The Walking Dead ambles back onto AMC this weekend, bringing with it a sense of misanthropy and hopelessness that just feels right as we prepare for yet another Halloween season (OK, maybe Halloween's a little more fun than this show). After four years, it's likely that you already know whether or not you're into Robert Kirkman's series about a post-apocalyptic America and a few of the last humans left there, but also possible that you need a refresher about just where everything stood at the end of Season 4 back in March.
Fear not. Or, at least, don't fear the need to catch up—we can't help you with that zombie apocalypse thing. Here's a quick guide to where everything left off at the end of last season, along with some important questions that we're going to need answered when "No Sanctuary," the first episode of Season 5, airs Sunday.
When we left Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Carl (Chandler Riggs) and the rest of the gang at the end of Season 4, it was the best of times and the worst of times. The group had been reunited (well, some were still missing) at the Terminus compound, which had been transmitting the message "Those who arrive, survive" as a siren song to lure in any remaining humans. However, it turned out they had been reunited only to be locked in a train car as potential lunch meat for local zombies. OK, so maybe that veers more towards the "worst of times" end of the spectrum, but tell that to Rick. He ended the season looking as if Christmas had finally arrived, saying that those behind Terminus are "gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out ... they're screwing with the wrong people." You go, Rick! Don't let your imminent digestion by a bunch of undead yahoos get you down! (Of course, the news that AMC has renewed the show for a sixth season already kind of suggests that you're not actually going to be eaten, but still.)
Terminus. They're all in a rail car in Terminus.
Well, that's not entirely true. Of the show's sizable line-up, the majority—Rick, Carl, Michonne (Danai Gurira), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yeun), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), and Tara (Alanna Masterson)—have been reunited at Terminus. The whereabouts of the others, including Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman), Carol (Melissa McBride), and baby Judith, remain unknown. We know they were heading towards Terminus themselves, but whether or not they got there isn't clear, and considering the whole "Welcome to Terminus, now you're dinner" thing, it might even be better for them if they got sidetracked. Or, perhaps, more sidetracked, considering the "having to kill Lizzie" bit that they'd gone through earlier. Beth (Emily Kinney), meanwhile, is entirely absent having disappeared in "Alone" for reasons yet to be revealed.
Perhaps more important than their physical locations is where the characters are emotionally, especially Rick. Having spent a season seemingly rejecting his role as the leader of the group (and violence, as well), the season finale showed him more savage than he had been in a while when fighting off the group who attacked his new family. And in the final moments of the episode, he seemed more optimistic than he'd been in a long time. Will Season 5 give us a Rick who's comfortable being in the position he's found himself in?
Outside of the basic, obvious "Will Rick and gang escape their zombie-bait hell?" question, the finale of Season 4 set up a bunch of questions for the new season to answer sooner rather than later:
- What is Terminus? Clearly, it's not exactly a haven for the few remaining living humans left—or is it? What if the rail car is some kind of initiation to prove that you're worthy to enter? What if Terminus is a functioning, dysfunctional society that makes the prison look like a well-run machine? And what's the deal with Gareth (Andrew J. West), Alex (Tate Ellington) and the others seemingly in charge of Terminus?
- Now that the group has come back together, what kind of power dynamics are going to exist between them? It isn't The Walking Dead without simmering resentment and unhealthy plotting and backstabbing being planned, after all.
- Where is Beth, anyway? Did she already make it to Terminus, and if so, does that mean the Terminusians have a working rail car? Are they able to move across the country faster than Rick's group has managed so far, and if they are, does that mean we'll see much more of the post-zombie America than the show has revealed up until now?
- And, of course, the unspoken question of the season: Will we get any backdoor-pilot-style introduction to the Walking Dead spin-off that AMC is set to debut next year? We're hoping for an awkward flashback episode featuring the cast of that show just to ensure that audiences know to check it out when it debuts, but that's just us.
Watching everything post "After," Season 4's mid-season premiere, is probably a good idea. There are only eight episodes in that sequence ("After," "Inmates," "Claimed," "Still," "Alone," "The Grove," "Us," and "A"), but if that's still too much of a commitment, then watch "A," at the very least. It's not only the season finale but also the first appearance of Terminus itself and a chance to see Rick really sink his teeth into a problem. Pun, you know, pretty much intended.
Now you're prepared for the fifth season of The Walking Dead—in terms of plot, at least. Preparation for existential dread and the feeling that, ultimately, the human race is just a bag of meat and unenlightened self-interest that perhaps deserves to be destroyed by a mindless horde is up to you.
