The 10 most iconic images from AMC’s The Walking Dead

3. The Teddy Bear Walker

Who can ever forget the little girl walker grabbing her teddy bear at the same she tries to eat Rick alive? The image of Rick encountering Summer, the Teddy Bear Walker, is one that will forever be associated with The Walking Dead. There are a lot of iconic images from “Days Gone Bye,” the first episode of The Walking Dead. But this one stands out because it’s really the first image that brings home the horror of the world that Rick woke up in. The image of an innocent small child turned into a bloodthirsty walker is one of the first that showed fans what they were in for on this journey.

Through Rick’s eyes fans come face to face with the shocking new reality of the world where things are both familiar and totally unfamiliar at the same time. And horrifying juxtapositions of life and death are everywhere. Even though as the show goes on there are many other images that might have more of a gross out factor than this because this is one of the first walkers that Rick encounters it will always stand out as one of the iconic images of the show.

There was a noticeable change in the abilities of the walkers between seasons one and two. In season one walkers still had enough cognition to do things like pick up a teddy bear, or pick up a rock and slam it against the glass in the store where Andrea, Rick, Glenn and the others end up hiding out. Seeing any being holding that line between being dead and alive is horrifying. But it’s even more startling to see a child doing it.