Last week we had a little bit of a strange episode. An odd musical choice at the end (the always-awesome Bee Gees), Rick ambiguously pawing his hidden gun as he looked at Pete and Jessie, and then Rick kind of zoning out with his hand on the wall. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?! Personally, I like the kind of off-kilter tone of the show right now. Don’t you think it mirrors what Rick and Co. are going through? Living in this very civilized community in the middle of the insanity they’ve been through? Let’s see what happens tonight!
If you look up “tortured” in the dictionary you’d get a picture of Father Gabriel. The guy starts off the episode chewing the scenery around his makeshift church and then proceeds to rip all of the pages out of his bible. So, still not coping well, I guess.
After the credits we see Daryl on his new motorcycle, heading out of town with Aaron trailing in a car. While he does that, Noah meets with Reg Monroe about the future. His future, specifically. He thinks it might be good if Alexandria had a second engineer/architect. That’s awesome. I like the idea of apprentice Noah. Reg hands him his notebook and tells him to start writing everything down.
Aiden, Noah, Eugene, Tara, Glenn, and Nicholas (the other d-bag scout) are heading out to get parts for the power grid. Eugene is reticent to go but they aren’t about to chance getting the wrong part. Tara tries to get info from Noah about Holly. Oooooooo! For the record, Deanna seems really appreciative that Glenn’s around to help. They put on some bad dubstep and hit the road.
The scouting crew gets to the warehouse and Glenn wants to play it safe and scout the building, checking for emergency exits and all that good stuff, but Nicholas is the usual idiot (“we’ll just go out the front”). Luckily, Aiden agrees with Glenn and they scout the perimeter. Tara and Eugene are paired up (is that the best idea?) and Eugene argues that A) he shouldn’t be there and B) he’s already done his part by getting them all to Alexandria. They both agree that he’s a huge coward.
Glenn and Noah get a look at the front of the warehouse and it’s swarmed by walkers. “I guess we’re not getting out the front,” Glenn says. The group heads inside. A bunch of walkers are caged in a locked-off inventory area. Tara and Eugene head off to look for the parts they need while the others keep watch.
Aiden is unfortunate enough to come across a walker clad in body armor. Glenn tells him to let it come in close but of course he doesn’t listen. He shoots its knee out and then takes pot shots at it until he manages to hit a grenade. The cage has been blown open and Aiden’s body is skewered on some rods sticking out the wall. Tara is also down, bleeding from her head.
Glenn scoops up Tara and they regroup in an office. They hear Aiden calling for help—turns out he’s alive. Eugene offers to stay with Tara while they go for Aiden. Eugene scoops up Tara and carries her out, finally shooting some walkers. He’s not great at it but he gets the job done. Nicholas and Glenn try to pull Aiden off of the metal spikes he’s stuck on. Nicholas bails, though. He can’t do it. Aiden admits that they panicked on their scouting mission and that’s why some of his crew died. They run out of time and Glenn and Noah have to run while Aiden is eaten alive.
Glenn and Noah run after Nicholas, who’s heading for the rotating doors at the front of the building (where all the walkers are). He gets out front but has to retreat back into the building when he gets swarmed. Thus it happens that Nicholas, Glenn, and Noah are all trapped in the rotating door, Nicholas on one side, Glenn and Noah opposite him, with walkers both outside and inside the building, trying to get at them. Pushing on either side of the door will expose the person(s) on the other side. Glenna and Noah have the guns, but Nicholas has the ammo. They’re pretty much screwed…
Until Eugene shows up blasting that awful dubstep! The zombies at the front of the building head after the van, so now the guys stuck in the door just have to break out the front. As Glenn hits the glass, Nicholas’ side is starting to open up to a bunch of hungry walkers. He flips out. When Glenn tries to hit the glass, he tries to bolt. This opens up Glenn and Noah’s side to the walkers. As Nicholas squeezes out, the walkers get Noah. They rip into him, literally tearing his face apart as Glenn watches.
Nicholas gets to the van but Eugene refuses to leave Glenn and Noah behind. Glenn catches up and rips Nicholas out of the van and knocks his ass out. “Where’s Noah?” Eugene asks. Glenn can’t answer.
As they drive back to town, Eugene sees Noah’s notebook (that Reg gave him) open to the first page. It reads, “This is the beginning.”
While Glenn and crew are dealing with all of that, Abraham is on wall-building duty. In a scene straight from the comics, they end up in trouble. When one of the work detail (Francine) gets separated and hurt, the wall crew (led by Tobin) wants to abandon her but Abraham goes to the rescue. Abe uses a tractor to his advantage and manages to bottleneck and kill a ton of walkers and make it out alive. Francine decks Tobin when he says he was just sticking to protocol by closing ranks and leaving her to die. Abraham basically takes over at this point, orders look outs and organizes the wall crew. Looks like Abe’s back in charge.
Following this incident, Tobin meets with Deanna, Reg, and Maggie. He tells them what Abraham did and how he’s leading the wall crew and thinks that Abraham should be in charge. Deanna consents. Reg walks Tobin out and Deanna looks a little concerned. She’s worried that everyone from Rick’s group is ending up in positions of power. Maggie goes downstairs to work on their (field?) plans.
While Maggie is downstairs, Gabriel shows up. He tells Deanna that Satan disguises himself as false light, and that Rick and his group are not good people, that they’ve done unspeakable things. Deanna says that they had to to survive. Gabriel insists that they can’t be trusted and they’re dangerous and they don’t deserve paradise. Deanna looks… worried. Maggie hears this all from the stairs.
Earlier that day, Rick stops by Jessie’s garage. Someone has busted up one of Jessie’s sculptures and Rick takes the case. A little bit later, Pete makes a stop off at Rick’s house. He offers him a beer and is clearly a little drunk. He’s kind of defensive about how lucky they’ve been in Alexandria. He tells Rick to bring the kids in and says that they should be friends. “We kind of have to be.” Hearty slap on the back and he’s gone. Rick looks down at his wedding ring.
While Rick is getting less friendly with Pete, Carol is at home and hears something in her pantry. It ends up being Sam, looking for cookies. Carol’s pretty short with him but she does agree to make him cookies if he’ll steal chocolate for her. Then she shoves him out the front door.
He makes it back with the chocolate and Carol is still salty. She tells him that they’re not talking and tries to get him to stop any time he makes conversation. Sam is a Chatty Cathy though and asks Carol for a gun. When pressed, he won’t say why he wants it, only that it’s not for him. Then he bolts.
Carol follows suit to Jessie and Pete’s house. A drunk Pete opens the front door and is real defensive when Carol asks where Sam is. He refuses to let Carol talk to Jessie and then shuts the door in her face. Carol knows the signs of an abusive relationship all too well. She goes to Rick to tell him that Pete is beating Jessie and maybe Sam too. There’s only one thing Rick can do: kill Pete.
END
WOOOW! So, first, let me say that the revolving door scene is one of my favorites in the series so far. VERY very smart. Also, some ish is going down! Gabriel turning on the group! Carol telling Rick to kill Pete! Noah is dead, and so is Aiden, Deanna’s SON! After what Deanna heard from Gabriel, what the hell is she going to do after this? Also, how badass is Abe? There are some tough times ahead with just two episodes left this season. What’s going to happen next?!
Give us your thoughts and predictions down below! How do you guys feel about Gabriel now?
THE WALKER STALKERS DISCUSS THIS EPISODE:
This episode made me feel so many different things but I absolutely loved it. I went into it saying either Tara or Noah will die but yet Noah’s death was so brutal and I really liked his character but once he got that journal in the beginning I knew his time was coming. I loved the sign at the construction site saying “Big Things Are Coming”. The scene with Gabriel warning Deanna (“Who’s Deanna?”) made me so angry and hate Gabriel way more than I have ever hated him, I thought maybe they’d ditch that arc but nope I hate you Gabriel but the scene was so well done though. There were some brutal ass scenes in this episode man, Noah got his face ripped off, RIPPED OFF WTF! I hope that Glenn bashes in Nicholas’ head with a baseball bat! On a lighter note I am glad Eugene grew a pair, great job! lol but I can’t wait for the next two episodes shit is going to go down, figuratively and maybe even literally but now I am going to be sitting here wishing away my spring break just to watch next weeks episode
Gabriel SUCKS!
Wow! That was 2 Fu king awesome zombie deaths in one sweet ass episode! Love love love it! Ha! Happy Bday Greg Nicotero! Carol, I love her! Words if wisdom, “Kill him” woohoo!
Gabriel is so messed up and do wrong! He’s only set the scene for Deanna to not believe that Ricks group will be best in charge! They are seasoned to know how to survive and Deannas group only compromises the survival of Ricks group!
Deanna seems to be a good judge of character & there’s Maggie to defend themselves. However, Carol has set some things in motion that might not weigh in Rick’s favor with Deanna.
OMG!
The only thing anyone could rightfully complain about is the totally out of place Knife Party tune. Everything else was SUPER FANTASTICALLY AWESOME!!
Eugene is the walker pied piper!
That was amazing. I did not expect Noah to die! So sad. He was getting awesome too! I hope Tara lives, I really like her! Who else has to die this season? And Holly was name dropped but Francine took comic Holly’s place, so I am wondering who Holly will be. Great episode, one of the best and most suspenseful in a while!
Sooo seriously i was in the middle of talking about liking noah when he got fucked, loved that kid and sad to see him go, cant wait to see how this all pans out next week after father gabes shit talking sesh, im sure it isnt gonna end well, im happy maggies already been a big part of the community because its gonna look good on her when she takes over, im happy carols getting close to kids again even though she doesnt want to but its good for her, cant wait for next week and overall i was pleased and surprised, feelin bad for noah though, goddamm right?
Sorry i forgot to add i reeeeally hope glenn and tara will be ok, they both took pretty bad hits tonight
Damn skippy!!
This episode was perfect. Theory: Franccine. Sasha. Resemblance????? *Strong Spoilers*
elaborate
Noah… you will be missed. But at least it is known that your death was the most shocking of any I had scene yet in Walking Dead because of our quick love for you, and in turn your quick departure. R.I.P.
*seen (why is there no edit feature on here!?)
The rotating door scene was phenomenal…loved this episode especially Gabriel turning on the group thinking he will get away with all the shit talk can’t wait to see what going to happen to him!!
for some reason i cried a little bit when Noah died, i wasn’t a fan of him but the way died and how he beg Glenn no to let go killed and how Glenn watch him go THAT way it killed me
Now I’m Afraid for Glenn. Noah can’t take good place…. maybe Carol can
Predictions/observations?:
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I think Deanna’s husband and Noah moment might help to offset the Gabriel speech? Help them to see what actually went down with their soon to be discovered son’s death. (was last weeks picture of Deanna actually a still from 515?)The dealing with Nicholas is looking to be an interesting point? Will he deny any of is cowardly actions? Will he be cast out?
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Rick is likely going to be interrupted from his task of dealing with Peter due to the return of Glen and the crew. Will Peter and Rick actually have a chance to interact ow we expect? Peter is going to have to deal with Tara right? Is he too drunk to do so? Is Carol or Maggie going to assist? Do we even have a pseudo medical person in Ricks group?
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Next week is likely going to actually have an ending that will have Daryl and Aron rolling up on Morgan or possibly hold off till season ending with them finding a much larger story path for our group?
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Anticipating the sneak peeks for next week just because of how great this week was! Sitting on the edge of my seat…. FINALLY!
there’s a part of me that thinks groups of zombies always pop up together in the show to make the fight scenes more challenging but i can also wonder what if the zombies were groups and factions who tried to survive together and something major happened to them where they all turned together.
but surely, learning to survive in this apocalypse teaches you that all you have to do is have a barrier in front of you,like a fence, in the latest episode and you can kill them off
i realize that people turn after they die, but that just means in the show people were offing each other exponentially at the start and not in the brains to finish them off
Great episode! It was tense when it needed to be and provided enough plot development to keep the show rolling. The death of Noah was one of the most gruesome deaths of recent memory on the show. I wish he stayed for a bit longer 🙁 On another note, Gabriel you moron! You’re going to stuff it up for everyone! The scene with Gabriel and Deanna/Douglas was quite faithful to the comic but it doesn’t make it anymore annoying when he does it in real life! Anyone else glad that Aidan’s dead? It’s going to spell lots of turmoil between Deanna and Rick’s group though.
This is without a doubt one of the best episodes in a long time. Very good, very brutal. Pretty much all I have to say about that.
I’m so glad The Spoiling Dead Fucks can’t see everything!!
I NEED A SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FOR THIS SEASON!!
Just a crazy thought – what if Jesse is the abuser as it was her son who destroyed the owl she was building and there has been many references regarding knowing the difference between a good person and a bad person. Otherwise this subplot seems very transparent.
Wow! I bet Glenn thinks Noah’s death was brutal. Just wait and see your own demise, Glenn…
I LOVED this episode!
Oh boy. Another “Hey, let’s give this character some development with a really sentimental moment or story arc right before we kill them” moment.
Seriously. Bob, Tyreese, Hershel, Beth, T-Dog, and now Noah. I don’t care that people die at all because the name of the show is The Walking _Dead_. But stop giving these characters last minute sentimental interactions so suddenly the audience “cares.” This isn’t how you make a death shocking and impactful. It’s how you make death empty and meaningless. Frankly, it’s bad writing.
Neutral-Grey, the desire to become Reg’s apprentice in architecture & create a journal… was that the 1st sentimental moment you got related to Noah? Although that’s pretty warming & more sentimental than others, I think he’s had a few prior to that… at least, he did for me. Maybe this one stands out to you because it closely precedes his death?
Actually, I was more affected by Noah finding his community destroyed & feeling like he wasn’t a part of the “family” than I was his reaching out to Reg.
It was certainly the most prominent. It was Noah finally “becoming himself.” It was a scene in which they don’t JUST make us feel sorry for him. They say “hey, this character has hopes and dreams. Here he is thinking about what he is going to contribute to the long term goals of this community he’s part of.” Only to kill him off.
I don’t mind death in TWD. I defend this show’s right to kill as many cast members as they damn well please. But I’m getting tired of them buttering the audience up by putting special focus on this character RIGHT before they die. It’s a cheap tactic and it makes no character besides our season 1/2 cast actually important.
hmm…Does anyone think that after Aiden and Nicholas confessed that they abandoned their last group of capable runners, we’ll find out vaguely that it was actually Heath and Scott (from the comics) that got killed because of them?
That’d be a cool nod to the characters BUT also being a bummer not putting their story in the show. Hopefully they’ll show up in the next few episodes and I over thought this topic a little too soon.
Another brilliant episode. They just keep getting better! I can see the tv narrative slightly mirroring the comic narrative and I’m super excited to see how the tv show will play out the last two eps in relation to the comics.
I have loved this show since the beginning, but it totally blows my mind that this show continues to get better and better! As a reader of the comic, I am thrilled with the direction the show is going in, and can’t wait to see how it all pans out!! Keep the awesomeness coming!!
great episode. it will be interesting to see if they follow the comic more now that they have the new show coming. still hope they keep up comic book fans guessing.
My main question is and I’m totally excited to see is.. are they going to let it be known this season that they have to give their food and supplies to the saviors and how rick reacts to that…wil that start out the arc for season 6 or wil they just wait till season 6 to show it
Gooood question, i feel like theres a chance the last scene in the finale will be deanna saying “oh you know we give food to these dudes, its all g” and rick goes “then ill kill them”, it would be a super dope promise of aow to readers and a super dope cliffhanger for non readers, just like last season with the “screwing” with the wrong people bit
They aren’t doing that yet, It is The Hilltop that has to do that.
Ricks group/Alexandria don’t start doing it until Negan meets them on the road after they visit The Kingdom for a second time
The hilltop for the second time*
One of the most traumatic death scenes I have seen on this show. PERIOD. Really loved Noah ever since he bonded with Beth over being underestimated fighters. Sad to see him go.
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That whole revolving door set-up was brilliant and I want an in-depth “making of” video on how it was created (I saw the AMC one, but I want MORRRRE!). When Noah told Glenn not to let go, when they slammed him up against the glass and he was eye to eye with Glenn and helpless, the FISH HOOKING!! Holy God! I am crying way too much this season. I want to hug Gimple, then slap him, then hug him again.
Hey! No slapping for Gimple! Nothing but LOVE!
Girl, haven’t you ever had a love-slap!? Come over here.
‘Round these parts, it’s Knuckle Plucking contests.
I feel like I need to Google this.
My commentary
https://soundcloud.com/comiccorner/the-walking-dead-s05e14
I knew Father Gabriel was not a true “Man of God” when it was revealed that he allowed his entire congregation to be ripped apart and eaten alive while he cowered inside his locked Church. I also feel he somehow betrayed the woman in the snapshot standing by his side, smiling…the same one that had become a Walker at the Food Bank, and almost attacked Gabriel…which illustrates that he is a cowardly, backstabbing piece of excrement! So it comes as no surprise that now that he is in a safe place, Alexandria, surrounded by strangers who don’t know his checkered past, he turns on the very Group that pulled his sorry ass off that rock surrounded by Walkers and saved his useless hide! What a colossal piece of lying, ungrateful, shite…I’m beginning to think that when he was giving Deanna that speech about how the Devil disguises himself as an Angel of Light, he was referring to himself…and what a truly evil and soulless vermin he is. I hope he dies a slow and horrible death, being torn to bits and eaten by Walkers. In my opinion, that is Justice in a Divine fashion!!!
Gabriel need to shut up and go get eaten by walkers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Let’s not forget that Deanna is a former politician, as she is fond of reminding everyone. Politicians need their constituents to be confident in their ability to represent because if that confidence isn’t there, then someone else will be there to take their place.
I think this is what Deanna is facing now. She did the smart thing by putting Rick’s group into places where they would be of most use, but what she probably didn’t foresee was how effective they would be, and how even her own “people” were beginning to support them. She’s slowly losing her influence and this may change her otherwise pragmatic and benevolent demeanor. Anyway, Maggie is there learning the ropes…;D
Loved the construction site scene basically ripped from the pages of the comic (Did he just say #Motherdick??!!). After all, Abe loves him a woman who can throw a punch…
WTF is with Father Gabriel anyway?? I don’t recall him being that conniving…
This episode was outstanding, but I’m pissed about Noah. I really liked that character, but the minute he started planning for the future he was done.
Last two episodes prediction – I think they are going to stick with the “Too Far Gone” comic arc. Pete and Rick scuffle, Pete kills Deanna’s husband and Rick shoots Pete, Deanna hands over the city to Rick, introduce Derek and his scavengers, big fight to save the town just in time for the season finale. They have to end it with a bang, right? A lot of people are speculating on Negan’s appearance, but we are still about 25 or so comics from that happening. Personally, if I was the show runner, I would hold off on Negan until the end of season 6. Save the death of Glenn, or whomever the writers decide will be his surrogate (Daryl?). They can’t kill him too early, someone has to knock up Maggie next season. The big question I have is will Morgan finally catch up to Rick in the season ender? He’s been following them for a while. This would be a good time to bring him back, and it would end a season chock full of death on a high note, plus how else could they kill him in the season 6 mid-season finale.
I reckon they’re going to do everything you said but i think its going to end on “No Way Out” with the walls surrounded by walkers
It’s going to mean squeezing a lot of action into the next episode and finale, but I can see the season finishing with Carl taking a shot to the face!