The Walking Dead season 8 episode 1: 5 references and callbacks you may have missed in 'Mercy'

The show's 100th ever episode paid tribute to past scenes and fallen characters

The Walking Dead season eight is finally underway with a thrilling premiere episode that marked the show's 100th ever.

Naturally, producers felt the desire to load the episode - titled 'Mercy' - with little nods and homages to seasons past which the more casual fans might have missed due to getting caught up in the episode's countless exciting moments (head here to read our full review).

Showrunner Scott Gimple and director Greg Nicotero have now shed some light on the particular Easter eggs that were planted in the episode in interviews.

“Scott and I start our job every day being fans and really wanting to show our appreciation to the people that watch the show and give them a little Easter egg - something not just for the people that have been dedicated to the show to catch, but also as a tribute to what we’ve done...” Nicotero told EW following the episode's premiere.

“We don’t want it to become so obvious at times that it takes people out of the episode because it’s a very fine line. You don’t want people to spin off and spend a tremendous amount of time digging into so much of those Easter eggs.”

Check below for the five references you may have missed - and if you can't wait for more, you can watch the action-packed trailer for next week's episode herey.

Old Man Rick

The opening of the episode shows the moment that was teased in the first season eight trailer back in July - an older version of lead character Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in bed at an unspecified time in the future. The camera cuts to a shot of flowers on a bedside table - a direct mirroring of the first ever episode in which Rick wakes up from a coma to find the world has been overrun by walkers.

The gas station sequence

This isn't the only callback to the show's first ever episode with the season eight premiere featuring a direct recreation of the series' first-ever scene - the one which sees Rick gun down a young female walker at a gas station. This sequence is repeated - only instead of Rick, the scene features his son, Carl (Chandler Riggs). “We wanted to open the season very much like the way the show premiered way back eight years ago,” Nicotero said. The scene in question sees Rick finally arrive and look from afar at a female walker. You can almost see him recalling these events wistfully in his own head.

In fact, the actor used is exactly the same one as was used all those years ago.

The orange backpack

Cast your mind back to season three - the episode in which Rick, Carl and Michonne go on a supply run (and run into a more unhinged version of the Morgan we know now). On the road, they drive past a hitchhiker - wearing an orange backpack - who continually tries to catch up with them. Towards the end of the episode, the trio drives past a corpse on the ground followed by a streak of blood which leads to the hitchhiker's backpack. They stop the car, and Carl jumps out to grab it.

This episode sees Carl putting the same orange backpack to good use.

The electrocuted walker

That electrocuted walker we see fused to the wire is played by Joe Giles who was one of the very first walkers used in the first ever episode - the one that crawls out the bus and follows Rick down the street in Georgia. Nicotero explains: “I thought it would be cool to go back to our roots and use some of the same walkers that were in early episodes again as just a little tribute.”

"Let me tell you somethin', Rick"

In the scene which sees Rick leads his army to the Sanctuary, Negan can be heard saying: “Let me ask you somethin', Rick.” To many, this may seem like a throwaway line, however to the more dedicated fan, it echoes a common phrase spoken by one of the show's former characters - namely Shane Walsh who famously used to mutter the same line pretty much all the time. Nicotero described the line as a tribute to former cast member Jon Bernthal who left the show in season two.

The Walking Dead season eight continues in the US on AMC next Sunday with the UK premiere arriving the following evening on FOX at 9pm and NOW TV

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