The Walking Dead, Season 5, Episode 3: Four Walls and A Roof
So the Terminus subplot ends up being dealt with this episode. It's a pretty decent climax, I think. Nothing to really write home about -- not the worst nor not the best that Walking Dead has done. We get a couple of revelations at record speed for Walking Dead. In this episode, Bob gets returned to Team Rick, the conflict with the Terminians are dealt with and the cannibals are all executed, Bob dies, Father Gabriel's secret is out, and Abraham's crew leave to DC. Lots of things happened, but I can't say a lot of it felt like they really felt... punchy, so to speak.
I dunno how much more you can develop a group of psychotic, self-justified cannibals, so kudos for them for not really trying, and at least Gareth feels more fleshed-out than the Claimers from last season, but they still feel pretty flat. Sure, they're a little hammy and thus not entirely unentertaining, but as far as villains go they're decidedly sub-par. Cool action sequence bit where it turns out that Rick's team was faking out Gareth by doubling back to the church, though, and at least he's not making the same mistake by letting baby-eating psychopaths who'll potentially return for revenge run around free.
We did get more signs of Rick being a monster, which is apparently going to be his seasonal arc? It's definitely better than season four Rick, who's either farming potatoes, being a self-righteous twat or being half-dead on a sofa. He alternates being between the dude that's savage enough to hack Gareth into bloody pieces with a machete in a church, and the guy who has a nice near-death talk with Bob before he dies. I guess it's something?
Bob really gets some memorable scenes, in this episode, because, y'know, he dies. The alcoholic thing doesn't come up at all, and we have a bigger focus on the 'cursed survivor' and 'Sasha's boyfriend' aspects of his character. From his laughing like a maniac about how the cannibals are eating 'tainted meat' (not that they survive long enough to know whether eating Bob's leg will infect them, mind you), to his tearful farewells to Sasha and Rick, to Tyreese having to stab dead Bob so Sasha doesn't have to do it... I think the biggest problem with Bob is that he's not super developed as a character, he's literally just a dude that hangs out for the entirety of season four. Still that's a pretty great death scene nonetheless.
Really liked the small touch that it's not just Sasha the love interest and Rick the supposed main character that gets a personal goodbye with Bob, but Maggie gets a brief scene too -- it wasn't the most memorable team-up ever, but Maggie did spend a fair amount of time with Bob and Sasha on the road during the 'split everyone up' portion of season four, so it's a nice bit of acknowledgement there.
Abraham gets a bit of a plot movement in this episode, where he argues with Rick about whether they should go to Washington or not. Rick's biggest problem is that he wants to wait for Carol and Daryl, I guess (Maggie still is unconcerned about her missing sister). But honestly, are Glenn and Maggie's presence so super-crucial to Abraham's mission? Like, he keeps insisting he wants Glenn to come along, but everything happens so quickly and the Abraham trio are still such ciphers that the conflict isn't really shown as well as it could. At the end of the episode Glenn and Maggie leaves with the Abraham trio, leaving Rick a note to come with them, but honestly I just find them like this thing that just happened.
What else? Oh, Gabriel's big secret is apparently at one point he locked in all the doors and let members of his congregation who came to him for help be devoured outside the church. Which is a different brand of jackassery -- he isn't as sinister as we thought he was, but he's got his own emotional baggage. He's still a hell lot more developed as a character than freaking Tara or Rosita are, though.
Overall, all things considered it's a pretty average episode, as awesome as Rick slaughtering the cannibals are.
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