I raved about the way season five started. The first half of this season came in with a bang and had some of the best episodes. This second half is slow. Yeah they killed off another main character but it was a slow death that took the whole episode. Now we have to deal with the emotional turmoil of the group. The title of the episode is 'Them' it should have been 'giving up' or 'feeling sorry for ourselves'. The characters have lost all zest for life stumbling along just like the zombies, hungry and thirsty. They barely communicate with the one or two people they can tolerate in the group.

Sasha is going slightly off the rails now that she's lost Bob and Tyrese. She has gone into rage mode (or stupid mode, depending on how you look at it). It's sad to see someone turn inwards and embrace violence. Oh no, wait it isn't. She had some of the best moments this episode. The first is when everyone is deciding what to do about a pack of feral dogs, she shoots them all without giving it a second thought. I remember a rule of American media, if a character kills a dog they are a bad guy. Does that mean she's turning to the dark side? (I sure hope so). The second moment is when she rightfully tells Noah that he sucks and should prepare to die (I'm extrapolating, but that's what she implied).

Daryl deals with the loss of Beth, he does this by wandering into the woods alone to have a smoke and a cry. Doesn't seem like a good idea to split up all the time. Yet he does it many times (I guess they really want to hammer home that he's a bad ass). He's so strong and sensitive too, doesn't everyone just love him. Oh yeah and he eats worms.

Maggie has given up the will to kill zombies. She still does, but is very resigned while doing it. She resolves to feel better at the end of the episode when she realizes people still care about her (I guess). Carl gives her a music box and Daryl fixes/cleans it. Which leads to the slightly creepy ending which was really good.

Rick finally says the line 'we are the walking dead'. It's yet another slow moment in this episode that gets drawn out so long just to get that line some emphasis. They get attacked by strobe-light-zombies (okay it happens in a lightning storm, hope no one has epilepsy).

The end of the episode brings a new character, one from the comics, into the show. Aaron wanders up while Maggie is cheering up Sasha. They respond the only way this group knows how, pointing a gun at him. Why is it that most people our group bumps into seems happier than they are, even the bad ones. Why is there no one telling stories or cracking jokes, yeah it's the end of the world, but surely there's some fun people left.

Score: 3/5

Extra point for the scene with the dogs and everyone unhappily eating the meat.