The Walking Dead: Dissecting the Season Five Trailer

It's been over a week since AMC dropped the Season Five sizzle reel trailer for The Walking Dead, and during that time, things have been so busy (and Guardians of the Galaxy so headline-grabbing) that we hadn't had time to really buckle in and take the trailer for a spin to see what we could spot.

This isn't a full accounting, of course, but here are they key elements that stuck out at us:

Cannibals

During what looks to be an early, failed escape attempt, Rick is rendered unconscious just as he sees what appears to be a confirmation of everyone's suspicions and fears: that the residents of Terminus are indeed cannibals.

A man, covered in protective gear and holding what looks to be a circular saw or some other kind of handheld electric blade, is cutting up something on a large metal table that looks very human.

The Road to Washington

We still have Abraham pretty obsessed with making his way to Washington, D.C. in order to cure the zombie plague. We all know that it didn't work out quite that way in the comics, and most readers didn't have much faith that it would even when the plot point was introduced...but it seems from this trailer that Gareth and the other residents of Terminus buy in. At one point, apparently in a desperate bid to save their lives, Bob Stookey reveals that Eugene is a "high-value asset" and from that point forward, almost all of the shots seem to show Gareth and Rick in a tense, uneasy partnership.

Judith

In not one, but two separate shots, you can see Rick Grimes and his daughter Judith reunited. One, when the entire group is seated at what appears to be Father Gabriel's church, is as relaxed a shot as you're likely to get on The Walking Dead.

"You can join us"

While the battle with Terminus seemed likely to be the central focus of this season, the revelation that Eugene could cure the outbreak seems to have given the dynamic a slight shift. Enigmatic Termite leader Gareth becomes determined that they'll join their group, go to Washington and cure the outbreak.

(Unless that's an or; it's very difficult to tell, but it sounds like "join us and...". In any event, it seems the Termite believe in the cure.)

It seems those who arrived, survived

In that aforementioned "calm" group shot, everyone is present except for Daryl and Carol (correct us if we're wrong; it's dark in there), suggesting that all of our main characters make it out of Terminus and onto the road.

So for all the trouble of getting to Terminus and all the speculation that there will be plenty of bodies piled up when they arrived, everyone except Beth is reunited fairly early on, which brings us to...

Daryl and Carol

The pair appear to be off on their own for a chunk of time. What could they be doing?

A likely scenario seems to be trying to rescue Beth, whom we see is still alive and well and staying at...a hospital?

Yeah, she seems to have been forced into labor as a nurse or something, with a sadistic woman in a police uniform in charge and a handful of vehicles around bearing the same cross as the car that took Beth.

That cross, of course, led many to believe that it would be Father Gabriel who took her, but I never bought into that completely, mostly because it didn't look like a Christian cross. While I wondered whether it was a cross at all or just a trick of the light, it appears that the real answer is something else: it's just a different kind of cross.

Abraham in tears

We see a fair amount of Abraham in this teaser, which makes sense given the fact that the group seems to finally be fulfilling his self-appointed destiny to head to DC and save the world.

So...what's up?

Well, our guess is that it unfolds fairly like the comics, and that this shot of a devastated Abraham comes shortly after he discovers that all this running has been for nothing and Eugene is full of it.

They've found religion

There are a number of shots of the group in a church -- probably Father Gabriel's, since we see a black priest in the ad as well.

What's also interesting is the show of Gareth standing outside of what appears to be a chapel -- there's Bible verses on a board outside of the door -- holding his gun. Is  he holding the survivors at gunpoint? By himself?! Maybe he's chasing them after the fall of Terminus (we'll get to that)? Even if it's just a brief beat at the chapel inside of Terminus, you have to wonder what he's doing standing around it with a gun.

Terminus falls

We've heard rumors about this, but we see a lot of walkers, plenty of explosions and fire at Terminus. After that, we don't see Gareth in any of the group shots. Do they escape him? Is he pursuing them? Did he stay behind with the others?

And there's a shot in the trailer of Gareth standing in front of a door. On the other side of the glass window in the door, you can see what appears to be a tightly-packed room full of walkers. Is this the Terminus equivalent of Hershel's barn? The invasion that ultimately results in the end? Or something else?

Of course, it's possible that they survive -- or that Rick and company bail out before they know the full extent of the damage. In any event, you can see Rick altering one of the many signs on the road to Terminus in the traler. Apparently that'll need to happen for a while now.