The Walking Dead - Season 5, Episode 1 - "No Sanctuary"

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The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 1, "No Sanctuary"

Blair Fink (Twitter: @BlairMFink, Instagram: @BlairFink)

Steve Bethel (Twitter: @the_lazy_gamer, Website: steveisthelazygamer.blogspot.ca)



Before we start, we would just like to welcome everyone back to another season of our incoherent ramblings about this television program. Steve is taking a well-deserved break this year from compiling and posting so I'll be slapping the words on my blog. To our small but gorgeous audience, thanks for reading.


Was it just my short memory or was this episode more gruesome and gory than episodes past? The zombie gore is typically piled on but the live human throatcuttery and faces getting nommed on was more than we're used to. Not easy to watch when stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey, that's for sure.


To be honest, I was getting settled in for at least a half season stay in Terminus, as this show is wont to do with fresh locations. So it was to my great surprise to see the writers go “Yup, they're cannibals! Burn this mother down!” and have the gang set off to the next place. This excites me for two reasons: one, the writers are learning from their previous follies of staying in one place for two long (Hershel's farm being the worse offense) and two, maybe they have so much juicy storyline to get through this season they just don't have time to spend farting around at Terminus. Based on the flashbacks and scenery chewing in this episode, we obviously haven't seen the last of Gareth but I'm assuming we're essentially done with the Terminus set piece.


Terminus has come full circle. Taken, corrupted, taken, corrupted, lost. The group is on the move again and bad ass as ever. And what a big group it is. From my understanding regarding apocalyptic scenarios big groups don’t always work out for the best. I thought after all the work trying to get there they would have at least tried to salvage something. Instead it's back out on the road again. For how long this time? Will they head to DC right away or spend half the season wandering around aimlessly?


Rick, Glenn, Daryl and Bob are saved by Carol doing her best John McLane impression, essentially single-handedly bringing down Terminus before sheepishly meeting up with Rick and Co. for an Erkel-esque “Did I Do That?” moment. I'm not going to think too hard about this analyzing this development and just enjoy how awesome and badass it was. As long as it doesn't get too out of control, having Carol be Rambo could be a welcome addition to the show.


Carol is still as bad ass as ever. Looking forward to some Carol/Daryl adventures. Tyreese is near his breaking point. However being reunited with Sasha might turn things around for him. That can also be said for Rick. Seeing Judith will provide some new found hope for the Grimes' and the group as a whole.

Despite Rick's emotional progress at the end of last season, he is still showing some cracks after veering towards the “Butcher” mentality that the Terminus folks subscribe to after he gets the same taste of being “Cattle” like they did (as shown via flashback). I agree, Steve: Perhaps reuniting with JUDITH! and the whole gang will help provide a tether to humanity. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing Rick and Morgan, who we see in the post-credits scene tracking the group, interact again. The last time we saw Morgan was in “Clear” and that was my favourite episode of season three.


In the closing scene we see Abe and Rosita have an exchange and he says something. Is that in relation to DC or something else entirely? I'm still weary about Eugene, something about him irks me. I don't know if he does have the cure or its some elaborate lie to keep himself alive. Was his story true?

I've come to realize that this show has become a bit of a comfortable and reliable blanket that I can settle into each week. The tattered remains of a bleak, miserablist, blood-soaked blanket. What I mean is that it's become, after some cringeworthy struggles early on, competent enough at developing enough of its characters so as to not be offensive to the audience's intelligence. The world is getting bigger, the plot is slowly getting better and their is now enough narrative history to build conflict and relationships from. I don't expect The Walking Dead to ever be a truly great show, but it seems to be settling into being a consistently decent one.



QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

-How sketchy is Eugene, really?
-How bad does Eugene need a haircut, really? He's closing in on Carl for top spot in the Needs a Haircut Power Rankings
-Did anyone else get out of Terminus?
-I'm guessing Gareth and maybe a minion or two escaped.

-Where did Carol learn such great trigonometry? Given a fire cracker that has an average velocity of .5m/s and a weight of 3 oz. You are 100 yards away from the tank at an elevation of 10 m higher than the tank. At what angle would you have to rest a rifle against a chainlink fence to achieve a tragetory to ignite the gas? Show your work.

-Agreed. She didn't really even seem to aim it. Maybe it was a homing fire cracker?
-Where is Beth?!
-Meh. I'm fine with Beth being gone but I'm sure we'll see her sooner rather than later.

Steve's Rating: 4 bananas out of 5

Blair's Rating: A-

Steve's MVP: Carol

Blair's MVP: Carol

Steve's Deadpool Pick: Bob

Blair's Deadpool Pick: Rosita