The Walking Dead Recap: Season 5, Episode 8: Hostages and High Hopes

The Walking Dead Recap
Season 5, Episode 8
**SPOILER ALERT

This past week, was the mid-season finale for our beloved zombie show. Now did it live up to everyone’s expectation and were we all blown away by the surprise ending? Overall, the season started off with a bang, it was fast paced and fun to watch them get out of Terminus, to find a new place and to see them off wandering again in search of supplies and resources. Finding Beth was at the forefront of every fan’s mind and we got to find out where she was being kept and we have seen her maturation come to fruition. She started off as a sheltered farm girl, progressed to Judith’s babysitter and after hanging out with Daryl for a while, she turned into a full-fledged take no prisoners bad ass.

Then slowly, the show started to dwindle down with too many fillers and the pace slowed down a bit. That has been my biggest gripe with the show, don’t get me wrong I am a total TWD fan and I will continue to watch this to the bitter end, but I really get annoyed by so many filler moments and how situations get dragged the hell out. Regardless of my little rant, I still enjoy watching, I just hope it picks back up and the pace gets heightened a bit more when the show comes back on in February.

Let’s get to the juicy bits, and no not Bob’s leftover leg and talk about what happened.

 

We start up right where we left off, Officer Lamson, the one who knocked out Sasha, is running with his hands tied behind his back. He stops at the edge of the cop car to try to get his arms free, but that’s not working and the zombies are quickly approaching. I don’t know about you guys, but I think in this world you can survive without part of your leg, but definitely not without your arms. Rick catches up to him, gets in the cop car and tells him to stop. Seeing Rick in a cop car is somewhat symbolic, as Lemson told him last week, once a cop, always a cop and now we see him back in control and taking charge of the situation. It should be typed out in bold and in size 20 font, HE WAS a cop, he is no longer a man of the law and what he does next, just only furthers that point. He hits Lemson with the car, knocks him on the concrete almost unconscious, then goes over and tells him, he should have just stopped and shoots him in the head. At this point, he is tired of rationalizing situations as he did earlier with the group, now he is just acting on impulse and anger and takes him out on his own without making it a group decisions. #screwgrouptalk

 

Gabriel being the oddball that he is, runs down to the school where Gareth and his cannibal kids were eating Bob’s leg and checks out the remnants of what was left. We see Bob’s half eaten leg and a group of zombies behind the school doors. All of a sudden the zombies push down the door (by the way anyone else wonder why they didn’t push it out before) and start coming after useless Gabriel. He runs back to the church and starts knocking on the barred door, asking to be let back in. Michonne hacks down the door, with baby Judith on her back and with Carl’s help lets him in, but now the zombies are pushing and coming inside. Gabriel tells them about the hole in the floor and how they can crawl through there and get out. He tells them that he went back because he “had to know,” whatever that means. #babyonboard

Then out of the blue a fire engine rams by the front door. It’s Abraham’s crew hooray, they are here to tell everyone that Eugene lied, and omg there is no cure! But seriously, Michonne tells Maggie that her sister is alive and the rest of the crew is on the way to get her back. #finallyshecares

 

Rick admits what he did and tells the other cop hostages that he killed one of their people. This causes a stir in the group, they want to try again for another trade agreement with Dawn, but now that they are missing one cop, the stakes have changed. The girl cop tells Rick that Dawn is afraid to look weak and offers to help. She suggests telling her that Lamson was killed by a walker. So the trade idea goes down again and this time Sasha and Tyrese will keep guard on the roof and the rest of the team will go inside with Rick. #getmybitchesback

   (Rick inside)

Back at the hospital, Beth and Dawn have a heart to heart convo while Dawn does her cardio. What the hell?! There is a zombie apocalypse going on outside and she is doing cardio on her recumbent bike. Dawn tells Beth about Hanson, her old mentor and police captain and how he lost his way. Now this part got really boring, I should have just fast forwarded it. Next we get Beth and her having another discussion by the elevator shaft and Dawn admits that she was the one who killed Hanson. She tells Beth that this whole time, she knew that Beth killed the creepy cop in her office, but she covered it up for her and has saved her twice. She believes there is a way things have to be done there. Officer O’Connell over hears the whole convo and starts to threaten Dawn with making some changes and tells her she is turning into Hanson. They get into a big fight, Dawn starts crying, then proceeds to karate chop the guy and with Beth’s help pushes him down the elevator shaft and into the pit of zombies. #werkdawn

Then the deal goes down with Rick and that literally happens over the course of a few boring minutes. Beth gets ready for the trade and changes back into her old clothes. Yup, the yellow polo shirt she wore when she was with Daryl, the one she stole from the country club last season and proceeds to slip some scissors in her cast as well. Just in case you never know! Carol is put into a wheelchair and looks groggy and pretty messed up. Then the standoff goes down at the O.K. Corral, Dawn and Rick come face to face and they exchange their hostages. Rick tells her the news that Lamson was killed, at this point Dawn is trying not to break down. But then Dawn says one more thing needs to happen before they can leave, they need to give her Noah back. Caught in the middle and willing to give himself up, Noah goes back to Dawn and says it is okay. It is obvious that Rick is not okay with this and doesn’t want to see anyone taken against their will. Dawn tells him, “I knew you’d be back.” #whatabitch

 

Beth runs back and gives Noah a hug. Then she goes up to Dawn and takes out her scissors and proceeds to stab her in the neck and then all of a sudden someone shoots Beth in the back of the head.

   (WTF!)

Dawn makes a gesture signaling it wasn’t her and she almost seemed just as shocked as everyone else. Then Daryl looks absolutely destroyed and comes a gun blazing and shoots Dawn in the head. #wtfjusthappened #crying

 

Then this was me…no no no, not Beth… dammit! #ihateuwalkingdead

 

The female cop from earlier tells everyone to stop, “It’s over! It was about her!” Noah suggests to Rick that they can all stay at the hospital, Rick gives him a look like yeah right and tells anyone who wants to leave is welcome to come with him and his crew. The air is thick with sadness and it feels as if the whole show has suddenly stopped. The look on everyone’s faces was the worst, just seeing Carol and Daryl break down made my heart break. #whybeth #teambeth

Now for the worst moment thus far, next to Hershel getting killed has to be this moment. Seeing Daryl carry Beth out of the hospital was so freaking sad. I am still sad right now as I type this out. Then Maggie and her crew come through the gates expecting to have a reunion take place and when Maggie sees Daryl carrying his sister she just loses it. Ugh… seriously that was sad. #RIPblondie

 

At the very end we see Morgan come up again. Oh hey, we almost forgot about him! Dressed in his survival gear slash snowboarder garb, he follows Gabriel’s steps, to the school and then to the church. Inside the church, it is as if he has found what he has been searching for, he grabs a cross and then lays down a whole set of trinkets and starts praying. Then he finds a crumpled up, bloody piece of paper with the map that Abraham had left for Rick. What his role will be moving forward, I am really not sure. Is he good? Is he bad? We will have to wait until February to see what happens. #donttrustanyone

 

So TWD friends what did you guys think of the mid-season finale? Has this season been enjoyable for you? What did you love or just hate?

I just want to add that Emily Kinney who plays Beth did a phenomenal job with this role and I really hope to see her in more movies and TV shows. She is so freaking adorable. Did you guys see her on the Talking Dead after the episode? She seriously tugged at my heart strings. RIP Beth, we will miss you (and so will Daryl)!

 

  Emily and Lauren hugging on set

}}Melissa