‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5 Premiere Recap — ‘No Sanctuary’ At Terminus

Reunited, strong and deadly, Rick’s gang battled their Terminus captors in the “The Walking Dead” Season 5 premiere – “No Sanctuary.” But, crucial to their survival and their victory was the unexpected and game changing help from Carol Peletier, who turned Terminator on the Termites.

Here’s our blow-by-blow recap of the explosive Season 5 premiere.

Then

Terminans, In A Train Car At Terminus: Inside a darkened train car, a small group of people are rocking back and forth, shaking or simply trying to block out the screams of women being tortured and assaulted nearby. “We should’ve never put up the signs,” a man says to Terminan Gareth. “We were trying to do something good. We were being human beings,” Gareth says. “What are we now, Gareth?” the man asks. This will be a question explored in “The Walking Dead” Season 5.

READ: ‘The Walking Dead’s’ Melissa McBride: I’m ‘So Proud’ Of Carol

Now

Rick/Glenn/Maggie/Sasha/Tara/Michonne/Daryl/Bob/Abraham/Rosita & Eugene, Inside The Train Car At Terminus: Picking up just a short time after their reunion in the train car at the end of Season 4, we catch up with the group as they are using everything the Terminans didn’t take off them to fashion into weapons. It’s a Wolverine-like claw made out of what remains of his belt for Glenn, while Rick’s turning wood in the train car into a shank. As preparations continue, they share updates on their missing loved ones. Daryl tells Maggie he ran after a car with a “white cross painted on it,” after Beth. “But she’s alive?” Maggie asks. “She’s alive,” Daryl says confidently.

Four Terminans headed toward them, this new, take-no-prisoners Rick gives one final reminder to the gang. “You all know what to do: go for their eyes first, then their throats.”

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Surprise! It’s not the door that opens first, but the top, as the Termites drop gas into the car, confusing everyone. With gas masks on, the Termites finally head inside, grabbing and knocking out Rick, and dragging him, Glenn, Bob and Daryl to a trough, past dead bodies and three trash bins that read, “Burn. Feed. Wash.” Three other men from different cars are brought in too, including a familiar face. One half of the sweet hippie couple who met Carol and Rick on the infamous supplies run Carol never came back from in Season 4 (when Rick sent her away for killing Karen) is there too! He (side note: the actor is Robin Lord Taylor, now playing Oswald Cobblepot on “Gotham”) and Rick lock eyes, but exchange no words before a bald man in a bloody apron knocks the young man out with a bat, while another grabs his lifeless head and slits his throat. Gareth walks in just before the duo reach Glenn. “Don’t do this. We can fix this,” Bob pleads. “We have a man who knows how to stop this. He has a cure. We just have to get him to Washington.” “Can’t go back, Bob,” Gareth replies, brushing the suggestion off. He’s all business, this Gareth, who re-gags Bob and then asks Rick what he buried in the woods (last season, before entering Terminus). No information in Rick’s reply prompts Gareth to threaten Bob’s life. Guns — Rick finally admits of the bag’s contents, and a machete he’s going to use to kill Gareth. After laughing at this response, Gareth gets back to business, telling the human butchers they have two hours to get the bodies on the dryers before Terminus goes back to “public face.” A strange silence causes them all to pause. Then, an explosion rocks them all.

Carol, Tyreese & Baby Judith, In The Woods Near Terminus: “I’m gonna get you both there and make sure you’re safe, but I’m not gonna stay,” Carol tells Tyreese as they pass another Terminus sign on the train tracks. Just then, a walker emerges through the trees. “I can’t,” Tyreese says, taking Judith and letting Carol do the dirty work. “You’re gonna have to be able to,” she reminds him. After Carol takes care of the walker, they all hide down a small slope due to an approaching herd. It’s a bleak situation until gunfire in the distance attracts the walkers away from the trio. Carol and Tyreese realize they need a more cautious strategy. “We’ll be real careful. We’re gonna get answers,” she says, as they both wonder what the gunfire means.

Outside of a small house in the woods, a man in a baseball cap is setting up fireworks. While talking to someone on the other end of his walkie-talkie, he mentions Michonne. “Alex didn’t get it. …I knew the chick with the sword was bad news. … I told Albert I want the kid’s hat after they bleed him out,” he laughs. His chuckle ends quickly as he feels a revolver on the back of his skull. “We’re friends of the chick with the sword and the kid in the hat,” this badass Carol says.

“We just have the boy and the samurai. That’s it. We were just protecting ourselves,” the guy says, trying to reason with Carol and Tyreese after they tie him up inside the shack. He explains the Terminans were all going to set off their fireworks at the same time to scare the herd away, a move good for Carol and Tyreese too. Not in her opinion. The walkers are a good distraction for her to get inside. “Carol, how are you going to do this?” Tyreese asks her as she straps her gear on and gets ready to go in. “Gonna kill people,” Carol says, walking out and leaving him behind with baby Judith and the Termite.

Finding a dead, decaying walker, Carol takes a page out of the Season 1 “TWD” playbook, coating a poncho in walker blood and her face in mud. Creeping toward Terminus, Carol reaches the fence, peering in just in time to see Rick, Daryl, Carl and Michonne tied up and dragged off. Deciding she needs to create a distraction, she loads the gun, takes aim at a tank and fires. A few more shots and kaboom! The fence is down and the herd head in. Carol 1, Termites 0.

Rick, Glenn, Bob & Daryl, Inside Terminus: Struggling to get upright following the blast, everyone in the Terminus human slaughterhouse is shaken. The butchers take their eyes off the ball just long enough for Rick to break free and kill them. Fearless Rick then helps his friends from their bonds. Quickly, they all gather weapons. Bob is just about to put his knife through a dead Terminan’s brain when Rick stops him. “Don’t,” Rick says. “Let him turn.” As they head outside, Rick reminds his group they are at war. “Cross any of these people, you kill ’em. Don’t hesitate. They won’t.” At the doorway to the courtyard, it’s Glenn who speaks for what’s right. “We’ve gotta let those people out,” he says, nodding toward another train car. “That’s still who we are. It’s gotta be.” Running outside, they take down walkers and open the train car. “We’re the same!” screams the crazy looking lone man who leaps out, all long hair, beard and face tattoos. As he cackles, a walker jumps him and turns him into lunch. Now, to get to their friends. But there’s no safe way to get to them. Walkers and Termites are everywhere. Knowing there’s no time to waste Rick runs into the danger zone, crouching by the side of a car. Once the walkers pass and then the Terminans, Rick leaps into action, knocking the last man out, before taking his gun and shooting his captors. “We don’t have to double back,” Rick tells his group. The path is now clear to their friends.

Carol, Inside Terminus: It’s like a thrift shop sorting table in the first room Carol goes into. She finds Rick’s old watch and Daryl’s crossbow, which she slings over her shoulder. “Never again. Never Trust,” reads the signs on the wall of the makeshift cemetery Carol walks though. She’s not alone. “Drop your weapons and turn around. I want to see your face,” shouts Mary, the older woman who was barbecuing (in Season 4), when Maggie, Glenn, Tara, Sasha and Abraham’s group first arrived. Carol slowly slips off Daryl’s crossbow, turns and whips up the gun that was hidden under her poncho, firing at Mary. She misses. It’s a knockdown, drag out fight, but Carol gets the advantage, and Mary gives up. “The signs, they are real. It was a sanctuary. People came and took this place. And they raped and they killed,” Mary explains. “But we got out and we fought and we got it back and we heard the message… You’re the butcher or you’re the cattle,” she adds. Singularly focused, Carol asks after her friends. No reply prompts Carol to shoot Mary in the leg to try and get her to talk. “You could have been one of us,” Mary says. “You could have listened to what the world is telling you.” But that isn’t who Carol is. After another exchange, Carol gathers her weapons and heads off to find her friends, letting hungry walkers in. Mary screams.

Tyreese, Baby Judith & Terminan, In The Shack: Walkers distract Tyreese long enough for the Termite to jump up and grab Judith’s head. He orders Tyreese outside or he’ll kill the baby. Once Tyreese is outside, the man gets on his walkie-talkie. “Cynthia, do you copy?” the man asks, shouting above the sounds of Tyreese fighting for his life. Radio silence follows. Then, silence outside. Crash! Tyreese breaks in and kills the Terminan, beating him to death with his fists.

Sasha/Eugene & The Gang, Inside The Train Car: Stopping her weapon-making work, Sasha demands to know what the cure is in case things go south. Eugene doesn’t need to answer, his traveling companion Rosita says, defending him, but Sasha won’t give up. “I was part of a 10-person team at the human genome project that weaponized diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms with pathogenic microorganisms. Fire with fire. Interdepartmental drinks were had, relationships made, information shared. I am keenly aware of all the details behind failsafe delivery systems to kill every living person on this planet,” Eugene explains. “I believe with a little tweaking on the terminals in D.C., we can flip the script. Take out every last dead one of ’em. Fire with fire.” Before anyone can process what Eugene said, it’s Rick to the rescue. The train car now open, it’s time to fight. And they do. Tara, Rosita and Sasha look particularly fierce, taking down walkers left and right. Superfighter Michonne has wooden shanks back to back for an impressive double sided walker killing weapon. Rick takes aim at the Terminans, killing several and hitting Gareth in the shoulder, before Rick’s gang makes a break for it over the fence.

Daryl, Rick & The Gang, In The Woods Outside Terminus: “Right here,” Daryl says, pointing out the spot they buried the guns and supplies in, in Season 4. “Go along the fences. Use the rifles. Take out the rest of them,” Rick insists. “They don’t get to live.” His words surprise everyone. “Rick, we got out. It’s over,” Glenn says. “It’s not over ’til they’re all dead,” Rick states. Leader of his own trio, Abraham, is not impressed. “I’m not d**king around with this crap. We just made it out,” the redhead spits out. Maggie won’t budge either. Just then, there’s a rustling in the woods. It’s Carol. Fittingly, it’s Daryl who sees her first. Running to her, they embrace. He lifts up her tiny frame, hugging her close. The moment hits Rick hard too, and he starts to smile, while Daryl backs up and gets misty-eyed. “Did you do that?” Rick asks. Carol nods. Cradling her head as he embraces her, Rick says simply, “Thank you.” Tears! But there’s more. “You have to come with me,” Carol says, leading everyone to the shack.

At the little house, Tyreese walks out holding Judith close. Overwhelmed and elated, Rick drops his gun and charges toward his baby girl. Carol smiles. Grabbing his baby, Rick hugs her close. Carl comes in too for the touching Grimes family reunion. Spotting Tyreese, Sasha runs over and jumps on her brother, tears streaming down her face. Standing back watching, there’s a moment of pain in Daryl’s eyes. He knows Beth won’t be coming out of that house.

Seeing the smoke coming off of Terminus, Rick makes a decision. “We need to go,” he tells the group. “Yeah, but where?” Daryl asks. “Somewhere far away from there,” Rick says. Abraham and Rosita exchange a look (clearly about Eugene and the Washington mission). “We’ll talk to him,” the redhead tells his companion.

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Back on the train tracks, they walk past a Terminus sign. Scooping up some of the mud, Rick smears it on the sign. “NO Sanctuary,” it now reads.

Then

Gareth, In A Train Car At Terminus: A crying Mary is tossed into the car with her people – and her son, Gareth. “That one,” a soulless man says pointing to a woman who is dragged out while pleading, “not again.” As he comforts his mother, Gareth makes a decision. “We’re gonna take it back… We will,” he promises her. “You’re either the butcher or the cattle.”

Now

Morgan Returns! Morgan (Lennie James) is back. And he’s walking down the train tracks.

“The Walking Dead” Season 5 continues Sunday nights at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.

— Jolie Lash