In the world of The Walking Dead you are “either the butcher, or the cattle” according to the once-benevolent folk of Terminus, and so we continue exploring the rewritten rules of humanity in this horribly bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape. In “No Sanctuary”, the epic premiere of the fifth season, there was a perfect balance of this dramatic, explicit exploration of philosophy, and straight-up, cinematic action, giving The Walking Dead one of their most well-rounded episodes to date and introducing what looks to be the show’s best season.
After almost half a season of methodical character building and focused, slow-burning dialogue, The Walking Dead jumped straight into a mostly fast-paced return, kicking things off with only a brief throwback to the origins of Terminus, a quick barrage of voice-overs showing our group getting up to speed with each other whilst in that train cart, and the war ready band of survivors we were promised at the end of Season 4, when Rick gave that intense stare into the camera and reminded us that terminus were indeed “screwing with the wrong people.” The time apart in Season 4 paid off; we were shown how each of these characters have been hardened by the world around them, more so than ever before, hence, their strength as a collective is now undeniable. Watching them smartly weaponising their prison was fascinating and a show of the action we were about to see. But there are some things you can never anticipate, and so Terminus began with the upper hand as we watched four of our survivors get dragged off.
Throwing in a little surprise, we were shown what happened to the bleach-haired Sam from the Season 4 episode “Indifference” as our four join other captives, hanging over a trough waiting to get slaughtered like pigs. Sam goes first in a spectacularly brutal fashion as we get a clearer sense of the way Terminus do things. With Gareth running the show, the brawny team of hit-and-slit who almost get around to killing Glenn are distracted at just the right moment, playing with some light tension while Rick continues to perfect his intensely serious death stares.
Andrew Lincoln has really grown into the role of Rick, to the point where every micro-expression on his face is telling of the dichotomous nature within him. In continuing to balance Shane-like adaptability and a real sense of humility, Rick has become the man that The Walking Dead has always required him to be, and so watching him stare down Gareth and confidently threaten his life, while the man is holding a knife to Bob, kick starts our adrenaline straight away. We know just from Rick’s physical performance that he is planning to be the exact man who tore Joe’s throat out back in Season 4’s “A”, and this in itself is exciting enough for a pre-credits opener. But we get even more action before the exciting theme song starts up; we get an explosion which rocks Terminus and interrupts the line of slaughter which would have had Glenn as a goner. In just under 10 minutes, “No Sanctuary” had already turned up the heat.
Jumping back a bit to Carol, Tyreese, and Judith – three of the four characters not captured in Terminus – the show quickly establishes that a huge walker herd is heading towards Terminus and, thanks to the capture of a Terminus goon, our “The Grove” ensemble are hip to the capture of their friends.
Melissa McBride’s Carol has come the furthest out of anybody on the show, going from a barely noticeable, passive background character to one of the group’s most capable, and cold-hearted survivors, showing off her reformed warrior status by turning herself into a one-woman army and wrecking havoc on Terminus with the help of one little firecracker and a high powered rifle. Watching Carol’s assault on Terminus was the high point of “No Sanctuary”, setting off a chain that led to our imprisoned survivors using the walkers to their advantage and taking over Terminus. The majority of the episode is taken up by this big action sequence, utilising the space of Terminus really well and revealing layers of Terminus as Bob, Glenn, Daryl, and Rick crouch through the different rooms.
The two big expository exchanges from between Tyreese and the Terminus goon, and Carol and Mary. Tyreese’s captive serves as a direct look into someone who has been corrupted by the post-apocalyptic world, with his muses on how ‘friends’ isn’t even a viable concept anymore, and that Tyreese was inevitably going to die because he was a good person. Using this guy to bring up further questions in the world is a smart move, but his ultimate purpose was to wake the sleeping giant that is Tyreese, forcing his hand and speeding through what the show would historically take a couple of episodes to do. The giant has been awoken, and Tyreese no longer wallows in his anti-killing dream; it’s a step in the right direction for this highly capable character, who still isn’t as prominent on the show as he is in the comics.
On a similar hand, the showdown between Carol and Mary further demonstrated how cold and unfiltered Carol has become, and after some exposition from Mary, we got a quick shot in the leg and said our goodbyes to the first Terminus resident we met in Season 4’s “Us”. Things are black and white to Carol now, there is no grey area where protecting her friends are concerned, and so even though Mary began to appear as a mildly sympathetic person, she was quickly, and heartlessly, disposed of.
Rick, Carol, and the rest are done with giving people a chance, and while they seem to be on the track to realising the phrase “you’re either the butcher or the cattle”, there’s still that sense of humanity which the Terminus folk seemed to have lost, perfectly displayed by Glenn as he encourages Rick, Daryl, and Bob to help a trapped prisoner.
After a quick rescue of the other survivors and a chain of gore-iffic zombie kills we seemed to move on from Terminus quite quickly – as least as a setting. While there has always been a sense of stalling which has been bittersweet in The Walking Dead, there was no trace of any such thing as “No Sanctuary” burned through a plot which would have taken a few episodes to resolve had we been in earlier seasons.
With near perfect pacing, “No Sanctuary” used the last 5 minutes or so to give us a handful of happy reunions, beginning with the reintroduction of Carol to the group, which led to a touching reunion for Rick, Carl, Judith, Sasha, and Tyreese. By far it is one of the happier endings to a Walking Dead episode yet, especially considering how depressing things can get at the drop of a dime. With our group back together, strengthened in their connection to each other, it seems inevitable that horror is lurking right around the corner, but for now, Rick’s group got the win they haven’t had for a long time and The Walking Dead showed us that they don’t have to have a dark turn – or a major character death – to make an excellent episode.
To add to the cinematic feel that characterises each The Walking Dead episode now, we were even given a post-credit scene, teasing the return of Morgan as he discovers signs carved into trees about where Rick’s group was not too long ago. It’s unclear how soon this scene takes places after Rick’s group passes through the woods, and since we didn’t actually see Rick or anyone else make those tree carvings – only the ‘no sanctuary’ sign – we don’t know how Morgan is going to play into this season just yet. It’s good see Lennie James back on the show, especially after the show-stealing performance he gave on “Clear”.
We also got a second flashback to Terminus to show how Gareth, Mary, and the rest, were terrorised and became products of their environment. We must be getting more of a backstory into Terminus, because even though this explains the lack of trust they place in others, there’s still no reason they would go from good people to excessively brutal all because of how they were treated by a group of people.
Review Score: FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Hightlights:
1. Carol in full warrior mode
2. Great pace and balance between action and drama
3. Terrifying opening scenes
4. Sasha questioning Eugene
5. Tyreese quickly back to being on the offense
Lowlights:
1. Not yet clear where we are going with the Terminus backstory
2. Eugene, Rosita, and Tara still dull characters
Episode MVP: Carol
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