THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 3 – FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF

The episode starts where the last episode ends with Bob still as Gareth’s captive and him waxing philosophical to Bob about why all these (eating people) is necessary for survival...(particularly theirs) then he tells Bob that he was gonna hunt down all the members of Rick’s group and eat them all after what they did - destroying Terminus and killing his mother (Helen). He is particularly salivating for Carol’s blood and Gareth continues by telling him that Sasha would probably taste better than him since she is pretty. They have this theory that pretty ladies taste better than men. At first Bob was just whimpering in pain and revulsion then later on he convulses into unmistakable fits of laughter and when the hunters find his laughter uneasy and circle around him like vultures he gleefully reveals that he had been bitten by a zombie and that he is now – TAINTED MEAT! (Huh! I was right!) Gareth, in his rage, kicks him unconscious and tried to placate the rest of his group who were by now gagging up all over the place, by telling them they cooked him so his meat must already be safe to eat.

Next scene shows Sasha using her night vision scope to look for Bob then she is followed by Rick and Tyreese who informs her that Carol and Darryl were also missing so they must have been together. Sasha angrily returns to the church and demands from Father Gabriel where their missing comrades were. Sasha feels that Fr. Gabriel had something to do with the others that had suddenly gone missing and Rick wants him to come clean with whatever it was that was obviously bothering his conscience. Father Gabriel insists that he was alone, always had been...then he breaks down and tearfully admitted that when the people outside started turning into walkers, he locked his church doors and refused to open them again even to families and other members of his congregation who came to the church hoping to find sanctuary. They begged for mercy and continued to scream and damning him to hell and now he is convinced Rick and his group has come to punish him.

Then, suddenly they hear a low whistle outside and they see a body on the grass outside. They also see some walkers about to approach the body and so the group run out and see Bob without his legs. They carry Bob inside and get rid of the walkers, not seeing the blood red letter ‘A’ sign painted on the side of the church. Inside, Bob explained what happened to him – how he was at the graveyard and somebody knocked him out then next thing he sees they were eating his leg and he also tells them that Darryl and Carol drove off together somewhere. Then, when they try to provide him some painkillers to ease his pain he sits up and reveals to everyone that he had been bitten during that time at the food bank. They try to make Bob comfortable and sit him on the couch at Fr. Gabriel’s office and leave him with Sasha.

Father Gabriel admits knowing where the schoolhouse was located that the Hunters had been hiding out in and so Rick and the others try to make plans to run after them. But then Abraham insists that they should instead leave now for DC while they still can and avoid the threat, anyway, they already fixed up the bus early this afternoon. But Rick demands that they wait for Carol and Darryl (who by the way saved all of them at Terminus) but he says they may not be coming back at all and he has a mission to take Eugene to DC so they could save the entire planet. Glenn steps in saying they all need to stick together and convinced Abraham to stay the night, help them fight off the Hunters then tomorrow he could leave with Eugene on the bus. But Abraham countered that he would only leave with Glenn, Maggie and Tara the next day. So against Rick’s wishes, Glenn agreed. It was interesting to note though that when Abraham asked Eugene to get ready he was a bit hesitant to do so...maybe in due time they would learn how much of a fraud he truly was. (just like in the comics)

They come up with the plan to attack the Hunters at the schoolhouse. Sasha insists on coming with them as she wants to take revenge but Tyreese advises her to stay with Bob as he has little time left. Instead, Sasha leaves Tyreese her knife with instructions to put it into Bob’s brain when he turns. So the group with Rick, Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham and Tara leaves the church to find the Hunters while Fr Gabriel, Carl, Tyreese, Rosita and Judith are left behind inside with Bob. Then, the Hunters are seen next walking down the road towards the church which they effortlessly enter. Inside, they identify and taunt the ones left behind saying they knew that the others had already left on a senseless mission to look for them (or so they thought!) But just as the Hunters had finally decided which door to open (as they heard Judith cries from beyond the door), two of the Hunter’s heads suddenly exploded and Gareth’s hand gets blown off. It seems Rick and his group only appeared to leave but doubled back to the church. The remaining three men and a woman were made to get down on their knees and Gareth tries to reason with Rick telling him that he would not hunt his group anymore that can still go their separate ways but Rick learns his lesson by letting Gareth go once before.

Besides, he already made him a promise before that to kill him with his red-handled machete and proceeds to just hack down the poor guy. Sasha also guts Martin with her knife repeatedly while Michonne and Abraham also kill/hack their two captives. During all these bloodshed, Maggie, Glenn, Tara, Rosita and Tyreese just look on in horror. Then, Michonne sees her katana with the girl she just killed and pulls it out from her but with a bit of hesitation since as she said during the last episode, she doesn’t really miss the sword. Rick and Sasha counters that they only did what they did to defend themselves...as they look at all the blood and gore that now desecrated the church. Father Stokes cried, ‘This is the Lord’s house’ but Maggie replied the episode’s title, ‘No this is just four walls and a roof.’

The next scene shows everyone saying their goodbyes to poor old Bob and when they were all turning to leave, he called Rick to thank him for taking him in at the prison and giving him a chance to find love and be part of a family. He also tells Rick to not lose hope and hold on to his humanity because this nightmare is going to end (this was a continuation of their conversation in Episode 2 while on their way to the food bank). Sasha says one final goodbye to Bob and as she sobs uncontrollably and holds her knife to his head, Tyreese comes in and does it for her. So Tyreese is now definitely over that phase of his life and could now confidently kill walkers again.

Then, Sasha is shown setting up a cross for Bob’s grave, wearing Bob’s jacket. After that the bus is shown all set to leave - with Abraham, Eugene, Rosita, Glenn, Maggie and Tara. Abraham hands over to Rick a map to D.C. and tries to convince him to follow. Rick says he would and smiles a bit upon seeing inside the folded map an apology from Abraham – “Sorry I was an ass. Come to Washington. The new world is gonna need Rick Grimes.” Then Rick sees Tyreese digging more graves (probably for the Hunters) and he comes over to help him. That night, Michonne is sitting outside in the moonlight with Father Gabriel who confides that he can’t sleep as he still hears the voices of the people he kept out of the church. Michonne tells him that in time, all that will fade and it provided him some small comfort.

Then, Michonne hears some rustling in the bushes and goes to investigate while Father Gabriel runs inside the church. We see that the noise came from Daryl so Michonne immediately asks, ‘Where’s Carol?’ Then, Daryl suddenly has this unhappy look on his face before calling out to whoever was behind him to come out...then the scene fades to black and it was another cliffhanger ending that the TWD so loves to foist on us! They are so fond of doing that - making us wait and cringe and wait some more until the next episode arrives! I just wonder who really was behind him – is it Carol? Or maybe Beth? Or worse...new enemies who have managed to capture him and make him lure them back to where Rick and his group are hiding? But I don’t think Daryl would do that... I sure hope I am wrong this time! This scene is definitely not in the comics so there’s nothing I could look back to that would give me some clues...and so just like everybody else, I am also completely clueless and couldn’t stand the one entire week of waiting for Episode 4. Adios Bob...