High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "What Lies Ahead" is the first episode of the second season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on October 16, 2011. The episode was written by series developer Frank Darabont (under the pseudonym Ardeth Bey) and series creator Robert Kirkman, and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton and Ernest Dickerson. In the episode, Rick Grimes leads his group to Fort Benning, Georgia, but during an encounter with a herd of walkers (zombies) Sophia Peletier (Madison Lintz) goes missing, leading to the formation of a search group.