Counting down the most heart-stoping moments of the season... so far
10. Here piggy, piggy, piggy...
When fans first saw Rick and company's pigs, the animals represented more than just a tribute to those 'adorable' Geico ads: They represented a possible future, a time when the survivors could use domesticated animals to provide food for themselves, a promise that the days of hunting and gathering may actually be behind them. It was as if the group had climbed out of the Stone Age and was beginning to regain things that were lost.
And then people started to die, the pigs possibly the carriers of some sort of super-flu to which the group had no cure. Rick began to be clued into this tragic reality, and when a group of Walkers breached the fences, Rick was forced to slice the screaming pigs' throats to lure the Walkers away. The look on Rick's face as he slaughtered the beasts he and Carl had cared for was one of pure disappointment as the realization washed over him that the promise of civilized comfort was an illusion. As he sliced their throats, and the poor pigs shrieked, Rick and the audience understood that there is no place for domestication or tomorrows in this world, just blood, screams and panic.