there is no time for pain or grief, it is just over quickly and destroys everything.

Jenner's not buying it. This zombie infestation is what causes humans to go extinct, and Jenner for one is grateful that Andrea gets it. My sweet Glennn just looks stunned and powerless. Poor pizza-delivering kid. Carol sobs that he shouldn't force them to stay and be burned up. He says it is kinder and more compassionate to hold each other and wait for the clock to run down. But Shane isn't buying that. He goes and gets his shotgun and holds it to Jenner's head. I'm sure that's real effective for a guy who is already planning on dying in about 20 minutes. And Rick reminds him that they don't know how to open the doors if he's dead. Lori and her bug eyes plead with him to listen to Rick. Because that's going to go well. Shane just roars and starts shooting up other things in the big room before Rick finally wrestles the weapon away from him. He asks if he's done yet. Shane says they all are.

Cue big pep talk from Rick. Just like a sports movie. Do you think there will be a slow clap? He says that he thinks Jenner is lying about there being no hope, because if all hope was gone, Jenner would have bolted. He must have had a reason for staying behind. Why? Oh, because he promised TS-19, his wife (duh!) that he would keep up with his research for as long as he could. At this point Darryl starts back up with his ax on the door. His clanks sort of punctuate each sentence in and interestingish sort of way. Jenner claims that she was the genius, he was just a regular old employee and that she could have done something. Lori stares with her bug eyes. Rick says that his wife didn't have a choice, but he does and now they all want a chance to get out and keep trying to live. This seems to soften Jenner's heart, though he still thinks it's a lost cause because the upstairs is locked, and there's only four and a half minutes left. Rick is grateful for his chance, and Jenner says that some day he won't be, and whispers something in Rick's ear. What? Well, I guess we might find out season. Perhaps a way to kill everyone if the zombies get bad? Or the location of a safe haven? Who knows.

The door opens, and everyone starts running out, but Jacqui says she's staying behind. She says it is a sane decision and she doesn't want to end up like Jim and Amy. No one really argues with her, perhaps because they've forgotten who Jim and Amy were and don't have time to suss all of that out, or more likely because their desire for self-preservation beats out saving this one woman. Oh wait, that's what they do all the time? Is it just because Jacqui's on her own, with no other ties to the group? Do they hate her? Is she secretly an asshole? Dale briefly pauses, but doesn't really plead with her, but that's when he notices that Andrea is standing there with her arms crossed. She's staying too. "Andrea, no." Very original. He sends the rest of the crew on, while he tries to talk some sense into Andrea, but again, not Jacqui. It's interesting that he helps the pretty young blonde and not the older black woman. [I don't even think Jacqui is really that much older. - Z]

Up at street level, everyone is taking guns, axes and chairs to the windows, to no avail. Carol reaches into her magic backpack and pulls out the grenade that Rick lifted from the tank. She found it in his uniform when he arrived at camp and she was doing laundry, and she stuffed it away. Instead of getting mad at her for stealing his shit, he looks relieved. Did Jenner not run any kind of security check on these people? A live grenade going off could have been catastrophic underground. I guess he figured that was going to happen anyway, but what if it had taken out Vai and the building couldn't shut itself down and all the viruses got out?

Anyway, no time to dwell on how she got the grenade in -- Rick puts it by the window, pulls the pin and runs away. Good thing it isn't the kind that you need to throw. Downstairs Dale says that Andrea wins. If she's staying, so is he. She doesn't want him here. Jacqui looks miffed that no one cared that much about her. Dale borrows Lori's bug eyes and says the matter is settled and he's staying. The rest of the gang get out and start taking down walkers. Yay! I forgot this was a zombie show for a minute. Just as the gang is about to drive off, Lori spots people coming out of the building. Inside with less than 20 seconds left, Jenner and Jacqui look at the street cameras and see that their "friends" got out. Not sure how Dale and Andrea got up those however many flights of stairs and outside and across the lawn in what seemed like it should have been about 30 seconds, but they did. Maybe once this is over they can try out for some sort of triathalon.

With 10 seconds remaining, Jenner and Jacqui hold hands, and Lori screams at everyone to get down, Andrea and Dale jump behind some sand bags for protection. Fireballs start streaming out the open window, and look like they spread across the better part of two blocks. Somehow this conveniently misses the camper and fails to set the sandbags on fire. Even though the building mostly imploded, I'm surprised they were out of the blast radius. Or that, at the very least there isn't black ash raining down on the little caravan as it drives away. Instead, the oxygen-burning fire just billows up into big old black clouds, while the fire rages on the building below. I'd say if it wasn't for the toxic fumes, that staying around there might be wise, as the blast would likely have killed off walkers or at the very least frightened them away. But then again, if this major blast that looks like it will burn for several hours didn't manage to reach the camper parked a block away, then maybe it didn't kill off that many zombies. So black smoke and Rick gets his chance for the future. Poor Jacqui. I wish someone had spent a moment of time trying to save her, because she seemed awesome. These people spent a whole day trying to keep almost-zombie Jim alive, but Jacqui doesn't deserve a passing thought. Sad.

By Angel Cohn

And we're done, and I will have to miss my sweet Glennn and good old racist angry Darryl until year. Maybe someone can teach Lori some new facial expressions in the meantime? I'd appreciate that.

Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what our vlogger thinks of the show when he has No Prior Knowledge, below. And see our gallery of the show's best and worst moments!

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