Walking Dead Episode Review 5.16: Conquer

It is time for the Season Five finale. There have been many ups and the gang reached their lowest point along the way.  Now there’s 90 minutes to go. In every season finale a cast member has died EXCEPT for last season.  The crew has been drinwled more this season than in any other. Who will survive and what will be left of them…

The epidose starts with Morgan, who has been following Rick the entire season.  He gets a gun pointed at him by someone with a “W” carved on his head.  After getting ranted about wolves and natives thinking that humans were once wolves.  He gets ambushed by another guy and Morgan disposes of them with some swift bo work like he was Donatello of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Rick wakes up from his vicious Shane transformation in what constitutes as their prison, with Michone watching him. Glenn, Carol and Abraham arrives. Deanna is having a meeting tonite for anyone who wants to attend. They suspect they are going to try and kick Rick out. They make a plan to take over the camp. Glenn and Michone question Rick on his intentions, but he kicks them out so he can sleep.

Sasha lies down in a hole full of sniped out Zombies in one of the strangest moments of the entire series.

Aaron and Daryl are following the “W” boys around, they run into someone in a red hoody. They arrive at a food distribution center.  Daryl wants to keep tracking red hoody and Aaron wants to go for food.  Aaron wins out. There are trucks that appear to have cans of food in them, But when they open one, it turns out to be a trap as a they have Zombies inside and it releases about 100+ Zombies.  They get trapped in a car. 

Carol threatens Pete with a knife. After saying her piece, she gives him a casserole and asks for her plate back when he’s done.  Total bad ass moment.  Pete drops it and freaks out off camera.  Glenn follows Nicholas outside of camp and the little shit shoots Glenn in the shoulder.  Nicholas runs off, and Glenn catches up and the fight begins.  Nicholas uses Glenn’s injury and some nearby zombies to make a second escape.

Back in the car, Aaron reveals that Daryl when he led Rick and company to the barn during the storm, was the deciding factor to convince him that he should invite Rick’s group to Alexandra.  Daryl offers to create a diversion allowing Aaron to escape but Aaron refuses, opting to fight together.  When they are about to make their move, Morgan shows up and bails them out.  Morgan reveals that he’s lost and shows Daryl the Map and the note Abraham wrote before leaving for Washington.

Father Gabriel goes out for a walk and encounters a walker. He is able to kill it this time, unlike his previous attempts although he cries like a bitch afterwards.  He comes back and for leaves the gate slightly ajar when he attempts to close it.  After a conversation with Michone where Rick explains his original plan and why he chose to hide it from her, he notices something outside his window.  It’s the open gate and he runs to it. He finds blood on it and droplets on the ground. He closes the gate and storms back in distress.

Night fell and the meeting has started.  Rick is nowhere to be found.  Rick’s Comrades defending him, starting with Carol, Abraham and later Maggie. Deanna reveals what Father Gabriel told her.  Since Father Gabriel isn’t here, Jessie scoffs it off as hearsay. Meanwhile, Zombies enter the camp attacking Rick as he attempts to make it to the meeting.

Father Gabriel has Sasha in his house and blames her for the death of Bob.  I have no idea where this came from, because we haven’t seen Sasha in like an hour since her strange nap moment.  I think something got edited out.  They fight and Sasha gets the upper hand, pointing her gun at him.  Maggie arrives and stops Sasha from killing the father. 

Glenn catches up to Nicholas and this time he is able to overwhelm Nicholas. Again though, Glenn spares his life, dragging his ass back to camp.  Michone grabs her sword and starts to carry it again.

The two guys Morgan dispatched at the beginning of the episode reveal themselves again and kill the person in the red hoody.  It appears they called the food plant home and the “Wolves aren’t far.” 

Rick arrives at the meeting carrying a zombie over his shoulder, bloody from his earlier encounter.  Rick explains there wasn’t a guard at the gate and makes his case to stay.  He says at one point he was thinking “How many of you do I have to kill to save your lives.” But he then says that they have to be ready and he’s going to help them be ready.  A drunken and brandished Pete shows up and accidentally kills Deanna’s husband who steps in to try and to stop him.  Deanna after watching her husband die gives Rick authorization to kill Pete which he does.  Morgan, Daryl and Aaron arrive just after Rick does his thing. End Scene.

I consider this finale a disappointment. Nowhere near as bad as season 3’s ending but yea I didn’t like this episode that much.  I know I’ll be in the minority on this because it didn’t really do anything wrong story wise, but it just didn’t feel right.  They did so much right in the previous couple of episodes especially the one where Noah and Aiden died, that my expectations were raised and they didn’t really deliver on them.  They also had an extra half hour to work with and really didn’t use it.  They got 88 minutes in and was like, “Oh shit, we didn’t kill Porchdick yet.” Otherwise it was just a bunch of teases and the same old stuff that is kinda boring at this point and didn’t really leave me all that interested in watching the show again in the fall.

When the biggest shock of the night is finding out that Lennie James, the actor who plays Morgan has an awesome British accent, you have a serious problem!

During the Finales (midseason ones included) I’ve noticed that they tend to show commercials for other movies and tv shows that are coming up in the next few months.  All this did is remind me of what I’d rather be watching, like Better Call Saul, the next Season of Halt and Catch Fire or the new Terminator movie.

Let’s update the “Who I’d Like to See Die List!”

#3 Glenn – Last week Not Listed

I’ve disliked Glenn for a long time and in season 4 he was completely juvenile in his pursuit to find Maggie after the prison was destroyed.  His selfishness nearly got him and Tara killed. He did become less annoying when they reunited, but his inclusion on the list now is because he refused to kill Nicholas, even after he was responsible for Noah’s death and attempted to kill him.  Nicholas should have been killed tonite and it’s Glenn’s fault.

#2 Father Gabriel – Last week 2

They under utilized him as a villain in the finale having him get into a tussle with Sasha for some reason at the end.  This was a missed opportunity but now that they have the wolves, I suppose they have no reason to make Father Gabriel a villain do they?

#1 Sasha – Last Week 1

She could have redeemed herself by killing Father Gabriel or visa versa, but she did have the whole, sleeping with dead bodies thing which was really weird.

For next season they need to kill off about 3-5 major characters and not add anyone new. There are more characters than they know what to do with and not enough time to address all of them properly.  Lost had a similar cast size but did a way better job dealing with it.  Abraham is one of my favorite characters but I’ll be lucky to get 3 minutes an episode of him. Rosita makes cameo appearances and characters disappear for multiple episodes. I don't even know the name of Deanna's husband.

Another place they really dropped the ball was with the Wolves. Nothing about them is particularly threatening, I mean the two jackasses get mauled by Morgan in the opening and they don’t even have a loaded gun.  Are we really supposed to take them seriously? 

When Gareth was introduced in the final episode last season, he was handled correctly. He was able to capture Rick and his crew.  When season 4 ended you were like “Oh, it’s on now!” I do think they killed Gareth off too quickly and he was a good villain. There was none of that this time around. These guys are basically Bebop and Rocksteady and last time I checked The Turtles always beat the piss out of them and usually in the first two stages of the beat-em ups. 

I realize these two guys are probably just scouts and not the leaders of the Wolves but come on you gotta show something. Had they say actually killed Morgan, then that earned you instant credibility.

I doubt the writers have the guts to kill the necessary characters to get things under control. It's become too big for its own good now. There's going to be a Walking Dead - Los Angeles, FMS

Those are my thoughts, feel free to comment below

C.J. Foxx 

Author of Super-Hero Bowl VI
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