Hey youtubers it’s charlie and for my first bonus video I thought it would be fun to rank
all 8 of the episodes from the first half of the season.
There were some inconsistencies with the pacing but I’ll explain why everything landed where
it did.
Since we’ve got 8 more weeks to go I’m taking requests for bonus videos so drop all
your info bombs down in the comments.
Just overall I though the first half of season 5 was better than most of season 4, the first
and the second half.
Most of that is due to what was going on with the characters.
I totally don’t mind them not doing explosions as long as there are really strong character
moments I can fall in love with.
Just a general spoiler warning for everything through episode 8 on the show.
Starting with Number 8 - Slabtown, Episode 4.
Also known as the “Beth Episode”
Even Game of Thrones can’t top itself every single week in terms of people’s body parts
getting eaten in front of them, so this at the bottom just because the tone was so inconsistent
with the first three episodes and everything after it.
It’s like an island in a sea of crazy action, but unlike the Governor last year.
Beth or Emily Kinney just doesn’t have the ability to hold screen time like David Morrissey.
The reason why the Governor Episode was so fascinating last year was because we were
seeing the evil king in exile.
Regardless of what you thought of his character arc, he was one of the more interesting characters.
I think if Beth’s episode had been Carol’s episode instead, if it had focused on Carol
exclusively and just explained Beth with a few scenes.
It would have ranked way way higher on my list.
Carol and Michonne are typically the people you think about first when you think of interesting
female characters.
And yes, I get why they wanted to do a “Beth Episode”, but I feel like they could have
accomplished their goal of explaining her story without having to lean so hard on such
a weak character.
And when I say Beth was weak, I just mean underdeveloped.
She lacked some of the complexities of Carol and Michonne.
There was almost no Pathos visible in Emily Kinney’s performance.
If she’d had another season, maybe she’d have gotten there.
All the other women on the show are going through crucibles and coming out stronger.
Beth just didn’t survive the trial by Hospital.
And the only reason I think they killed her was because they needed that place to feel
like a turning point for all the characters and they didn’t want to make Rick too unlikable
by making him murder all those police officers like he was the new governor or something.
Although I don’t think The Governor or Shane for that matter would have gone to the hospital
to rescue Beth in the first place.
Number 7 - Strangers, Episode 2 also known as the “Gabriel Episode”
I totally love Seth Gilliam as an actor, he was awesome on The Wire, he was even good
on Teen Wolf.
But this episode was built around his character and he is just pure walker bait at this point.
Almost to the point where you root for him to get eaten.
I loved the episode for being so faithful to the comics, but this was a pretty weak
follow up to the fiery escape from terminus.
And just to explain the logic here.
None of these episodes were terrible, I even liked the Beth episode.
But some of them were vastly better than the others.
And this one ended up being comic book fanservice and a prologue for the Beth episodes and the
Hunters.
Number 6 - The Mid Season Finale, Episode 8
Why is this so low on my list?
Mostly because it was the most non-finale ever.
It was like the opposite of the premiere.
That first episode ended in this fiery bloodbath scattering the characters and decimating the
Terminus group.
Metaphorically it was like watching a Lion Roar out loud for 44 minutes until Morgan
came out and cracked his whip at it.
They just set the bar too high for themselves.
You just can’t follow that act with anything that’s going to feel even bigger.
Plus the budgets for premiere’s are usually way higher just because they want to pull
in as many new viewers as possible.
Blowing up all those evil termites was a huge win for the characters.
The ending of episode 8 was definitely not a big win, for anyone.
The survivors or the hospital people.
Rewind to Season 4 and the prison battle.
They gave the governor his big win.
He got to destroy something Rick and the survivors loved and rub it in their faces before he
died.
I don’t count dying as a loss for him.
The Governor definitely wanted to die in a really passive kind of way.
So I think he was kind of glad when Tara’s sister finished him off.
This year would have been different if Dawn had been a stronger villain.
But they were trying to be more ambiguous about her alignment and instead, she ended
up feeling ineffectual.
There are a number of reasons the writers could have done that.
But Robert Kirkman said we’re going to see a new villain that will rival the Governor
in terms of ferocity.
I just think they didn’t want Dawn to be mistaken for that person.
And they wanted Rick to seem like more of a Shane.
just to blur the lines between who was in the right.
Number 5 - Crossed, Episode 7, The Lead Up to the Finale
It’s always harder to land the dismount than it is to throw everyone into the air.
So of course the anticipation was better.
Plus all the melty walkers were just some bad ass set design.
I don’t always spend a lot of time talking about the set design but in this case, the
walkers were above and beyond.
Right up there with the waterlogged walkers in Episode 2.
Number 4 - Consumed, Episode 6
This was the Daryl and Carol episode.
Little bit of fan service going on here, pairing these two up in such an intimate way.
But I thought it was a lot of fun and the energy was great.
We get Carol backstory like I wanted, some funny Daryl jokes.
Almost too subtle to be heard with human ears and a lot of sentimentality.
There are a couple of emotions I think go really well with horror drama like Walking
Dead.
Sadness and Sentimentality.
Which are almost the same thing.
I feel like they’re places to take the characters that won’t step on the world they’ve created.
Unlike the Beth Episode there was also some real character development.
We see Daryl and Carol both being victims of abuse, learn from their past and grow.
The most obvious sign, being Daryl snagging the Book.
Character development will always be my favorite thing when there isn’t some major action
set piece like the van going off the overpass.
Even if they didn’t put that in the episode I would still have ranked this really high
on my list.
Number 3 - Self Help, Episode 5
This was All Abraham’s Group and a whole lot of crazy Abraham backstory.
True to form, he’s pretty close to his character in the comics.
They kind of brushed over some of the details in the flashbacks but they showed enough for
us to get the message.
Abraham is every bit as delusional as Eugene.
Michael Cudlitz also got way more active on social media this year so it’s fun to watch
him react to Abraham months after he’s filmed his scenes.
One of the other big reasons this made it so high on my list was the Eugene Reveal.
The minute he showed up all the comic book readers knew the drill.
But I all but forgot about it after the end of season 4.
Josh McDermitt just hypnotizes you with that mullet speak.
Which actually makes some sense.
It does flow from factual information.
He just delivers it in a way that makes it a billion times more confusing than it needs
to be.
That’s his magic.
He really grew on me in this episode.
Especially his relationship with Tara.
They’re my new favorite non-sexual couple.
The actors kind of described it as a brother sister thing.
The Pervert moment was probably one of my favorite funny moments from any of the season
5 episodes.
And no, Tara catching him is in no way going to deter him from trying to peep on abraham
and rosita.
Although he’s probably going to keep himself out of punching distance for the next couple
of episodes.
Number 2 - Four Walls and A Roof, Episode 3
You could also call this Fear the Hunters.
This would have been a great midseason finale episode.
Rick and the survivors taking the Hunters Down, Rick’s machete moment with Gareth.
Tainted Meat.
Such an apropos adaptation of a comic book storyline.
Maybe the fact that they didn’t make us wait for the payoff and killing bob is what
boosted this up my list.
But I think they ran into problems by putting the beth episode right after it when the abraham
episode would have been a smoother transition from epic WTF to less life threatening screams
of horror.
Finding out Eugene was lying was a horrific moment for abraham, but at least someone wasn’t
eating his messed up hand in front of him.
Of all the episode to re-watch while we’re waiting for the season to come back.
This would probably be at the top of my list.
The only reason this wasn’t my number one episode is because the escape from terminus
was like a 44 minute long scream of joy and terror.
You get so cranked up you can’t tell if you’re really freaked out or really happy.
Which is why my Number 1 episode so far was the premiere.
I’d say this is as close to a perfect beginning to a new season as you could do.
The downside being, that you make it almost impossible to one-up yourself.
And you run the chance that everything after feels like a letdown.
Thankfully we got Fear the Hunters, Team Daryl and Carol and Eugene versus Abraham.
They spent all this time teasing Terminus last year.
8 episodes building to something.
Then kaboom.
They just blew it up right after they got there.
Of all the ways we’ve been jerked around by the show, this was the best.
Just as a point of reference, the opposite of that.
The worst moment of us being jerked around was going from Fear the Hunters to a Downer
Beth episode.