The Walking Dead: Season Five, Episode Sixteen – “Conquer”

First Aired March 29th, 2015.

Morgan (played by Lennie James) is eating in the woods when two men with a “W” on their foreheads try to rob him. Morgan knocks them out and leaves them in an abandoned car.

Deanna (played by Tovah Feldshuh) has organized a meeting to decide whether Rick (played by Andrew Lincoln) will remain in Alexandria. Rick is prepared to use force to gain access to the armory if things don’t look good despite Michonne’s (played by Danai Gurira) misgivings. Rick tells Michonne about the guns he and Carol (played by Melissa McBride) stole, but Michonne tells Rick that no matter what happens she is with him. Pete (played by Corey Brill) becomes enraged after seeing Rick talking with his wife, Jessie (played by Alexandra Breckenridge). Nicholas (played by Michael Traynor) spies on Glenn (played by Steven Yeun) waiting for a chance to strike. Daryl (played by Norman Reedus) and Aaron (played by Ross Marquand) are tracking a man in a red poncho to see if he should go to Alexandria but lose him. Aaron decides they should inspect trailers in a nearby store, but it’s a trap and they’re full of walkers. They are chased into a car and saved when Morgan appears and helps them escape. Morgan asks for directions to DC and Daryl sees the map with the message written for Rick.

Daryl and Aaron bonding and deepening their friendship was a nice moment of levity, considering it happened while they were facing near-certain death. After watching Morgan show off his surprising ninja reflexes, it’s clear there’s a new badass in town. Morgan has always been one of the more interesting characters on the show despite the fact that he’s only been in a few episodes. He must have a rich backstory both from his life before the outbreak and during, which I hope will be explored next season. These “W” people are obviously sadistic but they are also really smart; that trick with the trailers was genius.

The first half of the episode was all buildup and the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop made it very suspenseful. Just because Michonne was against Rick’s backup plan of “attack everyone and steal the guns” he and Carol thought she wasn’t fully with them. That entire subplot felt like a way to integrate Michonne into the finale because it felt forced and there was never anything to suggest that she would choose Alexandria over them.

Out in the forest, Nicholas shoots Glenn but only hits his shoulder and they get separated by a group of walkers. After running all night, Glenn catches Nicholas but doesn’t kill him after hearing his tearful pleas and instead they return to Alexandria together. Sasha (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) is becoming more unhinged and goes to Father Gabriel (played by Seth Gilliam) for help. Gabriel has also begun losing it over the guilt of letting his parishioners die and tries to goad Sasha into killing him. Maggie (played by Lauren Cohan) steps in and stops her from pulling the trigger. During the meeting that night, Carol, Michonne and others speak in defense of Rick. He’s not at the meeting because he’s hunting walkers that got into town when Gabriel neglected to lock the gate. Rick brings a dead walker to the meeting and makes an impassioned speech about how everyone needs to adapt to the world and how he can help them. Pete storms in and tries to attack Rick with Michonne’s katana and accidently slits the throat of Deanna’s husband, Reg (played by Steve Coulter). Heartbroken, Deanna tells Rick “do it” and he shoots Pete in the head.

Deanna had to learn the hard way that sometimes you have to kill people to survive. Unfortunately, this is a lesson others have to be retaught. Nicholas has tried to kill Glenn multiple times and he still didn’t do it. Instead, Nicholas was brought back. Glenn must have thought it was noble or right, but he can’t be certain Nicholas won’t try anything again and now has to look over his shoulder. Glenn is lucky that Nicholas is such a bad marksman, but now he’ll have time to improve his aim.

I’m also annoyed that Maggie didn’t let Sasha shoot Gabriel. He has been a very annoying character lately. That said, that major mistake of letting walkers inside did help Rick get his point across, but he’s going to get more people killed eventually. Pete’s death was supposed to be a major event but he didn’t factor into the episode much, although the scene of Carol threatening him was great. Overall, I thought Pete’s death was very rushed and wasn’t as dramatic as it could have been.

The “W” men kill the man in the poncho and reset their trap using loud music to lure the walkers back into the trailers. One of them finds pictures of Alexandria that Aaron dropped during their escape. The camera pans to a car with the message “Wolves Not Far.” The buildup was painfully slow but the setup for the Wolves vs Alexandria war is done. My theory is they are led by the people Aaron mentioned were ejected from Alexandria before. They’ll definitely want revenge and I’m sure they are going to want to settle the score with Morgan. It should (hopefully) make for some great drama next season.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Just tell them a story. It’s what I’ve been doing since we got here. These people are children, and children like stories.”

I was expecting more major deaths in the finale. Maybe we’ll make up for that next season.

“I don’t want to lie anymore.” “You said you don’t want to take this place, and you don’t want to lie? Oh sunshine, you don’t get both.”

With those skills, Morgan should upgrade to a katana and really do some damage.

If you enjoyed Manny’s walk, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

Possibly Related Posts:

• It Came From The Archives “All Systems Red: An Uneven First Book”
• The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Pet Project”
• Friday Fiction: I Saw a Librarian At Night
• The Far Reaches Reviews: “How It Unfolds” by James S. A. Corey
• The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Futures”