Age of The Nerd
**This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 5, Episode 3.**
“A man’s gotta eat.” Now infamous words. Did anyone BBQ over the weekend?
Gareth continues to educate Bob on their ways. He’s standing in front of a glass wall and beyond the glass there is a tone of Walkers. He explains that his mom told him you celebrate every day you’re above ground. They marked their way so they can go back, but now there’s nothing to go back to. They were going to offer the group a choice between joining them or being their food. Gareth continues and says that he thinks that women taste better. His brother Alex almost caught Carol, who killed his mom. His brother is also dead. Gareth is looking forward to eating Carol. Gareth tells Bob that he’s being a human being because he’s talking to him. Perspective. As Bob laughs at his predicament, Gareth’s group circles near. Bob can’t stop laughing. He pulls back his shirt to reveal that he has been bitten. The group quickly starts spitting up their food while Gareth tries to convince them that the meat is fine because they cooked it. “Tainted meat!” Bob screams. Gareth kicks him so that Bob falls to the ground, unconscious.
Sasha is walking through the woods looking for Bob. She sees the marks on the trees, and she hears a Walker nearby. There are two of them, actually, and she takes one down before being overtaken. Tyreese and Rick come to her aid, and she tells them that she saw someone watching her. He’s getting away. Rick tells her Carol and Daryl are gone as well.
Back at the church, Sasha confronts Gabriel. She says everything is connected, and that he appeared and now three of their people are missing. He steadfastly maintains that he’s not involved with any of it. Rick steps in and says that he saw the writing on the walls. “You’ll burn for this.” Gabriel breaks down and says he always locked the doors at night. In the beginning, after Atlanta was bombed, his parish came to the church seeking refuge. He heard them, but there were so many of them. Entire families were outside, but he didn’t open the doors and they called his name while they were torn apart by the Walkers. He says he buried them all. He thinks the Lord sent Rick’s group to punish him. “I’m damned,” he sobs. He falls to the floor and sobs, clearly a broken man. Suddenly Glen hears a whistle outside the church. He sees someone lying in the grass. They run outside and find Bob there, unconscious. There are Walkers everywhere. Sasha breaks down at the sight of him. Glen calls for her to bring him inside while they kill the Walkers. Rick takes a few shots into the darkness. He knows they’re in trouble.
Bob wakes up and tells everyone that he was knocked out in the graveyard and when he came to he was in a schoolyard. Gareth was bragging about eating him alive, “Like they had it all figured out.” Rick asks about Daryl and Carol but Bob replies that Gareth says they drove away. He reveals his bitten shoulder. Gabriel offers up his couch to the dying man. Sasha smiles at him in gratitude. Abraham announces that it’s time to go to Washington. He fixed the truck and says that they need to move because there is a threat out there. He orders the group to go, now. Glen tries to reason with him and says they need to wait for Carol, who saved his life. Abraham says they are leaving. Eugene doesn’t want to go, but finally agrees under duress. Glen begs for another day and promises that he and Maggie will go with them if they wait. They need to work together to make this all work out. Abraham agrees to 12 hours, then it’s “taillights.”
Bob tells Sasha that the pain from his leg took away the pain from his shoulder. She asks why he didn’t tell her. He’s convinced that had he said something, everything would be about the “end” but he liked the beginning with her, and the middle. He doesn’t want to focus on the end.
Tyreese sits and listens as Rick says that Gareth’s group might be watching, but they know where they are hiding. They made a big move, and now they need a bigger move. Rick asks if Tyreese is up for a big move. Sasha wants to go, too. She returns to see Bob, and Tyreese goes in and tells her that he wishes he had this time with Karen before she died. Sasha asks if he remembers how he felt when she died and what he wanted to do. Tyreese says that his anger made him block the need for forgiveness. The only thing Bob will want is to see her sitting there. Sasha hands her knife to Tyreese and says that Bob would want the knife through his temple the moment he stops breathing.
Half of the group leaves while the other half stays locked in the office with Bob. Meanwhile, the glass at the school is about to break, and that means a herd of Walkers will be unleashed. Slowly but surely Gareth’s group makes they way to the church. He signals to the members of his group to move slowly. They try the door and manage to break it open. They go inside and it’s pitch black. Gareth calls out to them, pointing out that they know they’re in there. They have been watching. They know who is inside, and he starts naming off the people inside. Carl stands in the office with the gun pointed at the door. Gareth names exactly who is inside, down to baby Judith. He tells them to come out. They have a choice between two doors. (Easter Egg: the Bible passages refer to scenes where the dead rise and walk again) Gareth offers an opportunity for the priest to take Judith and leave. But Judith starts crying, which alerts Gareth’s group. Gareth smiles. He might keep Judith. She’s helpful.
The gang has their guns pointed at the door. They’re about to go in when two of Gareth’s men are shot in the head. Gareth threatens to blow the door, but Rick shoots him in the hand. Martin (the guy Tyreese beat up) doesn’t want to surrender, but Abraham is beside him with a gun to his head. Rick tells Gareth they didn’t want to waste the bullets on them. Gareth tries to reason with him, saying that they used to help people but things went bad. They were hungry. He can tell that Rick has never known hunger. Gareth says Rick doesn’t have to do this. They can walk away and never see each other again. Rick knows that they will continue to kill other people. Besides, he had a promise to uphold. He took the knife that Gareth almost killed him with and plunges it into Gareth’s head. The rest of the gang kills the other members of Gareth’s group, but no shots are fired. They do this job by hand. When they finish, Rick stands back and reminds everyone that this could have been them. And Gareth would have killed them. Michonne retrieves her blade from the body of one of the men. The four bodies lie on the floor and the altar is covered in blood. Gabriel walks in and sees it. In a shaky voice he says that this is the Lord’s house. “It’s just four walls and a roof,” Maggie replies.
The gang lines up to say goodbye to Bob. Maggie says he’s always be a part of them. As they leave, Bob calls for Rick and asks him to keep Judith. He wants to thank Rick because before the prison he didn’t know if any good people were left, but Rick took him in. He says that days shouldn’t end who you are. “And that’s just a dead man’s opinion.” “We’ll take it.” He tells Rick to look at Judith and tell him that the world isn’t going to change.
Bob smiles peacefully. When he wakes up, he’s still smiling. Sasha is there and he tells her that he’s smiling because she was smiling at him in the dream. She wants to know what good is coming from the bad. Before he can reply, he stops breathing. Sasha starts crying, knowing what she has to do. She grabs her knife. Tyreese comes in and asks for the knife. She hands it over gratefully. Tyreese turns back to the couch and gently grabs Bob’s head. He slides the knife into Bob’s temple just as gently. There is a carving of the Last Supper above.
Abraham gives Rick a copy of their route map. He says that Eugene will work his magic in DC, and Rick’s group should be there for it. Abraham starts the bus and away they go, leaving Rick, Carl, Judith, Tyreese, Sasha, Gabriel and Michonne. Rick looks at the map and there’s a message from Abraham: “Sorry I was an asshole. Come to Washington DC. The New World’s gonna need Rick Grimes.”
Rick helps Tyreese dig graves for the Terminus folk. He asks Tyreese about his trip to Terminus. Tyreese says telling the story will kill him. “No, it won’t,” Rick assures him.
Michonne is keeping watch outside that night. Gabriel comes outside and tells her that he can’t sleep. It’s not because of the night before. He sees all of it. She says that will happen, but in time it will fade. Suddenly there is a noise. Michonne approaches the woods. Daryl steps out. Michonne smiles, then asks about Carol. “Come on out,” he says.
End of the episode.
So. A lot happened tonight. Gareth is dead, the gang split up and there are a ton of Walkers in the school nearby. And Daryl seems to be back.
What did you think? And it looks like next week we get to see what happened with Beth!
This article first appeared on DarkMediaOnline.com
Original Airdate: October 26, 2014
