‘The Walking Dead’ Season Five Recap and Review

The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 1 Recap and Review
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in ‘The Walking Dead’ (Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC)

This is a recap and review, so spoilers abound. Read no further until you’ve watched The Walking Dead season five premiere titled “No Sanctuary.”

“You come across any of these people, you kill them…don’t hesitate, because they won’t,” says Rick (Andrew Lincoln) to Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Glenn (Steven Yeun). They’ve just managed to free themselves from certain death at the hands of the Terminus inhabitants, which it turns out has a slaughterhouse set up for those unfortunate enough to get captured, in the fifth season premiere of AMC’s horror/drama series The Walking Dead.

Shots fired somewhere outside the slaughterhouse and a big explosion inside Terminus are just the distractions Rick and his friends need to turn the tables on the two inexperienced killers who are methodically working their way down a line of bound captives, knocking each potential ‘meal’ out with a bat before slicing their throats. Rick, Darrell (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yeun), and Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr) overcome their attackers and begin to make their way out with the aim of getting to the large boxcar holding Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Michonne (Danai Gurira) and the others and setting them free.

What Rick and all the others are unaware of is that Carol (Melissa McBride) came across a Terminus citizen…oh the heck with it let’s call these people what they are, cannibals, and took him prisoner with Tyreese’s (Chad L. Coleman) help. Covering herself in walker blood and dirt, Carol shuffles along with a herd of zombies headed to Terminus (she’s easily the best armed walker of the bunch). Once there, she leads a one woman assault on the unsuspecting cannibals with the aid of some very hungry walkers.

Action-packed, gory, and extremely violent, the season five premiere of The Walking Dead brings the horror series back with more guns blazing and more flesh-eating zombies on the march than in the previous season. This is without a doubt the most intense premiere the series has ever had, with little character development or setup for the rest of the season. It’s purely a fight, run, and rescue mission that’s absolutely thrilling!

One of the biggest changes for the better is with the character Carol who, when the show began, was a weak victim of spousal abuse and who has grown into a tough but not unfeeling independent one-woman survivor. McBride shines in this episode as the true lethal hero who saves her old friends with the help of some hungry zombies.

Another plus is that Rick has stopped with all his self-absorbed grief and embraced being the smart and lethal leader of his group, putting their survival and well-being back to his number one priority. He also proved to be an extremely efficient military leader during the gang’s escape from Terminus.

The production and zombie make-up are still excellent, in fact it’s even improved from the first few seasons which were first-rate. The look of the woods and the town Terminus feels authentic and the show still wonderfully captures the apocalyptic world these characters are struggling to survive in.

With Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, Carl, and the others headed away from Terminus through the woods with no real destination in immediate sight and the surprising reveal after the end credits of – NO, it won’t be revealed here in case you missed it and want to check it out for yourself – season five of The Walking Dead looks to be the most riveting and terrifying season of them all.

GRADE: A-