The Walking Dead season 5 starts with Rick’s group trapped by cannibals at Terminus and ends with them inside the walls of Alexandria, wondering whether they can ever live a normal life again. On the way, it takes Bob, Beth and Tyreese.
It aired on AMC from October 12, 2014 to March 29, 2015: 16 episodes, with Scott M. Gimple as showrunner. This recap covers the whole season, the finale and our honest take.
Spoiler warning: the rest of this Walking Dead season 5 recap gives away every major death, including the finale.
The setup
Season 4 ended with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and most of his group locked in a train car at Terminus, a “sanctuary” that turned out to be a trap. Carol and Tyreese are still outside with baby Judith, and Beth (Emily Kinney) has been taken by strangers in a car with a white cross on the back window.
The key players in The Walking Dead season 5:
- Rick Grimes: Andrew Lincoln
- Carol Peletier: Melissa McBride
- Beth Greene: Emily Kinney
- Gareth: Andrew J. West
- Dawn Lerner: Christine Woods
- Deanna Monroe: Tovah Feldshuh
What happens in The Walking Dead season 5
Episodes 1 to 3: Terminus
The premiere, “No Sanctuary”, shows what Terminus really is: its people lure survivors in and eat them. Part of the group is lined up at a trough to be slaughtered when Carol (Melissa McBride), alone outside, draws in a walker herd and blows the place open with a well-aimed shot at a gas tank. Everyone escapes, and Rick is reunited with Judith, who has survived with Tyreese.
The group takes shelter with Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), a nervous priest hiding in his church. Gareth and the Terminus survivors follow them, capture Bob and eat his leg in front of him, not knowing he had already been bitten. In episode 3, Rick’s group ambushes the hunters inside Gabriel’s church and kills them. Bob dies soon after.
Abraham then leaves for Washington, D.C. with Eugene, who claims he knows how to end the outbreak, and Glenn and Maggie go with them.
Episodes 4 to 8: Beth at Grady Memorial
Beth wakes up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, run by a police officer, Dawn Lerner. The hospital “rescues” survivors, then keeps them working off a debt they can never repay, and Beth plans her escape.
On the road to Washington, Eugene admits in episode 5 that he lied: he is not a scientist, and there is no cure. Abraham knocks him out.
Daryl and Carol track the car to Atlanta, Carol ends up a patient inside the hospital, and Rick sets up a trade: two captured officers for Beth and Carol. In episode 8, “Coda”, the swap seems to work until Dawn demands Noah back too. Beth stabs Dawn with a pair of scissors, Dawn shoots Beth dead, and Daryl kills Dawn on the spot. Maggie arrives just in time to see Daryl carry her sister’s body out.
Episodes 9 to 13: the road to Alexandria
Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) is bitten in Noah’s old neighbourhood and dies in episode 9. The group walks on, starving and broken, until a stranger named Aaron (Ross Marquand) finds them at the end of episode 10 and offers them a place in his community.
They reach its gates in episode 11. Alexandria is a walled suburb with solar power and running water, led by former congresswoman Deanna Monroe, and its people have barely seen the outside world. Rick’s group moves in, and Carol plays the harmless housewife while quietly sizing everyone up.
Episodes 14 and 15: Rick vs Alexandria
An Alexandrian supply run goes wrong in episode 14, and Noah is among the dead. Rick grows close to Jessie and learns that her husband, Pete, beats her. In episode 15, Rick fights Pete in the street and waves his gun at the whole town.
The Walking Dead season 5 ending explained
In the finale, “Conquer”, Rick drags a dead walker into Alexandria’s meeting to prove his point: the walls only work if people are ready to fight. A drunk Pete swings a sword at Rick, kills Deanna’s husband Reg instead, and Deanna tells Rick to do it. Rick executes Pete.
At that exact moment Morgan (Lennie James), the man who saved Rick in season 1, walks in with Daryl and Aaron. Out on the road, Daryl and Aaron had just run into a new threat: the Wolves, who carve a W into their foreheads. They are the danger waiting in The Walking Dead season 6.
Our take
Carol’s rescue at Terminus is the high point of the season. Rick’s group is minutes from being slaughtered, and one woman on the outside gets every one of them out.
Beth’s death landed, and it hurt. Just as she seems to be getting out of the hospital, and just as Maggie arrives, she is gone.
Quick answers
Who dies in The Walking Dead season 5? Bob (episode 3), Beth (episode 8), Tyreese (episode 9), Noah (episode 14), and Reg and Pete in the finale, plus Gareth’s hunters and Dawn.
Is Terminus in The Walking Dead season 5? Yes. The premiere, “No Sanctuary”, is the escape from Terminus.
When does Alexandria first appear? Aaron finds the group at the end of episode 10, and they reach Alexandria’s gates in episode 11, “The Distance”.
How many episodes are in The Walking Dead season 5? Sixteen, aired from October 12, 2014 to March 29, 2015.
More Walking Dead on Lazybatman: season 3, season 4, season 6, season 7, season 8, and how to watch The Walking Dead in order.
One question to end on: was Rick right to execute Pete, or did Alexandria change him for the worse? Comments are open.
Sources: Wikipedia, The Walking Dead season 5, Wikipedia, list of The Walking Dead episodes. The Walking Dead is an AMC series based on the comic by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard; all rights belong to AMC and the show’s producers.
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