A cannibal's last supper - The Walking Dead S5E3 "Four Walls and a Roof"

After a literal explosive season premiere, and a second episode that sended the show right back to its roots, we now find ourselves with a season of The Walking Dead, that seems to have so much more happening than the last 2 seasons in such a short time.
Now let's have a taste of what episode 3 brought this time around!

Tainted meat! Oh how I'm gonna miss Bob and his constant possitive outlook on things, even in the darkest of situations, and this episode truly solitified him as character, that will be sorely missed. I really liked how, even with his leg being eaten in front of him, that he defiantly could laugh in their faces and telling them that they've eaten tainted meat, since we got it confirmed this episode, that he has in fact bitten. First I thought he was bitten in the leg, and that by it being severed, he might have had a chance, but seing as the show should not get too repetitive (Hershel got his legged amputated back in season 3), I get it why they did what they did.
But that also raises the question - does it matter if you eat a person who has been bitten? Since we know that every person in the world carries the virus within them, so whenever they die they turn...does it matter in any way that you eat a bitten or non-bitten person?
The question seems hard to answer, and after how this episode turned out, we might not get the answer at all. Since Gareth's group of people seems to be the only survivers after the Terminus-incident, and they all bit the bullet in this episode, and I doubt the show will go down the cannibal route too quickly again.

Speaking of Gareth and his group, I really think they contrasted Rick's group perfectly. Rick has strifed to preserve the group's humanity all throughout the show, even when his own sanity was in flux, and that have made the group's solidarity that much stronger. Gareth's group on the other hand, have had different circumstances, that has forced them to weigh survival before living - that choice ultimately let them down the route of cannibalism.
This episode's ultimate confrontation in the church however, was pretty one-sided, as Rick's group's ideology about seemed to prevail, but at what cost? There has been a lot of brutal confrontation between survivors on the show before, but the way that they so brutally executed Gareth and his people within the church, left me a little shocked. Maybe it was also the complete absurdity of the situation, that it takes place within a church that underlines the surreality of what just happened. And for the first time in a long time, we start to see a minor splinter in the group, with Glenn and Maggie taking off with Abraham before Daryl and Carol can return.
This split in somewhat frustrating as a viewer, since we will then have a split narrative as we did in the second half of season 4, but I understand. The show can't progress as it needs to with such a big ensemble all the time within the same space, and with Bob's death they give a bit more leeway for the other characters to come into play.

Throughout the whole episode, I was thinking to myself, this is a somewhat reverse version of the last supper we are experiencing. First off, Bob getting kidnapped by the people wanting to kill his people, makes him an anti-Judas, as he does not rat out his group. But at the same time, they are litterally eating his flesh, the flesh that is the cannibals' last meal, elevating Bob themetically to Jesus. Furthermore, since he is bitten, he is destined to rise from the dead, but that gets stopped by Tyrese, ultimately stopping the analogy. However, preventing Bob from turning in the end, helps solidify the title of this week's episode, which is also spoken by Maggie, after Father Gabriel in shock over the
executions of Gareth's group says: "This is the house of God". God has no place within the church anymore, it is nothing but four walls and a roof, and as so, the Jesus analogy cannot/shall not be completed.

Speaking of father Gabriel, I still feel like he is hiding something, Rick's gut-feeling has so far been right, and it also seems to me, that besides not letting people into the church under a walker attack at night, he must have done something else to warrent the "you're gonna burn for this" scratched into the wall of the outsides of the church. But it seems we will have to wait to find out, since it looks like next episode is gonna answer the question I have been asking myself even before last season's ending: WHERE IS BETH?!

The episode was great, and has helped push The Walking Dead's fifth season to a brilliant start, though I really hate to see Bob go, and the conflict with Gareth seemed awfully shortlived, for what I suspected would be a major subplot of this season, so now I can only be surprised from here on in - which come to think about it, could be great, but I also like to figure certain things out before they come to play, with the small clues that the showrunners leave us.
And hey, Michonne got her katana back so I really can't complain too much, now can I?

Popcorntroller Out!