After last week's phenomenal season premiere we found the majority of the group reunited and on the road again (except, you know, for Beth). Terminus was no more, the cannibals were either killed or scattered, and Carol became the baddest bitch on television. While viewers were very satisfied with the season 5 kick-off, we knew the smiles and tears of joy wouldn't last long. Yup, episode 2 splits portions of the group up again....as well as portions of people themselves. Here's where we are after "Strangers."
Love Is In The Air
When the episode opens Glenn and Maggie are smooching, Bob and Sasha are smooching, Rick and his children are bonding, and Stupid Tara (she has some work to do for me to remove the Stupid) is looking around forlorn. Kind of sucks when you side with an evil leader and all of your loved ones die, doesn't it? Rick is beyond welcoming and she offers him a fist bump in return. All is forgiven.
Tyreese and Carol are filling water bottles and getting their stories straight. Tyreese says the others know that Carol killed David and Karen...but also wants them to know that it's okay. He has no desire to talk about Mika and Lizzie though. He just wants to forget it. When the duo gets back to camp, Rick clears the air with Carol. He knows he owes her big time, and instead of asking her to rejoin the group, he asks her if the group can join her. Awwww. Carol and Daryl have some catching up to do as well, but Carol's current stance is "I don't want to talk about it. I can't. I just need to forget it." Daryl doesn't pry, but he doesn't really get a chance to because they get the feeling they are being watched. After Carol and Daryl both stand for a few seconds with suspicious looks on their faces....they decide nothing is out there and call it a night.
--------------------------------
The Lord Is My Shepherd
As the group begins to travel out of the woods, they hear screams and head to the rescue (which is against most of their better judgement). They come across a priest fending off Walkers from the top of a rock. Father Gabriel has no weapons on him. The word of God is all the protection he needs - after all, he prayed for help and help arrived. Everyone is suspicious (duh), so Rick asks him the 3 questions...and Gabriel claims to have never killed any Walkers or people. "The Lord abhors violence." Ha! He does know there's a zombie apocalypse happening around him, right? The Lord must be doing a LOT of abhorring. The priest does claim to be a sinner, but he says he confesses his sins to God and not strangers.
The group follows Father Gabriel to his church where a well timed canned food drive had kept the priest stocked for quite some time. Rick and company want to examine the church to make sure they aren't being lead into a trip. Carol finds notebooks of written entries on the various books of The Old Testament. Daryl passes by a picture of The Last Supper. Glenn passes by a quote about not giving up. Michonne looks at religious drawings done by children long gone from the parish. The place is clear and there's a broken bus out back that might be easily fixed. Too good to be true? Probably.
------------------------
We Need Supplies
Gabriel's canned goods have started to run low. He knows of a place near by with a ton of food, but it's "overrun" by a dozen Walkers. Heh. That's nothing for this group. So Rick, Bob, Sasha, Michonne and a very reluctant Gabriel embark on a food journey, but not before Rick tells Carl he doesn't trust the priest and they are not safe. "It only takes one second and it's over. Never let your guard down." Poor Carl. He just wants to hang out with his baby sister and sleep with a roof over his head...and he'd probably be over the moon with a tub of pudding right about now.
The priest takes them to a food bank with some plumbing issues. Bob says it best as they all look down at the swampy basement: "If a sewer could puke, this is what it'd smell like." There are Walkers roaming through the water and they've been down there so long, they look like Davy Jones' crew. Gross. Rick, Michonne, Sasha and Bob wade through the water and take out the Walkers while Gabriel cries off to the side after seeing a zombie church lady who he apparently knew. Bob has a clooooose call, but in the end they find the mother-load of food bank supplies and head back to the church.
Upon arrival, Carl points out some scratches and knife marks on the side of the building. There's also a carved message that says "You'll burn for this." Carl still wants to give Father Gabriel the benefit of the doubt...but Rick knows this priest is shady. Did Gabriel lock his followers out of the church for his own survival? Did his congregation scratch away at the doors and windows as they were eaten by or became Walkers? He hasn't mentioned anything about anyone else living in the church with him. I have to wonder if Gabriel had been looking out for number 1 when the apocalypse hit and never looked back. Maybe these are the sins he won't confess to strangers.
I guess we can worry about all that stuff later, because a feast is in order following the slimy Walker battle. The group even drinks the communion wine. Abraham toasts to the survivors but follows it up with a lengthy and rousing (and kind of awesome) speech about going to Washington and helping the world get back to normal. Eugene says they will all be safe there and Judith seems to agree via some gargles. Rick is on board with heading to Washington and it seems we finally have a plan beyond "let's not die, mmkay?"
------------------------------
Food For All
The group disperses for post-dinner activities ranging from taking turns holding the baby (Sasha) to threatening Gabriel's life for the safety of the group (Rick). Tara comes clean and tells Maggie that she was part of the group that attacked the prison...and you know...she was standing right there when The Governor slowly decapitated Maggie's father. Maggie handles it well, and I realize that we're 50 minutes into the episode and no one has mentioned Beth. You'd think that remembering Hershel might also trigger some thoughts for Maggie about her missing sister.
Daryl finds Carol out by the abandoned car they came across earlier in the day while they were filling water jugs. Is she fixin' to leave? Doesn't matter. A car that greatly resembles the car that took Beth zooms by and Daryl recognizes it...which means he remembers Beth...which means other people might also remember she's missing at some point. Too much to hope? Daryl and Carol take off in the abandoned car without so much as a "hey guys we're going to run an errand."
The final post-dinner event comes from Bob, who is inexplicably standing outside by himself looking at the church. He leans against a tree and starts to cry...and then someone knocks his ass out. When he wakes up, Bob is tied up and surrounded by Gareth and the remaining Terminus survivors, which includes the douchebag that Tyreese claimed he killed last week. Grrr. Gareth explains that they have to do what they need to do to survive now that Bob's group took away their home. He says they need to hunt and nothing that happens to Bob is personal. "If it makes you feel any better - you taste much better than we thought you would." Yup, Bob is now missing half of his leg and the Terminus group is chowing down.
 |
| Mmmm...Bob's leg. |
The episode ends there and so does the brief happiness our favorite characters were sharing. Carol and Daryl are now "missing" along with a portion of Bob, Gabriel probably has some shady tricks up his priest-ly sleeve, Tyreese clearly has yet to get his shit together, and the Terminus survivors are on the prowl. None of this is good. I have to wonder why Bob was crying though...at first I thought he was just optimistic about the trip to Washington and the potential to cure the world, but now I'm thinking he was bitten in the water during the food bank raid and just didn't tell anyone. That would certainly be a setback for the folks eating him, but we'll have to wait and see. Will the Terminus camp attack the church? Will Daryl and Carol find Beth? Will there be one hell of a love triangle when they do? And WHO is this Father Gabriel? I will be looking forward to the answers to any of these questions in the next episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment