The Walking Dead: Here’s a Recap of the First Part of Season 5!
AMC’s hit series, The Walking Dead, is set to air it’s 90-minute season 5 finale Sunday, March 29th.
If you don’t have time to sit through 15 hours of The Walking Dead on AMC, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Here’s a recap of what’s happened in the first eight episodes of season five.
**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!**
Episode 5.1 | No Sanctuary
The first episode of the season begins immediately right where last season’s finale left off with Rick and Co. locked in a train car after being attacked by the mysterious Terminus group. The captors bring Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Bob into a butchering room with a few other captives, including Sam (played by Gotham’s Robin Lord Taylor), a survivor Rick had encountered before. The captives soon realize that the citizens of Terminus have resulted to cannibalism and that they are going to be slaughtered.
Glenn’s death is avoided when Gareth, the leader of Terminus, comes in to interrogate the group on the whereabouts of the bag of weapons they left outside the community’s walls. Just as the men prepare to take another swing, they’re interrupted by gunfire and an explosion outside. But who caused it?
It’s quickly discovered that Carol was the mastermind behind the explosion and now there’s fire-covered walkers filling up the Terminus area. Rick and the gang take advantage of the commotion and manages to set themselves free, heading back to the train car to save the rest of the group. Carol, still covered in zombie gore, sneaks her way into Terminus and encounters Mary, Gareth’s mother, inside the creepy candlelit room.
Mary tells the origin of Terminus and how they were attacked (as seen in the flashbacks) and when they decided to become the butchers instead of the cattle. Having heard enough, Carol shoots her in the leg and demands Rick’s whereabouts but she refuses to comply. In rebuttal, Carol leaves her to be eaten by walkers.
Rick rescues the remaining captives from the train car and manages to shoot Gareth in the arm before him and the Terminus survivors escape. The group heads back to where they had hid their weapons and plans to get revenge on the Terminus survivors, but the group just wants to move on and get as far away from Terminus as they can. Carol suddenly appears and shares an emotional moment with Daryl, after which she leads the group to Tyreese and Judith’s whereabouts.
With no sanctuary to go, the group find themselves out in the world again, with Abraham set on taking Eugene to Washington. In a post-credits scene, we find Morgan Jones approaching the modified Terminus sign that Rick had left behind.
Episode 5.2 | Strangers
While walking through the woods, the group meets Father Gabriel Stokes, who had set himself up in a tricky situation.
Although met with immediate distrust from Rick, Fr. Gabriel leads everyone to his church for shelter despite Abraham’s insistence to keep heading towards Washington. The group discovers that since the outbreak, Fr. Gabriel survived without having to kill walkers and by locking himself in his church, eating the canned goods from a food drive. But running out of resources, he found himself forced to head out for more supplies, which led to his meeting with Rick and the gang.
With all the food gone, Fr. Gabriel points the survivors toward a food bank overrun with walkers. Rick brings Michonne, Bob, Sasha and a scared Fr. Gabriel to retrieve more supplies. At the food bank, the group finds themselves in a small scuffle with Bob caught in a fight with a walker before Sasha saves him.
Back the the church, Carl decides to explore the grounds and comes across a part of the church’s exterior which read, “You’ll burn for this”, further raising suspicion of Fr. Gabriel.
During a dinner in the church, Abraham stresses the importance of going to Washington to which Rick agrees to accompany him. Tara, sits Maggie aside and confesses that she was part of the Governor’s group that caused the fight at the prison and the death of Herschel. Maggie, without batting an eye, assures Tara that she has a home and safety among the group.
Carol, guilty of her actions, tries to separate herself from the group but Daryl intervenes by following her to an abandoned car. As Carol explains her story a car speeds past, revealing a white cross painted on the window, similar to the one that had taken Beth in the previous season. Determined to find out what happened to Beth, Daryl and Carol decide to follow the car.
Back at the church, Bob heads outside only to be captured by Gareth and the Terminus survivors. Upon waking up, Bob realizes his leg has been cut off and is being eaten by Gareth’s group.
Episode 5.3 | Four Walls and a Roof
The episode immediately begins where 5.2 left off; with Bob tied to a post and watching the Terminus group munchin’ on his now-severed leg. But the Terminus buffet’s cut short when Bob reveals he was bitten during the supply run in the previous episode and that they’re eating tainted meat.
Back at the church, Sasha and Rick confront Fr. Gabriel on Bob, Daryl and Carol’s whereabouts and what his real secret is. Finally breaking down, Fr. Gabriel admits that he locked out people from his church and left them to die out of his own selfishness. Outside the church, Bob is returned to the gang by Gareth’s group. He reveals his bite to Rick and Co. and that Gareth and his friends are the reason for his lost limb and that they’re not far. At this point, Abraham desperately wants to leave with Eugene but Rick demands that they stay and fight back against the Terminus group and wait for Carol and Daryl’s return.
Before things get more heated, Glenn promises that if Abraham can wait 12 hours to help them out, Glenn, Maggie and Tara will accompany Abraham, Rosita and Eugene to Washington. Rick, Abraham, Sasha, Maggie, Glenn, Tara and Michonne head out towards Gareth’s hideout but Gareth’s group has already arrived at the church and are planning an attack on the rest of the group, including Carl and Judith. Just when it seems like Gareth has the upper hand, Rick surprises them with an ambush.
Despite Gareth’s attempts, the group slaughter him and the remaining Terminus group. The following morning, Abraham makes the final preparations to head to Washington and makes amends with Rick while the rest of the group say their goodbyes to Bob before Tyreese kills him. That night, Michonne sees Daryl heading towards the church. When she inquires Carol’s whereabouts, Daryl looks back and calls for someone to come out of the bushes behind him.
Episode 5.4 | Slabtown
This was the first episode where we finally learn about Beth’s whereabouts prior to being taken in season 4. In a scene almost parallel to Rick’s in the series premiere, Beth awakens to find herself in Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
She meets Officer Dawn Lerner, the leader in charge of the hospital and assigns her as a nurse under Dr. Steven Edwards, Grady’s remaining doctor. Dawn then explains that if people don’t show any signs of improvement after a few days, with no remorse, they’re taken off life support as they won’t be able to contribute to the community in the hospital.
They bring in a man, Gavin Trevitt, who is severely injured and Dawn insists that Dr. Edwards does everything he can to save the man at all costs. When Stevens tell Dawn that the man is a lost cause, she retaliates by hitting Beth.
Later on, Beth meets Joan who attempts to escape Grady but ends up getting bitten and must now amputate her bitten arm. Beth also meets Noah, the hospital’s laundry worker, who fills her in on the goings-on of Grady. Beth is instructed by Edwards to give Trevitt a dose of Clozapine but the dose results in Trevitt’s death. When Dawn confronts Beth, Noah steps in and takes the blame, resulting in a beating by Dawn’s officers.
Having enough of Grady, Beth and Noah concoct a plan to escape through the elevator shaft. As Beth looks for the key to the elevator in Dawn’s office, she’s confronted by Officer Gorman who makes unwanted sexual advances towards her as blackmail. Seeing Joan’s dead body behind Dawn’s desk, Beth complies, giving enough time for a zombified Joan to attack Gorman.
Just as Beth and Noah make it out to the hospital’s fences, Beth’s tackled but smiles after seeing Noah successfully escape.
With Beth back at Grady, she plans another escape out until she sees an unconscious Carol wheeled in on a stretcher.
Episode 5.5 | Self Help
The beginning of the episode starts with the church bus containing Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, Glenn, Maggie and Tara, flipping over with a horde of walkers headed straight for them. The group manages to escape in time and just before the bus explodes and head off to find shelter in a nearby library.
That night, Eugene watches, from behind a shelf of books, Abraham and Rosita have sex (cause you have nothing to watch porn with in an apocalypse, obviously).
When Tara catches him, he confesses to her that he sabotaged the bus because he worries that, even if he saves the world, he’ll still be seen as an outcast. Tara assures him that no one will see him as an outcast and that his secret was safe with her.
The next morning, the group finds a fire truck and successfully get it running but en route find themselves surrounded by hundreds of walkers. While Abraham insists that they keep moving forward, Glenn begs him to find a safer alternative route. As the tensions flare, Eugene confesses that he lied about being a scientist, the cure and that he sabotaged the church bus. Eugene explains that he used his intelligence to lie and convince Abraham to take him to Washington, which he still believes is the best place to go. Enraged, Abraham knocks Eugene out, nearly killing him in the process.
Throughout the episode, flashbacks were featured of Abraham during the beginning out the outbreak, waking up to find his wife and two children had abandoned him and discovering they were killed by walkers. As he prepared to kill himself, he sees Eugene who explains to Abraham about “his mission” to get to Washington to stop the spread.
Episode 5.6 | Consumed
Immediately following the events of 5.2, Daryl and Carol follow a car marked with crosses in the back windows all the way to Atlanta. When their car runs out of gas, the duo spend the night in a woman’s shelter. The next morning, Daryl and Carol head to a tall downtown building to get a better view of the city. On their way to check out a van with the same cross over a bridge, the two get ambushed by Noah, who successfully escaped Grady in 5.4.
With no weapons, the duo continue straight for the van. Inside the van, they find a gurney labeled with the Grady Memorial Hospital symbol, which leads Daryl and Carol to believe that that’s where they’ll find Beth. Suddenly walkers start surrounding the van, trapping Daryl and Carol inside. The van topples over the bridge but they survive the fall and head straight for Grady.
Along the way, they hear gunfire and encounter Noah being attacked by walkers. Wanting to leave him behind, Daryl pins him down under a bookshelf. Carol, being in the opposite situation in the beginning of the episode (with her wanting to shoot Noah when he first took their weapons), convinces Daryl to rescue him as he might know where Beth is. As they leave the building, Carol is hit with a police car. Knowing that the police will take her to Grady, Noah stops Daryl from rescuing her until they have more manpower to take them down. Daryl and Noah head back to the church, repeating the last scene from 5.3.
Episode 5.7 | Crossed
Rick, Sasha, Tyreese, Daryl and Noah venture to Atlanta, while Carl, Judith, Michonne and Fr. Gabriel stay behind and protect the church. With Carol unconscious, Beth convinces Dawn to give her the key to the medicine cabinet in hopes to wake her up.
Elsewhere, Maggie takes care of a still-unconscious Eugene and a catatonic Abraham while Rosita, Glenn and Tara grab more supplies. In Atlanta, Rick plans to invade the hospital to rescue Carol and Beth but Tyreese proposes to do a “trade-off” instead. The group successfully captures three police officers ready to be traded off. Throughout the episode, it’s clear that Sasha hasn’t gotten over Bob’s death and is trying to hide her pain. One of the officers, Officer Lamson, is left alone with Sasha and knocks her against the window and escapes.
Episode 5.8 | Coda
After knocking Sasha out and escaping, Officer Lamson is on the run from Rick and the group but is chased down by Rick, who hits him with a police car and shoots him.
The remaining officers held captive agree to lie to Dawn about Lamson’s death in order to make the trade-off successful. Back at the church, Fr. Gabriel, who had escaped in the previous episode, makes his way to Gareth’s camp where he sees Bob’s roasted leg. Horrified, Fr. Gabriel decides to return to the church. But walkers have escaped from a nearby school and follow him to the church, leaving the chruch now surrounded by walkers. With nowhere to escape, the group is quickly rescued by Abraham and Co. who had decided to return back to the church after Eugene’s confession. Glenn tells Michonne that there is no cure after all and Michonne lets them know that Beth is still alive and the rest of the group have gone to rescue her.
Back at Grady, Dawn let’s Beth know that the reason she hadn’t told the rest of the officers about what really happened to Gorman in 5.4 was for Beth’s protection. Just then, an officer overhears the conversation and attempts to blackmail Dawn. As the officer starts to attack Dawn, she calls out for Beth who pushes him down the elevator shaft.
Later on, Rick’s group finally arrive at Grady and prepare for the trade-off. The trade-off is successful until Dawn demands Noah’s return. Noah volunteers to stay and as Beth prepares to say her goodbyes, she confronts Dawn by stabbing her with scissors Beth had hidden. As an instinct, Dawn shoots Beth in the head, killing her.
Dawn looks on with remorse while Daryl retaliates by shooting her in the head. Both groups prepare for a standoff but the remaining officers decide to stand down, knowing that it was between Dawn and Beth only. Abraham and the rest of the group arrive to Grady too late, with Maggie breaking down as Beth’s body is being carried out by Daryl.
At the end of the episode, we encounter Morgan again, who walks by Gareth’s camp and into the church. Upon investigating, the sees a map left my Abraham for Rick which read, “The new world’s gonna read Rick Grimes.”
All caught up with the first half of the season? [Click here] to read part 2 of our The Walking Dead season 5 recap.
The 90-minute season five finale of The Walking Dead premieres on Sunday, March 29th on AMC!
