THE 'DEAD'
AMC’s hit series shows new sides to the protagonists in season five
I think that defines who I am? And why would I want to survive?’” says McBride. “It just gets to the core of being human.”
Carol’s not the only one who’s had to adapt to dirty work. When Rick saw that his son Carl (Chandler Riggs) was about to get sexually assaulted right before his eyes last season, the enraged dad took a page from the zombie playbook and ripped out his captor’s throat with his teeth.
“Up until that point, there was always a struggle within him to be a moral center for his children,” says Lincoln. “But he is one of those people who can step over the line, when that line is drawn, and what happened with that bite is that he learned this violence is as much a part of why they are still alive now as being a moral leader was.”
The result? A more confident (and deadly?) Rick Grimes this season. Farmer Rick has been put out to pasture. “You’ll see this is now a man who is no longer in conflict, who is an incredible, formidable, dangerous man, but also a terrific leader and probably in the height of his powers,” says Lincoln - who refuses to give any more hints about what’s next.
“There is a bomb strapped to the bottom of my trailer, and as soon as I spoil anything, it goes off,” he laughs. “I will say, I’m more excited about this season than I have been for any other. The first half is ‘Helter Skelter’ from the Beatles, and the second half is ‘A Day in the Life.’ We’re heading into the heart of darkness.”
This grave new world is bringing out the worst in everyone, including Tyreese (Chad Coleman), who’s hesitant about engaging in violence again after Lizzie’s death, even when killing needs to be done to keep baby Judith safe.
“He’s a force to be reckoned with in so many ways, but he’s still struggling with how exactly to proceed. The world is going to have to come at him,” says Coleman. “Kudos to the show for creating a complex character like this, where we don’t just get handed a big, black dude with a hammer who’s just going to smash people away. His song is to be more contemplative.”
The new season peels away at the layers of favorite characters, and sheds light on new ones such as Sgt. Abraham Ford (played by Michael Cudlitz), whose group joined Rick’s last season.
“We’ll learn a tremendous more about Ford this season,” promises Cudlitz, who hints his character challenges Rick’s authority. “You think you know these people, but you really don’t know them until you know what they were before, and what they had to become. Everyone has lost something.”
Brace yourselves, viewers — the showrunners have even worse things in store beyond kid-killing and jugular chewing, and they come out guns blazing in Sunday’s premiere.
“The glass is half full ... of blood,” cracks Gimple. “There are some moments in these first eight episodes that are in some ways much darker. There was a lot of stuff that was very difficult to write.”
Look no further than Terminus, the sanctuary that our survivors headed toward last season that turned out to be a nest of cannibals. The Sunday night premiere picks up where we left off, with most of Rick’s group locked in a freight car, and Carol, Tyreese and Judith heading into the trap.
“The Terminus people were turned into monsters, and we have our people struggling with that within themselves,” says Gimple. “Can they come back from the things they’ve done? No, they can’t completely come back. So who do they become? There are gonna be a lot of people deciding what they are by the end of this season.”