**Warning: This article contains spoilers**
“The Walking Dead” is feeling pretty darn good: Ratings are through the roof, and after announcing a spin-off this summer, AMC just renewed the series. No wonder Sunday’s fifth-season premiere, titled “No Sanctuary,” unfolds with a kind of quiet, cocky confidence. This is a show that acts as if it’s got nothing to prove. Even the gore is both over-the-top and matter-of-fact.
The episode does what a good premiere should do: It resets the clock.
This was key after a muddled fourth season that broke up the gang into separate clusters. It’s hard to build dramatic momentum when you constantly toggle from one unit to another to another.
So here we are again, with the main group — including Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira) and reunited lovebirds Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) — held captive at Terminus.
Their hope for haven quickly turns out to be a mirage.
Just how deluded our guys were is fully revealed when Terminus leader Gareth (Andrew J. West) orders eight prisoners to be lined up above a gleaming trough. One of his henchmen, wearing a transparent apron, knocks out the first victim with a baseball bat, while another slits his throat, blood gushing straight into the camera.
The worst part is how detached the Terminus people are, like they’re just doing their job. Gareth, in particular, looks like the smug preppy you hated in college — this is not your Governor’s brand of charismatic evil but mediocrity gone horribly wrong.
The execution of the prisoners is the kind of shocker the show hadn’t delivered since Hershel’s death, and it brings home the episode’s underlying lesson: The new world is so screwed up, it’s impossible to take the high road. You’re either the cattle or the butcher, and the Terminusians (Terminants? Termites?) have made their choice. It’s unclear whether our guys are that different. They just haven’t gone all farm-to-table on human flesh yet.
The clock is most definitely reset when it comes to Carol (Melissa McBride), whose transformation into Badass McBadassy is now complete.
Sporting a poncho that makes her look like Clint Eastwood circa “The Man With No Name,” the erstwhile battered wife covers herself in zombie entrails, single-handedly infiltrates Terminus, and basically kicks major butt.
Careful, Rick, there may be a new sheriff in town.
The problems with the episode are the usual “Walking Dead” problems, especially the overall cheapness (this is what happens when you spend most of your budget on makeup and Karo syrup) and the video-game-level acting.
But set against the series’ own standard of quality, “No Sanctuary” is a good episode. It’s swiftly paced, disgusting — lots of shots of walkers chomping on screaming faces — and puts down some much-needed signposts for the rest of the season.
Consider us still hooked.
“The Walking Dead” is on AMC Sunday at 10 p.m.