The Grossest Moments on ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 3

Rick and his team teach the prisoners how to dispatch zombies – aim for the head, always. Rick instructs his recruits to keep a tight formation, but the newly-freed prisoners revolt, prison-riot style. They break formation and go medieval on a herd of zombies, refusing to adhere to Rick's instructions. During the scuffle, a walker bites Big Tiny. Rick pauses, unsure of how to take care of this newest victim – he doesn't know Big Tiny well enough to end his life, and the bite is not in an easily-amputatable location. While Rick hesitates, wild-eyed and confused, Tomas lurches forward. Tomas bludgeons Big Tiny to death with psychopathic fury, considering Big Tiny was his ally mere moments ago. As Tomas slashes and hacks, we realize that he is definitely in prison for more than just petty larceny – this is one crazy dude and he is definitely not a nice guy.

After Michonne kills the zombies intended for Woodbury’s big festivities, Merle and his henchmen need to go find new walkers for the party's climax. Merle pulls a net full of snarling zombies out of a pit and they growl and hiss trying to break free. Merle singles out one zombie as being particularly mean and nasty. The rest of his crew holds that zombie down as Merle begins to yank out its teeth, one by one. At the time, we don't yet know that this zombie is destined to perform in Woodbury's MMA match, but we cower in disgust at this horrific dentistry.

We don't know much about the Governor's life before Woodbury, other than that he had a wife and a daughter he loved very much. When episode 305 begins, we see the Governor lovingly brush a young girl's hair. The young girl, however, does not appear to enjoy this grooming as she snarls and hisses and struggled to break free from his loving attention. With a sickening squelch, the Governor pulls out a chunk of the girl's hair. His daughter Penny is a zombie, and her decaying flesh cannot stand up to the Governor’s affectionate ministrations. Gross.

In the midst of his psychotic break, Rick goes on a rampage through the prison, slaying zombies willy-nilly. Furious and crazed, he stumbles into room where Lori gave birth. He finds a puddle of blood, but no human remains. He spots a zombie with a swollen, distended-belly, apparently full of Lori parts. The zombie is stuffed to the point of incapacitation because he just consumed an entire human woman. Rick looms over him with his weapon, and it seems like he is just about to deliver Lori's remains via zombie C-section. Instead of cutting open the zombie's belly, Rick plunges his knife into its body over and over again, taking out his fury on the walker's body.

Michonne leads a rescue mission to Woodbury so Rick and the gang can attempt to save Glenn and Maggie. They pull off the road to go the last mile on foot, to avoid detection by the Governor’s goons. In the woods, a giant horde of zombies attacks, and our heroes flee into what appears to be an abandoned cabin. The zombies are starved for blood and they surge and surge, attempting to break down the door. Our heroes spot a dead dog lying in the middle of the floor, and as they struggle to devise an escape plan, a crazy survivalist bolts upright in his bed. Who is this guy, how has he survived in this cabin for so long, and why does he hang out with a dead dog? Whoever this guy is, he refuses to heed Rick’s warning not to open his front door, and Michonne slays him with her katana to prevent the zombies from invading. The humans throw his body to the walkers so they can sneak out the back, and the camera pulls back as we watch these ravenous zombies destroy human flesh with all the sickening sounds that accompany their destruction.

Things were looking up for our gang in the season premiere – they managed to clear a safe pathway into the prison and find shelter and salvation within Cell Block B. Lori wanted to let the group rest and enjoy their momentary triumphs, but Rick insisted on surging forward and securing their wing. Setting off with flashlights and spray paint to mark the way, Rick led a small search party deeper into the prison. Things seemed to be fine until they encountered a zombie herd, and we gasped in shock and dismay as a zombie plunged his teeth into Hershel’s calf. The sound, the viscera, the gore – it was a blow to the system that only got worse when Rick amputated Hershel’s leg with his hatchet blade. Rick’s emergency surgery saved Hershel’s life, but left him with only one leg in a world where running is the most important survival skill.

Pity under-utilized T-dog! It wasn’t until after his death that Glenn revealed how wonderful T-dog was – during the first few days of the zombie outbreak, T-Dog dedicated his life to evacuating senior citizens and taking care of those less fortunate than he! Alas, he never got more than a few lines of dialogue per episode, but T-dog was a strong and constant presence in the group. When the zombies swarmed the prison in episode 304, T-dog sacrificed himself for the sake of the group as he was zombie-bit while closing the gates. We watched in dismay as zombies sunk their teeth into his shoulder. In the moments before he turned, T-dog struggled to bring Carol to safety, eventually giving himself completely to the zombies to allow Carol to escape.

Drawing on his sheriff training, Rick tried to rehabilitate the prisoners by teaching them how to slay zombies. He led them through the prison, trying to clear out Cell Block C to give the criminals a safe place to live, far from zombie danger but also far away from the rest of the group. Ignoring Rick's advice, Tomas went rogue and opened the laundry room doors to a horde of zombies. He showed his true colors, shoving a zombie directly on top of Rick and flashing crazy eyes. As Rick and Tomas stand off in a showdown of post-zombpocalypse good versus evil, Rick finally triumphs by slamming his machete directly through Tomas' skull. In The Walking Dead world, it's best to go for the brains, even if your victim is still a human.

In "The Killer Within," an unseen villain unlocked the prison gates and set the zombies loose on Rick and the gang. During the next panic-stricken minutes, Lori gets separated from the group along with Maggie and Carl. She goes into labor but very quickly realizes that she won't be able to deliver her baby naturally. Lori commands Maggie to slice into her body, following her original C-section scar as a guide.  No anesthesia, no sterile conditions, no painkillers – Lori stifles her screams to avoid drawing zombie attention until she finally succumbs to the excruciating pain. Her baby daughter survived but Lori did not. Adding insult to injury, her son Carl has to put a bullet into her brain to prevent his mother from turning into a zombie.

After Merle let Michonne walk away from Woodbury, she left him a gruesome message composed of decaying zombie body parts: GO BACK. Acting on the Governor's orders, Merle was dead-set on killing Michonne and bringing her head back as a trophy. But Michonne got the drop on Merle and his henchmen, hurling herself out of a tree, ninja-style. In the ensuing fight, Merle put a bullet in her leg. But Michonne beheaded two of his henchmen with her power katana and managed to escape with the tried-and-true method of covering herself with zombie guts. As walkers approached the scuffle, Michonne disemboweled a zombie by plunging her sword straight into his abdomen. We watched in horror as greasy, grimy zombie guts surged out of the zombie's tummy and all over Michonne.

When Michonne sneaks into the Governor's man cave, all she really wants to do is take out the guy she hates so much. Instead, she discovers the Governor's long-dead daughter, a zombie girl he's been keeping alive for months. The Governor surprises her and begs for Michonne to spare Penny's life, but Michonne is deaf to his pleas, driving her sword straight through the ex-little-girl's brain. The Governor is distraught and attacks Michonne, slamming her head into his collection of floating heads. Just when it seems like our favorite katana-wielding superhero is about to be a goner, Michonne grabs a piece of broken glass and shoves it way up into the Governor's brain, through his eye. Horrific and terrible, just like him.