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'Walking Dead' season premiere is explosive affair

(Photo Courtesy of AMC)
(Photo Courtesy of AMC)

(Photo Courtesy of AMC) (Photo Courtesy of AMC)

When the fourth season of AMC’s “Walking Dead” ended with a jaw-dropping conclusion, fans spent the next seven months waiting impatiently to see where the show would pick up and how its main group would escape the dire situation they had found themselves in. Fortunately for those eager fans, the show wasted no time and hit the ground running Sunday in the outstanding season five premiere episode, “No Sanctuary.”

From the very beginning of the episode’s cold open, it was obvious that it was going to be an intense, action-packed hour. From the moment Rick, Glenn, Bob and Daryl were dragged from their train car prison into some type of butchering room where their throats were to be slit, it was made explicitly clear that the episode, as well as the season would hopefully be darker than ever before. From here, all hell broke loose, and the group found themselves not just in a fight to survive once more, but fighting their way out of Terminus, which we learned last season was not the safe haven it was promised to be.

Elsewhere, Tyreese and Carol finally make their way to Terminus, or at least to the general area of it. In fact, it is Carol who ultimately becomes the one responsible for breaking the group out. Last season, fans were given a glimpse of what Carol was capable of, taking it upon herself to burn two of the bodies (including Tyreese’s wife) that were infected back at the prison, which resulted in Rick’s banishing her from the group. That part of her character was further explored in the haunting season four episode “The Grove” where she killed Lizzie, the little girl who killed her own sister to watch her become a Walker. This week's premier saw Carol become a total badass, going full commando (and employing a tactic that was a great throwback to the show’s first season) in order to get into Terminus and see what was going on. However, it wasn’t until after the gang was out that the heartwarming reunions between Daryl, Carol, Rick and baby Judith occurred — they came right near the end of the episode, providing a nice juxtaposition of happiness to the anger and violence of the episode.

https://twitter.com/S_Weinstein95/status/521893758410186753

Another outstanding aspect of the episode was the teaser at the end of the credits, hinting that the minor character Morgan would be making his return in the near future. Although he’s only appeared in three episodes, the character (played by Lennie James) has become a fan favorite, and it’ll be interesting to see what his character has been up to in the time since audiences last saw him, especially considering that the character wasn’t in the best place mentally when he appeared in the season three episode “Clear.” Hopefully, this season will see him join up with the group and have an expanded role, as he is certainly a fascinating character that I would personally like to learn more about.

https://twitter.com/S_Weinstein95/status/521902095935758336

Also interesting in this episode was Rick’s finalization of his transformation from the peaceful farmer we saw at the beginning of last season to the fearless warrior he has become. Rick’s always been a character with a strong moral core, only killing when it was necessary, but “No Sanctuary” saw something click in him, telling Glenn and Daryl not to let any of their captors live. This primal attitude is a new one, and one that fans of the show will find refreshing when compared to Shane’s actions in the show’s first two seasons. I think that nearly seeing his friends lives be taken away from them was a wake-up call for Rick and provided him with a much needed reminder of how the world he’s living in is truly one with a “kill or be killed” mentality.

At the end of the episode, the group finds themselves back on the open road, where I feel the show has found the most success. Now that the group has been reunited, I’m most interested to see how Rick and Carol interact and how Rick explains his actions to everyone. It should make for some great dialogue in the weeks to come.

In the meantime, I’m just glad to have the show back, and I’m even more glad that it returned, literally, with guns a-blazing. The episode had some great character moments, outstanding action and some of the most grotesque Zombie-eating action the show has seen yet, making for a truly excellent premiere for one of the best shows on television.

“The Waking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

Reach the reporter at seweinst@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @S_Weinstein95

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