The Walking Dead is like a box of chocolates. No this isn’t Forrest Gump reviewing The Walking Dead. This is Kevin catching your attention with a unoriginal hook.

As I was saying, The Walking Dead is like a disgusting, undead box of chocolates. Not so much because you never know what you’re gonna get. More so because if you keep eating you will eventually find something you like.

Oh yes, we Dead fans have been through a lot. We started off lucky and got a pure milk chocolate piece in season one. It was sweet and familiar. It was something we have had before but it was just plain good.

Then we moved onto season two and the farm where we pulled a caramel chocolate piece. It felt like it was never going to end even after we finished it.

Season three was like a coconut chocolate. While technically chocolate the core of the candy leaves a funny taste in your mouth. You feel a bit betrayed but you trudge on anyway.

And in season four we get a cheery creme filled chocolate. Messy and all over the place.

Finally season five comes around and we get our hands on that bitter yet sophisticated taste of pure dark chocolate. It’s more indulgent than the milk chocolate variety but is an acquired taste. It’s darker, more pure, more real and better than you could have imagined.

Take a jump, be wary of the spoilers, and I promise this metaphor will end soon.

I previously reviewed the first half of the 5th season of The Walking Dead here.

As I alluded to in my lengthy and ridiculous introduction, season five of The Walking Dead was their best season yet.

Which is truly a relief because I started to question why I was bothering with the show in the first place. Every week filled me with disappointment and I felt obligated to stick around. I felt like I had already invested time so I had to see it through.

Lucky for me my “patience” paid off and I was treated to a season full of not only gut-twisting zombie attacks like being stuck in a rotating door but also gut-wrenching deaths like Tyreese.

Speaking of deaths, and since it is called The Walking Dead, let’s examine who left the undead world this half season.

The Dead:

We lost Tyreese, Noah, Tara, Aiden, Reg and Pete this season. Okay unfortunately we didn’t lose Tara, but we almost did!

We lost Tyreese due to Noah’s carelessness and his own will not being strong enough. Tyreese’s will died long ago and it finally culminated with a beautiful Lost-esque episode where Tyreese faced his biggest demon of all, letting go.

After Tyreese, the only preseason five character to die, was gone we are left with a bunch of ho-hum deaths of characters we hardly knew. Think of them as zombie fodder if you will.

Aiden got cocky and died by the explosion of a grenade and the hands of walkers. We lost Noah due to a revolving door of walkers and Nicholas’ recklessness. And we lost Reg in the crossfires of the Rick-Pete war of which Pete was also a “victim”.

To recap, Tyreese died because he allowed himself to, Aiden died because of his own doing, Noah was betrayed by Nicholas’ selfishness, Reg got caught in the middle of two alpha males and Pete was just an asshole.

This season cemented the idea that people shouldn’t fear the Walkers, they should fear each other.

The Living:

For those characters that are still alive, and there are entirely too many of them, the focus of the season was definitely on Rick, Carol, Sasha, Glenn and Michonne.

The slow burn of Rick losing his mind finally paid off this season when Rick got power hungry and Michonne had to Ronda Rousey his face.

Meanwhile Rick was balancing a brilliant domestic abuse story that highlighted Carol’s growth as a character and the show’s ability to discuss current event issues despite being a show about zombies.

This plot was respectful and well done. They showed Jessie as a strong woman in a tough situation. They used Carol as a redemption story and hope for Jessie’s future. They even showed Rick as being somewhat selfish for involving himself in the tough situation. This was definitely the highlight of the season for me.

Not only did Carol play a big part in that story but she was also deeply involved in Rick’s plans for their next move. This season she proved herself to be a tough, loyal and extremely intelligent member of the group. She understood Rick’s plan to take over Alexandria before he even expressed it. She immediately jumped into her perceived role as a homemaker and friendly neighbor in order to take advantage of their new friends. Carol was badass and the writers should be patting themselves on the back for creating a deep, strong, complicated and entertaining woman character.

Then we have Michonne and Sasha. Stories that somehow parallel each other in reverse fashion. Michonne is tired of running and she wants to trust these new people and start building a defensive life. Sasha is tired of running too but she wants to cut herself off of people and start playing offensively.

Both characters are exhausted. Michonne from never finding stability and Sasha from believing she discovered stability with her brother and Bob and getting it torn away from her. Michonne is integrating and blooming while Sasha is exiling herself. The subtle scenes for both of their stories captivated me and I look forward to further exploring their paths.

And finally we have Glenn. What a roller coaster of a ride for this guy. By far my favorite in season one and then once he got married it’s like I didn’t know the guy. Isn’t that always the case?

This season Glenn stood his ground and made his presence known. While not having a story of his own, besides not murdering Nicholas, he had many moments of standing up against people like Rick and Aiden. He seems to be the morality of the group and I expect big things from him in season six.

There you have it, thanks for sticking through my random ramblings of season 5 of The Walking Dead. Much like the box of chocolates I know it was all over the place.

And now I look forward to the Wolves, Alexandria post-mortem and Tara finding new ways of driving me crazy without doing anything in season six. See ya there.

-Kevin W