What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 3 “Four Walls and a Roof” (B+)

It’s always strange to me when a show goes to the trouble of introducing a character and then kills him or her off almost right away. I’m not sure that I’ll miss Gareth and his merry band of cannibals since they’ve been fearsome and disturbing additions to the show. Moreso, I have to hope that the reason for his swift death is that there is something – or someone – even more compelling on the horizon. I suspect, however, that his brutal bludgeoning is more of a catalyst to show Rick and his gang’s descent into inhumanity, though that’s somewhat contradicted by the optimistic ending suggested by Abraham’s surprisingly pleasant note on the map. Gareth certainly made an impression in his final extended scene, showing up to terrorize the remaining inhabitants of the church and ready to kill a baby before Rick and reinforcements showed up, successfully having tricked Gareth and his crew into thinking that they had wandered off to find the cannibals’ camp. At least we know that Gabriel is good, and Bob, to his credit, died a pretty noble death with a solid final few hours. I hope that we’ll continue to follow Abraham, Eugene, Maggie, Glenn, and everyone else as they head to D.C., which by my calculations should take them as little as a day if they drive straight at about 30 miles per hour. Back at the church, Daryl made it back awfully quickly, but the episode’s strange ending seems to indicate that things are not fully okay.