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The Walking Dead: Torn Apart

The Walking Dead: Torn Apart is a six-part American webisode series released by AMC on October 3, 2011, telling the origin story of Hannah, the zombie known as "Bicycle Girl" whom Rick Grimes shoots shortly after leaving the hospital in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead.1 • 2 Directed by special effects makeup artist Greg Nicotero and written by John Esposito, the series was produced to promote the show's second season, which premiered on October 16, 2011.3 • 4

Key factDetail
FormatSix webisodes, each 2 to 5 minutes, released October 3, 2011 on AMC's website5
Episode titles"A New Day", "Family Matters", "Domestic Violence", "Neighborly Advice", "Step-Mother", "Everything Dies"5
Director and writerGreg Nicotero (director); story by Nicotero and John Esposito, teleplay by Esposito1
SubjectHannah (Lilli Birdsell), the "half corpse" or "bicycle zombie" Rick Grimes encounters after leaving the hospital in the series premiere1 • 2
TimelineSet before season 1, in King County, Georgia, Rick Grimes' hometown, during the start of the outbreak1
Main castLilli Birdsell (Hannah), Rick Otto (Andrew), Griffin Cleveland (Billy), Madison Leisle (Jamie), Danielle Burgio (Judy), Rex Linn (Palmer)6
SuccessorCold Storage (2012), the second Walking Dead webisode series7

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series follows Hannah, a mother driving with her children when the outbreak begins. After a car crash she wakes to find her children missing, searches a neighborhood strewn with bodies, and is chased by walkers before her ex-husband Andrew shoots one pursuing her and takes her in.1 • 8 The six episodes trace her efforts to protect her children as cities are overrun, evacuation centers are abandoned, and military operations fail, ending with "Everything Dies", in which she becomes the walker later seen in the main series.1 • 2

The connection to the flagship show is direct. In the pilot, Rick Grimes, searching his residential street, comes across a female walker whose legs have been torn off, lying near a bicycle, and shoots her.2 • 9 Torn Apart answers who she was and how she came to be there.9

Production

AMC announced the webisodes in mid-2011, with Bloody Disgusting reporting that Greg Nicotero, co-founder of the effects house KNB and the show's special effects makeup designer, would direct, with John Esposito writing the screenplays.10 The production was mounted by Generate, with Nicotero conceiving and directing and Esposito writing.4

A compressed shoot. Nicotero described the production, with actors Lilli Birdsell and Rex Linn, as "a marathon of craziness. We shot 20 pages of stuff in two days!"11 He framed the series as an extension of the show's habit of flashing back in time: because Rick is shot before the outbreak and wakes after society has already collapsed, the webisodes depict the period the main series skips, showing how the collapse happened.11

All six webisodes premiered at AMCTV.com on October 3, 2011, ahead of the season two premiere on October 16.2 • 3

Place in the webisode series

Torn Apart was the first of AMC's Walking Dead webisode series. It was followed by Cold Storage in 2012, about a young man named Chase sheltering in a self-storage facility, and The Oath in 2013, following two survivors of a walker attack searching for aid. The first three series were posted between 2011 and 2013 to promote the main show's second, third, and fourth seasons, and all three are set chronologically before season 1.7 • 12

The webisode program was recognized with awards: by 2013, AMC reported that the first two seasons of the series had won back-to-back WGA, Streamy, and Webby awards.13

Availability

The webisodes were originally hosted on AMC's website and YouTube channel. Later availability has been limited: a survey of the official Walking Dead YouTube channel found that Torn Apart and the other webisode series are absent from its playlists, with complete sets circulating only as fan re-uploads, some of which note that they work around country blocks.14

References

  1. The Walking Dead Webisodes: Torn Apart, Walking Dead Wiki (Fandom)
  2. AMC Launching 'Walking Dead' Web Series Monday, TheWrap
  3. The Walking Dead: Torn Apart, A 6 Part Mini Series of Webisodes, Laughing Squid
  4. "The Walking Dead" Webisodes To Be Released Before Season 2, MovieViral
  5. The Walking Dead – Specials, TheTVDB.com
  6. The Walking Dead: Torn Apart, TVmaze
  7. The Walking Dead universe webisodes, complete list, Undead Walking
  8. Hannah (TV Universe), Walking Dead Wiki (Fandom)
  9. The Walking Dead Once Answered a Major Question From Episode 1, But Fans Ignored It, ComicBook.com
  10. The Walking Dead To Produce Webisodes With Greg Nicotero To Direct Them, ComicBookMovie
  11. Greg Nicotero on The Walking Dead Webisodes, TV Guide
  12. The Walking Dead Episodes You Never Knew Existed, Looper
  13. There Is a New Fear Lurking…, AMC Global Media
  14. The Walking Dead in order: every episode in release order, FROO

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Genre web series: horror, thriller, science fiction, and mystery

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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The Walking Dead: Torn Apart

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