The Walking Dead - Conquer - Review and Discussion

The fifth season of The Walking Dead wrapped up on Sunday night with the story getting “a return,” to loosely paraphrase Morgan, to its beginnings and with introducing a group that on first glance appears to be the most formidable enemy the group has faced since the Governor.

We start the episode with Morgan, the first person Rick met after walking up from a coma, waking up in a car alone, and showing a slight smile upon seeing the irony of a rabbit's foot hung over the crashed car's rear view mirror. Shortly after, we’re brought to the room where Rick spent the night, whom we also see walking up, looking around, and then letting out a small laugh. These two shots of the two waking up, combined with the iconic scene of Rick walking up in the pilot, serve to bookend the first phase in the series – one that has been mostly about adjustment for the characters to their changing circumstances, and one by one they all learned to accept, or decide that they couldn’t, the world for what it had become.

While the waking up scenes paralleled each other, they also served as a contrast to show how much has changed. When Rick first woke up in the pilot, we got what was the first glance of the new zombie-apocalyptic world. Rick’s eyes at the time reflected confusion. Now both Rick and Morgan have been through a lot and seem to be a place where they can appreciate just being “here.” They both now seem to be at peace with whom they’ve become.

Rick is no longer morally conflicted about killing people who pose a threat to his “family.”  Morgan also seems to have found a peace, although he’s adopted a different philosophy - he’s self-reliant and firm in his values – he believes all life is precious doesn’t hesitate to step into danger to rescue others. He even stops short of killing two dangerous men who want to kill him. He knocks them unconscious and loads them inside the car to protect them, sounding the horn to alert their friends to where they are.

The two are reunited the end of the episode in a case of the worst timing ever. It appears that Morgan has been searching for Rick for a long time – and through running into Daryl and Aaron – finally finds Rick at Alexandria just in time to witness Rick executing Pete.

The Wolves

Daryl and Aaron’s tracking efforts lead them into a trap – not unlike those set that lead to Terminus. In fact there are traps throughout the episode – physical ones such as the poncho man serving as bait for Daryl and Aaron, and Nicholas setting one for Glenn by letting him see him jumping the fence – and emotional ones, such as Gabriel goading Sasha into killing him and Carol goading Pete to act and show his true face to the community.

The wolves, we learn, have lost all traces of civilization and humanity and steal and murder without restraint. One tells Morgan that some tribes in the area believed that the first people were wolves turned into men. They’ve now transformed back into wolves, fitting with Morgan’s philosophy that “everything gets a return.” They now brand “W” into their own foreheads to mark themselves as wolves, and probably their victims too, who I’m assuming make up most of the random W-branded walkers we’ve been seeing throughout the last few episodes.

Through Morgan’s help, Daryl and Aaron are able to escape the walker trap set for them and bring Morgan back to the camp, but we see that they've left behind pictures of Alexandria, including those of the walls, which the wolves find.

Alexandria

In Alexandria, two characters are seen working through their grief: Sasha, who turns to Gabriel because she doesn't know how to deal with what's in her head, and Gabriel who appears near a breaking point as he goes for a walk and kills a walker and man bitten by a walker who is near death - something he's been hesitant to do up until now. The two have a powerful scene as Gabriel tries to goad Sasha into killing him by blaming her for the deaths of Bob and Tyreese. She's stopped by Maggie, who while stopping short of excusing Gabriel, offers him the chance for redemption.

Deanna is also working through the grief of losing her son, as well as her fears from letting Rick into the community. She calls a community meeting for people to discuss what to do with Rick. Despite their differences, Rick's group are seen coming to his defense, with Maggie spearheading the effort to gain support for Rick within the community. Reg has a great scene as he tells Maggie that civilization begins when people stop running and sending people away.  But like the others before him who have shown a more idealized view of humanity (such as Bob, Beth, and Tyreese), he's dead before the end of the episode.

Meanwhile, Rick's predictions comes true in that the outside danger finds its way in. In this case it was Gabriel in a daze failing to secure the gate behind him. A few walkers discover the opening but are hunted down by Rick. Early in the season, Rick had warned Carl to never let his guard down.  His fears are shown to be warranted as the community becomes distracted, and as a result, vulnerable.

Overall Thoughts

This episode wasn’t what I expected for an hour-and-a-half finale, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I was expecting a bloodier confrontation – possibly an attack by the wolves that would cost more lives and unite the groups. They do seem united at the end, with the death of Reg and Deanna’s acceptance of Rick’s argument to kill Pete, but we didn't get much in the way of action outside of what is typical on a regular episode of this show.

But while this wasn’t the most action-packed finale that we’ve seen, it was rich in character development and served to tie up the themes from this season while setting up the next. The highlight for me was the return of Morgan, an event I didn't even realize I wanted so much until it happened. On an emotional level, I had been hoping throughout the season that the group would stay put in Alexandria and find a peaceful way to make it work together. In the end, they mostly did that, although Deanna did need the murder of Reg to push her over to the other side. With the exception of Reg, we didn't get any major deaths. Personally I welcomed a reprieve as we've had a very bloody season so far.

Thank you for reading these reviews over the course of the season. At some time over the next few weeks, I plan to publish a look back over the season – the hits and misses – so please come back to visit.

Other Thoughts & Questions

- Carol again had some awesome scenes and lines. She was perfect in her performance at Pete’s home, where she baits him and threatens him with a knife. That scene was perfectly closed by Pete’s temper tantrum, heard from the other room: “This isn’t my house!”

- My favorite Carol line from the episode though was one to Rick: “You said you don’t want to take this place, and you don’t want to lie. Oh sunshine, you don’t get both.”

- I’ve been blown away by the acting from Andrew Lincoln (Rick) over the past few episodes, most notably in the scene after his fight with Pete and he turns his gun on the crowd. This week we were treated to another classic Rick moment, when he arrives at the meeting late and bloody and wordlessly throws a dead walker at their feet. Has anyone else noticed how Lincoln has adopted some of Shane’s season 2 mannerisms – specifically rocking a little back and forth – left to right – when he is being aggressive?

- We also had very strong performances from Seth Gilliam (Gabriel) and Sonequa Martin (Sasha).

- I loved the scenes between Rick and Michonne – how despite Carol’s warning about not telling the others about the guns, Rick decided that he didn’t want to lie to Michonne and came clean. The two reaffirmed their friendship, with Michonne telling Rick that the knocked him out for him, not for the people of Alexandria.

- How do you see Morgan and Rick’s friendship playing out into the future, given their very different philosophies about murder? Will Morgan step into the role of serving as the new spiritual influence over the group, a role Hershel once played? Do you see Rick and Morgan as being more different or similar?

- Who do you think is more right – Rick or Morgan? Or is there no right or wrong?

- Are you willing and able to forgive Nicholas and Gabriel? Do you think Nicholas was being sincere in begging for forgiveness?

About the Author - Chris684

Chris is a New Englander with a background in print and digital media, who currently earns a living by making web and technology products easier to use. She has a weakness for TV characters who are 'dark and twisty' (to quote Meredith Grey) and reviews The Walking Dead, Legends, Halt and Catch Fire, and Dig for SpoilerTV.

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