So who is this mysterious priest on The Walking Dead? What is he hiding? What is going to happen to Bob? The Walking Dead is really ramping it up this season! Check out Josh’s recap for Season 5 Episode 3, titled Four Walls and a Roof, as well as both Josh’s and Violet’s thoughts after the jump!
Don’t need the The Walking Dead episode recap for Four Walls and a Roof? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s The Walking Dead episode, Four Walls and a Roof, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 3: Four Walls and a Roof
This episode of The Walking Dead picks up right where Bob’s leg left off—on the grill with the remaining Terminians snacking. Gareth is “being human” as he puts it, and talks with Bob, as he lays in agony staring at his missing limb. Gareth monologues about how Terminus used to be a good place until they were invaded, and Gareth and company had to retake their home. He equates the Terminians’ new way of life to how bears survive. Mother bears will eat their cubs if there is not enough food for them to survive, he reasons. This is so that the bear race doesn’t go extinct. You see, as Gareth continues, if both the cub and the mother die, it’s a double loss. Cannibalism obviously makes sense in this light, doesn’t it?
Bob breaks down crying at first, but he does have the last laugh—almost literally. As his cries turn to crazed cackling, he begins screaming, “Tainted meat!” and reveals he has been bitten. Gareth and the Terminians vomit the meat up, and panic that they could get infected. Gareth reassures them the meat was thoroughly cooked, and they will be fine. Bob, in the midst of his laughter, is knocked out.
Back at the church, Sasha has gone outside, and looks for Bob, unable to find him, she feels as though she is being watched. After looking through her night scope on her rifle, she is attacked by a few walkers. Rick and Tyreese come out to assist, and Sasha explains her feelings. She is concerned because Daryl, Carol and Bob are all missing.
The three head back into the church, and Sasha confronts our friendly priest, demanding to know his involvement in the disappearances of there three people. He denies having any involvement, and Rick steps in to continue the questioning. Rick demands to know what the good priest is hiding, and it is finally revealed.
As suspected, the priest let the town folks die when the apocalypse hit. He didn’t let anyone in, and so the walkers came and killed the people begging for help. But he claims that he still had nothing to do with what is happening now.
Outside, Bob is redelivered to the group, minus a leg of course. Also, on the side of the building, an “A” has been painted in blood. Rick fires into the forest providing some mediocre cover as Bob is helped into the house. Bob is still alive, and is given a place to rest. He then reveals to the group he has been bitten. Sasha is furious and sad all at once. Rick asks Bob what he remembers about where he was held. The priest informs the group that the location is about 10 minutes away.
So at this point, Abraham has had enough, and wants to continue his mission to Washington D.C., getting away from this danger. Rick is not allowing it though, and they almost come to blows, especially when Abraham says he is taking the bus that was fixed. Tara tries to step in and offer to go with Abraham, but only if they can buy one more day of assistance from Abraham, Rosita and Eugene (Eugene isn’t a whole lot of help so far, but didn’t want to leave him out!). Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to convince him, so Glenn sweetens the pot—he and Maggie will go too if Abraham gives them one day. Abraham renegotiates to 12 hours. Both sides accept, despite Rick not being terribly happy about it.
So, the plan is discussed, but us the viewers do not really get to hear the majority of it, other than it appears a good portion of the fighters in the group will be going to hunt down Gareth and his men. There is some discussion as to who will go, and Sasha demands to go despite Tyreese trying to get her to stay with Bob in his final moments. Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, Rick, Abraham, and Michonne are the crew going “hunting”. The rest of the group will be hiding in the church, behind locked doors, just in case.
The “just in case” is the big part of that last sentence. Rick and his party head out to find Gareth, and when they are out of sight, we see shadowy figures walking towards the church. These shadowy figures are exactly who you think they are—Gareth and his men have been waiting for this moment to come. They break in to the church, and announce themselves. They approach the locked doors, and after an agonizing few minutes, they are about to bust in, but two men drop dead after two silencer shots are fired. Then from the shadows emerge Rick, Michonne, Sasha, Abraham, Glenn and Maggie.
Gareth first thinks he still has the upper hand, and threatens to shoot into the room with Judith in it (he had heard Judith crying, and knew which room she was in). But that is quickly put to rest with a couple more gunshots, taking off Gareth’s fingers. He then pleads his case, explaining how Terminus used to be, and how he was forced into this life style, and if he is allowed to leave, Rick will never see him again. But Rick, a man of his word, has a certain weapon in hand. One he promised Gareth about. The red handed machete. Gareth and the remaining men are hacked to death by Rick, Sasha and Abraham.
After this bloody encounter, the group says their goodbyes to Bob. One important goodbye is the one to Rick. Bob thanks Rick for showing him there were still good people left. After their exchange, Sasha sits with Bob until he is gone. Tyreese realizes that Bob is gone, and does the mercy killing for her, so she would not have to witness it herself.
Graves are dug for Bob, and the rest of the men. Tyreese again is doing the grave digging, and Rick joins him. Rick asks Tyreese how he was on his road to Terminus. Tyreese grimly says he died. Rick responds telling him that he didn’t.
But as promised, Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, Maggie, Glen and Tara leave in the bus for DC. The rest of the gang is staying behind in hopes to find Daryl and Carol.
So the episode is nearly over, but there is one final scene. Outside the church, someone emerges from the bushes. Daryl has returned, but Carol is mysteriously missing. But there is another mystery person with Daryl that he beckons to, but we do not see due to the scene cutting before they emerge. Such a tease!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 3: Four Walls and a Roof
Another excellent episode of The Walking Dead, I thought. I have heard and read people describing Gareth as a “likeable” villain, but I am not sure that is the case. I think he is a very dislikable villain, which is what made him such an excellent one. How can someone who is so disassociated from humanity be considered a “likable” person? He is essentially a sociopath manufactured from the world of The Walking Dead.
Gareth had some interesting characteristics though. The big one this episode is that despite his disassociation from humanity, he learned the names of all of his victims, or would be victims. He knows most of everyone’s name in Rick’s group. I have to think that this just heightens his coldblooded nature though. A strategy for victims to try to save themselves from their attacker is to try to relate to them, and a big way to do this is using your own name—putting a name to the face that is being hurt. For Gareth, this did not matter. He had no guilt when chomping on Bob’s leg.
When the scene goes down between Rick and Gareth and the red machete, there was a weird mix of emotions going on for me. At first I was elated to see that evil cannibal-hipster get his due. But as Rick hacked more and more, the savagery in Rick became more apparent, and I was concerned that Rick is losing more of his humanity, and possibly could eventually end up on the same level as Gareth one day. I completely agree with the decision to dispatch these terrible people, but I do not think such a violent way was needed. A couple quick swipes would suffice I would think. Even letting them turn I would probably be ok with, but the viciousness Rick, Sasha and Abraham showed was traumatic. Glenn and Maggie, who witnessed the executions, seemed horrified by what had happened.
But in the end, Rick was right when he wanted to go back and finish off Gareth and his men in the first episode of the season. Bob might still be alive if they had done so. I guess it is possible that more would have been lost trying to navigate the chaos, surrounded by Terminians and walkers, but in the end I bet Rick feels they should have went back.
I have to say, I hate the splitting of the groups yet again. They just reunited, and they are already drifting apart. Glenn and Maggie especially, should have more loyalty to Rick than to Abraham. So far they have no evidence that this Eugene guy can do anything about this apocalypse anyway. Why would you leave the people you have been with since this has started?
From a story perspective I get it though. It is hard to write meaningful stories for a group of 20 people, and much easier to when you break that group into smaller groups. Remaining as one large group would have characters falling into the background, which would not be good for the show. But hopefully they do meet up again. Also, why would Maggie simply leave her sister behind? Is she assuming that Beth is dead? It seems a little heartless that she would not stay and try to look for her.
But for the final mystery—what is going on with Daryl? Who is he with? Did he find Beth? Where is Carol? So much left unanswered! I have feeling he doesn’t have Beth yet though, as the scenes from next week show her in a hospital. One that doesn’t look like the helpful kind either. I am hoping for answers on that next week!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 3 of The Walking Dead: Four Walls and a Roof
Okay, so this whole time I thought Gareth was supposed to join up with Rick’s group to go to Washington, D.C. This wasn’t some odd idea that I came up with on my own, it is what the Season 5 Comic-Con trailer made it look like. So when this episode ended with Rick and the others mutilating Gareth and his posse, I was a little confused. At first I thought that I just had mis-remembered the trailer, which was a definite possibility, considering that the only time I had seen it was at Comic-Con, 3 months ago. But after this episode, I went back and re-watched it, and it is SO misleading! In the trailer, Gareth specifically talks about joining up and going to Washington, and the way that it’s cut makes it look like he’s sitting there having a nice chat with Rick’s group! Then in the trailer, Rick talks about not trusting “this guy,” making us think that “this guy” is Gareth, when now we know he was talking about Father Gabriel — who we only see for about a split second in the trailer. But yeah, it’s kind of annoying how the trailer blatantly suggests a storyline that is far from the truth. I mean, I know they don’t want to give away what’s going to happen in the upcoming season, but that’s no reason to put forth such a false representation of the season!
Anyway, all that aside, after last week’s episode, this episode was a nice return to some excitement — though it was quite brutal. However, it seemed a little too obvious what the “secret plan” was. I also thought that this sudden conflict that arose between Abraham and Rick was merely a way to create some unneeded friction in an already dangerous situation. It felt a little weird to me that people were so willing to offer themselves up to go with Abraham so easily. Especially Glenn, who volunteered himself and Maggie without even consulting Maggie first! And then Maggie doesn’t even seem to notice that Beth, her sister, is missing. Another thing that felt like it was just a red herring was the conflict with the priest, making it look like he was somehow in on it with Gareth — that ploy also seemed a little transparent to me. As suspected, he was just guilty about letting his congregation die outside his locked church doors while walkers attacked.
So, what have Daryl and Carol been up to? Who is with Daryl? Is it Beth, or someone new, or just Carol, or both Carol and Beth, or what? By the scenes below from the next episode, it sounds as if he found Beth, but that he had to leave her behind, for now. Will the next episode be a flashback of Daryl and Carol’s perspective while the rest of the group have been fighting Gareth’s gang? Will it be from the perspective of Beth from the point that she was kidnapped last season? Can’t wait to find out!
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 5 Episode 4: Slabtown
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Walking Dead, titled Slabtown:
