Violet recaps the Season 5 finale of The Walking Dead, titled Conquer, where the town prepares to have a meeting to figure out what to do with Rick following his fight with Pete! Meanwhile, Aaron and Daryl run into trouble while out recruiting. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 16: Conquer
The episode begins with Morgan waking up in the back seat of a car that has crashed into a tree in the woods. He begins making breakfast over a fire, when he is approached by a man with a gun. The man has a W on his forehead. The man says he wants everything Morgan has, and that he’s going to take him away, though he won’t be alive. Morgan says he can have all his supplies, but he won’t allow the man to take him away. Another man jumps out from behind the bushes to attack Morgan, but Morgan fends off the attack, and hits the attacker with a long staff. He continues to fight off the two men with the staff, and knocks them out, then takes their gun. A walker approaches, but it turns out the gun was empty, so Morgan hits the walker in the head with his staff. Morgan then puts the two unconscious men in the back seat of the car, and honks the horn.
Away on their journey, Daryl and Aaron stop their vehicles, and venture into the woods.
Back at Alexandria, Rick wakes up, bandaged, and it turns out that Michonne has been keeping watch over him all night. She tells him that they put Pete in another house, but is upset that he didn’t tell her what was going on. Glenn, Carol, and Abraham stop by to see Rick. Carol says it was stupid of Rick to have taken the gun from the armory. Carol tells Rick to just tell them a story that they want to hear at the meeting that will take place that night. Rick devises a plan to take over the armory if it seems that things are going bad at the meeting.
Maggie goes to Deanna to talk about the meeting and sticks up for Rick. Deanna says she’s going to do what she has to do. Reg talks to Maggie and seems to be on her side.
Outside the walls, Sasha rounds up walker bodies to throw them into a hole that’s been dug. She decides to lay down on top of the walker bodies.
Aaron and Daryl discuss setting up mics. Aaron tells Daryl about having to send people away.
Carol speaks with Rick privately and gives him a gun. Rick wonders why Carol didn’t want to tell the others that they have more guns. She says it was “just in case.” Rick says he doesn’t want to lie anymore, but Carol knows Rick is lying when he says he doesn’t want to take this place.
Aaron and Daryl spy on a man, who is wearing a red poncho, and smearing water leeks on himself to keep the mosquitoes away.
Rick walks home and gets some suspicious stares along the way.
Maggie tells Glenn she’s been talking to people, and is going to try to solve this. Glenn notices Nicholas climbing up the back wall. Meanwhile, Spencer lets Father Gabriel out through the front gate to go for a walk, but Father Gabriel refuses to take a gun.
Rick returns home, and Carl is relieved to see him. Carl tries to convince his father that the town needs them, though Rick warns Carl about what he might have to do at the meeting.
It seems Aaron and Daryl have lost track of the man they were tracking. They come across a canned food warehouse and decide to go in and get some food to bring back. They open the back of one of the trucks, which trips a rope that opens up all of the trucks – which are all filled with walkers. They are soon overrun, and have to fight their way past the walkers. Some of the walkers have a W carved into their forehead. Aaron and Daryl take refuge inside of a nearby car. Aaron finds a note that says, “Trap. Bad people coming. Don’t stay.”
Carol stops by to see Pete, and tells him he needs to check on Tara. She holds a knife to his chin, and calls him weak. After she leaves, Pete drops her food dish on the floor, and sounds like he’s breaking things, saying, “This isn’t my house!”
Glenn has followed Nicholas into the woods, but seems to have lost track of him. Nicholas shoots Glenn in the shoulder.
Rick stops by to see Jessie. She says people shouldn’t see them talking right now. Rick says he’s not sorry he did it. Jessie tells him that he was right.
Aaron and Daryl decide to make a break for it. But just as they’re about to leave the car, Morgan shows up and helps fight off the walkers. All 3 are able to make it past the walkers to the other side of the fence and close the gate, locking the walkers on the other side. They ask him why, and Morgan says, “Because all life is precious.” Aaron invites Morgan to join their community, but Morgan declines, saying he’s on his way somewhere, though he says he’s lost. Morgan hands Daryl his map, and Daryl sees that it’s the one that has Rick’s name on it.
Father Gabriel comes across a walker having a meal, and steps out, saying, “I’m ready.” Father Gabriel grabs the noose that’s around the walker’s neck, pulling it enough to take the walker’s head off. Then he uses a rock to bash the walker’s head in. He does the same for the walker’s victim, who is beginning to turn. Then he collapses crying in the middle of the road.
Abraham comes by to see Tara, who is still unconscious. But when he sees Eugene, he starts to leave. However, Rosita points out that Eugene is asleep, and insists that he come in. But then Rosita makes a loud noise, waking Eugene up. Eugene apologizes, and so does Abraham.
Father Gabriel returns to the gate, and Spencer lets him in. He says he wants to meet with Father Gabriel about Aiden later, and asks him to close the gate. Father Gabriel pulls the gate closed, but it doesn’t latch, and bounces back open a bit. However, he doesn’t notice.
Glenn attacks Nicholas while he is distracted by a walker. They fight, and Nicholas gets the upper hand, pummeling Glenn on the ground. Some walkers approach, and Nicholas leaves Glenn on the ground to be attacked by the walkers.
Michonne comes to get Rick, and Rick decides to confess to her about the guns. Michonne assures Rick that she’s still with him. He tries to give his gun to her, but she has him keep it. She tells him something is going to happen, but says for him not to make something happen. She leaves, and Rick contemplates things alone. He looks outside and sees that the gate has been left open. He goes out to investigate, and finds flesh on the corner of the gate, and sees drops of blood along the path. He goes searching for any walkers that have gotten in.
Father Gabriel returns to his makeshift church and finds Sasha there. She asks him for help, but he says no.
Deanna decides to start the meeting, even though Rick and Glenn are not there yet. Deanna is disappointed that Rick isn’t showing up, since the meeting is about his behavior. Maggie, Michonne, and Carol are confident that Rick will be there.
Father Gabriel starts yelling at Sasha, blaming what happened to Bob on her sins. Sasha snaps, and attacks Father Gabriel.
While Michonne speaks in support of Rick, he finds and fights a few walkers.
In the woods, Glenn finds Nicholas and punches him in the face, knocking him down.
Carol says her piece about Rick, saying that they need him. Then Abraham makes his speech. Meanwhile, Rick kills a walker with his bare hands.
Back at the canned food warehouse, the bad guys have brought the red poncho man there. They see that their trap has been set off, and decide to slit the man’s throat.
After Maggie speaks for Rick, Deanna reveals what Father Gabriel told her about them.
Glenn holds a gun to Nicholas’s head. Meanwhile, Sasha holds points her rifle at Father Gabriel.
At the canned food warehouse, the bad guys play some music, luring the walkers back into the trucks to reset their trap.
As a resident begins to speak his opinion at the meeting, Rick comes in with the body of a dead walker.
Glenn decides not to pull the trigger, then breaks down and cries.
Maggie walks in and finds Sasha, who relents. However, Father Gabriel says she should let her, and says, “They all died because of me.” Maggie takes his hand, and helps him up. The three pray together.
Rick tells the others about the unlocked gate. He says that both the dead and the living will always get in, because they’re in there. He says they’ll try to use them and try kill them. But Rick says he’ll show the others how to survive. Pete shows up at the meeting with Michonne’s sword, and in the scuffle, slices Reg’s throat. Deanna tells Rick, “Do it.” He shoots Pete. Just then, Aaron and Daryl return — with Morgan, who has just seen what happened.
Meanwhile, the bad guys have found Aaron’s backpack that has all the pictures of the community.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 16 of The Walking Dead: Conquer
Morgan’s back! I was wondering when we would see him again, and it looks like we may be seeing a lot more of him from now on. Well, that is, depending on how long he wants to stick around after seeing what Rick did. It was pretty cool how Morgan ran into Daryl and Aaron out on the road, and that the reason for Morgan helping them out was because “all life is precious.” He also refrained from killing the guys who attacked him (outright at least). So, he’s probably not going to take very kindly to seeing Rick murder a guy right in front of him.
Speaking of which, I thought it was a little too convenient how Deanna was so wary of Rick, especially after seeing what he did to Pete, and after hearing Father Gabriel’s warnings, that something would happen that would cause her to be in the mindset of Rick and his group now. But I guess it’s possible that some of the town residents may still disagree with Rick’s actions, as Morgan likely will.
I thought it was kind of dumb how they kept teasing Glenn’s death, making him look like a goner, but then having him pop back up out of nowhere. It seemed he was surely going to get killed by that group of walkers that were on him, and we don’t even get to see how he got away.
Another dumb thing was the gate issue. Why would Spencer ask Father Gabriel to get the gate when Spencer was still right next to it, and why would Father Gabriel be so careless? Did he do that on purpose? Does Father Gabriel even know the correct way to close the gate? If I’m in a zombie apocalypse, I’m always going to make sure that whatever barrier I’m hiding behind is secure.
Anyway, Season 6 is just around the corner, and I’m curious to see what happens next, especially with Morgan!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 16: Conquer
So there was a lot going on this episode. The show sure kept teasing the death of Glenn, with Nicholas and Glenn have a back and forth cat and mouse type game. I was really hoping to see Nicholas eaten by walkers or at least left by Glenn. But Glenn is better than that and let the pathetic guy live. Oh well.
Sasha is really having some issues and I am wondering where she will go from here. Her laying with the walkers was pretty weird. But when she pulls the gun on Father Gabriel, I was both glad and more concerned for Sasha. Father Gabriel is another character that I would like to see come to a swift end soon, as apparently he would like to kill all of the people that he has been journeying with the past couple weeks (or however long it has been).
As for the big scene with Rick, Pete, Reg and Deanna, that was an odd scene. Pete was under house arrest, so I am curious how he got out. On top of that, I find out it odd that Deanna would allow Rick to kill him after that. Deanna has basically been trying to “civilize” Rick, and but then has Rick does something extremely savage for her, probably because she didn’t want to get her own hands dirty. It was a bit odd that Deanna let her emotions get in the way, especially when before she was really distrusting Rick and the way he thought things should be run. All this makes me wonder how this town ran before Rick and the rest of the group showed up. Did they have criminal issues before? How were they handled? It would almost be neat to have a miniseries that showed like in Alexandria prior to Rick and the group’s arrival.
But finally, it is great to see Morgan again. He has done a 180 on his personality though, becoming a pacifist since we last saw him, when he was basically nuts. I have a feeling he is going to have a problem with how Rick wants to handle things, considering how “monk-ly” Morgan has become.
I am still undecided as to how I feel about this season, but I hope that season 6 is something that is better than 5, as I definitely have plenty of gripes about season 5. It starts up tonight though, so we shall find out soon enough!
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 1: First Time Again
Here are scenes from the Season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead:
