With Halloween right around the corner, it’s only fitting that the newest season of AMC’s The Walking Dead is off to a gruesome, flesh-eating start. As the season five tag line reads “Hunt or be Hunted,” viewers are already seeing significant changes within the show’s iconic characters. 

Following the chilling cliffhanger at the tail-end of season four, the season five premiere opened with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and company at the mercy of cannibalistic opponents. The brutality and suspense of this scene only intensifies as the season continues.

Upon escaping captivity under the newest villain Gareth (Andrew J. West), thanks to a little help from a ruthless and heavily armed Carol (Melissa McBride), the group of zombie-apocalypse survivors is back on the road once more. 

Yet while the season premiere displayed some heartwarming reunions among the survivors—particularly the one between Carol and Daryl (Norman Reedus)—the most graphic and disturbing images in the entire series have been featured in the last couple episodes. Those who have made it through the second episode know what I’m referring to. 

This method of builidng our hopes up and then crushing them is nothing we haven’t seen before. If viewers recall, the season four premiere opened with a quiet Rick on the farm and ended with a virus infecting the prison’s occupants. 

For those who have read the comics, it’s clear that showrunner Scott M. Gimple is working closely with Robert Kirkman, the original creator of the comic book series and executive producer for the show, to keep the series as faithful to the source material as possible from here on out, despite opposing approaches from Gimple’s predecessors. From the way Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) and his crew look, to the arrival of Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam), I have a feeling it’ll be difficult for fanboys to avoid spoiling the rest of the season for their friends. 

Still, this kind of intensity and relentlessness provides a nice contradiction to the painfully dull soap opera drama that made up the bulk of season two and part of season three. If Gimple hadn’t been promoted, I probably would’ve stopped watching this show by now. 

Carol is the character who has changed most since the series began. Remember when she was a helpless mother suffering at the hands of her abusive husband? Now we see her single-handedly assaulting a prison camp with a rocket launcher and releasing a swarm of walkers on an unarmed opponent. 

And Carol is not the only one whose humanity is diminishing. After Rick’s gruesome display of violence in the season four finale, his thirst for vengeance remains unquenched. Despite escaping from Gareth and his henchmen, the raggedy, gun-slinging protagonist has declared that he won’t stop until they’re all dead. 

The two elements I’m most looking forward to this season are finding out what’s going on with Beth (Emily Kinney), and the apparent return of Morgan Jones (Lennie James), which was briefly hinted at during a post-credits sequence in the season premiere.  

The non-chronological storytelling, which Gimple used in the premiere, also deserves recognition. As the events of the group’s escape unfolded, flashbacks of Gareth and his people were juxtaposed with these scenes. Here we see they endured the same misery and imprisonment, which they in turn now inflict upon others. 

Although this is an interesting dynamic, it still doesn’t justify their sadistic nature. That being said, I expect viewers to feel as much sympathy for these guys as they did for the Governor (David Morrissey.)   

Despite my mixed feelings regarding the recently announced spinoff series, which is currently in development, my excitement for this season of The Walking Dead remains at an all-time high.