The Walking Dead S05E01 Review: Carol, Queen of Destruction

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

As we start off season five of Walking Dead, we pick up right where we left off at the end of season four. An, boy, what a great opener this was! It does jack shit to really tell us what to expect in season five beyond more wandering around and Eugene's totally real and reliable mission [/sarcasm] to Washington as a possible endgame.

We quickly get the reveal that the people in Terminus are actually not just raiders, but cannibals -- or at the very least people with a sick fetish of chopping their victims up, since we don't see any overt human-flesh-eating. From various confrontations with Rick, Carol and Tyreese we also learn that these people used to actually be nice folk who want to actually help people with an actual Sanctuary until a particularly nasty bunch of jackasses came around, took over and started raping and killing and they decide to be the butcher and not the cattle. Walking Dead isn't much about subtlety, but their effect on gentle giant Tyreese is exactly the same thing as what their tormentors did, because their cold, 'only we matter' credo causes Tyreese, previously staunchly against killing humans, to be forced to take a life to protect that jackass fucker (who, until someone says his name on-screen will henceforth be known as 'Mister Jackass') who threatens to snap Judith's neck. Rick very nearly falls into the same pattern of uber-violence as well, ready to round up everyone to slaughter every single person in Terminus until the others talks him down.

Honestly the biggest surprise is how quickly the Terminus crisis was ended. If you had asked me a couple of days ago when I reviewed the fourth season's finale how long they would take to escape Terminus, I definitely wouldn't have said 'within the first episode of the season.' There were a couple of silly plot armour moments, though, like the dude that's about to swing the bat to whack Glenn's skull in being stopped not once but twice by random bits of dialogue, or the fact that the Terminians were nice enough to kill a bunch of nameless extras first, and not even stab Bob in the neck to threatening Rick.

It's also a bit of a hilarious moment where Rick rounds everyone up in cargo box A to fight only for the Terminians to simply drop a smoke grenade that knocks everyone out. No, their rescue break comes from the single wild card in it all, Carol, who's lucky enough to listen to Mr. Threaten-to-Snap-a-Baby Jackass talk about Michonne and Carl over the radio. There's definitely a great moment as Carol pulls off a Michonne, puts on zombie blood war paint, snipe a fuel tank, use a firework to create a big-ass explosion, and use the cover of the zombies on fire to wreak havoc and murder as many Terminians as she can to help Rick and company escape. Her confrontation with Mary, one of the two Terminians whose name I remembered from last episode, is also pretty great, and Carol's reaction to Mary is the same with her dealing with Lizzie a while back, except Carol doesn't have the slightest bit of attachment to Mary so she's not mercy killed but fed to zombies.

The opening scene's still powerful, though, with Rick's plan getting fucked over by a simple smoke grenade, and while I never believed that Glenn, Rick and Daryl were in any danger, the scenes of a disoriented Rick being dragged into a room where they're butchering other victims is pretty unsettling. 

A bit of a weird question -- apparently the blonde dude that gets killed first by the Terminians is played by Robin Lord Taylor (a.k.a. Penguin in Gotham), who played a random generic in season four whose death we never saw... is it the same dude? Bit weird, really, because the only reason I even recognize him is because of reusing Robin Lord Taylor as an actor. 

Anyway, Carol's easily eclipsed Rick, Michonne and Daryl as the show's most badass fighter with this episode alone. Like, she took down an entire settlement of cannibals almost single-handedly! Not even the Governor can claim that. I'm not sure if every single one of the Terminians died -- the episode was too chaotic to tell if anyone but Mary really died, and since we didn't see a body I'm not sure if Tyreese actually killed Mister Jackass in that house. The leader, Gareth, also didn't get an explicit death scene, too, opening him for taking the show's role as main villain. I don't think Rick's group grew at all, with the one crazy man they released from other prison cells getting jumped on by walkers immediately. 

We get a very heartwarming reunion between Carol and Daryl, and while it's very predictable I'm not so heartless as not to smile like an idiot when Rick saw Judith and ran to hug her. So now the question remains now that Rick's plan to slaughter the Terminians like it's a video game has been shot down... where do they go from here? Eugene talks about how he can use some machinery and resources in Washington to 'fight fire with fire' and kill all the zombies in one fell swoop, but he seems a bit too evasive and cartoonishly technobabble-y that he's almost certainly faking it, yeah? I'm not sure if Abraham and Rosita actually believe him or if they're in league with him. Either way, a random cure in Washington feels way too convenient for the group to just stumble upon. 

Oh, oh, oh, and there's a fucking post-credits scene, as the internet tells me shortly after posting this review -- Morgan's back, and he looks like a post-apocalyptic video game protagonist. 

A pretty explosive opening. Tyreese's scene with Mister Jackass seemed to be the only real weak part of it all simply by how unrealistically hammy Mister Jackass's dialogue is and how hilariously on-the-nose everything is, but it's a relatively small complaint. Now with the cannibal settlement crushed, and the group reunited (except poor Beth!) can the show keep up this awesomeness?