Creator Robert Kirkman promised fans of "The Walking Dead" the show's third season would "hit the ground running." A testament to Kirkma's vision, episode three, "Walk With Me," pulled back from Rick and the rest of the group taking safety in the prison, while still emphasizing that unpredictable, spine-tingling power

Based off the monthly black-and-white comic book series written by creator Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" follows a gang of lost souls just trying to survive day-to-day life in a post-apocalyptic U.S. overrun with the living dead. The first two seasons of the AMC series have been hugely successful; the season two premiere broke cable ratings records in the 18-49 demographic. But season three has shattered everyone's expectations for the show, ratings and otherwise.

The premiere episode for the third season of AMC's "The Walking Dead" broke ratings records for the network with nearly 11 million viewers. Episode two, "Sick," which ran on Sunday Oct. 21, pulled in another 9.5 million fans, topping all non-sports programs for the week, and cementing "The Walking Dead" as the hottest TV series for the coveted 18-49 demographic so far this fall.

With DISH Network now once again carrying AMC, there are 14 million more users who can now watch "The Walking Dead." AMC airs a new episode of the series three times on Sunday night.

"Walk With Me" stuck to Kirkman's script of taking shocking new turns for the horror series, introducing a new locale and new faces, while bringing back characters long assumed dead.

Woodbury looks everything like the safe haven Rick and the rest of the group have been searching for for 294 - or was that 292? - days. But with The Governor in charge, the town may not be as safe as it looks.

Merle, Daryl's brother, long thought dead since season one, reappeared new and improved in episode three. Bringing back a charcter is always a risky move, but if "The Walking Dead" continues to handle lapses in time like this, such as the way the third season has suggested what happened through the winter months we never saw, it's a promising new dynamic for the series to explore. Could we eventually see Walt and his dad again, too?

The Governor (David Morrissey), purported to become an increasingly looming presence within the show, was introduced for the first time in episode three, and did not disappoint on the firery hype surrounding his character. Morrissey's nice-guy-on-the-surface demeanor as he leads Andrea and Michonne on a tour of the walled-in town of Woodbury, GA left just enough room for a vague air of creeping dread. We don't know much about this man, but just as Michonne noted - and we saw in the scene where The Governor went to "rescue" a group of soldiers - something just doesn't seem right about him, a sentiment that paid off in spades in the episode's final moments.

"I was very nervous about joining the show on the first day, but once I got there it's been a joy ever since. There's an element about needing to know about the conditions: the heat and the humidity and the snakes and bugs and ticks. You have to have a little bit of an outward bound course before you start filming," revealed Morrissey in a recent interview with AMC.

"Those things are different for me, because normally it's like, "How do I get to the canteen." But I do think those crazy brutal conditions add to the show -- because the show's all about that. It isn't a comfortable place to be and that's important," Morrissey said.