The fourth season of The Walking Dead finds Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) desperate to rediscover his own humanity and preserve what he can of his son Carl's (Chandler Riggs) childhood through reinventing himself as a farmer while a counsel including Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) in addition to several Woodbury ex-pats take on leadership roles. His newfound sense of peace is quickly derailed, however, when a mysterious illness begins to decimate the community. Elsewhere, the disgraced Governor (David Morrissey) roams the apocalyptic streets on his own until happening upon a family of survivors who reignite both his will to survive and take revenge against Rick, who he blames for the loss of Woodbury. Following a massacre at the prison, the group is splintered into several factions, none of whom can be sure about the fates of the others, and forced to find shelter among a population of survivors that can pose as much and often more of a threat than the walkers themselves.

The third season of The Walking Dead finds former police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his ragtag group of Zombie-apocalypse survivors hopeful that a prison will offer true protection from the masses of undead. Though the fortified walls do, indeed, provide them with a certain level of security, the group faces a very real threat from the living. Though Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) find temporary shelter within a seemingly Utopian community led by a man who refers to himself as "the Governor", time reveals he is a control-obsessed sadist hiding many secrets of his own.