The Walking Dead: Looking back at Conquer

On March 29, 2015, The Walking Dead episode “Conquer” aired on AMC. This was the finale of season 5 and was written by Scott Gimple & Seth Hoffman and directed by Greg Nicotero. It was an awesome episode that saw Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) reunited with his long-lost friend Morgan Jones (Lennie James).

This is a heavy episode with a lot going on. Rick and our survivors don’t feel they fit in well in their new community of Alexandria. In the previous episode, Rick and Pete had a terrible fight; Rick pulled a gun on members of Alexandria and Michonne knocked him out.

In this episode, Rick is still determined that the Alexandrians don’t know what is going on in the world and are going to end up dead. A meeting is called, and he is sure they will kick him out.

The Walking Dead season 5

This episode has many storylines, including Morgan encountering the Wolves, which is the first time this group is introduced but won’t be the last.

While Daryl and Aaron are on a supply run, they get trapped in a car surrounded by walkers and are saved by Morgan. They discover that he knows Rick. In the confusion of all the walkers, Aaron loses his backpack containing the photos of Alexandria, which the Wolves will find and later. This will lead them to attack Alexandria in a later episode.

Glenn follows Nicholas to the woods and is shot by Nicholas, and then they proceed to play a game of cat and mouse, with Glenn finally getting the upper hand. He blames Nicolas for Noah’s death but can’t bring himself to shoot him.

Sasha goes through some major emotions and lies in a pile of dead walkers that she killed earlier. She seeks out Gabriel for help, but he, who is also going through some major life events in this episode, tells her he can’t help, and the two fight. Maggie finds them while Gabrial is on the floor and Sasha has her gun pointed at him. The three are later seen in a prayer circle.

Abraham and Eugene share apologizes, the first since Abraham beat him to within an inch of his life.

Carol visits Pete, complete with a casserole. When he becomes enraged, she pulls a knife on him and tells him she could easily kill him and make it appear that he attacked her. Carol’s history with an abusive husband makes her understand that Pete is just a weak man who must assert his dominance over someone weaker than he is. She let him know that she won’t stand for it.

After Rick wakes up from being knocked unconscious by Michonne, he begins his plan of what to do next. He is sure the meeting that has been called will get him kicked out of the community and tells his group they will need to retaliate.

Later Rick discovers that the gate had been left open and several walkers had gained entrances. After killing them, he takes one to the meeting already in progress. He tells them the gate was left open, and no one was guarding it. Showing them, they aren’t equipped to take care of themselves. He tells them that they will survive because he will show them how.

At this point, a very drunk Pete enters the meeting, welding Michonne’s katana, intent on killing Rick. He accidentally slices Reg’s neck, the crowd of people screams, and Deanna holds him as he bleeds out. As Deanna cries for her loss, she looks up and says, “Rick? Do it.” And Rick shoots Pete in the head. He hears his name one more time, this time from a stunned Morgan, who has been brought to Alexandria by Daryl and Aaron.

It was an outstanding episode that had a huge story to tell.

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