User Reviews

I'm still shaking from this gut wrenching, intense, heart touching and deep episode. my god it was Top Notch. everything that you expected to see is all packed up right here in this episode. a very deep character development (Tyreese, carol), a lot of excellent gore action scenes, and finally, terminus is a crazy place full of cannibals, something we've been waiting to find out for so long (7 moths!). but that's not all. they have actually a background for behaving like this. and Carol's now truly a Badass. she did excellent job. Mary/Carol scene was just perfect. walkers were awesome. all of them are now together and everything is cool. we're just gonna have to see how long will it remain like this. by the way, that slaughterhouse scenes were so horrible and scary. my heart was like a damn rocket ball inside of my CHEST. the tearful reunions were also sweet and enjoyable to watch. I am in a very good place right now. I got what I WANTED. I am absolutely satisfied with this episode an finally I hope that this season will keep the pace and action and Character study for the upcoming Episodes.and what can i say after that final final scene. someone so sweet is back.Morgan is back Score 10/10

This was, in my opinion, the best episode so far of The Walking Dead. The wait for this premiere has felt like a long one, but the episode picks up just where it left off and makes you feel as if you never even quit watching the show.

This review will be quick and short, just like the episode felt.

The writers didn't waste their time dragging out this Terminus thing. They're in and they're out, leaving fire, blood and death in their wake. Refusing to focus on the cannibalism of the Terminus group was a wise choice. Even the producers of The Walking Dead know we, the viewers, can only handle so much. The short scenes of cannibalism were enough to make you queasy.

Each episode they find a new way to kill a zombie that tops the last. This time? Zombies on fire. Can't beat that.

The best part, though, about this episode is the few short minutes when the group finally reunites. Tears are shed and hugs are given, and it's right then that I realized how emotionally attached to these characters I've become.

I used to pity them, but as the series has progressed, I've come to love them.

Overall, 10/10. If the writers keep it up like this for the rest of the next 15 episodes, we may just have one incredible season on our hands.

-Jackson

The 5th season of the Walking Dead opens with some of the most gut-wrenchingly gripping television you'll ever see and then reduces you to tears with moments of sheer emotion.

Starting right off where we left Rick and co- locked up in a shipping container - we see just how far the inhabitants of terminus have fallen from their humanity and then, just when you think this cant get any darker an unexpected savior appears -and hell well and truly follows her.

The episode shows how the togetherness and sheer will of our plucky band can seemingly get them out of any situation and keep their humanity intact.

Emotionally sapping and gripping beyond words this opener bodes well for the new series.

The Season 5 opener for THE WALKING DEAD is one of the most explosive and truly satisfying episodes in TV history, and I give all credit to Scott Gimple for giving us a show that paid off all the plot threads so carefully weaved in the second half of Season 4. Many fans complained of the slow pacing of the show after the fall of the prison, when whole episodes were devoted to the development of a couple of characters: Darryl and Beth go to the country club while Carole and Tyreese hide out in a cabin in the woods with a couple of peculiar little girls. And then there was the interminable trek to Terminus, which culminated with Rick and the gang imprisoned inside a railroad car awaiting the tender mercies of a community of cannibals.

Well there was nothing slow about NO SANCTUARY, no sooner had Rick, Bob, Darryl and Glenn been hauled to the killing room before all hell broke loose thanks to Carole, who turns out to be the big hero of this episode; how far has she come since her first appearance way back in Season 1. The battle of Terminus takes up the bulk of the show and it is surely the longest sustained set piece action scene of the entire series, a three sided slaughter between Rick and company, the Termites and a herd of walkers bent on eating anyone they can get their rotting claws on. The poor loon freed from the pod who gets eaten seconds after being released is surely the most unlucky person in the history of a show filled with them, even poor Otis got off better. Then there was Sam, from Season 4's INDIFFERENCE, who doesn't even get a line before his throat is slit, but don't feel bad for Robin Lord Taylor, he's doing great playing The Penguin on GOTHAM.

I don't think there has been an episode filled with more truly epic moments, but I think most people will say it is the reunions in the last half hour that makes the show, the look on Darryl and Rick's faces when the first see Carole will bring tears to the eyes, as well as Rick and Carl's first glimpse of baby Judith. For me, the best moment is at the cabin when Martin, who has forced Tyreese to go outside or he'll snap Judith's neck, suddenly realizes the walkers have gone silent, it's our tip off that something badass is about to happen and we're not disappointed.

The acting from all involved was excellent, even if some of the regulars spent most of the time in the background (Tara, Rosita). Andrew J. West as Gareth, the leader of Terminus, went about his murderous business with the attitude of a middle manager, while Chris Coy as his underling Martin, a man who would kill a baby with his bare hands, has to be one of the vilest characters yet. If Coy looked vaguely familiar, it was because he was on TRUE BLOOD a few seasons back. That there were no big deaths in the escape from Terminus shows that Rick Grimes really knew what he was talking about at the end of last season when said the denizens of Terminus did not know what kind of people they were screwing with. And on the subject of Terminus, the series of brief flashbacks revealed that they were one more in a long line of ordinary or even good people driven to depravity in the wake of the Zombie Apocalypse, they join a growing list that includes Joe, the Governor, and even Shane. The sight of those tables filled with items taken from their victims-watches, children's stuffed animals-shows how low they had allowed themselves to fall.

I do wonder how Carole got all that Walker blood and guts off her face so quickly in time for the big reunion; guess even if civilization ends, a girl can still find the time to spruce herself up.

I do worry that after such a great opening act, how can the rest of Season 5 sustain the momentum, but the final scene, which gives us a long anticipated return of a favorite character, does give me great hope that we haven't seen anything yet. When will Negan show up?

For an entire half of a season they built up tension for what Terminus could become, however once again the writers have completely wasted their time. Its much too rushed and its starting to lose purpose. This isn't the first time that they have thrown away a solid story, others include Lizzy and the claimers. Personally i think they should have at least tried to get like three or four episodes with them stuck in Terminus and this sort of thing is what is losing The Walking Dead interest, people want a good story not a rushed one with an overuse of action.

However, saying that the episode was still enjoyable. There was some well tension built action sequences, a nice little emotional moment towards the end with Judith, and a cliffhanger than definitely interests me and makes me want to see more, and see how they can develop Morgans story from here on, i just hope they don't keep rushing things like this because it would be a shame.

SPOILERS.

This episode has such poor writing it's hilarious. In the scene where the people are getting their throats slit to bleed out, of course when they are about to do it to glen something makes the guy stop.. twice.. Then you have Carol shoot a BOTTLE ROCKET. Yes, a BOTTLE ROCKET, over 150 yards to perfectly hit a tank and make it explode. Everything just magically works out perfectly for this group of survivors!

Not only do they have to worry about walkers during their escape, but people with automatic weapons. And yet somehow, they all escape perfectly fine. What an absolute joke.

The Crew hanging by the whiskers of death, where able to pull through by sheer determination but more by providence and fate.

Terminus - i mean how did they descend to the lowest abyss of human mutilation without mercy, compassion or thought. They deserved to die horribly. I mean the tension was quite high watching the scene where i thought Glen would get it.

The reunion was so emotional, i cried. This episode is a sign that the writers might get it right with this season. The previous season (4) seemed to drag around a lot in episodes without hitting the nail on the head. This is the best episode ever.

This is my favourite episode its the best..............,,..................... .

I would have given this episode a 9 or 10/10 if it weren't for the cannibals and the ending flashback to "then." No Sanctuary has everything you could ever want in a Walking Dead episode: frantic action sequences, fantastic directing, incredible acting, and awesome visuals, especially all the walkers on fire after Carol blew up the tank. The only thing preventing this episode from a higher rating is how dark the story was. It was a crazy plot twist that the people at Terminus were cannibals, but I didn't think it was necessary to show the bodies hanging and cut up like meat and the ending scene where the people who inhabited Terminus in this episode were being abused in a flashback. I loved the moments at the end when all of the good people prevail and get together to travel, but I think the episode should have just cut off after Rick wrote "No Sanctuary" on the Terminus sign, and not gone to the "Then" flashback. Otherwise, fantastic episode, with a few, minor issues like too much brutality. I know it's the Walking Dead and it's a horror show, but this just crossed the line.