It is crazy we only 4 more episodes until the first third of The Walking Dead is over and I will have to wait months for the second third of it to come out. My first impression of the episode 5 teaser trailer of how clean and well put everything is in the Commonwealth. I wanted to see if was going to be “empty”, since they are bound to AMC’s budget hell, so all their filming locations are bare boned. I was pleasantly surprised with the lively train station and to see the detail on the sweets. I expect the group to be at the Commonwealth until at least episode 8 and then they will tell the others about it. I have no idea who is going to tell them about it but if I had to guess right now, it would either be Eugene going back to Alexandra, or Stephanie wanting to help Eugene rely the message back to his family.
“Out of the Ashes” is going to get its name from the storyline of Aaron and company trying to takeback Hilltop from all the walkers and trying to bring it back up to where it was, before Negan, Alpha, and Beta destroyed it with the Whisperers. This is where part of the synopsis for episode 5 comes into play. The synopsis is Aaron, Carol, Lydia, and Jerry go to the Hilltop ruins for blacksmith tools and nearby game. I predict they will get what they are looking for and Aaron will want to rebuild Hilltop, like he is doing with Alexandra. A side note, I’m glad Lydia is getting screen time in this episode. I know she had a scene in episode 1 but hopefully she will have an important story going forward because I feel like she is just there in The Walking Dead universe, with the loss of the Whisperers and the loss of Henry (Carl in the comic). She is one of my favorite characters on this show, so hopefully she shines in this episode.
The most important storyline in this episode is with Negan and Maggie. I think Negan and Maggie are going to make strides for their relationship and start to trust each other’s judgement. The throwing knife from Maggie to the walker behind Negan is a fake out. It is just to get fans talking by Maggie trying to kill Negan again but I think that Maggie told Negan to duck before she threw it. If she didn’t Maggie would have definitely killed Negan with that throw unless he has reflexes like a cat. I can bet my life on Negan showing Maggie what he learned when he was with the Whisperers. This is why you see someone picking up a Whisperer mask. He is going to show her how to walk with the walkers so they are camouflaged from the Reapers. The only thing that is tripping me up is where he would get the Whisperer mask from, unless he hid it, after he killed Alpha. Unless the Whisperers showing back up again in this episode (though highly unlikely) because I believe that some of them are still out there, Negan will show Maggie so they do not have to use the “guts” trick ever again, like Daryl did last episode, so no one will be at risk for infection, like Gabriel in season 8.
Watch the episode 5 trailer below: