Rick Grimes

"You still don't get it. None of you do! We know what needs to be done and we do it. We're the ones who live. You, you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend like you know when you don't. You wish things weren't what they are. Well you want to live? You want this place to stay standing? Your way of doing things is done. Things don't get better because you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here. (...) Me? Me? You-- you mean me? Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed. It's already gotten people killed. I'm not gonna stand by and let it happen. If you don't fight, you die."

- Rick to Deanna Monroe and the Alexandria residents.

Rick Grimes is the main protagonist and a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. He is a former police officer of the King County sheriff's deputy who was shot in the line of duty and fell into a coma only to wake up and find himself in the middle of an undead apocalypse. He travels to Atlanta, Georgia searching for his family, Lori, his wife, and Carl, his son, who have traveled to Atlanta with his best friend, Shane Walsh, in search of a safe-haven.

Appearance
Rick is a fairly tall Caucasian man with a slim figure, and although his age is unspecified, he appears to be around his mid to late 30's. He has dark brown wavy hair, and through the first three seasons keeps facial stubble and eventually a small beard. His apparel and clothing changes throughout the seasons, but is most notably identified with his beige and brown police uniform, along with his brown US Cavalry/Sheriff's hat (which is later given to his son, Carl). He also keeps his brown police holster, which carries his favorite side-arm, his classic Colt Python .357 Magnum.

Personality
Rick is typically calm, smart, and a good friend and father, but he will often stubbornly cling to his strong personal moral code, which has resulted in numerous bad calls and extra stress within the group. Rick's greatest fault, perhaps, is his uncanny ability to place responsibility on himself and set for himself goals that are impossible to reach. This has, on various occasions, put Rick at odds with both Lori and Shane, and often weighs heavily on his mind. Despite his faults, his combat skill and general care for all members of the group have led him to be looked up to, and allowed him to take the leadership role within the group. Rick is strongly non-religious, admitting to never have been much of a believer and instead puts his faith in his family and the group members around him. He also appears to view religion and belief in God as an interference and waste of time.

He is shown to be incredibly protective of his group and their well-being, having engaged numerous threats, even other living people, to keep them safe. His moral compass is challenged in many ways and he, in an attempt to prevent more death and loss, begins to shut everybody else out when he is forced to kill Shane. Despite this, Rick is able to use his leadership skills and combat abilities to keep the group alive for many months following the destruction of Hershel Greene's farm, where they were taking refuge, and lead the group in taking the abandoned and overrun West Georgia Correctional Facility, using desperate survival tactics they had come to learn on the road all winter.

After Lori's death, Rick becomes very emotionally unstable, and it is not until just before the group learns of the Woodbury threat that Rick comes back to his senses. By this point, Rick has become a ruthless, uncompromising leader of survivors, in contrast to his high moral code and values in previous seasons. After the Governor causes Andrea's death, Rick seems to regain much of his old self and finally begins to trust other survivors and accept them into the prison. In the six-month jump between the third and fourth seasons, Rick relinquishes his leadership position in order to focus more on raising Carl and making the prison self-sustaining. During the fourth season, many of the other group members ask Rick to step back into a leadership role, most notably Daryl Dixon. After the Governor returns and attacks the prison, Rick becomes distraught and remorseful over the loss of the prison, the death of Hershel, and the assumed death of his daughter Judith. He becomes more protective of Carl and gets into a few arguments with him. After Rick reunites with Michonne, he loosens his grip on Carl a bit and allows himself some time to rest, albeit only temporarily.

After he, Carl, and Michonne are forced to evacuate a house they were residing in to evade the Claimers, he comes across a poster pointing to Terminus. He decides to take a chance and see the supposed sanctuary. On the way, they encounter the Claimers, who tracked them down in order to exact revenge on Rick for killing one of their group members, Lou. Rick comes to terms with his brutality, which he thought he had put away for good, after he rips out Joe's jugular vain with his teeth and stabs Dan, who attempted to rape Carl, to death. The next morning, he tells Daryl he knows of his two different personality traits and how he has settled his mind knowing that his brutality has kept his son and the rest of the group alive.

After arriving at Terminus, Rick accepts his leadership position, for which the group respects him. He holds no conflict in his mind anymore and does not doubt his decisions. The wisdom he took from Hershel, who he came to view as a mentor (as well a father figure towards him), Rick now understands that he can retain his humanity by protecting his friends and has stated that he views his group as his family. His darker side is shown through his brutality and he does not hesitate to kill someone who he views as a threat, fearing he or she will come back and harm his family (based on what happened to Lori when Rick failed to kill Andrew, a prisoner who Rick locked in a courtyard of walkers and presumed was killed). During Season 5, following the group's near death experience at Terminus, Rick grows in confidence but develops massive trust issues towards any strangers that he and his group come across, even if they seem timid and harmless. He has a hard time trusting Gabriel Stokes and Aaron, even threatening to kill them once or twice if they did anything that would harm his family and friends. His trust issues are so strong that he even suspects the applesauce Aaron offers to Judith to be poisoned. Aaron points out that he is tied up and that killing Rick's daughter in front of him would only lead to Aaron getting killed by Rick. Aaron tries telling Rick that his trust issues are exaggerated, but Rick remains stubborn and makes it clear that he is a man who doesn't take chances anymore, and forces Aaron to eat the applesauce to prove that it's safe and still threatens to kill him. In the end, Aaron and Gabriel (for the most part) prove that they are not threats.

After arriving in the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Rick allows himself to relax in the comfort of the community, although it is evident that he still does not trust the inhabitants. He becomes actively involved in the community after Deanna Monroe, the safe-zone's leader appoints him and Michonne as constables. While he appreciates the job, Rick and his group view the Alexandrians as being weak and unfit to survive and he declares that they will take the community for themselves, showing how his mentality has become one of survival for himself and his group.

Following a massive invasion of walkers into the safe-zone, which leads to the death of Deanna, Rick becomes the leader of the safe-zone, and his faith in the abilities of the safe-zone's residents improves dramatically as together they all boldly face the herd and kill every walker, effectively reclaiming the safe-zone. Rick reveals to his injured son Carl afterwards that he is ready to show him the new world. Following this he seems to have cooled down a bit in his desire to kill human threats as he spares the life of Paul Rovia after the latter attempts to steal a van of supplies claimed by Daryl and Rick which leads them to finding the Hilltop Colony. His relationship with Michonne has also caused him to show his lighter side more often, as he is seen relaxed and happier than he was before they started their relationship.

However, Rick has shown to become even more ruthless as shown by his desire to exact revenge on the Saviors for threatening Daryl, Abraham and Sasha and kill them all in order to obtain much-needed supplies from the Hilltop Colony and protect Alexandria even though the Saviors have technically caused no harm to Alexandria whatsoever. Rick has now been shown to show a desire to destroy any potential threats before they even happen, showing that he will do just about anything to protect his people from danger (very similar to The Governor in the first half of Season 3, but on a more heroic scale). However, Rick's overconfidence and his desire to destroy the Saviors suffers serious consequences as while on a frantic journey to get Maggie to the Hilltop, he and his group are ambushed by a large group of Saviors and for the first time on the series, Rick shows immense fear at the situation that is completely out of his control, and he deeply regrets severely underestimating the true threat and force that the Saviors represent. When he meets his new enemy Negan, he is shown to be trembling and almost numb with terror as Negan personally beats a member of his group to death with a baseball bat as revenge for Rick's actions. How this will affect him remains to be seen.

Relying on his former police skills and survival tactics, Rick has become a battle-hardened survivor who will protect his family and group without question. In many ways, Rick has become like Shane, ready to kill without a moment's hesitation, not trusting anyone except for his group, and knowing that with the world the way it is now, there are very few good people left and if you don't fight for your survival, then you will die. In addition to acting like Shane, Rick shows similarities to other primary antagonists that he has encountered and killed (or who other members of his group have killed) in the past, particularly the Governor, Joe, and Gareth. However, unlike Shane, the Governor, Joe, and Gareth, Rick retains some of his humanity and honor for the sake of his family and friends, and looks to his friends for guidance in making sure that he doesn't completely lose his sanity. This is in direct contrast to these other antagonists, who have almost completely sacrificed their humanity in favor of personal survival by any means necessary, and who exert unchallenged power and control over other survivors and give into their worst inclinations for their own benefit.

Season 1

 * 1x01: "Days Gone Bye"
 * 1x02: "Guts"
 * 1x03: "Tell It to the Frogs"
 * 1x04: "Vatos"
 * 1x05: "Wildfire"
 * 1x06: "TS-19"

Season 2

 * 2x01: "What Lies Ahead"
 * 2x02: "Bloodletting"
 * 2x03: "Save the Last One"
 * 2x04: "Cherokee Rose"
 * 2x05: "Chupacabra"
 * 2x06: "Secrets"
 * 2x07: *Pretty Much Dead Already"
 * 2x08: "Nebraska"
 * 2x09: "Triggerfinger"
 * 2x10: "18 Miles Out"
 * 2x11: "Judge, Jury, "Executioner"
 * 2x12: "Better Angels"
 * 2x13: "Beside the Dying Fire"

Season 3

 * 3x01: "Seed"
 * 3x02: "Sick"
 * 3x04: "Killer Within"
 * 3x05: "Say the Word"
 * 3x06: "Hounded"
 * 3x07: "When the Dead Come Knocking"
 * 3x08: "Made to Suffer"
 * 3x09: "The Suicide King"
 * 3x10: "Home"
 * 3x11: "I Ain't a Judas"
 * 3x12: "Clear"
 * 3x13: "Arrow on the Doorpost"
 * 3x14: "Prey" (No Lines)
 * 3x15: "This Sorrowful Life"
 * 3x16: "Welcome to the Tombs"

Season 4

 * 4x01: "30 Days Without an Accident"
 * 4x02: "Infected"
 * 4x03: "Isolation"
 * 4x04: "Indifference"
 * 4x05: "Internment"
 * 4x07: "Dead Weight" (No Lines)
 * 4x08: "Too Far Gone"
 * 4x09: "After"
 * 4x11: "Claimed"
 * 4x15: "Us"
 * 4x16: "A"

Season 5

 * 5x01: "No Sanctuary"
 * 5x02: "Strangers"
 * 5x03: "Four Walls and a Roof"
 * 5x06: "Consumed" (Flashback, No Lines)
 * 5x07: "Crossed"
 * 5x08: "Coda"
 * 5x09: "What Happened and What's Going On"
 * 5x10: "Them"
 * 5x11: "The Distance"
 * 5x12: "Remember"
 * 5x13: "Forget"
 * 5x14: "Spend"
 * 5x15: "Try"
 * 5x16: "Conquer"

Season 6

 * 6x01: "First Time Again"
 * 6x03: "Thank You"
 * 6x04: "Here's Not Here" (Voice Only)
 * 6x05: "Now"
 * 6x07: "Head's Up"
 * 6x08: "Start to Finish"
 * 6x09: "No Way Out"
 * 6x10: "The Next World"
 * 6x11: "Knots Untie"
 * 6x12: "Not Tomorrow Yet"
 * 6x13: "The Same Boat"
 * 6x14: "Twice as Far"
 * 6x15: "East"
 * 6x16: "Last Day on Earth"

Season 7

 * 7x01: "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be"
 * 7x04: "Service"
 * 7x05: "Go Getters"
 * 7x07: "Sing Me a Song"
 * 7x08: "Hearts Still Beating"

Trivia

 * His signature weapon is the Colt Python, which has been seen in most of the TV Series episodes.
 * Rick's story (waking from a coma to the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse) is very similar to that of Jim from Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later.
 * Rick is one of the three remaining living characters that made an appearance in the very first episode of the series, the others being Carl Grimes and Morgan Jones.
 * Rick is also one of the five surviving characters that first appeared in Season 1, the others being Carl, Morgan, Daryl Dixon, and Carol Peletier.
 * Rick currently has the most episode appearances in the series, with the second being his son Carl, and the third being his right-hand man, Daryl.
 * Rick is either the same age, or fairly older than his Comic Series counterpart. Being somewhere in his mid to late 30's, while in the Comic Series, he is 31.
 * In the Comics, Rick was the one who originally went to Woodbury, along with Michonne and Glenn. Rick lost his right hand in the process. In the TV Series, Michonne and Andrea were the first ones to reach Woodbury, and Rick still has both of his hands.
 * In the Comics, Rick's signature weapons were a hatchet he took from a farm and a Heckler & Koch Mark 23, while in the TV series it's his Colt Python and his Gator Machete.
 * Rick has appeared in every episode, except "Walk With Me", "Live Bait" (which wasn't a regular episode, but a flashback episode), "Inmates", "Alone", "The Grove", "Slabtown", "Self Help", "JSS", "Here's Not Here" (although his voice is heard at the very end of the episode), "Always Accountable", "The Well", and "The Cell".

Similar Heroes

 * Jim (28 Days Later)
 * Woody (Pixar's Toy Story franchise)
 * Leon Scott Kennedy (Resident Evil video game franchise)
 * Wolverine (X-Men movies)
 * Leonardo and Raphael (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Comic Series
"Our war with The Saviors has ended. The Hilltop, Alexandria and The Kingdom, The Sanctuary... These are all just places. Whatever differences we had before, we must put those behind us as we move forward. The fighting is over... Now it is time for what comes next. We stand here united together as one people... and it is my wish for us to remain that way. There will always be "us against them"... but we need to never forget we are "us" and the dead are "them". We have our adversary. We don't need to make another from each other. If we work together, we can accomplish so much. We can remake the world we remember... and we can make it better."

- Rick's speech to the Hilltop, Alexandria, Kingdom and Saviors.

Rick Grimes is the main protagonist of Image Comics' The Walking Dead who was first encountered in Issue 1, and one of the last remaining Atlanta survivors. The Comic Series is meant to follow his life for the approximate 300 issue run. Rick is the husband of Lori Grimes and father of Carl Grimes.

Trivia

 * Harrison Memorial Hospital was the name of the hospital that Rick Grimes stayed at during his coma, and this is an actual hospital located in Cynthiana, Kentucky.
 * Rick has appeared in every issue, except Issue 30, Issue 43 (which wasn't a regular issue, but a flashback issue), Issue 105, Issue 134, Issue 135, Issue 137, Issue 138, Issue 156.
 * Rick, along with Andrea, Michonne, Abraham Ford, Brian Blake, Negan, and Alpha, have killed the most named characters either as a zombie or as a living person.
 * Robert Kirkman has said that early on, he was willing to kill Rick in Issue 6, instead of Shane and show how it would affect Carl, having a dead father with Shane being with Lori, etc.
 * Robert Kirkman has expressed annoyance that Rick lost his hand so early on and has said it has caused great difficulty in writing for the character in the issues that followed.
 * Rick is one of the four known surviving members of the original Atlanta group, the others being Andrea, Carl, and Sophia.
 * It is revealed in the script book that Rick is 29 years old at the onset of the apocalypse, by Volume 18, it's been nearly 2 years since the outbreak started, making Rick's current age 31.
 * Rick is one of the playable characters in The Walking Dead Board Game.
 * Rick shares many similarities to Lee Everett. For example:
 * Both (Determinant) lose one of their hands to an amputation.
 * Both come to be seen as the leader of their relevant groups.
 * Rick was willing to go to great extents to protect his son, Carl. Similarly, Lee, who thought of Clementine as his own daughter, was willing to go to great extents in order to protect her.
 * Both admit to having committed regrettable acts.
 * Both have been forced to kill numerous people in order to survive.
 * Both consider family to be important.
 * Both (Determinant) of their latest romantic interests are sharp shooters.
 * Both have had wives that cheated on them.
 * Both were unconscious at some point during the early stages of the apocalypse.