Everyone is together in the post-Terminus landscape, but that’s about the only thing they have going for them. The lack of shelter, transportation, and direction is weighing on the crew, so it’s a good thing they found a time-consuming problem to solve in the form of Priest Gabriel (The Wire’s Seth Gilliam).
I hope someone thought to grab iodine somewhere along the way since everyone is filling up their water bottles in streams, but Tyreese and Carol were more concerned with making sure they never have to tell anyone that Carol killed Karen and David at the prison, and they both killed that psychotic little girl in the grove. Rick later tells Priest Gabriel that they’ve “all done something” in the spirit of survival; Tyreese seems to be happy taking care of Judith, but Carol’s recovery feels darker. Rick alleviated some of the tension between them by asking for permission to join her, since he kicked her out and she’s technically been living without shelter for much longer, and Carol relents. But she’s not smiling as easily, and she’s even a bit more shut down with Daryl. Before they hop in their car and tear off after Beth, Daryl finds Carol outside by herself at night, fearlessly killing a walker from the woods. She says she doesn’t know what she’s doing, but I think she’s grieving.
The walk through the woods was almost jovial before they heard Gabriel shouting. Why wasn’t he able to get away? The walkers were grabbing at him, but he was up on a high rock and could have easily kicked them away. The fact that he was alone in the woods made him shady from the jump, but when they got back to his empty church and see that someone has carved “you will burn for this” into the side of the building, the mystery deepened. Gabriel said that there were no parishioners left to take communion, but I think he actively kept them out to save himself. Why else would he have to do so much penance?
He at least proved his immediate usefulness by taking them to the food pantry in town, but not before Rick could take a minute to remind Carl that they’re never safe. It took you half a season just to bring Carl back from the brink and let him be a kid again, Rick! Calm it down! The food pantry was a bit dank; rain got in through some holes in the ceiling, creating a bog situation where lots of walkers were floating around. When they hopped down there to take care of business, Gabriel flipped out once he saw a walker wearing glasses. Once they’re safely back on the surface, Rick was like, “I bet you knew her when she was human, too bad I smashed her skull open in front of you,” but in a quiet moment of prayer Gabriel pulled out a picture where he’s standing next to a woman wearing the same glasses. What was their relationship? What happened to make it so that she was outside and zombified while he was safe in a church with years worth of canned food?
It’s a big feast when they get back to the church with their haul, so Abraham brings down the mood by asking if they want to go to Washington or not. I know he’s happy to have Judith back, but Rick shouldn’t have let her baby gurgle be the affirmative sign he needed to say yes. Eugene says that Washington is set up for this sort of attack; they have the infrastructure to withstand pandemics, food, fuel and refuge. Basically, he’s confident that civilisation can restart there. I’m not as hopeful – part of the reason they’re even with Rick’s crew is because Washington was giving back radio silence, so there’s no guarantee things are better. Tara finally confesses to Maggie that she was with the Governor when he stormed the prison, and good-hearted Maggie just hugged her. Food and shelter is making everyone a little more forgiving; even Michonne opened up a little bit, telling Rick that she missed Hershel and Andrea, but she didn’t miss life on her own.
Sasha and Bob were having a pretty lovely time together – playing their good v bad game, Sasha saving Bob from bog zombies, Bob constantly asking for one more kiss –but he went outside when everyone broke out the communion wine and got hit over the head by someone in a hoodie. It turns out that Gareth and the Terminus creeps have been following them, and when Bob came to, he was in my nightmare – propped up near a huge fire and surrounded by white guys. As he slowly comes to, Gareth interrupts his own rambling speech to tell him that he tastes better than expected, and we realise in slow horror that they’ve amputated and are eating one of Bob’s legs.
How might the silencers Glen, Maggie and Tara found come in handy? What’s going to happen now that the hunters have become the hunted?
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/20/the-walking-dead-season-five-episode-two-recap
