Right, finally got to see the trailer and I've got to tell that it was sweeet. Even better than the trailer for season 4 and I was pretty happy with that trailer but this one... I'm really juiced up to sit down and watch the show, so props to the folks who put it together for AMC.

Rick totting an AK just took a level in badass and him gunning down that group...? Hmmm, interesting character development. Were they Walkers or human, 'cause I wasn't able to determine either way.

And Beth, holy shit, girl, what did you get yourself in? I'm not up to date with the comic book so can anyone tell me if her being in some kind of institution/jail/juvie a canon comic book thing or did they take authorial license with adding it to the show?

 

Rick was gunning down humans. They were holding guns and everythang. And yeah, it was badass as all hell. Dude killed more humans in those three seconds than he did in the first, Iunno, 25 episodes? RICK UNLEASHED.

Beth's storyline seems to be taking place in an original area, which is fine. It's possible that it'll lead to some version of the Hunters - if Terminus doesn't, that is - or hell, with the white crosses everywhere it could be a hilarious proto-Saviors that just needs a Negan to step in. Or even some folk leading to Alexandria. We don't know! Yay!

Also, one theory of mine?

Spoiler

The trailer's trolling us. Those trailers are expert trolls, and since the resolve of the cliffhanger is a first episode thing and everything post-Terminus is in the following ones, they could've bullshitted the whole Gareth coming with them angle. Don't get me wrong I think it'd be hilariously interesting if Gareth does tag along and has his Termites basically prepare to betray Rick's group at every turn it looks like Rick's group is ready to betray them... but I don't think that's how it'll go.

Nah. Terminus is getting overrun, Team Prison is escaping, Gareth is going Hunters'ing afterwards, and Beth's foray at St. Elsewhere is a set-up for some midseason finale villains before we get to Alexandria in 5B. Bonus points: Terminus and the white cross folk are connected. Yay!

Oh, and all that Beth stuff is probably it's own standalone episode, too, 'cause Gimple's run likes standalone eps. Which is pretty amazing to me to think about. Beth Greene. Basically a background character in S2. Occasionally chipping in some lines in S3. Extreme emotional development and having possible love connection with Daryl goddamn Dixon in S4. Fully fledged major character with her own storyline in S5. Nobody thought she'd get this far. And no doubt in my mind Emily Kinney's appearing in the main credits (Along with Chad Coleman and Michael Cudlitz, at least). Girl's all grown up. /proud tear.

 

Yup. Twas awesome.

 

Well, it was an episode! I mean, I wasn't that hyped. Not like I watched it like three times. What are you talking about. Don't be ridiculous. You fucks.

We're back baby. Episode kicked all kinds of ass, from start to finish. The Terminus flashbacks and the idea planted that their surrender to brutality may be coming for Team Prison were fantastic. Rick absolutely destroyed everything in his path - seven goddamn kills, at minimum. He doubled his overall killcount like woah - and I fucking loved it. Carol too, can't not give her major props. On my third watch I pretended that Rick and Carol were competing for kills secretly. And everyone during the breakout each getting a badass walker kill or two with improv'd weapons? Classic. Beautiful. Mah show.

Walker Kill Of The Week goes to... Hard one. Daryl with the pipe (in the study, used on Professor Plum) backing up Rick was sexy. Rosita with the Wolverine claws made out of her own hoop earrings. Tyreese's offscreen massacre. Human Kill Of The Week to Rick all over because he just fucking goes for it, though Ty and Carol, again, props.

Also, Glenn with the moral voice now? I like. Although that might mean we have to start #GlennDeathWatch2k14.

Also also, dat end credits stinger. Wasn't fucking expecting that!

 

Was anyone else thinking, "If you don't do what Rick says and kill all the Terminus ***** then something bad will happen later on?"

Awesome episode, due to not being hyped it was better then expected. Nice way to let Carol back into the group with her single-handedly doing major mayhem.

 

HOLY FUCK DAT END CREDIT SCENE THOUGH!!!!

 

Loved the hell out of it, watched S5E1 online about 4 times now.

Carol has come a long way from being the battered wife even post apocalypse. I love it.

As far as Gareth and his sick fucks go, I only wish they had suffered more. Because the flashbacks to Gareth and his people in the train car being used and abused by the raiders who took over Terminus? Maybe Gareth thought only he and his could break out of a fucked situation. That's the problem with snaring people. Those people could have friends.

I am reminded of that rat-faced bastard Carol and Tyreese tied up in the cabin. He said he had no friends, just 'assholes he survived with'. Words to that effect. I will bet money he would never have broken open a fortified compound to rescue his people. He would have done what he advised Tyreese to do. Gotten in the car and driven away.

Also liked the look on Carol's face when she infiltrated with the walkers into Terminus and saw what she had unleashed. She had to do it, but didn't like it. As it should be.

Liked Rick's resolve to go back and finish the job on the Termites, even if he was outvoted. I saw a review of this episode on youtube where the reviewer talks about how not following up on things has cost Rick, like not tracking down the Governor let him have time to raise a second army to attack the prison again in season 4.

That said, I kind of think it would make sense for the group to cut their losses with Georgia if they still are in Georgia, and get to another state, put a lot of distance between them and whoever may have survived Terminus. Although that's not going to happen because Beth is still out there somewhere.

And finally, found this.

 

I think they suffered enough considering that their attempt at helping others ended up getting their people raped, beaten, and killed, which ultimately resulted in the fucked situation everyone's in right now.

Honestly, I felt sad for the people of Terminus. They attempted to help complete strangers out of the goodness of their hearts and a group of those strangers took advantage of their generosity in the worst way imaginable. Like Matt said, this may be foreshadowing the eventual fate of the group. To be broken by the world and lose what's left of their humanity. All in all, this was a great episode and I hope that the rest of the season continues to be just as good, if not better.

 

Well, no..yes they suffered but does that mean draw people to a hope of sanctuary and eat them? Why not go somewhere else and start over and this time let no one from the outside in? I actually didn't care for the flashbacks showing "then" and "now." They don't justify butchering people and eating them.

Sure some of the survivors are willing to kill to protect theirs but not the slaughter of innocent people to get a human burger.

Is it a rumor that cannibals eventually go crazy from eating human meat or die of it or is that just some movie I saw?

 

I saw it yesterday and I have to say that it was the best season opener so far. It was gripping, it was thrilling and it had a hook. Even the red shirt mooks(the dude from the cottage and the woman from that fucked up shrine) had some character and weren't just talking mannequins about to get fragged by our favorite characters.

Did I care about the Now and Then sequence? Nope, I can't say I did. Their venus flytrap MO stripped them off of any sympathetic vibe I could muster. They shed their humanity and chose to become monsters. They could have moved, they could have closed their doors to outsiders and become a bunch of militant isolationists jealously guarding their strip of land. Instead, they decided to start luring people in and eating them. They industrialized it.

The horrible things that happened to them don't justify the horrible things they visit on others. Ever.

Rick was awesome. The part where he's tied up and kneeling about to get his throat cut open and he just stares at the douchebag with the clipboard and tells him he's going to kill him and his cannibal friends was a moment of pure awesome and win. Balls of steel clad in Space Marine armor ceramite.

Carol introducing Terminus to her concept of distraction and infiltration in force left me smiling, and like Lyrium said it was a smooth way to reintegrate her with the group.

The last scene...

 

Rumor. You can get diseases from eating human flesh, but that's because it's meat. Like anything else, it goes bad quickly. There is also a particular brain disease you can get because of cannibalism, but I forgot the name.

 

Kuru. Enjoy.

 

I'm not saying that it was okay for them to lure people into a trap and eat them. In fact, they deserved to be killed in the manner that they were and the group should have listened to Rick about killing off survivors. I'm just saying that I can understand why they did what they did and, to a certain extent, even sympathize with them. They did what most people do when someone hurts them: lash out. Only in this case, they were hurt so badly that the manner in which they lashed out transformed them into something just as evil as the raiders that broke them.

 

Yeah, this.

The fact that they suffered doesn't justify butchering people and eating them, but it makes it understandable.

Ty.

 

They had some really gooey walkers this week. Bastards were in a pit filled with water. For 4 seasons. Waiting for Rick and the Gang to come along.

And they keep getting good actors from The Wire on the show. Bob and Tyreese, and Father Gabriel played by Seth Gillam.

I do like how the group was at the beginning of the episode. Terminus did change them. Rick did change. Telling Carl they were no safe no matter what. During the Prison arc Rick would not have told him that.

And fucking Gareth.

 

Shivers...

I hate the hunters and want Rick and Carol and Daryl and Bob's gf (Sasha?) to destroy them...

I also want to know the Bob backstory...and connection to the terminus people. Was anyone else thinking that he was crying because he'd been bit in the yucky sewer of zombie stew?

 

Oh look, them not going back to finish everyone off bit them in the ass. Who would have thunk it.

That's what I thought. I was also hoping that his infected blood was getting ingested by all the cannibals, and they'd all die well deserved deaths.

I don't know what the history between Bob and them can be, because he was perfectly okay with following Maggie to Terminus.

 

Spoiler

He was.

Good fun time episode all 'round. I just love seeing all the group together, man. Someone compared the back half of last season like seeing all the Marvel individual superhero movies and now we're getting all Avengers all the time. Of course things went to shit but hey, it happens. Let's focus on the happy times! Like:
- All Tara all the time. Cute as a fucking button, and deserves all the hugs and fistbumps in the world. And she's vibing hard for a threesome with Glenn and Maggie, so go her.
- Rick and Carl hangin' with Judith. D'awwwwwww.
- Solid speech from Abe. I'd vote for him.
- Daryl instantly dropping everything to go after a sign for Beth. If things go Daryl/Beth-y ship-wise down the track, you can't not admit he'd be a keeper.
- Bob! Happy Bob chatting with Rick and macking on Sasha and just having a good time.
- Walker Kill Of The Week... Maybe Rick slamming the slimey walker who almost got Gabriel into the wall twice over. Or Sasha acing the one who pulled Bob under.

And then the ending. Haha. Ow. Perfect.

 

Water Zombies were cool. Though fire zombies still beat them in that department.

Maggie's reaction to Beth missing is kind of weird. She doesn't really seem to care about her onnly surviving family member. I mean she refused to believe Glenn was gone until she had complete proof but here she's ok and even willing to go to DC instead of looking for Beth.

Hell Daryl's the only one who has mentioned her name in the past 2 episodes.

Is the DC cure part of the comics?

 

Another episode and another 44 minutes well spent. If they keep it up this just might prove to be the best season so far because let's be frank, some of the previous seasons had moments where the plot dragged. But so far so good, so very good. And yeah, we all knew their decision to abandon Rick's idea of getting it done the right way i.e. finishing the rest of Terminus people off, was going to come and haunt/hunt them.

Yikes, the walkers are getting really runny and bloated, blergh. That they actually were like: whelp we need that food, skinny-dipping in zombie filled sludge time, wooooooo. Double blergh.

The reverend pisses me off and I don't know if it's the actor or the role - will have to wait and see another episode to decide.

Daryl staging a rescue attempt was... I don't know. I like it and all, and I understand why they couldn't go and inform the others about it, but... I really don't know. Something just bugs me about that whole scene.

Sasha and bf being all lovey-dovey had me smiling but it was also a big, huge heads-up one of them's going to suffer. So no real shocker about the ending.


On a scale of 1-5 I give this ep. a solid 4/5.