TV Review: The Walking Dead (Season 5, Episode 2, October 19, 2014)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

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EPISODE 2: Strangers

THE HOOK: Rick’s Terminus reunion didn’t go as planned. Now, prisoners of this malicious new group of survivors, Rick and crew must plot their next move carefully if they hope to survive.

The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS, so I don’t recommend reading this if you haven’t watched this episode

THE LOWDOWN: Tonight is all about secrets, revelations and forgiveness when it comes to our main crew—and then of course, danger, but I’ll come back to that. Now that everyone has a chance to breathe and properly assess their current plight, people are putting all their cards on the table, or at least most of them. Rick and Tara are cool (fist bump), Tyreese assures Carol everyone will follow his lead on the prison situation, and Rick even asks Carol if it’s cool for them to join her—Rick’s humble way of saying he’s sorry. Tyreese doesn’t want to tell everyone about the girls (who the hell could blame him), but aside from that, everyone’s just happy to be reunited. I’m good with all of this, but personally, I would’ve thought more questions would have surfaced over dinner, like maybe, Maggie asking about her sister or someone even mentioning the girls. Sure, it was a long day, but it seemed like the right time for questions.

In the midst of all that, the crew come across Brother Gabriel, a preacher about to get chomped by some walkers. The crew handle them, and Rick wastes no time offering up the code. Gabriel plays the part of damsel in distress a little too well, but what’s priceless is the look on Rick’s face the entire time. He’s not buying it, and it’s painfully obvious. The group holds up at Gabriel’s church, while Rick leads a small group to the local Food Bank. Before they go, Rick and Carl have a stellar moment together where the duality of both characters shines as brightly as ever. Rick tells Carl to never let his guard down, convinced Gabriel can’t be trusted, but Carl’s insight remains ever refreshing. Though I don’t agree with his “everyone can’t be bad” rebuttal (tell that to Gareth and the rest of people eating Bob burgers), I agree with his logic that they should help those they can, and that they can handle whatever comes their way.

Poor Bob. That dude was really starting to grow on me, I especially loved his “can’t fight City Hall” speech. I was sure by the way he was acting after the Food Bank fight (they had a fun time wading through some walker soup), that he was bitten (why else would he be outside crying in the dark?), but he ended up getting a much worse fate. I expected to see Gareth, but not so soon. It makes sense that he and his crew of “hunters” were the ones Daryl heard skulking around in the dark, and now we know why. Talk about revenge best served over a hot fire! I enjoy Gareth’s calm demeanor, he’s shaping up to be a great villain. Oh, and I totally called it, Tyreese didn’t kill that fool in the shed. Surprise, surprise.

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5’s second episode may first appear to be all happy, happy, joy, joy, but things quickly revert back to what Rick said to Carl as things start to go sour. Gareth is only the tip of the iceberg, however, as Carl found some sketchy clues around the Church that imply our good preacher may not be so godly, and as Daryl catches Carol slipping away in the night, the car that took Beth rolls by (a little convenient, but okay), so those two take off in pursuit. I’m guessing Rick was too busy threatening to kill Gabriel (which was awesome) to notice, Bob, Daryl and Carol go missing. And boy is Abraham going to be pissed. After finally reeling everyone in with that Washington speech, they’ll have to put the trip on hold to deal with a slew of new problems. Just another day in paradise. Another strong episode, things are looking good for this season.

ZOMBIE KILL OF THE WEEK: Rick takes out glasses chick and saves Gabriel, not knowing at the time that she was his wife—or so I’m assuming because of the picture.

BLOOD AND GORE: There were lots of kills tonight, but I have to offer up particular praise to the walkers in the Food Bank cellar. They looked totally badass.

COOLEST SCENE: This certainly was speech night, but only one was conducted while eating a piece of someone’s leg…delivered to the very someone whose leg was being eaten. Gareth, you one cold sumbitch!

FINAL VERDICT:

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