The Walking Dead: Ranking All 9 Seasons From Worst To Best

The show's second season has always gotten flack for being "the farm season," but to dismiss it as a year in which nothing happened would be to forget that it delivered some standout moments. The first half of the season, which saw the characters in the search for Sophia stretch of the show, may have felt like a chore from week to week back when it aired, for instance, but it culminated in the stellar barn scene that saw that very search for Carol's daughter come to a jaw-dropping end.

It's in the second half of the season that the show really kicked it up a notch, as Rick made his first human kills on the show, Randall's existence sent moral ripples throughout the group, Dale's death robbed everyone of their moral compass, and the conflict between Rick and Shane finally came to a head, first in the excellent "18 Miles Out" and then in "Better Angels," which saw the former putting his best friend down for good.

Aside from Andrew Lincoln and Jon Bernthal delivering the goods throughout the season, we also got new additions to the cast like Hershel and Maggie, both of whom became just as intrinsic to the texture of The Walking Dead as the rest of the cast they joined. And that's not to mention the finale, "Beside the Dying Fire," which saw the farm overrun and the group forced back out into the wild under the leadership of the newly-changed Rick - aka "the Ricktatorship" - in a powerful ending to a season that started off shaky but set the stage for an even wilder third year, all while increasing in popularity.