"TS-19" is the sixth and final episode of the first season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the sixth episode of the series overall. It premiered on December 5, 2010. It was written by Adam Fierro & Frank Darabont and directed by Guy Ferland.
Plot[]
Rick and the group are allowed into the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) by a strange doctor. But all is not what it seems in their newfound haven.
Synopsis[]
A flashback starts this episode at the onset of the outbreak. Shane is visiting Rick in the King County hospital, wearing his Sheriff's Deputy's uniform. Army personnel are evacuating hospital staff and executing the infected. Shane begs a nurse for help, but she runs past him screaming.
Shane watches fearfully as the military execute terrified people in the hallways. He tries to lift his comatose partner, but hesitates because of all the tubes and wires attached to the machines that are keeping him alive. Shane asks him desperately to tell him what to do, but Rick is unresponsive.
He ducks behind Rick's bed just as two army personnel arrive to sweep the room. When they leave, he begs his best friend to wake up, but the power goes out and Rick's monitors die. Fearing the worst, Shane puts his ear to Rick's chest. After hearing no heartbeat, Shane reluctantly leaves Rick in the room. However, he barricades the door with a hospital gurney before he flees.
In the present, Rick and the other survivors file in to the CDC lobby in Atlanta. Dr. Edwin Jenner meets them at the door. He accepts them to the CDC, but demands they do a blood test first. As the group wander deep into the CDC, Carol notes that she's claustrophobic underground, and Jenner simply advises her not to think about it.
Jenner leads the group in to the control room. Looking around, Rick questions the absence of other doctors. Jenner states he’s the only one left. Lori asks about Vi. When Jenner introduces her, the group realizes that she is the voice of the CDC's computer system.
As Jenner takes a blood sample from Andrea, she asks him what the point is, as if they were bitten, they’d be sick with a fever. Jenner says it’s protocol.
Later, the group feasts in the CDC cafeteria, joyfully drinking wine and liquor from the fully stocked kitchen. They are beyond happy about finding a safe place to stay and a good meal. Glenn gets drunk, much to Daryl's satisfaction. Carl tries his first sip of red wine and hates it, much to Lori's delight. Rick toasts Jenner for his hospitality, and the doctor quietly raises his glass.
After dinner, Jenner shows the group around the building, directing the children towards the rec room and telling everyone not to waste electricity. The survivors are thrilled to luxuriate in hot showers, all except for Shane, who angrily swallows a bottle of liquor while he bathes; and Andrea, who sits numbly under the stream.
Rick meets with Jenner and thanks him again. He admits to Jenner that he never let on to the others what he really thought, but he knew that they were running out of options before they got to the CDC.
Cradling another glass of wine, a buzzed Lori finds Carl, Carol, and Sophia reading books in the rec room. Carol takes the children to bed while Lori stays behind to browse the library. While there, a drunken Shane confronts Lori, and is angry with her for abandoning him once Rick arrived. Lori retorts that Shane lied about Rick dying, and because of that, anything between them is now over. Shane attempts to force himself on Lori, but is pushed back by Lori who scratches his neck with her nails, and then runs off.
Later, Rick stumbles in to bed with Lori and sees that she's been crying. He assumes that it is of something else as he is clueless as to what had just happened with her and Shane.
The next morning, Rick shuffles in to the cafeteria. He, as well as most others, is hung over. T-Dog proudly dishes out powdered eggs for everyone, while a hungover Glenn groans. Lori hands Rick some aspirin which she says came from Dr. Jenner. Shane enters the room and heads straight for the coffee. T-Dog asks about the scratches on Shane's neck. He shrugs it off, claiming he must have scratched his neck in his sleep. When Jenner arrives in the kitchen, Dale starts asking questions. Andrea concurs, saying, they didn't come here for the eggs.
Jenner leads the group in to the control center. He tells Vi to display the brain scans from the episode's namesake "Test Subject 19." The top-secret brain-scan video shows someone who was infected and allowed the process of reanimation to be recorded by the CDC, Jenner explains.
The video shows the synapses of the brain haemorrhaging before it goes black, due to the death of the subject. The group are saddened to see this, still reeling over the losses of Amy and Jim who have died from a similar event.
Jenner fast-forwards to the TS-19's reanimation. The synapses of the brain slowly lights back up in a dull light. Lori asks if the virus restarts the brain, to which Jenner states that it only restarts the brainstem; enough for the walker to get up and move, but everything else that person once was is forever gone. In the video, a bullet flies through TS-19's. Andrea reminisces of Amy, whom she, too, had to shoot in the head. Jenner admits he doesn't know what the virus is or how to treat it. He’s unsure if the virus is natural or man-made, and even does not rule out it could be divine punishment when Jacqui suggests it could be the wrath of God. He also states that he has lost contact with other research facilities due to loss of power, with a facility in France being the last one he had contact with until they too, run of power.
Dale interrupts the stunned silence to ask Jenner about a clock on the far wall, which is counting down from an hour. Jenner informs him that it is counting down to how much fuel is left for the lab, but he refuses to elaborate what happens once the clock reaches zero.
Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn head to inspect the generators. While they're in the basement, the building's emergency lighting switches on, bathing the four in darkness. Upstairs, Lori and Carl are in their room when the building's air cuts off.
In his office, Jenner stares at a photograph of a woman, asking her to understand that he did the best he could in the time that he had. He says that he hopes she's proud of him. With the lights now shutting themselves off inside the panicked survivors' rooms, they confront Jenner in the hallway. He explains that the building is slowly starting to shut itself down.
Rick demands to know what happens once the clock hits zero. Jenner tells Rick that the lab contains very dangerous pathogens such as weaponised smallpox and Ebola strains that could wipe out half of the country. Once the clock hits zero, Vi will decontaminate the entire building using HiTs. Confused as to what an HiT is, Jenner has Vi tell the group what it is; high-impulse thermobaric explosives which will detonate once the clock reaches zero, igniting the air and destroying the entire lab in the process in order to prevent any dangerous pathogens contained inside the lab from potentially escaping. It is too late to prevent this from happening as there is no fuel left. Rick orders everyone to get their belongings and leave, but before they can, Jenner locks the doors, trapping them in the control room.
As the group begin to panic, Jenner attempts to calm them by saying their deaths will be quick and painless due to how fast the HiTs will destroy the building, and it would be much quicker than whatever death will await them outside.
Daryl and Shane futilely attempt to break through the door with axes and guns, but Jenner states that it's built to withstand a rocket launcher. Rick, T-Dog, and Dale throw Daryl, wielding an axe, off Jenner. Rick talks down Shane as he points an automatic gun in Jenner's defeated and unaffected face.
Rick also demands to know why Jenner stayed if he didn't think there was any hope. He reveals that TS-19 was his wife, and she instructed him to hold out as long as he could. Jenner believes that the outbreak is humanity’s extinction event, and so there is no hope to continue living.
Rick and Lori tell Jenner that they just want their chance to keep going as long as they can. Swayed, Jenner agrees to open the door, but also tells them that they still won't be able to get past the lockdown upstairs. Jenner opens the door to the control center. Rick offers Jenner to come with them, but he refuses, wishing to remain in the lab when it explodes. He shakes Rick's hand and pulls him close, whispering something in to his ear.
The group heads for the exit, but Jacqui stops. She wants to stay in the CDC when it explodes. T-Dog tries to convince her to leave, but she refuses, saying she doesn’t want to end up in a similar fate as Jim and Amy. Unable to convince her, T-Dog leaves. Andrea states that she wants to stay in the CDC too. Unable to convince her to leave, Dale states he is staying too as he does not want to leave her.
In the CDC lobby, the group finds the doors locked and they pound helplessly on the windows. Shane shoots a rifle at the glass, to no avail. Carol says she has something that may help, pulling out a hand grenade. She found it in Rick’s clothes when she washed them. Quickly, Rick detonates the grenade, blasting out one of the windows with mere minutes to spare before decontamination.
In the basement, a resigned Dale sits in front of Andrea, and states he will not leave her in this state. Andrea is furious that Dale is making the decision to die with her. The survivors run to the cars, shooting at nearby walkers as they run. They pile in to their cars and are getting ready to drive away when, from inside the RV, Lori sees Dale and Andrea emerge from the building.
With just ten seconds left, Jenner and Jacqui hold hands, smiling proudly as they watch the survivors flee on the security monitor. Dale and Andrea run behind a military blockade and take cover as the CDC erupts in a fiery explosion. Andrea looks numb, but follows easily as Glenn desperately motions them to the RV.
Shaken, Rick starts the engine, and the caravan drives away from the smoldering rubble, thick black smoke rising up behind them.
Other Cast[]
Co-Stars[]
- Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier
- Jeryl Prescott Sales as Jacqui
- IronE Singleton as Theodore Douglas
- Madison Lintz as Sophia Peletier
Uncredited[]
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Deaths[]
- Candace Jenner (Alive and Zombified, Confirmed Fate)
- Edwin Jenner
- Jacqui
- Numerous unnamed CDC scientists (Confirmed Fate)
- 18 unnamed CDC test subjects (Confirmed Fate)
- Numerous unnamed Harrison Memorial Hospital patients and staff (Flashback)
- Several unnamed U.S. military soldiers (Flashback)
Trivia[]
- Only appearance of Candace Jenner. (Video Tape, Corpse)
- Last appearance of Jacqui. (Alive)
- Last appearance of Edwin Jenner.
- Last appearance of the CDC.
- The title of the episode, "TS-19", refers to the fact that Dr. Edwin Jenner's wife, Candace Jenner, was Test Subject 19.
- The building shown as the CDC is actually the Cobb Energy Center, which is a performing arts center in Atlanta.
- After Rick tells Jenner "I'm grateful", Jenner counters, "the day will come when you won't be", a phrase eventually used as the title for the season premiere of Season 7.
- The bulk of the whisper is audible on the Season 1 Blu-ray, if you significantly increase the center channel to isolate the dialogue. The first two sentences are, "It's in your blood. We're all carriers."
- This was revealed in "Beside the Dying Fire", where it was explained that Rick didn't initially believe Jenner until he witnessed it for himself upon killing Shane, who reanimated despite not being bitten by a walker.
- Two of the walkers seen at the end of this episode were actually Gale Anne Hurd's daughter and one of her daughter's friends.[1]
- The song that plays over the end credits is, "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" by Bob Dylan.
- Edwin Jenner's password was 6-9-6-9.
- Jenner said that Test Subject 19 resurrected after 2 hours, 1 minute and 7 seconds. This is the same time the clock reads when Rick wakes up from his coma.
- Robert Kirkman has expressed that he is disappointed with how the CDC plot line turned out. He said in one of his interviews, "If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have done the CDC episode. It possibly gave away too much information and was such a big change very early on in the series. I feel like there might have been a better way to wrap up the first season. But there were things in that episode that I think seem very much not of The Walking Dead world. I've been careful in the comic series to not say what's happening in other parts of the world. It's something that's going to be fun to explore in the spin-off series. But the fact that France is mentioned in that episode and other things like that, I probably would have steered away from that stuff if I had to do it all over again."
- Frank Darabont was the one who came up with the idea of CDC story line.
- This episode takes place on the same day as "Things Bad Begun" and "Sleigh Ride" of Fear the Walking Dead.[2][3]
Comic Parallels[]
- The group finding shelter inside the CDC is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 7, where they find refuge in an abandoned community named Wiltshire States instead.
- Dale attempting to comfort a depressed Andrea to no avail is adapted from Issue 6.
- Lori scratching Shane's face is adapted from Issue 6.
- The group escaping the CDC before it explodes is adapted from a similar scene in Issue 9, where they are forced to escape from a herd in Wiltshire States instead.
- The group driving towards an uncertain destination is adapted from Issue 9.
Episode Highlights[]
TBA
Goofs/Errors[]
- In the flashback at the beginning of the episode, Shane is seen wearing black gloves while attempting to evacuate Rick from the hospital. After he hides from the military inspecting Rick's room, Shane's gloves disappear.
- During the playback of TS-19, just after the TS-19 dies, the playback counter at the bottom of the screen suddenly jumps from "32:18:12" to "12:18:13", jumping back 20 hours, but when scanning to the second event, the numbers go from 32 up to 34 hours to resume playback.
- Jenner's scan shows that in a walker, only the brain stem and midbrain are still functioning. Yet, in future episodes, it is shown that simply damaging only a little part of the cortex is sufficient to kill a walker.
- Jenner inaccurately gives the resurrection time as "2hrs:01min:07sec" but the timings using the clock at the bottom of the screen from the moment of death (32:18:12) until the first signs of EEG trace signals (34:20:23) is actually "2:02:11".
- The first soldier that is grabbed by walkers in the flashback scene is wearing an outdated Desert Camouflage Uniform, compared to the rest of the soldiers that are wearing the Universal Camouflage Pattern.