Strangers (The Walking Dead)

"Strangers" is the second episode of the fifth season and 53rd episode overall of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on October 19, 2014. The episode was written by series creator Robert Kirkman and directed by David Boyd. In the episode, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln)'s group encounters a priest, Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam), who provides them solace in his church, while Rick contemplates Sgt. Abraham Ford's (Michael Cudlitz) proposition to escort Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) to Washington, D.C. to cure the walker virus.

"Strangers" features the debut of Father Gabriel Stokes, a major protagonist of the graphic 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.

Plot

The group is traveling through the woods following their escape from Terminus. At night, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) guard the camp, and Daryl senses that someone is watching them. The next day, the group hears a man (Seth Gilliam) screaming for help. They save him from a group of walkers that had surrounded him and forced him to climb a rock to survive. The man reveals he is a pastor named Gabriel who has lived in solitude, and he leads them to his church. Gabriel explains that he has survived through luck, eating canned food collected for a food drive and scavenging for other materials. Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) expresses distrust of Gabriel and tells his son Carl (Chandler Riggs) that he should never let his guard down.

Gabriel notifies the group of a food bank not too far away that has supplies but is overrun by walkers; Rick, Michonne (Danai Gurira), Bob Stookey (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) get Gabriel to take them there. On the way there, Bob advises Rick to accept Sgt. Abraham Ford's (Michael Cudlitz) proposal to head to Washington; he then asserts that the world they are living in is not the real world, saying, "This is a nightmare, and nightmares end". Once they arrive, they find walkers in a flooded basement, which they dispatch while gathering canned foods. While doing so, Gabriel seems to submit himself before an approaching walker, which Rick kills before it can reach him. While fighting, Bob is attacked by a walker, and Sasha saves him. On the way out of the food bank, Rick realizes Gabriel knew the walker who almost killed him. Once back at the church, Carl shows Rick deep scratches near a window and a message that reads, "You'll burn for this". Meanwhile, Glenn, Maggie, and Tara search a nearby gun store, finding three firearm silencers in the freezer. Daryl and Carol walk down a road, discover a working car, and decide to save it as "backup".

That night, the group celebrates sanctuary with the newly recovered food and Gabriel's communion wine. Abraham toasts to their safety and attempts to convince everyone to venture to Washington, D.C. in order for Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) to work on a cure for the outbreak. Eugene claims there is also hardened infrastructure in Washington to get a hand-up on the restart. Rick shows his approval, and the rest of the group responds enthusiastically. Alone in his office, Father Gabriel looks sorrowfully at a picture of him and the young woman who, as a walker, tried to kill him at the food bank.

Meanwhile, Carol distances herself from the group, still affected by her actions while she was exiled, she and Tyreese both refusing to discuss what happened. She returns to the car she found, which is now running, when she is discovered by Daryl. They see another car driving by, and Daryl observes that it has the same white cross as the car he saw the night Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) was kidnapped. He and Carol jump in their car and give chase.

Later, Bob steps outside the church alone and begins to weep. While doing so, he is knocked unconscious by a hooded figure. When he awakens, he is face to face with Gareth (Andrew J. West) and a still-alive Martin (Chris Coy), as well as three other former Terminus residents, all of them angry with Rick & his people over the destruction of Terminus. Gareth explains that he and his group were once normal but devolved into "hunters". It is then revealed that the group cut off Bob's left leg in order to eat it. Gareth casually says, "If it makes you feel any better, you taste much better than we thought you would".

Production

Actor Andrew J. West addresses Gareth'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. All Scott [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 the comic book series, including:

• The group's arrival at Father Gabriel's church
• Gareth's monologue in final scene (resembling Chris in that issue of the comics)
• The shot of Bob discovering that his left leg is missing (resembling Dale without his leg in the comics)

Actor Andrew Lincoln (and others working with the show) insisted in an interview with Entertainment 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."^[2]

Reception

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.^[3]

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 of The Telegraph gave the episode 4 stars out of 5, calling the episode "beautifully surreal."^[4] 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."^[4]

Matt Fowler of IGN 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."^[5]

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 of Entertainment 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 scene 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."^[6] Allen St. John of Forbes 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 a 13-year-old kid shoots his mother to keep her from turning into a walker. And one in which Rick bit open the neck of a would-be killer. And the less said about what happened at The Grove, the better. And somehow, this moment has been worse than any of them. Bob being eaten. Alive. By a hipster. (Before writing poor Bob’s obituary, note that Hershel survived a good long time on one leg.)"^[7] Terri Schwartz of Zap2it 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;"^[8] Lisa Respers France of CNN simply stated "how gross was that?"^[9] Patrick Kevin Day of The Los Angeles Times compared Bob's fate to that of Mrs. Landingham's from The 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."^[10]

References

External links

• "Strangers" at AMC
• "Strangers" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Strangers" at TV.com