The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 15: Try
It's the penultimate episode, so the big explosive climax can't happen now. It's a buildup, but it's definitely some really solid stuff. Since the previous episode there's some time that's passed. Deanna and her family is mourning Aiden's death (the scene with the mixtape is absolutely sad), and while she's keeping her cool, she burnt Carol's "sorry for what happened" card and leaves her gift of food. She's struggling between the two accounts of what happens -- Glenn (and presumable Eugene) obviously told the truth, while that jackass Nicholas paints himself up to be the hero who wants to help Aiden but is forced by Glenn to abandon him. She's looking at gravestones when Rick comes up to her talking about how Pete is abusing Jessie, but Deanna apparently turns a blind eye to something that's not their business. The fact that Pete's an important surgeon might have something to do it too, but more importantly is Rick basically asking Deanna to execute Pete. Not exile him -- straight up execute him.
Well you obviously shouldn't have lead with that to a mourning parent. But it shows that, well, Rick growing unhinged himself, partly out of love to Jessie, and partly out of his "you live or you die!" creed. The climax of this episode surrounds Rick as he confronts Jessie, and plays the hero -- and it's not hard to root for Rick in this situation. Pete's an entitled, abusive piece of shit, but at the same time Rick himself isn't a squeaky-clean hero either. His own desire for Jessie definitely gets in the way, and maybe screaming and waving his gun at everyone talking shit about how weak and delusional they are isn't the best way to prove that you're being a good sheriff.
Also, Pete knocking Jessie away was expected. Rick whacking Carl aside? Jeez, man, you've definitely flown off the deep end.
And perhaps it's very much impactful that it's Michonne, previously one of Rick's staunchest allies, who knocks him out, having been the one member of the group that we can safely say have acclimatized into the Alexandria community the best, embracing her new role as sheriff. Both Deanna and Rick's side of the argument has points, for sure. Rick's right that save for Aaron, the Alexandria community is woefully unprepared if something bad happens, and they've survived on by luck. (We've seen what the walkers do to walls in the prison, without Sasha sniping them -- which is a recent occurrence -- how the fuck did they stay up?) Also the fact that Pete needs a good beating up. But at the same time, Deanna is also right in that they've survived this long without resorting to such barbarism as execution, and that Pete is valuable... but both are human and have their points of view distorted -- Rick by Carol and Jessie; and Deanna by Aiden and Gabriel.
The other storylines are a lot more filler-y than Rick's. Glenn's got a short bit where he threatens Nicholas in all but formality, basically calling him out on his bullshit, and his calmness about how Nicholas he's saving Nicholas by keeping him indoors is chillingly awesome. Nicholas being the one who found Rick's gun makes sense and will lead to some awesome conflict. Hope Glenn feeds him to zombies, that utter fuckwad. We've got Carol campaigning for Rick to do something about Jessie. We've got Daryl and Aaron finding another group of zombies bisected in the same way that the zombies in Noah's community were, as well as one of the more gruesome deaths in the show -- a naked woman left tied onto a tree for zombies to eat. No real explanation is given about this other than it's an obvious sequel hook.
Carl and Sasha each carry a story of their own, relatively longer but a little bit more boring. Carl hangs out with Enid and apparently she's not doing anything sinister, and Enid just wants to 'remember' the fear of being out there because like Carl she's afraid of getting complacent. Other than seeing the W-head zombies again, there's not much for this subplot honestly. Sasha, meanwhile, is broken down by yet another death, going off on a one-woman zombie-slaying mission that nearly got her killed if not for Michonne and Rosita going of to talk her down. Sasha's been the one that fails to fit in to the group the most, even compared to Daryl or Rick, and the death of Noah has caused her to break down even further. Perhaps more scenes in the past beyond 'Sasha moping and shooting pictures' would've made this character arc feel more impactful, but as it is I just find this particular bit something like a distraction.
Still, the Rick scenes carried this show which I didn't expect was something I'd say ever since season three. He desperately wants to be a sheriff, like Michonne, but a combination of his paranoia and his self-righteous sense of justice has muddled things to, well this conflict. By all rights his silly ultimatums and him gunning for execution no matter what should make him unlikably dumb, but it's actually made him somewhat interesting even if that interest is in seeing how he's going to react. So yeah, season finale's next.
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