Rick and Co. Almost Lose Their Bacon

“NO SANCTUARY”

When last we saw our intrepid zombie hunters, they were trapped in a box, perhaps one used to house cattle at one time (foreshadowing, anyone?). If you recall, Beth is gone, perhaps kidnapped, even; Tyreese and Carol have reached an uneasy truce, and Rick recently went all vampire and ripped someone’s throat open with his teef.

A canister releasing sinister looking smoke is thrown into the box containing Rick and Co. Then Glenn, Rick, Daryl, and a few others kneel in front of a long metal stainless steel trough, their heads bashed in with a baseball bat and then their throats slit with a machete. The blood pools into the trough. The leader of the sinister group—is it Garrett? He asks Rick about what was in the large bag he dropped off in the woods. A variety of weapons, Rick replies. The ones I’m going to kill you with. Of course, only Ranger Rick could come back with such a witty and pithy retort at a critical junction! An explosion rocks the warehouse, interrupting the throat slitting endeavors of the two goons.

New intro for the show! Still dark, of course, but they’ve incorporated several haunting images from last season, like the bronzed baby shoes affixed on a cross for a child’s grave.

Baby Judith, who is the cutest ever, you just want to protect her from all the—uh oh, a whole pack of walkers are about to descend upon the tracks where Tyreese, Baby J, and Carol were walking. The pops of distant submachine gunfire distract the walkers and they change directions. They debate going to Terminus after hearing the gunfire; were they attacked by someone, or did they attack someone?

Carol and Tyreese find a cohort of the Terminus group and tie him up. They overhear him referring to a captured Carl and Michonne. The man chewing gum in the hat, tied up, tries to make conversation with a silent Tyreese. The man identifies Tyreese as a “good guy,” which is why he and the baby will die today—so he says. Not if Tyreese has anything to do with it! He tells Tyreese to take the car and Judith and go.  In the meantime, Carol has smeared herself with walker blood and guts and dons the grossest looking, most hideous caftan ever known to Maude (cue sound of Bea Arthur loudly rolling over in her rather long grave.)

And then there's Maude! I couldn't find a picture of Ms. Arthur in her signature caftan. Uneffingbelievable.

Ever-resourceful Carol causes a massive explosion right at an entrance to Terminus and takes out much of the rampaging horde. Yay Carol!

Carl and man in a baseball cap see that smoke is rising from Terminus. Garrett is freaking out about the activity outside. Zombies on fire are entering the compound; apparently, fire is not the best deterrent. Badass Rick takes advantage of the situation with his trusty knife and stabs the two goons to death. Lauren, Michonne, Eugene, and Ginger et al. are trying to find ways to escape from their box/cattle car. Badass Carol pulls her submachine gun from her Bea Arthur getup and takes out a Terminian.

Rick and Co. walk through a darkened warehouse, a human butcher’s of sorts. After they reach open air Rick opens a cattle car that contains a wild man who really looks like a human incarnation of the beloved Muppet Animal. “We’re the same,” he gleefully exclaims, and then a walker (yes, they are still all around Terminus) makes a quick snack of him. A hairy, no doubt awfully smelly, albeit crunchy, snack.

Carol is doing a bit of wandering herself, and comes across tables piled with peoples’ possessions. She finds Glenn’s watch, the old timey one that Hershel gave him (RIP). Rick ambushes one of the shooting Terminians and kills a bunch of them with said submachine gun. Meanwhile, Terminians are being chomped on left and right. Carol’s surveilling (is this a word? Autocorrect disagrees) gets her in a bit of a pickle. An older woman surprises her. The woman tells her Terminus was a peaceful sanctuary, but people came and pillaged it. “You’re the butcher, or you’re the cattle,” she proclaims. That’s the end message. She asks where the men they pulled from the train car are, and shoots the woman in the leg as a warning. Then Carol leaves her to incoming walkers. Good riddance.

Don't forget; it takes a village to raise a child. A village of vicious Zombie Hunters, that is!

Walkers start to surround the cabin. The bad man in the baseball hat threatens baby J with his hands on her, about to twist her neck. Tells Tyreese to go outside, where the walkers have gathered right outside the cabin door. Tyreese leaves the cabin and screams. And--- go to commercial. Tyreese is such a big cuddly teddy bear, I hope he makes it. He’s gotten a raw deal so far, losing his lady love Karen last season to Carol’s epidemiological rampage, ad having to witness the disintegration of the small family he had with Carol and the two girls from the prison, X and X. (sorry, my memory fails me here; too long between seasons. I think it was Mika and Lizzy)

Tyreese is OK. He jumps on the man and pummels him, but seems to stop short of killing him, just instead beating him to a bloody pulp. The audience, being me, is OK with that.

Tyreese’s sister (egads, my memory fails me) and Eugene et al. plus Michonne and Carl are still trapped in the train car, and everyone is working hard to find a way out, as the battle outside rages on. Rick suddenly opens said train car. All work very hard to kill as many walkers as possible. They all escape over a fence just in time. Rick starts digging up his gun cache. Glenn wants to let it be and move in. Rick wants to return and kill the rest of Terminus. Daryl sees Carol stumbling towards the group. Everyone is stunned, while Daryl happily embraces her. Carol is the badass hero of the day! She after all ignited the initial explosion that made the escape possible.

A reunion of sorts occurs. Baby J is reunited with Rick and Carl. Tyreese and his sister embrace. Whew. Have we seen the last of Terminus? Probably not. Garrett survived, it would seem; Rick fired off a shot that hit him in the shoulder.

Horrible man in a baseball cap is dead. The group, our former, intrepid group, pushes on down the railroad tracks. Rick changes the sign leading people to “Sanctuary” to NO SANCTUARY. He could add a HELLZ NO if he was feeling sassy, but let’s face it—Rick ain’t sassy. And guess who is back? Rick’s friend and savior from the first episode, Morgan! At least, I think that’s what his name is. Through the electronic grapevine known as the Internet, I’ve heard that TWD will introduce/reveal a  gay character. And yes, it will of course be the biggest badass of them all—Daryl. We’ll see if the show’s writers can handle this in a nuanced way or succumb to tokenism. I certainly hope the former is true. I bid you adieu, for now, until next week!