Sadé Green reviews the fourteenth episode of The Walking Dead Season 5…
Season 5 of The Walking Dead has arguably been the best season in shows five year run. Heartbreak, horror and several dark twists have cemented The Walking Dead as one of the most constantly evolving shows, forever attracting larger and larger audiences. But no episode has been more shocking and eye opening than ‘Spend’.
That’s right – more shocking than Bob getting his leg eaten by cannibals whilst still alive; more shocking than Tyreese’s slow, hallucinogenic death and more shocking than some of the deeply disturbing decisions that Rick, Carol and the gang have been making as their journey has continued down an ever increasing dark path. Get the tissues and some calming herbal tea because ‘Spend’ will have you shouting in horror and sadness just as much as it will have you silently tense, pondering who the bad guys really are.
‘Spend’ begins with Father Gabriel in his make shift chapel. Having previously showed signs of losing his faith in God, he clearly looks uncomfortable and as he begins aggressively ripping pages from the Bible becomes increasingly angry and upset. Father Gabriel hasn’t featured much in the second half of season 5 which means he might have a larger role to play as the season draws to a close.
Noah meets with Reg, Deanna’s husband about the possibility of learning more about architecture from him, with the aim of helping to make the buildings of Alexandria stronger. Having previously seemed very uncomfortable in the presence of humans in general, apart from Beth, Glenn and Maggie, it seems that Noah is finally starting to feel accepted and admits that he is in Alexandria ‘for the long haul’. Reg presents him with a leather bound journal and advises Noah to start writing down everything he learns. Later on, we see Noah, Glenn, Tara and Eugene depart on a supplies run with Deanna’s eldest son Aidan and another Alexandrian, Nicholas. There seems to be a hint of foreshadowing as a big show is made of Aidan saying goodbye to his parents and Eugene reluctantly joins on them on trip, admitting again and again that he is a coward. As the crew arrive in a large electronics warehouse which is plunged into darkness inside and surrounded by Walkers on the outside, one can’t help but feel that this supplies run is not going to end well.
In the meantime, Abraham is shown as part of the construction crew, scavenging for materials outside of the wall. Abraham observes some birds flying overhead and appears to have some sort of panic attack – however after a horde of Walkers stumble out of the surrounding forest, it becomes clear that Abraham anticipated the attack and was merely getting psyched up. And psyched up he gets! As he rushes into midst of the horde, Francine, a look-out becomes trapped amongst them. The other Alexandrians prove themselves to be crap shots and Tobin, the construction leader, orders them to fall out and return to their vehicles. Unable to watch Francine die, Abraham rushes in a saves her, whilst almost singlehandedly taking out about 40 Walkers. A smile on his face, Abraham is clearly exhilarated by his new Zombie friends. Our family just can’t seem to survive without a little Walker whacking, relishing the fact that they are so capable and just so goddam hard.
Back on the supplies run, the gang go about their business, killing off the odd Walker. However Aidan is confronted with an armoured Zombie (something you don’t see every day). As she takes more and more shots with very little reaction from the Walker, Glenn suddenly sees what Aidan can’t – a grenade belt. It’s too late though and one of Aidan’s shots hits the grenade on the Walker’s belt. The explosion knocks Tara out and unblocks a route for a bunch of trapped Walker’s to start making their way to the stricken group. As they all come around, they realise Aidan is unconscious and impaled. Glenn and Noah convince the cowardly Nicholas to help them rescue Aidan whilst Eugene attends to Tara. As the boys desperately try to free Aidan, they all too aware of the horde of Walkers approaching from behind. Nicholas makes a run for it, leaving Glenn and Noah with Aidan. When he realises he can’t be saved, Aidan whispers to Glenn that they never lost their previous supply runners, they abandoned them when there were too many Walkers, thereby cementing their deaths. Glenn and Noah make the swift but difficult decision to leave. We are left with a birdseye view of the impaled Aidan being swamped by the undead. As he looks up screaming, we see his stomach being ripped open and his intestines being ripped out one by one.
After Abraham’s awesome rescue of Francine, we see that Tobin wants to call it a day and go home. Abraham refuses and rallies everyone, saying they must keep working and that everyone is safe. They trust and believe him and get on with their day. Tobin goes to Deanna and tells her how amazing Abraham has been and that he believes he should stand down as the head of the construction team and let Abraham take over instead. Although reluctant, Deanna agrees. She tells Maggie that she is worried – she has let this new group of people in, and gradually they are starting to take all the positions of power.
Now get the tissues out… Back on the supplies run, Glenn, Noah and Nicholas have had to run to the front of the building where outside, there are hundreds of Walkers. With more undead building up behind them, they all somehow find themselves stuck in a revolving door; Glenn and Noah in one compartment, Nicholas in the other. They are trapped. Eugene suddenly appears in the truck and starts distracting the outside Zombies away from the building. As Glenn tries to smash the door window so that he and Noah can get out, then get Nicholas out, the door shifts slightly leaving Nicholas slightly exposed. The utter coward decides that he has to get out first, pushing so that he can escape. In turn this leaves Glenn and Noah 100% exposed. As the Walkers grab Noah’s ankles, Glenn grabs him trying to pull him back in. Noah turns and says, ‘Do not let go of me’. Glenn can’t hold on though as twenty odd Zombies drag a screaming Noah, from the grip of a crying Glenn. Poor innocent Noah is pushed up against the glass, and as blood starts to pour, a haggard Zombie hand reaches around to Noah’s face and literally rips his face in half. A devastated Glenn cries and shakes in the corner, horrified that his friend has had to suffer such an awful death. Meanwhile, bastard Nicholas tries to hijack the van from Eugene but Glenn rushes in and beats the crap out of him. They load the van and Eugene keeps a gun to Nicholas’ head for the rest of the journey.
In Alexandria, Father Gabriel reports to Deanna, explaining that Rick’s groups are the devil in disguise. That he is good, but they have done atrocious things and it was a mistake letting them in. A few houses down, Carol is calmly telling Rick that he has to kill Pete, Jessie’s husband because she believes that Jessie may be a victim of domestic abuse. Maybe Father G has a point…
So let’s just take a moment to consider what is going on. We have not one, but two instances whereby the resident Alexandrians try to run away and abandon their own group members. No attempt to go back and save someone’s loved one. In both situations it has been our family who go in and try their hardest to save a relative strangers life and put their own life on the line. Alternatively, Carol is telling Rick to a kill a man, who poses no threat to them, based on something a young boy has said to her. By the end of ‘Spend’ you will have one question, and one question only, in the forefront of your mind: Who are the bad guys? For the entire run of The Walking Dead we have always assumed our favourite family to be the good guys, constantly falling upon bad times. Season 5 has seen them grow darker as characters and make more twisted decisions. Rick and Carol, the parental figures of the gang, have started killing people, arguably in defence but some of these people have not posed a huge threat to the gang. The whole gangs’ bloody thirsty murder of the cannibalistic Terminus gang could be justified – they were literally trying to eat them, but Carol’s extremely calm manner in which she tells Rick to kill Pete to save Jessie is possibly the most screwed up chain of thought she has ever had. Especially considering, that at this stage, she has no proof to say that Pete is beating Jessie. The most worrying aspect of this situation however, is that given Rick’s subtly fragile state, he might just go and do it. ‘Spend’ is a five star episode. Incredibly sad but interesting that the deaths have not been the focus. With one Alexandrian dead and one Family member dead, both at the hands of an Alexandrian, will Rick and Co. take matters into their own hands? With two episodes left of season 5, I think it will be answered quite soon.
Zombie Kill of the Week
Abraham’s killing spree is definitely the Kill highlight of the week. Whilst underneath a digger, he machine guns 3 heads in half, crawls out the other side then bashes some heads in with his bare hands whilst slicing a few heads clean down the middle with a knife. And all done with a smile on his face – Go Abraham!
Sadé Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=ONsp_bmDYXc&feature=player_embedded
