Review: ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5 Premiere From The Editor

The season opener is an powerful blend of darkness and a few threads of light, as Rick again takes on the role of doing whatever it takes to protect those he cares for. But we don’t need the final image to understand that in this world, for Rick and his crew, there really is no sanctuary. The fight for survival goes on, and it’s not just walkers they need to fear.

I’d argue that the best episodes of “The Walking Dead” aren’t about the rampaging walker hordes, but explore the danger of humans changing, learning to behave like monsters to survive amid monsters. How fragile does what’s left of their humanity become under those conditions? And what does that mean for the future of the species?

Last season, the group of survivors led by Rick Grimes (the invaluable Andrew Lincoln), faced the evil and insanity of the Governor (David Morrissey.) After the Governor killed some of Rick’s group, the Governor was himself killed. But Season 4 ended with another human-based threat, as Rick and some of his companions were trapped in a train car at Terminus, the supposed sanctuary that turns out to be the end of the line in more ways than one.

As Season 5’s opening episode, titled “No Sanctuary,” makes clear, Terminus is run by a battle-hardened group of survivors willing to surrender the most fundamental aspects of their humanity to keep on living.  An early scene, in which Rick and some of his fellow captives are bound, gagged and lined up at a trough meant to catch their blood, is one of the hardest-to-watch scenes the show has given us. Written by showrunner Scott M. Gimple and directed by Greg Nicotero, the Terminus scenes evoke that ultimate human-engineered horror, the Holocaust.

The characters have learned that to survive, you have to be ready to kill, whether you’re a villain, or those we’ve thought of as our heroes. After struggling with the responsibility and guilt of leadership, Rick’s focus now is clear. If his companions run into those who want to harm them, Rick says, simply: “Kill ’em. Don’t hesitate.” Or, as another character puts it: “You’re the butcher…or you’re the cattle.”

And at the end of the episode a first season surprise graces the screen, to show something is about to happen.