The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is at its best when it focuses on interactions between the living.

Sure, it’s fun to watch the group mow down a pack of walkers, but without human interaction, the show becomes just another mindless zombie.

Whether the show is more human or zombie from week to week doesn’t really matter because it’s the highest rated thing on TV that isn’t football.

After being renewed for a sixth season before the fifth even premiered, TWD is even popular enough to have its own “companion series,” on top of supporting its own after-show.

This week The Walking Dead returned for a fifth season with “No Sanctuary.” We left most of Rick’s gang reunited, but trapped in a train car at Terminus at the end of last season. Season five opened in that train car.

Carol did not start season five in the train car, she started it kicking ass. She took over a Terminus outpost, led a group of walkers to overrun the compound and even went full-Michonne by using zombie blood to hide herself from walkers.

Eventually Terminus burned to the ground, and Rick’s group was reunited and headed back into the woods, presumably towards D.C. to get G.I. Ginger and the only scientist in history to have a mullet somewhere they can activate their zombie-fighting virus.

The only character we didn’t see this week was Beth; she’s still M.I.A. after getting separated from Daryl last season.

Here are my weekly award winners for “No Sanctuary” and my three biggest questions going forward:

Who died?

Mary from Terminus — Carol shot her in the leg and left her to be eaten during the Terminus raid.

Who did we meet?

Gareth — well, we first met him in the season four finale, but we got to see a little more of him before the Terminus raid and in flashbacks to his train car captivity.

Rick shot him, but he looks to have escaped Terminus.

MVP of the night:

Carol — this is the first time I’m handing out awards, but I’m pretty sure Carol wasn’t the most valuable player in any other episode of this series. I like the new Carol; she’s no longer dead weight and is definitely not to be messed with. She took out an entire compound, got Rick back to baby Judith and showed no mercy for anyone outside the group.

Carl of the night (person who made the dumbest decision)

Tyreese — Why was he talking to that guy in the shack for so long? We all knew he was going to eventually make a move and hold baby Judith hostage. Tyreese could’ve saved himself a lot of barehanded walker bashing and just killed the guy.

The hostage even asked why he was being kept alive.

C’mon Tyreese, you’re better than that.

Grossest thing of the night:

The flaming zombie who ate a Terminan’s face.

Coolest thing of the night:

This has to go to Carol’s firework-mortar that kicked off her Terminus raid with a bang, sending flaming zombies flying.

Honorable mention goes to Michonne and her handmade double sword.

Three biggest question going forward:

1. What’s up with Gareth?

Obviously, this guy is weird. The show hasn’t come out and said it, but he’s the leader of a gang of cannibals. What’s his deal? I know it looks like he’s been through some tough times in those flashbacks, but he handles the people eating business as Hannibal Lecter would. We saw him get shot by Rick, but he definitely got away.

2. Where’s Beth?

Last we saw, it looked like some unknown group had taken her when she got separated from Daryl during a walker attack. In season previews, we’ve seen that she’s alive, and definitely not in a better place.

3. Morgan Jones is back?

Morgan is the guy you saw after the credits following Rick’s signs into the woods. He was also in the pilot of the series and one episode in season three. This is definitely what I’m most looking forward to seeing because the other two episodes Morgan was in were two of the best in the entire series. Morgan, played very well by Lennie James, is a character I want to see more of.

So was “No Sanctuary” more brain-dead zombie or thoughtful human being? You tell me.

For more on The Walking Dead check out Warren Zhang’s best and worst of the franchise:  

[ READ MORE: The best and the worst of The Walking Dead franchise ]