by  Sherry Lipp

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

After the Terminus blow out last week, this week’s episode of The Walking Dead had big shoes to fill. Predictably the show went with a much lower-key episode with “Strangers.” The survivors are once again on the road to nowhere. Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) wants the group to head to D.C. where Eugene (Josh McDermitt) assures them there will be shelter, supplies, and weapons – oh, and he will cure the zombie disease. I have my doubts that D.C. will be the utopia he’s expecting, but I’m hoping the whole thing doesn’t turn out to be bogus (I’m starting to fear that). I really want a change of scenery.

“Strangers” had some cool things in it – and some not so cool things.


The cool:

Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) – What is up with this guy? It’s obvious to everyone that he’s hiding something. After all this time he’s totally afraid of the walkers even though it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to kill them. Also he claims to have gotten by with no weapons this whole time because he just has to “ask the Lord for help.” The writing scrawled on the side of his church indicates that he did somebody wrong at some point.

Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) go after Beth (Emily Kinney)

Somebody should. Has Maggie (Lauren Cohan) even mentioned her missing little sister? I guess she’s just happy she has Glenn (Steven Yeun). Daryl spotted the car that grabbed Beth and he convinced Carol to go after them just as Carol was about to take off on her own. I like that Carol thinks for herself and, for better or worse, is ready to jump into action when she has to.

Poor Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) and Terminus is not quite over – That’s right, there were quite a few survivors of the Terminus massacre and they are not happy. They are also not quite ready to give up their cannibalistic ways. For whatever reason they weren’t quite ready to do away with Bob completely – they hacked off his leg and cooked it over the campfire and then ate it right in front of him. At least the show is not afraid to amp up the gross factor this season.

The not so cool:

Long shots of everyone walking through the woods – I know the survivors have to move on and the trip is arduous, but we’ve had a lot of this since the show started. Seeing walkers stumble out of the woods and get their heads bashed in is not all that cool anymore.

Rick and Tara (Allana Masterson) fist bump – What was up with that?

Michonne is boring now – Please give this character something interesting to do. Is her only purpose to take care of (i.e. take out) wayward walkers? It sure seems like it.

Overall I wouldn’t say this was a great episode. The best thing was the abduction and subsequent dismemberment of Bob. I also liked the introduction of the new character. I just hope they don’t linger too long on a drawn out battle with the Terminus survivors.

Images: Gene Page/AMC

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Sherry Lipp
Sherry is a writer/blogger specializing in entertainment and food writing. You can find her gluten and grain-free food articles at scdforlife.com.

2 thoughts on “TV Review: The Walking Dead – Season Five Episode Two “Strangers”

  1. Carol does think for herself but bailing on a group that was clearly happy to have her back AND she was lucky enough they didn’t grill her to the bone (no pun intended) for what she did isn’t cool or thinking for herself or brave. She is messed up and while I feel bad for her, she owes it to them to talk about it and she should. She was just going to leave them, Daryl too, she would have broken his heart b/c he would have lost his friend again.

  2. Thanks for the comment Chandra! I agree that Carol leaving wouldn’t have been cool, but I don’t blame her for having doubts about staying with them – she may feel she is not worthy of staying because of what she had to do and what she is capable of doing. I don’t know if she should have to tell them. Maybe they should know what she is capable of, but I think they pretty much know that anyway. She was the only one who had any relationship with the girls besides Tyreese so on a personal level it’s between them.

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