Skip to main content

Walking Dead weekly Recap: The bodies fall in ‘Four Walls And A Roof’

walking dead weekly recap bodies fall four walls roof s05e03 0001
Image used with permission by copyright holder

“The glass is going to break sooner or later.”

Cannibal Gareth makes this observation as he watches a horde of walkers pound on a window, their collective hunger and mass building and building to the point where the window’s collapse is only a matter of time. He’s calm, collected. He accepts the new world order, and devours it accordingly — quite literally, in the case of Bob Stookey, and many other unnamed individuals who he and his fellows from Terminus have feasted upon along the way.

Little does Gareth know that the new world order is about to turn the tables.

Rick Grimes, killer of men, more and more Governor-esque with each passing day.

The third episode of The Walking Dead‘s fifth season, called “Four Walls and a Roof,” lives up to its title in one of the show’s most unexpected and intense scenes yet: Rick Grimes and his companions lure Gareth’s tormenting Terminians to Father Gabriel’s church, leaving behind only the weakest members of the group (see: slowly zombifying Bob, and screaming baby Judith, as two examples) as they leave in search of Gareth’s camp. Gareth can’t resist the prospect of low-hanging fruit. “You don’t know what it’s like to be hungry,” he says just a few moments later.

But Gareth’s insatiable appetite blinds him to the fact that Rick and the others are lurking nearby in the shadows, waiting to pick off each and every one of these cannibals. And that’s exactly what they do. Gareth pleads for his life, to no avail. Rick ends the cannibal king exactly as promised, burying a red-handled machete into his face and neck, shortly after shooting off all the fingers on his right hand.

Gareth isn’t the only one to fall. Martin, the gum-snapping goon Tyreese was supposed to have killed in the cabin some weeks ago, survived long enough to die inside of Father Gabriel’s church. The other Terminus survivors die here as well, as Sasha and Abraham beat their brains in with the butts of their guns.

“This… this is the lord’s house,” an outraged Gabriel says upon seeing all the carnage inside his church.

“No,” Maggie Greene responds. “It’s just four walls and a roof.”

Walking-Dead-S05E03-0000
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The mass-execution of the Terminians is a breathtakingly brutal choice that the Rick Grimes of old could never fathom. But since those comparably sunny days of season one, Rick’s lived through the nightmare world of losing his wife, losing his home, losing his ability to trust in the goodness of man. This is the result: Rick Grimes, killer of men, more and more Governoresque with each passing day. In killing Gareth’s people, Rick adopts one of the great hitman Mike Ehrmantraut’s famous mottos: “No more half measures.”

The glass breaks for Gareth. The glass breaks for Rick. It breaks for Bob, too, slowly dying after suffering a zombie bite. But Blue Sky Bob always looks on the bright side of life, even in the midst of a nightmare. For Bob, nightmares end — they don’t end who you are.

“Just look at her, and tell me the world isn’t going to change,” dying, smiling Bob tells Rick from his deathbed, fixated on the baby girl Rick cradles in his arms. But the world’s already changed. The optimists die, and the pessimists live to die another day. At least Bob no longer has to live to see such atrocities.

Or, as the late, great Gareth would tell him: “Perspective, Bob.”

Editors' Recommendations

Josh Wigler
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Josh Wigler is a freelance entertainment reporter who has been published by Comic Book Resources, Comics Alliance…
Tales of the Walking Dead trailer shows new zombie adventures
Two women stand on an overpass and watch zombies walk towards them in a scene from Tales of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead franchise is adding more zombie adventures to its universe with the addition of Tales of the Walking Dead, the new spinoff series set to premiere on AMC and AMC+. Scott M. Gimple, a co-creator of Tales, shared the first trailer from the spinoff in front of the lively crowd at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con. Also on hand for the announcement were showrunner/executive producer Channing Powell, director/executive producer Michael Satrazemis, and some cast members, including Terry Crews and Samantha Morton.

Tales of the Walking Dead will be a six-episode anthology series that features a standalone story in each episode. New and established characters in The Walking Dead universe will be featured throughout each episode. The tagline reads, "Six New Stories. One Dead World." The footage highlights all six stories in different settings as the characters all try to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Read more
Giancarlo Esposito will star in new AMC series, The Driver
Black Noir in The Boys

In 2009, Giancarlo Esposito made an immediate impression as drug lord Gus Fring on AMC's Breaking Bad, and he's been a staple on the network ever since. Esposito also reprised his role as Fring for Better Call Saul. But now that the Breaking Bad prequel series is set to end this year, Esposito will finally headline his own AMC drama.

Via Deadline, Esposito will star in The Driver, a remake of a BBC One miniseries that originally featured David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) in the title role. Esposito will portray a cab driver "whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to chauffer a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern ports."

Read more
AMC lines up a new Walking Dead spinoff for Negan and Maggie
Negan and Maggie in The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead will come to an end after 11 seasons later this year. However, two of the primary leads will live on. AMC has announced a new Walking Dead spinoff, The Walking Dead: Isle of the Dead, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan reprising their respective roles as Negan and Maggie.

However, Maggie and Negan don't exactly have a close relationship on the show. Warning, spoilers follow: The first time they met, Negan murdered Maggie's husband, Glenn. In recent seasons, Negan has reformed and aligned himself with the survivors at Alexandria. Naturally, Maggie has never forgiven Negan, but they have been able to work together on occasion. In Isle of the Dead, the unlikely duo will go someplace where TWD hasn't explored before: New York City.

Read more