BWW Recap: THE WALKING DEAD, The Butcher and the Cattle

That was exhausting and to be honest, not great for my blood pressure. THE WALKING DEAD is back and wasting no time as we begin precisely at the moment we left off all those months ago in the traincar. It looked as if the Terminus crew had won, but clearly, they don't know Rick Grimes and Darryl Dixon.

We begin with the car being teargassed as Rick, Darryl, Bob and Glenn are dragged into a warehouse with four no-name/red-shirts (as well as Hippie Sam from last season aka Robin Lord Taylor, GOTHAM's Penguin) and bent over a trough by the Butchers. One by one they (the red-shirts) are beaten over the head with a bat, their necks slit and leaned forward to drain. Yikes. Luckily, right when they get to Glenn there is an explosion.

See, outside the prison, Carol, Tyrese and Judith (in her stupid baby Uggs) have approached and found an outside Terminus man, Martin who they take hostage. Carol, pulling a Season One Glenn move, bastes herself in walker juice and decides to go undercover into Terminus. She sees the boys being taken captive and blows up the fuel tank.

Since it's Rick and Daryl, they skillfully move through the chaos and walkers and manage to take out the majority of the Terminus crew along the way. They release the rest in the train car after Eugene has revealed his "hypothesis" for the cure. They all escape into the woods where they are reunited with Carol and eventually Tyrese and Judith.

I suspected we wouldn't stay at Terminus long, but I certainly didn't expect it to be wiped out in one episode. I mean, they spent the second half of last season getting there and we all pretty much figured out they were cannibals. However, the interesting part was how Terminus came about which was revealed to Carol and in greater, way more disturbing detail, in the "THEN" portion of the episode. Terminus actually did start out as a sanctuary, like it said, until they were attacked by some bad people who did really bad stuff (like super bad stuff) to them which turned them into killers. The central theme of this show is that very fact, that the humans are way more scary than the walkers, which was exemplified in the takeover of Terminus. The Terminus crew were trying to do right by everyone and they wound up being attacked and killed so they themselves became the monsters to save their own lives. Which is why I'm wondering if we've seen the last of them. Mary was left to the walker herd and Alex was, well, dead on a table. I know we saw Gareth get shot, but we didn't see him die. I know it would be difficult to survive under those circumstances but that was a lot of background for them just to disappear. But then, that could be the point. Everybody has a story.

It is also examined in Tyrese's conversation with Martin, his hostage. Martin basically tells Tyrese that he's a good guy, which is why he's going to die. When Martin threatens Judith's life, Tyrese winds up killing him. So, does Tyrese need to become a monster to stay alive? Or was he being a good guy for killing Martin? And if so, another theme is examined that the definition of "good" certainly has changed in this new world. Carol killed Karen because she thought she was doing a "good" thing and was then ostracized. In turn, she saved all of their lives and is forgiven. She also killed Lizzie, but that was the right thing to do, right? #lookattheflowers

And there are people out there who think this show is about zombies. Hilarious.

What I Know:

• Eugene is still shady. That was a nice spiel... I don't know, I just don't buy it. I think it's his hair.

• If you weren't in tears when Darryl hugged Carol, or Rick hugged Carol, or Rick hugged Judith, you're probably dead inside.

• I have GOT to remember to not eat pizza while watching this show.

What I Don't Know:

• Where the heck is Beth? Has Maggie even asked about her?

• How did Carol get all that crap off her face? Did she stop and shower at Terminus before escaping?

• Is Terminus obsessed with cleanliness for any particular reason? They would go nuts about my bathroom right now.

Lines I Love:

• Glenn - We gotta let those people out. That's still who we are. It's gotta be.

• Mary - You're the butcher or you're the cattle.

• Rick to Carol - Did you do that?

All in all, I thought this premiere was action-packed and nothing short of amazing. These characters are so in depth and you could just feel the relief and love pouring out of Daryl when he ran to Carol. We still don't know if that's a romantic love or not, but it is definitely love. And that overwhelming sense of joy when Rick finally saw that Judith was alive. That poor baby, it's been kind of a rough week for babies on TV. (You feel me, Carrie Matheson?) I guess the plan is to keep journeying on to DC so Eugene can give them the "cure," but is the rest of the season just going to be them traveling or will they find a new place to set up camp for a while? I guess we'll see.

Did the season premiere live up to your hopes? Where are they going to go next? And THE WIRE reunion continues next week when Seth Gilliam joins the cast as Father Gabriel. Let me know what you thought. Follow me on Twitter @eponineq and make sure to follow @BWWTVWorld for all the latest scoops, updates and recaps.

Here's the trailer for next week's episode:

Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3 | AMC

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