The Walking Dead Season 5: First 8 Episodes Ranked Worst To Best

7. Crossed

Crossed, the season's seventh episode, had the unfortunate responsibility of carrying forward all the story threads: Rick's squad's journey to rescue Beth and Carol, Beth's handling of Carol's arrival at the hospital, the fallout from Abraham knocking Eugene unconscious and the characters left behind at Father Gabriel's church. Unlike the first six episodes, it's the least streamlined by necessity, setting up all the pieces on the board ahead of the midseason finale and sacrificing complete forward momentum in the process. Nearly every character gets screentime in the episode, giving fans the chance to catch up with all the events the show had taken the previous few episodes to devote time to, but ultimately it feels like nothing more than a prelude and we doubt anyone wasn't yelling at the screen when Sasha naively turned her back on Bob #2 at episode's end. In its favor, however, the episode did take time to give Rosita a chance to develop more into a rounded character, allowed Sasha and Tyreese to ruminate on Bob's death and had a stellar setpiece involving napalmed walkers.