Last Sunday was the season finale of the fifth season of “The Walking Dead,” and it has been one of the best so far. The entire season was fast-paced and had one of the better storylines of the series.

Unlike past seasons, there was no main villain that the group fought with for the length of the season. Instead, this season focused on Rick and his group finding people that have not been through the tortures of the world outside of their walls. It is also about the internal struggle of having hope in these desperate times.

The season started with a thrilling escape from Terminus and then being hunted by the cannibals as they try to find shelter. This was a great beginning to show how truly savage the world has become and what a person has to do to survive. After Rick and his group massacre the cannibals, it seems that they are becoming the monsters that they are trying to protect themselves from.

Hope is beginning to be lost as the group has to live with the actions that they have done so far in the apocalypse. This is only pushed further after Eugene reveals that he does not have a cure that would save them from becoming zombies and a botched kidnapping exchange kills Beth at the hospital sanctuary during the mid-season finale.

Multiple people lose hope throughout the season, and it gets to the point that Tyreese allows himself to die from a walker bite in the mid-season premiere. The group is now hopelessly walking, without any indication of where to go.

As this is happening, Morgan, the first man that Rick met in the apocalypse, finds the map that says where Rick is going. The last time that the group had seen Morgan he had gone crazy at the idea of losing his son and it did not look like he could survive any longer. However, in this season, we see that Morgan has made peace with his son’s death and finally catches up with Rick in the finale. Before Morgan and Rick can meet up, however, Rick’s group has to try to blend back into normal society.

They are picked up and brought to Alexandria, a sanctuary outside the realm of the Apocalypse. Now Rick and his group are given jobs, and it is an entirely different culture from that which they have lived through the past few years. The group knows the society will not survive long if they continue to act as though there is not a savage world waiting to take everything away from them.

Rick especially finds it difficult to go back to being a cop and not just a survivalist because he knows that the people are not safe. Sasha and Gabriel struggle with their demons as well since both have lost so much in the outside world. Sasha believes she can no longer take a defensive stance against the walkers and must be more aggressive.

Sasha goes outside of the wall and tries to save her sanity by killing as many walkers as she can, even if it kills her in the process. Gabriel, on the other hand, tries to save his soul by looking at the sins of the group and this leads him to tell Deanna, the leader of Alexandria, that Rick’s group cannot be trusted.

This all leads to a 90-minute season finale that brings the plotlines of the fifth season to an end and introduces a possible enemy, The Wolves,  for the next season.

Throughout the season there are hints to the Wolves, including the letter W being carved into the heads of the walkers and graffiti saying “Wolves are not Far.”

It will be interesting to see how this group and Rick’s new Alexandria face off in the next season.

The season made Rick’s group face one extreme to the next, as they had to struggle with savagery and society all in the same season.

It will certainly be interesting to see what could possibly come in the next season.   

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