Season 5 of The Walking Dead was packed full of gasp-inducing, jaw-dropping, cringe-worthy, heart-wrenching moments, so many so that I just used 4 hyphens to begin to scratch the surface of the amount of pulse-pounding, thoughts-racing, mind-blowing (make that 7 hyphens) action that we just witnessed.
Let’s remember 7 big moments from season 5 of The Walking Dead, one moment for every hyphen used.
[divider]7 Big Moments from Season 5 of The Walking Dead[/divider]#1 Heart-Wrenching: Beth Being Gunned Down in the Hospital
Oh, Beth, bless your heart. We knew when we saw you hide that blade that it was only going bring trouble. Then it happened.
But it was a beautifully shot sequence, from the slow motion of Beth’s death to Dawn’s face. Then to see Daryl carrying to lifeless Beth only to see Maggie’s reaction made for a truly heart-wrenching moment.
#2 Cringe-Worthy: The Cannibals of Terminus
I’ll be the first to admit it, the terminus slaughter scene was uncomfortable to watch and many times I thought about shielding or adverting my eyes.
As the bound and gagged men were being clubbed over the head, only to then have their throats slit…man, I’m having trouble even typing it. The whole scene was just excruciating to watch, which is saying something from a show that has nothing but disturbing scene after disturbing scene.
Of course, it came full circle with the scene of Bob’s leg being eaten, before he got a bit of sweet revenge, gleefully shouting, “Tainted meat! Tainted meat!”
#3 Mind-Blowing: Eugene’s Zombie Cure Was a Lie
OK, the minute we first saw that mullet you knew something wasn’t right, so to learn that Eugene really didn’t have a cure to the zombie plague was hardly mind-blowing.
Oh, whatever. Quit looking at me with your judgmental eyes. Like you haven’t shoe-horned a hyphenated ‘mind-blowing’ into a walking dead article you’ve written!
We knew something was fishy about Eugene and his ‘classified’ plan to save the human race, but darned if his odd quirkiness didn’t keep us hooked on the line. Still, it was satisfying to watch Abraham knock him out cold.
Never trust a man with a mullet. Not even during the zombie apocalypse.
#4 Gasp-Inducing: Noah Eaten in a Revolving Door
Just when you think The Walking Dead couldn’t create any more interesting situations involving zombies, they place our plucky survivors in a revolving door, holding back a horde.
I must say, even though I knew Nicholas’ cowardice ranked off the charts, I didn’t see it coming when he sacrificed Noah to save himself.
Glenn’s response was emotional, but the gasp-inducing aspect of the sequence was the gory nature in which we saw Noah meet his demise. Holy smokes, Walking Dead, I didn’t need to see that.
#5 Pulse-Pounding: Waiting to See When Morgan Would Finally Catch Up to Rick
Morgan has been a favorite character of mine from the beginning, so episode after episode I was waiting for him to pop into frame. I got excited to every glimpse from every post-episode scene, knowing at some point Morgan was going to catch up to Rick.
But why? We won’t know until season 6, but for now, it was fantastic to watch Morgan beat everyone – human and zombie alike – with a stick.
#6 Jaw-Dropping: Watching Martin Threaten to Snap Judith’s Neck
Few things are still taboo on TV, but harming babies is one of them. Even though it wasn’t in the same league of gore or graphicness of some scenes from The Walking Dead, the mere thought of someone threatening a baby is jaw-dropping.
I still wasn’t recovered from ‘look at the flowers’ when crazy cannibal Martin seized on Tyrese’s gentle nature and threatened to break little Judith’s neck, showing how far the the Terminus gang were willing to go in order to survive.
Martin deserved every punch Tyrese threw at him once he busted back into that cabin, cause good heavens, man, you don’t threaten harm on a baby.
#7 Thoughts-Racing: Rick Executing Pete in Front of Everyone
My thoughts are still racing from the closing scene of season 5. Even as a comic reader who had an idea of things went down, the closing moments were still satisfying for me and has me fixated on what could be coming in season 6.
Words wouldn’t break through to Deanna, but to see Pete – a problem that she failed to fix – slice down Reg finally got her attention. When she said, “Rick. Do it.”, the next thing we heard was BLAM!
There was no hesitation from Rick, he was a dog let off the chain, and had no pause in executing Pete in front of everyone, including his wife, Jessie.
Mr. “All Life is Precious” Morgan walks in just in time to witness the execution. End scene.
Tabletop Takeaways: Tips for Dungeon Masters with a Narrative Spin