Fear the Walking Dead, which premieres this Sunday on AMC, takes place an indeterminate amount of time before The Walking Dead. There aren’t any zombies yet, but there will be lots of them very soon. That’s where the prequel begins. We’ve already brought you multiple teasers, the first three minutes of the pilot, sexy zombies, and an explainer, but you might still be wondering: what were The Walking Dead characters doing during Fear the Walking Dead?
Your hypothetical question is my command, so here’s a refresher on what the main cast of The Walking Dead was up to before the world went awry and the dead got hungry.
Rick Grimes
In the outstanding first episode of The Walking Dead, “Days Gone By,” Officer Rick Grimes of the King County Sheriff’s Department gets shot by a bad guy in a gunfight, putting him into a coma. Little is know about Rick’s life before then, other than what we go on to learn through his wife, Lori.
Lori Grimes
Lori and Rick’s relationship was strained even before he went into his aforementioned coma (and not just because her pancakes sucked). They often fought, and she considered leaving him. Which is exactly what happens. Shane convinces Lori and CORAL that Rick is dead to get them to follow him to a safe zone in Atlanta. Spoiler alert: he wasn’t dead.
Shane Walsh
Shane was a dick, but he was also smart. In season one, he was where Rick is now: don’t trust anyone, and shoot first. Or in Rick’s case, stab first, because that’s how he killed Shane (before CORAL shot Zombie Shane). The two King County deputies were childhood best friends, but in a world ruled by walkers, it was a relationship that could never work because while Rick was in a coma, Shane was in Rick’s wife, Lori.
Andrea
Before the zombies took over, Andrea was a successful civil rights lawyer. She didn’t get along with her sister Amy because Andrea left home, leaving Amy to fend for herself. As they got older, they grew closer, and the siblings were on a road trip to Amy’s college when they ran into Dale.
Dale Horvath
Poor Dale wanted to spend his retirement days driving around the country in an RV with his wife, Irma. Unfortunately, she died from cancer and, in the throes of depression, he traveled by his lonesome until he picked up Andrea and Amy. One question remains: seriously, a bucket cap?
Glenn Rhee
No one’s happier that Earth’s swarmed by zombies than the Michigan-born Glenn. He gets to sleep with Maggie, after all, and not wear his goofy baseball hat. Plus, The Walking Dead‘s Philip J. Fry doesn’t have to deliver pizza anymore, which is what he was doing before the world turned to a living nightmare. For everyone except Glenn, that is.
Merle Dixon
Daryl’s racist brother has a typical redneck-in-Georgia backstory: abusive father who drank, missing mother (to be fair, she, um, died after she fell asleep smoking a cigarette and the house burned down), probable meth user, and a constant presence in juvenile hall. Eventually, Merle joined the U.S. Marines. He started getting his life together until, oops, he punched a sergeant, which got him court-martialed and he was sent to prison for over a year.
Daryl Dixon
This fan favorite came from the same background as Merle, obviously, but he turned out a little different. Daryl’s big brother taught him a lot about being a man, but when Merle went away, he became a loner and even spent nine days in the woods by himself. Merle was pissed at the world; Daryl was upset, too, but also sensitive. The Walking Dead begins with the Dixons as drifters, which they probably would have become even without the zombies.
Carol Peletier
Everyone’s favorite character had an inauspicious beginning. Carol was an unfortunate victim of her husband Ed’s domestic abuse, which defined her personality. (Ed also carried on a sexual relationship with their daughter, because he was the worst.) She was weak and backed down from arguments, until she became a total badass with a much better haircut.
Theodore Douglas
Not much is known about the man, nay, the legend called T-Dog. He was living in Atlanta, very religious, and… that’s about it. Oh, and he never learned how to make a proper three-point turn.
CORAL Grimes
I dunno. Being a dork, probably?
