Four Walls and a Roof

On to the fifth season of The Walking Dead viewers should now have a keen sense of the constants the show provides. Start with the group thinking they’re safe, introduce or reintroduce human threats, plant seeds of discontent in the entire group to play out moral decisions, have the group band together over adversity to live another day. Oh right, sprinkle some zombies in there for good measure. The recipe is sort of sacred at this point (telling from 15 million viewers a week ago) and there is no reason to change it now. Sometimes it works better than others, but either way the show knows what’s coming week after week. “Four Walls And A Roof” is no different.

After the joy at the end of “Strangers,” we’re given the clear realization that the survivors of the Terminus camp who booked last season and are now tracking Rick’s group and craving the taste of human flesh. Opening with a tainted Bob-Kabob (patent pending) and cannibal Gareth serves as an introduction to this week’s threat. The first step is complete. Next, to move to Washington, the group must find their three missing comrades and eliminate Gareth’s menace once and for all. We move down the checklist.

As for the third step in our Walking Dead Casserole, the moral question of the episode once more lies in the trade-off that has become the Abraham v. Rick. Abraham wants to go ahead and get out of Dodge while Rick has his own job to protect his own. This was all resolved easily with a Gleggie-supported solution for the pair to head north with Abraham if the situation had not been resolved by noon. Now it is time to hunt cannibals.

The solution is straightforward. Gareth and his crew of trash hunters must die. There was no getting away from this fact and even Gareth’s promise that they would leave them alone only served as lip service. The problem with this episode, and one I’ll admit to being mainly personal with the show, is the brutal nature of the murder scenes. Sure, Rick and his group have been pushed over the edge again and the sheer emotion they’re in allows hot machete to skull interaction but the escape from the show has become unfounded. The viewer’s ability to escape once centered on the world these people were forced to inhabit, how they will deal with the societal and cultural destruction and brutality that awaits them. Now although only the last one. The brutality of the killing scenes does nothing but show that they have been pushed too far once again, rendering them less than human, just hardened killing machines. This is where the show begins to unhinged. Unfortunately this heavy surprise attempt takes away all the light it should have and dulls it. It makes Maggie’s response to Gabriel less effective and eventually leaves us with the Beth subplot now as a less satisfying point of interest.

There is many bright spots that highlight goodness The Walking Dead throughout the episode however. Breaking up with Bob was emotionally shocking for a character she had just come into contact with. Tyreese still stands out as a model of sanity and humanity in this world and Gabriel continues to shine. Overall, season five has started to try to repair the ship after the lackluster fourth season while still providing the recipe for its success. Now if only they could return to trying to live in this world and not just survive in it.