The Walking Dead - Season 5 Premiere - Recap: The Butcher or The Cattle
Recap video and review of The Walking Dead - Season 5 Premiere - No Sanctuary:
The Walking Dead is a show that can frequently come across as a post-apocalyptic character study, centering on how people deal with survival in circumstances where survival seems all but impossible. So it can be easy to forget that the show is a series that does large-scale action better than just about any other drama on TV. "No Sanctuary" is a premiere that kicks off Season 5 in a big way, opening up the narrative to potentially go in any number of directions.
"No Sanctuary" is not only among the most unflinchingly violent episodes The Walking Dead has ever produced, it's also a fairly surprising episode, albeit not for the reasons one might expect. What's surprising about this premiere is that it dispenses with the Terminus threat almost immediately. Last season, we were getting the first hints of what many expected, at the time, to be the big arc of Season 5. Terminus seemed like the show's new version of Woodbury, a seemingly idyllic setting revealed to be run by absolute nutjobs. We knew that, at some point in Season 5, Rick's vow that the Terminus crew was "screwing with the wrong people" would be fulfilled. But I'm not sure I expected it to be fulfilled this early, especially since the show has made a habit of slow build storylines (case in point, the entire back half of Season 4). It would have been perfectly within the show's M.O. to introduce us to each of the Terminus residents, imply they aren't all bloodthirsty cannibals, and create an internal conflict with the audience over whether or not we should be rooting to see all of them get slaughtered when the inevitable uprising from Rick's crew came. That would have been the expected route, yet The Walking Dead, refreshingly, chose to push all of that potential story forward into the premiere. What we're left with is basically all-out war between two factions, illustrating just how much Rick's crew has grown since the last time they faced a threat like this. No more dilly-dallying, no more uncertainty, no questions of morality, just straight, brutal efficiency. Rick and co. don't get all of the Terminus crew members, and it would be easy enough for the show to bring back ring-leader Gareth as a possible Governor-type villain for future episodes, but as it stands right now, Terminus is pretty much done for. It's a premiere that is among the most viscerally satisfying episodes the show has done, as it delivers action and a surprisingly poignant emotional touch. This was an absolute slam-dunk.
Credit: AMC
The episode keeps a relatively lean, tight focus. Within the first five minutes, Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Bob (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.) are nearly killed by Gareth and his thugs in an incredibly tense scene that has been teased in trailers and promotional material throughout the summer, as one of Gareth's men threatens to bludgeon Glenn with a baseball bat after doing the same to another innocent captive -- Sam (Robin Lord Taylor), a man Rick encountered in last season's "Indifference". Quickly, the episode establishes that Gareth and his crew have no redeeming qualities, and as twisted as it might be to say, that's actually kind of refreshing. Too many stories these days feel we need villains cast in shades of grey, with the idea being that even villains have some measure of goodness and humanity (or at least complexity) to them. But sometimes, a story just needs a black-and-white approach, and that's largely what we got, although there are implications that Gareth and company actually weren't that bad, and were in fact twisted into their present state after being captives themselves. However, it's only a small kernel of backstory, and it's hardly meant to excuse or justify Gareth's actions, as the episode makes no qualms about him being a bad guy. It's pretty much why the systematic destruction of the Terminus crew proves so satisfying...
Credit: AMC
The short of it goes like this: Carol (Melissa McBride) and Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman), who still have baby Judith with them, discover men bragging about having captured Rick's crew. Carol decides this is something she can't tolerate, and sets out on a mission of unexpected badassery to rescue them, covering herself in walker guts and approaching Terminus with a rifle in her hand. Once there, she shoots a fuel tank and then sets off a firework to create a massive explosion that engulfs the walkers descending on the location. This provides her with the opening she needs to make her way inside the compound. Inside, she encounters Mary, the woman in charge of welcoming unsuspecting victims to Terminus. Mary explains that Terminus became the way it was as a result of rapists and murderers taking over the compound, forcing them to become ruthless to win it back. This, in turn, perverted their initially noble ideals, resulting in the camp it is now. Of course, this doesn't really explain how they graduated cannibalism, although I guess necessity is the mother of invention, and all that jazz. "You're the butcher, or you're the cattle," as Mary explains, words echoed by Gareth in a flashback at the end of the episode, drawing an eerie parallel between Rick's group and the Terminus group, as both were captives in the Terminus camp at one point or another. But while Mary tries to justify what Terminus has become, Carol isn't interested in hearing it. She shoots Mary in the leg and leaves her to be devoured by walkers, proving herself to have grown every bit as bluntly, coldly decisive in her processes.
Credit: AMC
From there, it's an all-out slaughter, as Tyreese pounds one of the Terminus crew into a fine paste after he tries to take Judith hostage, while Rick and the others butcher their way through the Terminus crew and the walkers surrounding the area. Rick is so livid about his captivity, and disgusted with the Terminus group's actions, that he even proposes hunting them down. The rest of the group is horrified at this suggestion, particularly when Rick coldly declares that the Terminus crew "doesn't get to live." But a tearful reunion changes things: Carol reunites with the group and takes them to meet with Tyreese and Judith, and it really is a mark in the show's favor towards its character-building that these reunions managed to be as powerful as they were. Not only was Daryl's tearful, wordless embrace with Carol among the most touching moments this show has ever had, it immediately followed it up with the reunion with Judith, as Rick practically falls to pieces with relief and joy to see his daughter alive. Even Tyreese gets his happy ending, reuniting with Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). It's a rare tearjerker of a scene for The Walking Dead, and they didn't have to kill off a single character to do it.
Credit: AMC
That said, this lovely moment isn't allowed to linger for very long, as there's pressing business: for one, the crew has to decide where they're headed next. As for now, the only answer is "way the hell away from Terminus," but Eugene is intent on finally getting to Washington D.C. so he can help create the cure for this zombie apocalypse. What's helpful about this development is that we now finally know what this cure supposedly is, as Eugene explains, while trapped in Terminus earlier in the episode, that he was once part of a government project in which viral warfare was combated with viral warfare. He feels that, with the right tweaking, he can manufacture a way to kill all the walkers in one shot. Of course, this doesn't exactly solve the problem of people turning when they die, since it's not technically a cure, per se. But it has the potential to be a temporary solution, at least. And the mission to get to D.C. gives the show purpose beyond just survival, which should help the narrative immensely. Another thing that should help is the addition of another damn fine actor to the cast, as Lennie James returns in a post-creditss scene as Morgan, following the trail Rick's group left behind in the hopes of catching up. James is a terrific performer, as his last two appearances have illustrated, and I'm already excited at his potential inclusion in Season 5.
"No Sanctuary" is an episode that instills plenty of confidence in The Walking Dead Season 5, on my end. I thought it was among the most effective episodes the show has ever done. It was visceral, emotional, satisfying, and momentous. Even though people didn't die, and although any sense of real threat to their lives was felt beyond those opening five minutes, memorable things still happened. Main characters don't have to die for an episode to be momentous, and I feel "No Sanctuary" illustrated that point pretty well. The Walking Dead is back, in a huge way.