11 The Walking Dead Episodes That Are Flawless From Beginning to End

The Walking Dead is one of the most enduring and popular zombie TV shows ever, and it is also the only one to cleverly never use the word “zombie.” While the first several seasons of the show remain its best, flawless episodes were delivered throughout its run, right through to the end.

The best episodes of The Walking Dead take fans on a journey, allowing them to experience a range of emotions and driving the story forward. Some are pivotal for character arcs, and some even mark the end of favorite characters. But all the flawless episodes get better and better every time.

11"Days Gone By" Kicks Off the Entire Story

The episode "Days Gone By" kicked off the entire series, so it stands to reason that it would be flawless. It is what drew viewers into the story in the first place. Those watching couldn’t help but put themselves in Rick’s position. Seeing him awaken from a coma only to find that society has been overtaken by flesh-eating, former human creatures is one of the most shocking scenes in The Walking Dead. He has no idea where his loved ones are nor what’s even happening.

The nail-biting tension builds when Rick sees the young girl who faces him to reveal that she has turned, then a severed body still moving and groaning on the ground. Then, once he meets Morgan, all of the events come into focus. Setting the stage comes together in this brilliantly shot episode.

10"Pretty Much Dead Already" Left Fans Gutted

By season two, the focus was shifting to the very different leadership styles between Shane and Rick. While Shane wanted to run things like most people did a decade into the apocalypse (arguably even Rick eventually), Rick still believed that people had humanity. There was a better way of handling things than resorting to tyranny and violence. Their friction came to a head when Glenn revealed that Hershel was hoarding walkers in his barn, believing there could be a cure one day to save them.

Screaming, yelling, and waving his gun around, Shane had no interest in respecting Hershel’s decision, despite it being his property. He opened the barn door and began shooting the walkers that emerged. That is until the last one ambled out, a turned Sophia in one of the most heartbreaking deaths ever in The Walking Dead. The entire episode was fantastic, but the way it ended tied it all together in a way that left viewers completely gutted.

9"Beside the Dying Fire" Is Explosive and Introduces Michonne

While those who watched the entire series are used to the group moving from one home to another, in season two, the only true place they could call home up to this point was Hershel’s farm. That all ends in what is considered the best episode of season two. The farm goes up in flames while being overrun by walkers. Now, Rick and the group need to get everyone out and somehow manage to find another safe place to stay. For Hershel, Maggie, and Beth, who have been holed up at the farm since the outbreak, this is the first time they’re on the outside with nowhere to go back to.

From several deaths, including Hershel’s friends, to Rick’s epic takedown of swarms of walkers, it’s an episode with plenty of action. This is also the episode when Rick reveals the secret he learned at the CDC: everyone is infected, and everyone will turn when they die. Most importantly, however, the episode also introduces Michonne, who appears as the hooded figure in the distance holding a katana. As a season finale, comic book fans already knew who this character was, and they couldn’t wait to see her, making the tease a welcome one.

8"Clear" Brings Back Fan Favorite Morgan

Marking the return of Morgan, who Rick hadn’t seen since he left him in the first episode, it was evident that a lot had changed. After losing his son because he couldn’t bring himself to shoot his walker wife, Morgan fell off the deep end. He set up elaborate traps and holed himself up on a rooftop where he wrote the words “clear” repeatedly on the walls. He needed to clear the path and eliminate all the walkers, and that is virtually all he did, day in and day out.

Along with Rick seeing his old friend in this state and trying to get through to him, this episode also begins the budding friendship between Carl and Michonne. It was also the first inkling that maybe something romantic was brewing between Rick and Michonne. The episode delivered tremendous performances overall and a story highlighting so many different elements of human nature in the apocalypse.

7"The Grove" Highlights Shame, Guilt, Forgiveness and Regret

This episode really does have it all. There’s desperation to survive as Carol, Tyrone, and the kids manage to find an abandoned home after escaping the prison and getting separated from the group. There’s forgiveness as Carol finally confesses her misdeeds to Tyrone, and he, rather than lash out in anger, decides to relieve her of her guilt. And there’s also one of the most tragic moral dilemmas ever on the show.

Carol has a tough decision to make after a clearly mentally ill Lizzie kills her own sister in one of the saddest deaths on The Walking Dead and sets her sights on Judith next. Though it’s the right thing to do to save an innocent baby’s life who would almost assuredly be killed otherwise, this moment still involves executing a young girl with no power over her fractured mental state. It’s a less action-packed episode but one that takes viewers through a range of heart-wrenching emotions from start to finish.

6"No Sanctuary" Sees Carol Return as a Hero

Who doesn’t love a good Carol episode? This is the kind of episode where fans literally got up from their seats in excitement. It not only has the return of Carol, who had previously left the group, but shows her as the bold, brave mom who saved the entire group from almost certain death.

She doesn’t just come in with guns blazing, though. She literally blows the compound up and then enters disguised as the dead. Carol meets face-to-face with the leader with whom she engages in an epic battle before emerging victorious. If she wasn’t already, this episode solidified Carol’s position as a fan-favorite character on the show.

5"The Cell" Shows Daryl’s Unbreakable Will

Viewers couldn’t get the song “Easy Street” by The Collapsable Hearts Club out of their heads for days after watching this episode. It may very well have been this episode that convinced viewers that Norman Reedus could lead an entire series himself and was a worthy successor to Rick. The episode is centered around Daryl, who has been captured by the Saviors. He is being kept in a cell in sweats, tortured with this song playing on repeat, and taunted by Negan. He’s in the most vulnerable state fans had seen him since the beginning of the show, and Reedus does a fantastic job.

Season	Episode	Year
7	3	2016

Nothing breaks Daryl’s spirit or will. All he can do is think of ways he’ll be able to escape and how because he knows he will. Fans feel this with every visit by Dwight or Negan. It sets up both the rivalry between Daryl and Dwight and the redemption that eventually comes. Dark, ominous, and less frantic than other episodes, the respite was needed, and a spotlight on Daryl was a welcome addition to the line-up that season.

 

4"What Comes After" Was Rick’s Swan Song

It was all about goodbye since this episode marked the last for Rick. Since fans knew this, they were eyeing every moment and waiting for how the story would end for the former group leader. It begins beautifully with Rick dreaming, seeing himself in his hospital room and pleading with his comatose self to get up. It poetically ties to the exact same moment at the end of the episode when Rick is having this dream in a helicopter being rescued by Jadis.

Season	Episode	Year
9	5	2018

His heroic journey starts with him being impaled by rebar and slowly losing consciousness. He hops on a horse to lead walkers away, then ties his wounds before passing out in an old shack. Through it all, as he goes in and out of consciousness, he hallucinates about all the pivotal moments and people in his life since the world came to an end, each asking him, “What’s your wound?” He gets forgiveness from Shane, he apologizes to Hershel, he gets a pep talk from Sasha. Rick finally collapses near the bridge, where he makes the decision to set off the dynamite so the walkers can’t get across the bridge. It was a beautiful, sentimental, heartbreaking, perfect send-off.

 

3"Open Your Eyes" Reveals a Traitor

Coming off the tragic episode when the group finds the severed, reanimated heads of several young members mounted on spikes in the grass, Siddiq is doing his best to reintegrate into the community while dealing with survivors' guilt. The episode came full circle, starting with Siddiq’s recurring nightmare of that fateful night and hearing a Whisperer say, “Open your eyes.”

Season	Episode	Year
10	7	2019

The episode has a bit of everything as Siddiq deals with the sick residents he can’t seem to help, Carol tries to break a Whisperer they are holding prisoner, and Gamma has a crisis of conscience. It culminates in a tragic death and a moment that harkens right back to the beginning of the episode.

 

2"Here's Negan" Is the Backstory We Needed

It took several seasons for fans to finally learn more about Negan’s backstory, and this season finale delivered. From the chemistry between Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton, who plays Lucille (Morgan’s real-life wife), to Negan’s slow descent from a man who couldn’t even kill a walker to a ferocious manipulator, it was everything fans wanted and more.

Season	Episode	Year
10	22	2021

What was remarkable about this episode is that it didn’t begin with a sob story but rather depicted Negan in an honest way: he was a lazy, aimless jerk. But when push came to shove, he became Lucille’s protector, her true savior who put everything aside to care for her. It was no small feat to tell a backstory fans would appreciate, but this one did Negan and Lucille justice.

 

1"On The Inside" Is Like a Horror Movie

This is a much different episode from any other in the series. “On the Inside” finally tells the story of what happened to Connie after the massive cave explosion that left her and Magna dead. The episode is done in a very different style and tone that can be likened to a horror movie. It’s intense, with a mix of quiet, frightening moments and plenty of jump scares.

Season	Episode	Year
11	6	2021

The episode focuses on Connie and Virgil as they seek refuge in a house that’s haunted in its own way. What’s so flawless about this episode is how it portrays the challenges of being hard of hearing, even presenting scenes completely silent so fans experience them as Connie would. But it also highlights how Connie rises above and proves that nothing holds her back.