Wow.

What a crazy start to the Fifth season of The Walking Dead, looks like this season is gonna be a hell of a ride. When we last saw our group they had just been captured and “herded” into the train cars but Rick made it clear they weren’t going down without a fight so you knew it was gonna get off to a fast start. The episode got going with a flashback to the leaders of Terminus who were surprisingly in a similar position that Rick and the group were in. Blood chilling screams could be heard and you got a sense that things were even worse for the Terminus people. We learned throughout the episode that Terminus actually was what the signs had promoted, a sanctuary for all. They were good people, just like Rick and the crew. But unfortunately some evil scumbags found it and decided to release their cruelty on the survivors. The stories and scenes showing this makes my blood boil, especially the last scene. They torture & kill people as they please, go from car to car picking girls to rape, and then laugh about it right in their faces. I wish I could watch Jesse Pinkman strangle every last one of them like he did that scumbag Todd in Breaking Bad. That would be the most fucked up thing about a “zombie apocalypse,” even at the brink of extinction humans still can’t be trusted and are still trying to kill each other. You have enough to worry about trying to stay alive from walker attacks but then every person you meet you have to think “are they scumbags? will they kill us? worse?.” You want to stay safe but you also know what its like to be searching for safety and don’t want to turn away good people who just want to survive. What an awful existence, especially for a good person. That would be my #1 struggle in a ZA, trying to decide whether to help other people or not, esp if youre in a leadership position and people in your group are depending on you to keep them safe. Scumbags don’t have that issue, they just spread their cruelty as far as they can with no regard for good or bad or right or wrong.

That seems to be what led to the downfall of Terminus as a legit sanctuary, they wanted to be good people and help but they paid for it. Watching your family, friends get tortured and raped and killed was obviously too much for them and when they took back control, the impact of what they went through had changed them. There was no more “what if” about people, they had endured the worst and they were concerned with only 1 thing, their own survival at any cost. Everyone was a potential scumbag that would put them through those tortures again and they weren’t taking any chances. I’m not making excuses for them, they ended up basically becoming their previous captors, without the rape and torture. They eat people, they take their stuff, and they kill. Definitely no symapthy for them now but it’s easy to see why they became that way. It was mentioned they had to go through the worst of it for weeks, more than long enough to severely damage your psyche. The crazy room with the candles and “NEVER AGAIN, DONT TRUST” makes sense now. That experience really fucked them up. Seeing people you care about in pain, seeing them die in the most deplorable conditions possible, that would be enough to turn any persons heart cold and bitter. But despite that, you need to fight through it. Not fair, not right, but if youre a good person you HAVE to fight through it. You will be stronger than you ever thought possible if you can. Like Glenn said when they let they guy out of the train car, “It has to be who we are.” They didn’t have to continue the cannabalism and killing, they could have locked down Terminus and allowed no strangers, no exceptions. Wouldn’t have been “right” but after what they went through I think you could understand. And in a ZA world, survival is #1. As long as you aren’t directly hurting people, you have no obligation risk yourself or your group. “Help” is almost a dead word, you need to find a way to take care of yourself. However they made the choice to become scumbags so they now face the consequences of that behavior, what happened to them before doesn’t matter since they are projecting that cruelty onto others now. Tattoo face said it, “WE’RE THE SAME.”

Back to the present and we see the group gearing up for a fight as best they can but these scumbags are smarter than they think and gas the car before they enter. They are led into a killing room designed to prepare people to be eaten when we see Sam, the kid Rick and Carol encountered in the city that has Rick’s watch. Didn’t last long as he was the first to go, what a waste of that character. I was really hoping he and Rick would recognize each other in a precarious situation and help each other get out of it. They did have some recognition but it was all for naught. Pretty brutal scene, almost thought Glenn was done but Carol Bond showed up and brought the fn house down. That was so much fun to watch Carol go into full bad ass mode and save the day. That gave Rick enough time to get free and get into his own level of bad assery taking care of the 2 butchers with a wood shank. They were able to free the rest of their crew and successfully escape Terminus.

But Rick knows the world has changed and that escape was not enough, these scumbags would never stop and needed to be finished. Ever since Shane died it seems like Rick has stepped up to a place Shane knew he needed to but didn’t think he could. He still has his morals but knows the world is about survival, either you are a good person or you need to be taken out. Can’t wait around for people to figure it out, you either act right or you go down. Only way to survive in a world like that but still allows you to help good people, there can be no tolerance for evil behaviour. Not when the lives and well being of good people depend on it. However everything changed when he saw that his baby girl Judith was alive and well thanks to Tyreese and Carol. Rick/Judith/Carl reunion and Daryl/Carol made me realize how dusty it is in the house haha hits ya right in the heart. Great scene.

Despite the good feelings the reunions brought, you know that some scumbags survived and will not just let this go. They are now going to be hunted by the rest of them and I don’t think anyone but Rick realizes how dangerous things could become. Scumbags like that can’t be left around to regroup and seek revenge but nothing they can do now. The group got free with no causalities but I don’t think that will last the season, esp with the hunters on their trail. However there may be an ace up their sleeve after all. If you didn’t stick around post-credits, you missed a scene with one hell of a cliffhanger. A masked man walks up to the ‘NO SANCTUARY’ sign Rick made, takes off his mask to reveal himself as MORGAN!! He see’s a symbol marked on a tree and starts to follow in that direction. We didn’t see any of the group do it so it must have been the hunters. Rick and co are being tracked and I don’t think they have any clue yet. If they do get surprised and re-captured, Morgan may be the only thing that saves him. I really really hope they have something awesome planned for Morgan and he isn’t just around to be killed. Absolutely fascinating character, they hit home runs with everything they have written for him. Been waiting since ep 1 for him to find Rick and join the group, would be a great guy to have on their side. Especially now.

But we’ll have to wait for the season to play out to have our questions answered. The waiting game blows but with S5 off to a blazing start I think the episodes this season will be more than worth the wait. My only complaint with this ep is, not enough Maggie :p

Just have to say it always makes me laugh to see how far they take the violence but saying some cuss words is treated like the worst thing ever. There is a reason though; scumbags control the world. Cussing = passion. Obviously too much of anything is bad but cussing when used properly is about passion. If people cuss, they will awake passion in themselves. Scumbags always lose vs passionate good people so they outlaw cussing. Being exposed to extreme violence numbs your senses and reactions to it, making it easier to awake negative feelings in you, and thats why its promoted heavily on public TV and movies. Anyways,  the more you know haha 😀

Bring on the rest of S5, could be the best one yet!