The Walking Dead: Top 100 Moments
25. “We’re The Same”
Episode 501″No Sanctuary”
Original Airdate: 10/12/2014
Submitted By Liam O’Leary
The theme of Season Five of The Walking Dead was “good people going bad”. One could argue we saw the start of this in the Season Four finale, “A”, when Rick ripped Joe’s throat out and gutted “Deserved-it Dan”, but, we truly saw the theme in full swing as Season Five began.
As the season begins, we see Gareth’s brother, Alex, huddled in a boxcar along with several other Termites, you can hear screams coming from outside the boxcar. Alex comments to Gareth how they shouldn’t have put up the signs giving their location; that it drew their attackers to them. Gareth argues that they were trying to do something good, that they were being human beings. Alex scoffs and asks his brother what they are now. Gareth closes his eyes, clearly struggling with his feelings of guilt for bringing this hell on his community. When he opens them again, he does so slowly ad calmly, as if his brother’s question has forced him to accept a truth he’d been rejecting.
Fast-forward a few scenes, Glenn, reminding Rick that they can’t lose sight of who they are, insists on opening another shipping crate, knowing the occupants are doomed to being eaten as well. Upon opening the crate a long-haired, tattooed, crazy man bursts out, thanking Glenn’s kindness by shouting “WE’RE THE SAME!” at Rick, before being tackled by several walkers he was too crazed to notice.
As the episode ends, we see another flashback to Terminus under siege. As Gareth and Alex sit in the boxcar, the door is opened and their mother, Mary, is tossed in, before the apparent leader of their tormenters selects another woman to be taken. As she is taken away, Gareth attempts to reassure his mother that things will be alright before he’s struck by the leader, who smugly counters Gareth’s attempt at reassurance, informing the Termites, that, in fact, no, things were not going to be alright. Though it’s dark, the leader of the attackers is revealed to be the same tattooed man Glenn released from the boxcar. After he leaves, Gareth tells his mother the truth he’d seem to accept in his earlier conversation with his brother: That people are either the butcher or the cattle; the hunted, or The Hunters. This revelation also now makes the crazy man’s message much clearer: By luring innocent survivors to be killed and cannibalized, Terminus had now become just as depraved and evil as he and his marauders were. They were the same.
Good people, going bad.