The Walking Dead Season 5 Premiere Episode (TV Review)

Well that was exciting. So many feels in this episode, and that means a lot of SPOILERS in this review 😀 Be warned!

Okay so I never thought fireworks could be so explosive!! Carol, the little badass, is walking along the train tracks with baby Judith and Tyreese, when they’re approached by a walker. They both look at each other, but Tyreese is clearly still mourning the little girls that were travelling with them. So Carol being her badass self kills the walker and spots the beginnings of a herd coming their way.

They hear noises, big bangs, and follow the sound to a small shack and a man on a walkie talkie discussing hostages, he mentions a women with a sword and a boy with a hat, then Carol swoops in with a gun to his head, and states ‘We’re friends with the women with the sword and the boy with the hat!!’ ( Oh snap!! see: badass!).

Now, if you’re all up to date with TWD, then you’ll know the rest of the gang are being held in a train car in Terminus. So the scene then cuts to them preparing to bombard Gareth and his crew, but an unexpected smoke bomb puts a spanner in the works and we then see Daryl, Glen, Bob, and Rick hog tied and lined up over a metal trough. Blood is being spilled here in graphic detail, not a scene for the faint of heart for sure. and in the background you see a guy cutting up a dead body, clearly terminus is the cannibalistic place we all heard rumours of in the previous season.  Now Gareth is allowing Bob to plead for his life, as Rick is trying to break free, then Gareth ungags Rick and asks what is in the bag he hid before he arrived at terminus.

Rick being his charming self as of late makes a very believable promise that he will kill him. Then the ground shakes and everyone panics, what on earth just happened?! I could not contain my excitement at this point! The story back tracks and allows us to see who the cause of the explosions is, and why, now I don’t want to ruin that for you, so lets just say BOOM!

Back at the shack, Tyreese is talking with the man that he and carol held hostage. He tells Tyreese that he is a good guy, he’s the kind of guy that saves babies, and that will eventually be his doom. Suddenly walkers are surrounding the place, and the man jumps up (still tied at the wrists) and grabs baby Judith, threatening to kill her if Tyreese doesn’t hand over all weapons and leave the shack. What happens after that is so unexpected, it’s just one of those moments that you just dont believe your own eyes and I won’t spoil that one for you either!

Finally, toward end of the episode the gang reunites and we see a teary eyed Daryl holding Carol! Then finally Rick and Carl are joined by baby Judith, ( and that’s when I could no longer contain the tears!) So many feels in such a short space of time!!! It seems like the episode ends on a high note, but as is usual with TWD, that probably wont last very long, so enjoy while it does. A mystery man is seen at the very end of the episode that the majority of hardcore fans will recognise, which certainly gets the hype ready for episode 2 as well.

Final Thoughts

All in all, the best ‘first’ episode I’ve seen of the series. I laughed, I cried and I cheered and whooped for the good guys to prevail. What more could I possibly ask for? There was admittedly a little more gore in this episode than I was expecting, but as it’s a premiere episode of course it need to pack a big punch. And with figures coming in at 17.3 million viewers Sunday night… I’d say TWD season 5 episode 1 well deserves it’s 10/10.