The Walking Dead - Season 5 Premiere - SPOILERS

The start of tonight's episode was quite possibly some of the most shocking things I've seen throughout the whole time I've watched this show. Readers of the graphic novels might not have been quite so surprised, I don't know, I haven't read them, and have no intention of reading them for awhile at least. Anyways, we pick up with the group going all Macgyver, constructing makeshift weapons with which to fend off their captors when next the captors chose to enter the train car. The top opens, in come the smoke bombs, because dragging out a few people from a train car full of people is easier when they're subdued. Several of the group (including Rick) are chosen from the train car and are taken to a room with a trough. Bound at the hands and feet, kneeling by this trough, you kinda know what's going to happen, but the brutality of it is another story altogether. 

The first one to take the smash and slice, is Sam, from the episode "Indifference" (the one where Rick makes Carol leave the group). Sam is played by Robin Lord Taylor, and may be better known to some as Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin, from Gotham--*Note* He has other credits to his name, but this is the one that is most recent, and I, so far, have thoroughly enjoyed him as the Penguin, far better than any other actor who has played the role. This scene is especially interesting, because as viewers of The Talking Dead would learn if you watched it, it was done in the same manner as the chest-burster scene in Alien, when the xenomorphling busted out of John Hurt's chest: The cast didn't know that's what was going to happen. Those freaked out reactions? That's not just acting, that's straight up, honest reaction. I'm going to be honest, I had my legs drawn up onto the couch and my hand over my mouth, just completely in shock and horror at what had just happened. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that people who eat people would do such a thing, but... well it happened and I'm not proud of myself, but lets move on. 

An unexplained explosion happens just in time to stop the butchers from whacking any of the main characters, and I swear I thought it was artillery rounds. We later learn that Badass Carol is behind it, and it was in fact, a propane tank exploding, taking with it several walkers and pretty much any chance in hell of Terminus remaining a safe haven... or well, as safe as one can be with cannibals. It's pretty obvious from the beginning that Rick's switch has been flipped, and he's begun channeling Shane when he needs to. He's been through so much, some of it deservedly and some not, and he's emerged as the leader he's needed to be all along. I could of course be wrong, but I think that coming out of the gate the way they have with this episode, we're going to be seeing just what sort of man Rick will be as a result of all that has happened, and that will have an affect on those around him. 

 Tyreese seems to be starting off this season with a little less aggression than we've seen out of him in the past. Understandable, after the carnage at Woodbury, then the prison, then that wonderful little psychopath Lizzie. 

Carol leaves him with Judith in a little cabin where one of the Terminus people was setting up some kind of explosive charge (it looked more like a bottlerocket thing to me), and the guy begins talking to Tyreese, telling him that Ty's too nice of a guy to survive, and that he probably won't live out the day. Tyreese proves him wrong, after taking out a herd of walkers BARE. HANDED. The scene afterwards cuts to the outside showing what Tyreese was capable of. He may not be a coldblooded murderer, but he would do anything within his physical power to protect a child.

Speaking of Carol, she has long been a favorite character of mine, and this episode did not fail me in that respect. After leaving Tyreese at the cabin, she goes full-on Rambo, coating herself in the goo of a spent walker, so she can walk amongst them in relative safety. I have to applaud her for even doing it, because even from the real life perspective, just the mere thought of it would have made me gag. I'm sure if push came to shove, I could do the same, but it would seriously have to be the worst case, life or death scenario to push me to do what she did. In the non-real world, the one that exists on-screen, imagining what that stuff would smell like, let alone feel like, I'd probably spend more time getting sick than I would putting that stuff on my skin. It amazes me that someone who started out meek and scared to death of her abusive husband, would turn into this amazing woman we see now.

Carol successfully gets past walkers to get into Terminus to help her friends, and comes to what I call "The Cannibal Memorial".. where she meets up with Terminus Mary (Denise Crosby, aka Tasha Yar from ST:TNG). I actually almost expected them to have known one another, or been related, given the way they reacted to each other when they first saw each other. That, thankfully, was not the case (I really so very much wanted Mary to get what was coming to her. Denise Crosby plays crazy bitch just a little too well). 

Finally, the group is all together now, with the exception of Beth, who has been kidnapped by person(s) unknown, in a car with a cross on the back window. I don't think it's any coincidence that there's a priest under attack in the previews for next week's episode. I'm honestly not sure which reunion scene I'm most happy with: Rick and Judith, or Carol and Daryl. 

Really hard call. But maybe now that everyone's together, things will get better. I'm most interested to see where the group decides to go next. And how long it will take Morgan to catch up. His appearance at the end of the episode brought a round of happy sounds from the kids, apparently he's made a bit of an impression with them. Welcome back, Morgan...