The Walking Dead‘s third season premiere started right where the finale left off, with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) bringing his gang to an abandoned house for safety — but it wasn’t long before the walkers caught up. The group is quickly learning the walkers are moving just as fast as they are!

In an attempt for safety, the group flees west, where they find an old prison. The prison yard is swarming with walkers, but of course, that’s no challenge for Rick and his posse! While Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) snipe from atop, and the rest fight from behind the fences of the prison, Rick runs to close the gates so no more walkers can get in.

After guts and blood galore, the group overtakes the prison yard and sets up camp, but Rick tells them to not get too comfortable, because they’re about to take over the rest of the prison — which is believed to have a supply of medicine, food and ammo, all of which they’re low on.

With no ammo, the group decides to find more shelter — which means more blood and more guts! By only using hand-to-hand combat, they manage to lock another gate, granting them protection from other walkers.

While the group takes shelter in the confinements of the prison, the mysterious hunter who saved Andrea (Laurie Holden) is seen decapitating heads and taking names. We also realize the mystery hunter is up to something: cutting off the arms and jaws of the walkers and chaining them like guard dogs! Could this be a way to keep walkers away?

Flashing back to Rick: He and Daryl, Glenn (Steven Yeun), Hershel (Scott Wilson), Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and T-Dog (IronE Singleton) try to secure more of the prison. As the group goes through the prison halls, Glenn marks the wall with arrows so that they can find their way back. As they move forward, marking each wall, they run into a herd that causes the group to split, leaving Glenn and Maggie to fend for themselves. Rick tries to get everyone back together, but before he does, Hershel trails from behind walking over a body sitting up against a wall — which was believed to have been dead. (As Hershel made his way through, the zombie took a chunk out of his calf!)

All reunited and brought to safety, Rick attempts to keep Hershel alive, but there’s only one way to do that: amputate his leg from the knee down!

Rick grabs an axe and chops off Hershel’s leg, so the infection doesn’t spread.

End scene.

Will he survive? Is the building as secure as they thought? We sure hope so! Plus, someone needs to be able to take care of the birthing of that baby.

What did you think of the season premiere of The Walking Dead, Hollywoodlifers?

– Julianna Spence

Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is back on our televisions with the return of The Walking Dead — but even he couldn’t protect [spoiler] from a gun shot.

We find our favorite walker-survivors shortly after we left them last season. They had escaped Dr. Edwin Jenner’s (Noah Emmerich) attempt to “save” them all by locking them in the CDC to be burned alive. Now, they plan to head to Fort Benning. But abandoned cars and an over-turned semi truck on the highway keep them from making much progress. And then they are, of course, ambushed by a herd of zombies.

During the tense attack, Sophia (Madison Lintz) — Carol’s (Melissa Suzanne McBride) daughter — proves that kids really do ruin everything. She makes a noise, alerting one zombie to her presence and then runs away to get lost in the woods. Rick immediately goes after her, finds her and tells her to stay put while he kills the zombies who had followed. In a rather pleasant scene, he bashes two walkers in the head with a rock. Then he tries to retrieve Sophia, but the stupid brat had run away.

Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Rick try to track the young girl, but are unsuccessful. The next day, the group sets out again — but not before Andrea (Laurie Holden) has an intense confrontation with Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), blaming him for not letting her die in the CDC fire.

There is a very cliched scene in a church — where Rick asks God to give him a sign that he’s doing something right — and Rick and Shane (Jon Bernthal) decide to continue looking for Sophia, while the rest of the group heads to the highway before nightfall.

On their way back, Lori defends her husband to Carol, who blames Rick for her daughter getting lost. I’m sorry Carol, but if you had taught your daughter better, this wouldn’t have happened.

Aside from Sophia and her idiotic actions — what part of stay where you are did she not understand — the biggest surprise of the episode came when Carl (Chandler Riggs), Rick and Lori’s (Sarah Wayne Callies) son got shot. (By an as-yet-unseen human. More survivors!) And you know that Lori is going to blame Rick, and so is the rest of the group.

But who is really at fault? Clearly, it’s Sophia. If she had listened to Rick, they wouldn’t have had to look for her and Carl wouldn’t have gotten shot. Simple math, people.

Also of note, Shane plans to leave, because he’s still in love with Lori. Lori — at her most annoying and Bella-esque — is upset that her husband’s best friend wants to abandon them. Honestly, I can’t stand her. How long did she wait between finding out that Rick was “dead” and sleeping with his best friend? For all I care, she can get eaten and we won’t have to deal with her whining.

What did you think of the season premiere of The Walking Dead, HollywoodLifers?

– Denise Warner