TV Review: Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 3 “Four walls and a roof”
Tainted meat.
FULL SPOILERS to follow for the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 3 “Four walls and a roof.”
Bob is at the mercy of the Terminus survivors… or so he thought.
After losing his leg to our favorite family of cannibals, Bob reveals that he’s been bitten. A move that should have surprised no one, and for comic fans, this one was coming a mile away. Despite knowing the parallels of Bob’s story it was still fun to watch unfold, especially as the weight of the situation fell on the Terminus crew.
Note to self: Always check for bites before eating someone in a zombie apocalypse
In what seemed like the longest monologue ever by Gareth, a continued explanation of Terminus’ and their motivations had a chance to get explored. The arrogance laced discussion was particularly brutal and sickening at points, as the the finer points of eating men vs. women got a chance to play out. While it wasn’t necessarily bad acting, it just felt like too much information.
It’s a lot more obvious than this
We get it, the Terminus crew ate people.
This time however they ate the wrong guy, and it felt good to see the entire camp freak out because of the consequences. That part makes sense, since the fever associated with the onset of becoming a bullet sponge strikes quickly and is pretty unforgiving. That makes the glossy nature of saying “we cooked it, we’re good” by Gareth feel like pretty lazy writing, since there’s absolutely nothing to prove his claim.
Regardless, the determination is that Bob would be better used as a fishing lure for Rick & crew instead of feeding a family of five.
It’ll be on special in a few days
Meanwhile, Gabriel’s church becomes the setting of unrest once Bob, Carol and Daryl all go missing in one night. Due to the nature of them disappearing immediately after setting up camp there, Sasha decides it has to be somehow related to the priest, who clearly is guilty of something. A credit to Seth Gilliam here, as the revelations surrounding his guilt are delivered in pretty dramatic fashion.
Good acting isn’t necessarily a strong point of the Walking Dead series, and Gilliam delivers a pretty convincing accord of what went down. As the newly promoted Detective Carl Grimes pointed out, events unfolded leading to someone carving a naughty message on the outside of the church. The windows also showed signs of forced entry, and as the apocalypse unfolded, Gabriel kept his behavior of always locking the church doors at night.
Ok seriously, who does his ironing?
That would have been fine if it weren’t for several parishioners trying to get in as they were chowed on by walkers. Once again, for comic readers this wasn’t much of a shock, but still made for a few good moments of actual drama. Gabriel’s actions gave him unbelievable amounts of guilt, and for a moment he believes that Rick’s crew is there to punish him for his sins.
Since it becomes quickly accepted that Gabriel isn’t out abducting master bowmen and silver haired women, attention then shifts to Abraham. So far in the TV series Abraham isn’t really that big of a character… yet. What I like the most about his involvement in this episode revolves around his relationship with Rick, or rather the lack of one to begin with.
As Bob is delivered to the church by the Terminus express, Abraham decides that keeping Eugene safe is still the #1 priority.
The future of the world’s mullets depends on it
After the fall of the prison, Abraham, Rosita and Eugene are on a desperate mission to get to Washington D.C. to finally cure the walker crisis. With Terminus delivering amputated packages, Abraham decides the time to leave is now regardless of what Rick thinks.
Abraham decides to keep his team there one more night at the insistence of Glenn. If the Terminus cannibals decide to attack, having Abraham around is a must, and Glenn & Maggie agree to go with them if they’ll stick around long enough to fight off the threat. Rick realizes he doesn’t have much say in the matter, and instead focuses on eliminating Terminus once and for all.
Rick and a small detachment decide to go after Gareth & friends (not a morning news program) and wipe out whatever is left of their group. Gareth however had different plans, and watching the church for any movement decides to approach as soon as the killing party leaves.
One problem… Rick isn’t that stupid.
Rick is such a rascal
With the cannibals now trapped inside the church and a minimum of 5 guns focused on the Terminus group, surrendering to Rick is the only option. What struck me as odd was Gareth’s plea for Rick to leave them alive, something that clearly wasn’t possible after all the shit these two parties just went through. What I don’t understand is how Gareth’s attitude could be so defiant and arrogant at every step up to this point, yet with his life on the line see him revert to a more cowardly form.
Regardless, the plea means nothing and before any additional Gareth exposition can happen, Rick’s machete puts an end to any further acts against humanity.
At least at the hands of Terminus.
Rick does some pretty metal shit
PARTING THOUGHTS:
“4 Walls and a roof” continued the trend of Season 5 being one of the more solid ones in terms of content. The biggest drawback to this episode however involved the massive amounts of meaningless exposition, particularly with Gareth and Bob as he inched ever closer to his last moments. Yes, Bob didn’t survive being bitten, nor could he survive losing a leg or finally getting a more prominent role after being almost exclusively in the background since being introduced.
Sounds about right…
The tactic is getting old, and hopefully viewers at this point people are noticing that there can’t be more than one prominent black character on this show at a time. I’m not accusing the showrunner’s of being racist, but if this hadn’t already happened multiple times throughout the show’s history then I wouldn’t be mentioning it again today.
There has to be a better way to send off characters on this show, and hopefully in time that can happen. For now however, if you see a character that hasn’t talked much all of a sudden start behaving like they’re in a Tarantino movie… you better start counting down.
Just like “Strangers” however, “4 Walls” left us with just as many questions, and now we’re faced with several major developments. The survivors are splitting up once again, with Abraham’s team (with Glenn and Maggie) are heading for D.C. Meanwhile, Daryl returns (sans Carol) and had someone else in his company, however before we could find out who that was, the episode ended.
With season 5 having been true to the comics with much of the plot ripped straight from the pages, we’re starting to enter uncharted territory as the groups split up and Daryl’s return being covered in mystery.
FINAL RATING: 3.5/5.0
“4 Walls and a roof” finally gave us some answers, but gave us just as many questions as each entry into Season 5 has so far. We sent off Bob in a story very similar to Dale’s from the comic series, and Gabriel’s origins and back-story followed the same path. The brutal killing of Terminus proved that Rick & company are just as metal as ever, but with 3 episodes down in season 5 we’re already seeing heavy doses of exposition take over like they have before in the past.
In all honesty, “4 Walls” had some decent action and the send-off for Terminus that was fitting of their lack of humanity. If the past is any indicator though, once the Walking Dead deviates into original content, we don’t always get favorable results.
Based on 3 episodes however, they’ve built more momentum for season 5 than some seasons have had throughout their prospective runs.
Thanks for reading, and as always be careful who you bed with. Comment, like and subscribe! If you didn’t like it, feel free to share your thoughts!
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