The bleak mid-season finale for AMC’s zombie serial, The Walking Dead, left Rick and co. in quite a conundrum. After the secure domicile of the prison was destroyed in season 4, they were driven to the cannibal trap of Terminus, until the crew splintered apart yet again. The aforementioned winter ender – “Coda” – finally reunited the group, albeit under sad circumstances. In light of the network’s latest teaser trailer, it looks like the gang are in for more of the same for the remainder of the season.
For the biggest chunk of the season, they all had a reason to fight: Eugene’s fabled cure in Washington, D.C. This glimmer of hope was perhaps the first time since the show began that there was an end in sight from their never-ending nightmare. Once the cure was revealed to be a lie, the dominoes started to topple… and their streak of so-so luck ended.
“We do what we need to do, and then we live,” says Rick in the 30-second teaser, as the flames of a campfire cast shadows across his bearded chops. Another sign that the path to safety will no doubt require a ton more explicit zombie deaths and narrow scrapes for the gang. It’s a brief but action-packed teaser that’s a perfect appetiser for the next wave of episodes.
The Walking Dead season 5 returns to AMC on February 8th.
After the tragic events of the mid-season finale – as well as losing the possibility of a cure in Washington, DC – Rick Grimes’ band of survivors find themselves on the road, surviving day-to-day and trying to hold on to their shredded humanity and dwindling hope. Stripped of security and without a direction for the future, some of the group near their breaking point, some find themselves hardened and cold and some just try to grasp onto what little they have left. Though they are still breathing, the line between Rick’s group and the dead is starting to blur. Could there be anything at this point that brings them back to life?
