The season five finale of “The Walking Dead” covered a lot of ground in the last 90 minutes of the 2015 season. We found out more about the Wolves and just how devious a group they are. Sasha continued her march to crazy town. Daryl and Aaron found themselves in one of the worst case scenarios ever on a show known for hopeless situations. Morgan finally got some quality time on screen while Alexandria lost its innocence along with one hell of an architect.
Morgan made some waves early on as his morning was interrupted by a member of the Wolfpack. After some small talk Morgan destroyed the guy along with his accomplice using his kendo stick. The guy who threatened Morgan was apparently using a pistol with no bullets. Are the Wolves that low on ammo?
Last week’s previews were even more misleading than usual. It had looked like Rick was as good as evicted from Alexandria. But he was not even under house arrest. Michonne was there with him when he woke up from the knockout blow she had delivered. She was not there to hold him prisoner and let him know she was still with him. She did what she did for him not for the Alexandrians.
The Aaron and Daryl adventures continued as they tracked a guy in a red poncho. Aaron gives Daryl the info on the people that got exiled from their community. It’s a good bet these exiles evolved into the Wolves that are out branding the undead and the about to be dead. Evidently they brand themselves as well as we saw with the guys that made the mistake of rolling up on Morgan trying to enjoy a cup of coffee.
Glenn v. Dickless was close to its conclusion with the cowardly Nicholas scaling the walls only to be followed by Glenn. It was a pretty dumb move by Glenn to go out with no gun following a man that has every reason to kill him. Gabriel also decided to head out for a stroll unarmed. This man was just looking to die. His guilt over locking his flock out of the church has pushed him to the edge. I for one was happy he was on a suicide mission. Sasha laying down in a mass grave with her collection of walkers just confirmed her need for a stay in a mental institution.
The town meeting is set to decide the fate of Rick, although Deanna says they are just going to talk things over. Carol wants Rick to tell the town’s folk a story since “the people here are children and children like to hear stories.” Rick forbids Carl from attending the meeting because things may get ugly….and he is likely embarrassed by the crumpled hat his boy refuses to give up. Rick has not backed off much from last week’s mantra of doing what it takes to survive. He says he may have to kill someone at the meeting to make them see his point. His thinking is correct, but his methods are not going to work. You can’t make people follow you by telling them there is a boogeyman, then behaving like said boogeyman.
When Aaron and Daryl wound up at the food warehouse I knew it was too good to be true. There were clear signs of a trap with cans hung on a string along the trailers. But super scout Daryl didn’t notice or care. He wished he had paid more attention once they lifted the trailer door which set off a chain reaction of walker release. There were enough zombies there to overrun all of Alexandria. Daryl had a nice three headed kill with a chain and Aaron had a cool smashing of a walker head in a car door. These epic kills were nice, but didn’t keep the two recruiters from having to climb into a car slash deathtrap as their only means of escape. Aaron found a note in the car that read, “trap, don’t stay, bad people.” Not staying wasn’t really an option at this point.
The Wolves set this trap and apparently have done so on several occasions. I am curious to find out their motivations. Are they cannibals like the Terminites, power hungry like the Governor, or just plain evil? I want to know their end game. Maybe they just want to witness chaos.
The scene with Carol bringing Pete some food then threatening him with a blade to his throat was absolutely gratifying. Here we have a former battered wife that is openly begging for a known abuser to come at her, just so she has a good reason to shank him into nonexistence. Carol is completely confident in who and what she has become. Pete wisely declined her invitation. This confrontation may have been his breaking point that led to his eventual downfall.
If I’m Aaron, stuck in a car with Daryl, I would have had to protest him lighting up a cigarette. I don’t care if he was about to sacrifice himself so I could escape. No smoking in a closed up sedan! Gotta think about your health Daryl! I was impressed with Aaron refusing to let Daryl be the bait so Aaron could make a run for it. They were going to make a run for it together when Morgan arrived as a savior, giving them room to bounce from the car and get behind the fence safely. Daryl asked Morgan a simple question, “Why.” His response was, “because all life is precious.”
The aimless Gabriel has the same feeling I have about him. He wants to die. He somehow thinks he has the gumption to let a walker just come up and eat him alive. He thinks better of it as he uses the noose around the walker’s neck to pull his head slap off! I can’t imagine the situation that lead to this person being fitted for a noose. Unfortunately Father Gabriel survived this encounter. Damn it.
Speaking of characters that need to die, why is Eugene still on this show? If they simply wrote him out of the plot and never mentioned what happened, I’d be OK with it. His robotic hillbilly speak is enough for me to skip over his scenes. Could not care less what his thoughts are, what his goal is going forward, or what happens to him. His scene with Abraham was utterly useless.
The Glenn and Nicholas battle continued with Glenn now shot (shoulder of course, A-Team style). The two scuffle then Glenn is left for dead under an unplayful dogpile of walkers. Gabriel is shell shocked and does something dumb just as I have been waiting for him to do. The gate guard asks him to lock the gate for him and he simply forgets in his trance like state. What kind of guard asks someone else to close the gate any way. Of all the duties in Alexandria, I would think that closing the gate is in the top one or two.
The gate being left open turns out to be exactly what Rick needs in a strange twist. Gabriel’s stupidity lets in a few walkers that Rick has to deal with on his way to the town meeting. Michonne was right when she told Rick that “something would happen to convince the people they needed him so he didn’t need to make something happen.” Unfortunately for Rick he looks like a madman again with walker blood all over his face as he had a grisly kill after a zombie had a full mount on the constable. Dropping the walker in the middle of the meeting may have excused his personal appearance this time though.
The final minutes of this episode were a flurry of activity as Glenn came close to offing Nicholas, but showed mercy. Sasha was close to killing the preacher man for accusing her of misdeeds. Gabriel finally confessed to letting his flock perish. Rick’s people spoke up for him at the meeting since he was running late.
The climax of the finale was great. Drunk Pete finally went too far. Deanna was willing to let him physically harm Jessie, but her feelings changed when he did an impromptu throatotomy on Reg. She ordered Rick to execute Pete. Rick really had to mull it over….for like .0002 seconds, before blowing Pete’s brains all over the ground. Now that’s what I call a town hall meeting. A bloody police officer dumping a zombie next to a fire, the local doc accidentally slashing the throat of the greatest architect left on Earth, and the shortest time between judgement and execution ever.
The downside of the execution was Morgan seeing Rick and recognizing that all life isn’t so precious in reality. It’s hard to say how Morgan will react to this going forward. He was crazy the last time he and Rick were together and now he seems stable, but who knows where this story line will go.
Michonne is standing at the mantel where she had hung her sword. She decides to keep it strapped to her. Alexandria is a near perfect place, but it won’t stay that way without people ready and willing to defend it. Civilization can start again here. It won’t always be pretty though.