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

2. Four Walls And A Roof

There's a lot to love in Four Walls and a Roof, the season's third episode that pitted Gareth and the Hunters against Rick's group. Rather than dragging the arc on longer than it needed to be, the show quickly and effectively brought the conflict to a head, satisfying fans of the comics and pleasing everyone else in the process. After opening with the awesome "tainted meat" scene and following up with Gabriel's confession of locking his congregation out of the church when they needed his help, the episode kicks into gear with the Hunters dropping Bob off at the church. As we all know, the Hunters later invade the church, only to be ambushed by Rick's group, with Rick himself fulfilling his promise to Gareth that he'd kill him with the red-handled machete in the season premiere. Gareth was an intriguing, entertaining villain, vastly different than the Governor, and Andrew J. West's performance cemented the character's memorable status despite only appearing in four episodes total. The slaughter of the Hunters is immensely satisfying, highlighting how far Rick has come from his days of questioning whether or not to execute someone like Randall back in season two and gave solid closure to the Terminus arc. On top of that, the episode featured the death of Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.'s Bob Stookey, the group's optimistic moral compass filling the gap left by characters like Dale and Hershel. Despite starting off season four with many viewers suspicious of him, Bob grew into an immensely likeable character over season four's back half and his budding relationship with Sasha was more than welcome. At the end of the day, Four Walls and a Roof is a tense, emotional and thoroughly gratifying episode, driven by a laser focus on getting down to business and putting both characters and viewers through the ringer.