| "Strangers" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Walking Dead episode | |||
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| Episodeno. | Season 5 Episode 2 | ||
| Directed by | David Boyd | ||
| Written by | Robert Kirkman | ||
| Cinematography by | Michael E. Satrazemis | ||
| Editing by | Avi Youabian | ||
| Original air date | October 19, 2014 (2014-10-19) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Walking Deadseason 5 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Strangers" is the second episode of thefifth season of thepost-apocalyptichorrortelevision seriesThe Walking Dead, which aired onAMC on October 19, 2014. The episode was written by series creatorRobert Kirkman and directed byDavid Boyd. In the episode,Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln)'s group encounters a priest, FatherGabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam), who provides them solace in his church, while Rick contemplatesAbraham Ford's (Michael Cudlitz) proposition to escortDr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) toWashington, D.C. to cure the walker virus.
"Strangers" features the debut of Father Gabriel Stokes, a major protagonist of thegraphic novels of the same name. Commentators gave the overall episode positive reviews, but most gave an alarmed response to the episode's ending scene, with some calling it one of the show's most shocking moments.
Upon airing, the episode was watched by 15.14 million viewers and received an 18-49 rating of 7.7, down a whole ratings point from the previous episode, which attained an 18-49 rating of 8.7.
Rick's group continues to flee from Terminus, althoughDaryl senses that someone is following them. They rescueFather Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam) from a horde of walkers, and Gabriel shows them to his church, where he has been living in solitude since the onset of the apocalypse, surviving on canned food from a food drive just prior. Rick is suspicious of Gabriel, and warns his sonCarl that he should never let his guard down.
Gabriel suggests that Rick's group help scour a nearby food bank that is overrun by walkers. Rick,Michonne,Bob, andSasha join Gabriel as he leads them there. They start to deal with the walkers, when Rick sees Gabriel seemingly ready to submit to a female walker, but Rick dispatches the walker first. Bob is also attacked by a walker, but he is rescued by Sasha. As they collect the salvageable food, Rick realizes Gabriel knew the person that became that walker. The other members of the group do their own supply runs, and Daryl andCarol find a working car nearby, which they plan to save as "backup". When Rick returns with his group, Carl shows him writing scratched into the woodwork of a windowsill outside the church: "you'll burn for this".
The group celebrates that night with a feast. Rick announces that he has decided to followAbraham's proposal to head toWashington, D.C. to deliverEugene there to help work a cure for the outbreak. Afterwards, Tara confesses to Maggie about her affiliation with the Governor and the prison attack, for which Maggie forgives her. Meanwhile, Gabriel sneaks off to be alone in his office, sadly looking at a photo of himself with the woman that became the walker from the food bank. Carol, who is still coming to terms with being exiled and the events of The Grove, leaves and goes to the car she found earlier. Daryl follows her and asks what she is doing. She replies she doesn't know, and Daryl asks her to come back with him. Just then they see a car race by with a white cross in its back windshield, which Daryl recognizes as the car that tookBeth. The two get in the car and set off to follow without telling the others.
As the feast dies down, Bob steps outside the church, weeping. He is knocked out by a hooded figure and when he wakes up, he finds himself watched byGareth, Martin, and four other Terminus members, all seeking revenge toward Rick's group as their actions forced them to abandon Terminus and wander. Gareth says they have devolved into "hunters" and the shot expands to show that they have cut off Bob's left leg and are eating it. Gareth casually states, "If it makes you feel any better, you taste much better than we thought you would."
ActorAndrew J. West addressesGareth's presence in the episode, saying: "I read that script and when I got the last couple pages, I was just shocked — but in a good way. I was smiling from ear to ear. AllScott [M. Gimple] had told me was that I was in episode two. I kept reading and got to the final pages and my God. I'm a fan of the comic book, too, so that was informing what I was reading and I recognized certain things. But it was a huge surprise and a pleasant one at that for me to be able to get to do something like that."[1]
Certain elements of this episode were produced to resemble certain elements in "Volume 11", "Issue #63" of thecomic book series, including:
ActorAndrew Lincoln (and others working with the show) insisted in an interview withEntertainment Weekly that "It's a grown-up show this season. And some of the violence is moving into a territory where it's human violence, the most scary aspect of this show."[3]
Upon airing, the episode was watched by 15.143 million American viewers, with 9.796 million viewers aged 18–49 watching it, which translates to an 18-49 rating of 7.7.[4]
Commentators gave the episode very positive reviews, with many commenting on the introduction of Father Gabriel and the ending scene featuring Bob and Gareth. Rebecca Hawkes ofThe Telegraph gave the episode 4 stars out of 5, calling the episode "beautifully surreal."[5] She continued to say that the show "often excels at action-packed high drama, but it's the quieter episodes that really reinforce the reality of life in a post-apocalyptic world – the idea that survival is one long slog."[5]
Matt Fowler ofIGN gave the episode an 8.8 out of 10, saying "Normally, since most of my issues with The Walking Dead involve character beats and decisions, I tend to dread the "come down" episodes a little bit. But "Strangers" managed to juggle the large ensemble very well while also keeping the story fresh and dangerous. The episode also raised legitimate questions about how to handle new faces on the road now that it's a clear given that people are far worse than the undead in this new world."[6]
The ending scene was given alarming reaction from critics. Andrew J. West's performance as Gareth was highly praised and liked how close it played to the comic. Kyle Ryan ofEntertainment Weekly said "Last week's explosive (literally) episode piled on the gore, pyrotechnics, and emotion so relentlessly that what followed it couldn't help but slow the pace considerably. But that doesn't make "Strangers" slow or easy to watch: The gross-out sceneGreg Nicotero giddily anticipated delivered in suitably nasty fashion, and the ending pulled a nice fake-out with Bob before delivering him to the former Terminans, now all but officially known as the Hunters."[7] Allen St. John ofForbes pondered whether or not this was the most shocking moment ever on the series, saying "Yes, I know that this is a show in which a13-year-old kid shoots his mother to keep her from turning into a walker. And one in whichRick bit open the neck of a would-be killer. And the less said about what happened atThe Grove, the better. And somehow, this moment has been worse than any of them. Bob being eaten alive by ahipster. (Before writing poor Bob's obituary, note that Hershel survived a good long time on one leg.)"[8] Terri Schwartz ofZap2it gave similar comments, saying "surprisingly Father Gabriel Stokes wasn't the biggest arrival in the episode. Though he is a man who -- as is repeatedly said in the series -- clearly has something to hide, it's the reveal that Gareth and the Terminans have turned into the Hunters from "The Walking Dead" comics that is the most skin-crawling, stomach-turning moment in the episode;"[9] Lisa Respers France ofCNN simply stated "how gross was that?"[10] Patrick Kevin Day ofThe Los Angeles Times compared Bob's fate to that of Mrs. Landingham's fromThe West Wing, saying "the former army medic who has battled his demons in the past, but seemed to have at long last found love with Sasha [...]. Suddenly, Bob was everywhere this episode, smiling and smooching and looking like the love in his heart was enough to fight back the apocalypse around him. We should have known that he was about to get Mrs. Landingham-ed."[11]
