THE WALKING DEAD: Harvey & Adair Talk To "Strangers"

Season 5, Episode 2 “Strangers”

Timothy: So, I see we’re wearing pants tonight.

Dustin: I wear pants most nights. As far as you know.

Timothy: Yeah, I am so not touching that line. Greetings, Lads and Lasses! As you can see, Mr. Dustin Adair and I are returned, to bring you our scribblings on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Mr. Curtis Smith is away this evening, but we are joined by Miss Anne-Marie Zarrelli, our Studio Audience of One, and she shall be Tweeting for us tonight. Say hello to the kids at home, Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie: Hello.

Dustin: She waved, too. You can’t see it, but she did.

Timothy: Yes, she did. She’s very friendly.

Dustin: She just gave you The Look;, you know that, right?

Timothy: She gives me The Look a lot.

Anne-Marie: I can hear you; you know that, right?

Anyway! Folks, as always, what follows contains much that is questionable and somewhat inappropriate, but if you’ve read our reviews before, you’ll know that. If you’re new to Team Zombie, it works like this: Dustin gives us a recap in somewhat… colorful terms, and I provide commentary and analysis on top of that while Anne-Marie tweets funny things.

It’s the thing we do.

It is. Any predictions for us tonight?

Nope.

Really?

Really. Just going to watch the episode and enjoy it.

RECAP!

So we’re back on the road… For those of us who watched The Talking Dead, this is the third time we’ve seen the Morgan reveal, someone is leading Morgan… I wonder who.

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I have a vague memory of Rick kinda giving him an idea of where they were the last time they crossed paths, back when Morgan was crazy, but considering how close everything is in the Walking Dead world, it’s not really a huge surprise that he’s right behind them.

Smoke and fire in the distance, Rick and the Team Zombie, finally reunited walk up the road.

The stop to stop to kiss and feed babies and @#$%.

Tara is all odd woman out she and Rick talk about how he could tell she didn’t want to be there on The Governor’s side. She is welcomed into the group with a fist-bump. I wonder if Maggie will be so generous?

Maggie has her sweater back, which is nice.

Carol and Tyreese talk about how some on the people on Team Zombie know about Carol’s mercy killin’ ways and some don’t,. He is going to talk to the others for her. Carol says he doesn’t have to, but he insists. Tyreese doesn’t want to tell the others about what happened to Puppy and Sophia II.

Walker. Michonne got it. She bashes the walker in the head with her gun.

She reaches for the sword that isn’t there too. So weird to see her without it.

Night. Rick and Carol talk about how she basically saved all the things from all the people and is the best of all the members of Team Zombie. She gives him back the watch. They mention that the blond kid that was bled out at Terminus was the same blond kid that they met the day Rick kicked Carol out of the prison. Rick tries to give Carol some grief about mercy murder and Carol is all: Shut up, Rick. And he’s all: Now we’re all in Carol’s group now!! I wish she was the leader for realsies.

https://twitter.com/anniemariney/status/524003783291203585

Well, he does start out with the whole “I don’t like what you did” thing, and we all want to smack him, but he does turn it into “You saved us, can we join you?” Much better than it could have gone, but c’mon folks, I thought we were past this version of Rick.

Later, Carol and Daryl keep watch. Daryl looks at her and she says she doesn’t want to talk about it and we assume it was what happened with Puppy and Sophia II. Daryl is cool with that. There is something in the dark… Daryl says it’s nothing. But.. it’s totally something.

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Hmmm.

Hmmm?

Yeah. Hmmm.

You going to share with the rest of the class?

Maybe later.

OK. Ev’body is walking through the woods. Daryl had gone to look for the thing he heard the night before, but he wasn’t able to find any tracks, which he finds strange.

Mustache wants to get back on the road, The Medic and Sasha are trying to look at the bright side of the end of the world. They kiss, Tyreese isn’t amused, or he is, or don’t I care.

Hmmm.

OK, what?

Well it’s so obvious they’re setting up Bob to die. He and Sasha are just so happy here you can practically see the crosshairs on his forehead. It’s really not remotely subtle, and I really don’t want to be right. Not because I’m so fond of Bob, but because it’s so “Hand Of The Writer”.

Someone is screaming for help. It takes Carl 3 times to convince Rick to go help. It’s Dr. Deaton from TEEN WOLF!! Nope, wait it’s his twin brother, who is a preacher. I wonder if he knows his brother is in Deacon Hills with Karen’s twin; what a small world.

He’s also trapped on top of a rock/boulder thing, surrounded by walkers. He seems a little too clean and a lot too unprepared for the zombie congregation. Luckily Team Zombie is here to save the day.

He barfs up everything and is named Gabriel. Everyone asks if he’s got weapons and he’s all like: God will protect me. AMZ laughs out loud.

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How on earth is this guy still alive?

Gabriel asks for food. Carl offers him pecans. Gabriel hears the baby and everyone is super suspicious of him. Gabriel doesn’t have a camp, but he does have a church.

Gabriel actually says that Judith is a beautiful baby, and everyone’s alarm bells go off. This guy is not right somehow.

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3 questions time!!

How many walkers have you killed? Zero.

Yeah, he seems pretty terrible at this.

How many people have you killed? None (sha, right)

Really think there’s going to be more to this part of his story.

Why? Because Jesus hates violence.

And yet he’s still alive, on his own, and his clothes are in really good shape. Sooo not right here.

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Rick asks what he’s done, because everyone has “done” something in this dangerous new world, and everyone has done something. Gabe is all like: I sin all the time, but I confess those sins to God, not your punk ass. Or somethin’ like that.

Translation: I have done terrible things, but I shall wait until it is dramatically exciting to reveal them. Sigh.

Gabe jokes about stealing Team Zombies squirrels. No one likes the joke.

However, it does make it seem more likely that he’s been on his own for a while, because if he’d had much contact with the rest of what’s left of humanity since the Zompochalypse, he’d know better than to make terrible jokes to the people with the guns.

Lil’ White Church in the Middle of the Woods: Rick wants to do a bit of recon before the group decamps at the church for realsies. He and the warriors of Team Zombie go into the church to check it out. The church is clean, but Gabe has been reading a @#$% ton if the Bible. And writing a crazy ass journal. And building a weird can alter. And drawing crazy @#$%.

Yeah, he a fruit loop.

Oh yeah, he’s not well. But surely that’s not all the cans of food he’s had, because there’s no way that he survived this long on that few cans of food.

Rick says is looks fine and everyone is ready to stay for a bit. Mustache even found a bus they can take.

Michonne and Mustache have a little fight about whether or not they are moving on to DC. Team Zombie makes it 100% clear that they are all doing whatever Rick decides is best, and Mustache is not very happy.

Gabe has been living on the canned food from a food drive for a while, then cleaned out the places nearby. Except the one place that is full of walkers.

But of course it is. Gah. This episode’s writing is killing me. It’s just so… obvious.

They are really turning Tyreese into Lil Ass Kicker’s new manny, aren’t they?

Apparently, since they’re leaving him to watch Judith and he’s all “Yay!” about it.

They decide to go on a food run and take Gabe with them.

Gabriel is clearly not thrilled about it. Hmmmm.

Carl and Rick talk about how Rick has trust issues and Carl is trying to feel like they can be safe, but Rick is all about staying alert. Rick tells Carl it’s never safe no matter what the case; it only takes one second for everything to go to @#$%. And basically tries to give the little jerk a complex.

But Carl wants Rick to remember that they need to keep helping people and not to be afraid. Basically Rick asks Carl to stay safe and Carl asks Rick not to give up hope.

The Medic is talking about something stupid, and Rick says he doesn’t know if they should go to DC. The Medic says that is they go to DC, they might be able to make things the way they were before. Rick says there is nothing to go back to.

Good God. Bob is so dead. Anvils-falling-from-the-sky-dead.

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Carol and Daryl talk about how Carol doesn’t want to talk about the things that Carol doesn’t want to talk about. Daryl thinks this is a new beginning and Carol says it’s all luck then goes and check out a car on the side of the road. The battery is dead, natch.

Of course the gas will have gone bad too, but that’s never been something the show has worried about before, so why start now?

Daryl says that they aren’t dead. That they will start over. While Carol examines the car, finds a battery charger, and prepares the car to be a getaway vehicle. Oh, Carol, I love you and everything about you.

Somehow I know this car will be used by the end of the episode.

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Maggie and Tara are at the gun store with Glenn who trips over @#$%. He does find a bunch of silencers and then he says there is nothing left in this world that isn’t hidden.

Tara makes a face.

OK, that was funny, though. Maggie and Tara are all “Is it walkers?” and Glenn is all “Nope! I’m a klutz!”

They go into the food bank because of course. There are clothes in there, too.

Is it a thrift store? Because it looks like a thrift store.

This place is a bonanza of great deals and savings!! Oh, and walkers. Walkers in a hole in the floor that is full of water.

Zombie soup.

The Medic: If a sewer could puke, this is what it would smell like.

Me: HA!!

They have to go down into the soup to get the canned food, because all food banks keep their stock in the basement.

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“Hi Folks! I’m the Writer, and here is my Hand!” Jeez.

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In the soup the Team Zombie Away Team kills what walkers they can while Gabe is sad and weird in the background. A lady walker has him particularly spooked. They smash a bunch of walkers with a shelf. Rick has to save Gabe from the lady walker. The Medic is pulled under by one of the most beautiful walkers I have ever seen. They kill it.

And Bob is so very, very bit. How can no one tell that Bob is so very, very bit?

Outside Rick asks Gabe talk about how Gabe knew the lady walker when she was alive and Gabe does not give him any information.

https://twitter.com/anniemariney/status/524011850221228034

Wife. Girlfriend. Something like that.

Michonne and Rick talk about how she lost her sword and how she found it and how she used walkers for practice to get good with it. She says she misses all the people who died, but she doesn’t miss her life before, or the sword.

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Carl asks Rick to meet him in the back to the church where he shows him some places where it looks like someone was trying to pry open a window. Carl is a regular Encyclopedia Brown. There is another place where someone has scratched “YOU’LL BURN FOR THIS” on the wall.

Oops.

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My prediction…

Wait, what?

Shush. My prediction is that he reveals that he locked everyone out of the church and left them to be zombie chow. Of course, why someone who was in fear of being eaten by the undead would take the time to carve a message is another story.

There is a canned food party. Everybody eats some food.

Of course, something terrible is about to happen.

Ya think?

Mustache makes a toast to the survivors and then turns it into a jerky monologue about going to DC. I can’t wait for him to realize Eugene is a lying prick.

OK. On one hand, it’s actually a pretty good terrible speech, if you think of it as something he really believes, but since we know that what he believes is Eugene’s terrible lie, then that makes it a terrible, terrible speech, and yeah. I’m tired of Eugene, too.

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Carol is not having ANY of this.

Mustache makes Eugene talk… it’s … pretty much the worst. I am so done with this storyline. I’m ready for it to be over.

You know, it may be worth it just to see Abraham kill him when he realizes how much Eugene has screwed up their lives. Maybe.

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Mustache invites Team Zombie to join the quest.

Rick makes a cute joke about Lil Ass Kicker making the decision. Welcome to the Wild Goose Chase, Team Zombie. At the back of the church, Sasha and The Medic kiss, and it’s sad because The Medic is so obviously bitten.

Hand. Of. The. Writer. Sigh.

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He wanders out of the church. Tara goes and sits with Maggie. She tells her about how she was with The Governor at the prison, and how she didn’t know who he was or what he was capable of. She wants to have it all out in the open. Maggie… hugs her. It’s kind of more okay than I expected.

I think Maggie sees that being angry at Tara is kind of like being angry at a puppy. Tara’s just so… earnest.

Gabe and Rick have a talk about how there is no more communion because there is no one left to sanctify the elements. Rick tells him that he’s fine with Gabe keeping his own secrets, but if the secrets turn out to be dangerous, if they hurt any of the members of Team Zombie, Rick will kill him.

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Somehow, Carol got out to the car she found and is working on it. She kills a walker like it’s nothing then goes back to charging the battery. Daryl comes out of the shadows and asks her what she is doing. Before she can answer, a car drives by… IT’S THE SAME CAR THAT TOOK DAUGHTER FODDER!! I… can’t remember her name.

Beth. Her name is Beth. You know this.

ITS THE SAME CAR THAT TOOK BETH!! Daryl and Carol bust out after the car. I cannot WAIT for Carol and Daryl to bust a can of whoop-ass on whoever kidnapped Beth. It’s gonna be amazing.

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The Medic is watching the church from outside. He smiles, and it’s SUPER SAD because he’s so obviously bitten. The Medic starts to head off into the woods, but someone bashes him in his fool head and knocks him out.

OK, I just have to say this, because this episode is killing me. This is so damn obvious and the writing has been so good last season and the start of this one. but this is just so… gahhh. Anvils. Plot Anvils from the sky. Over and over.

Are you done? The medic comes to and here are jerks from Terminus sitting around the campfire. Oh, look! Its Gareth! Hi Gareth, call me! ((hearts)) And the Hot Idiot from the cabin is there too, he’s been beat to hell, but he’s alive.

First, again, stop drooling over the Cannibal Prince. It’s creepy. Second, dammit Tyrese! You let this idiot live? Really?

Gareth tells The Medic that he didn’t want to hurt him or scare him, but the way of the world is such that Gareth really has no choice.

Everyone has their secrets.

Gareth tells The Medic that nothing that has happened is personal, Gareth really has no choice. Great, now Gareth is leading a band of beautiful, roving cannibals.

Now? As opposed to before, when he was leading a band of beautiful, stationary cannibals?

The Medic’s leg is GONE!!

Gareth takes a big bite of The Medic. They are all eating his fool ass.

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Are they in for a surprise.

Dunn Dunn Duuunnnnnn!!!

OK, so we know what’s happening here, but should we tell the kids at home?

Nope! Let them all be surprised along with the Fine Young Cannibals.

…

What?

Are we really calling them that now?

Well, they are fine.

And on that note… thanks for reading folks. We’ll see you next week!

[Show site at AMC]    [Previous recap: “No Sanctuary”]