The Walking Dead is at one of its busiest points in history thanks to a huge number of important characters.

As we approach the season finale (only two episodes left!), it’s clear that a war is brewing between Rick’s people and Deanna’s. What’s less clear is how many more people the show is going to kill off before season 5 comes to a close.

Outside Alexandria

Glenn, Nicholas, Noah, Eugene, Tara, and Deanna’s troublesome son Aiden head out on a mission to grab some new micro invertors for the town’s power grid. Eugene, naturally, isn’t a good fit for this excursion, and when he has a private moment with Tara he reminds her that he already did his duty to the group by (kind of) being responsible for getting them to Alexandria.

Still, he’s needed on this trip so they can get the correct parts. After successfully finding what they need in a warehouse, the gang naturally runs into a bunch of zombies.

Shooting one particular zombie makes it explode, seriously injuring Tara and Aiden. The latter is in particularly bad shape — he’s been impaled by some steel, and they decide to let him die because A) he’s hopeless with those wounds and B) karma.

While Glenn deals with Aiden, Eugene is taking care of Tara. No one comes to help him get her out of the warehouse, so Eugene decides to give us some character development by carrying Tara out himself and shooting some zombies along the way. He’s finally killed some walkers! As Tara warned him earlier in the episode, it would come at a time where he had no other choice but to man up and shoot.

The final scene at the warehouse is a bit of a confusing one, with Nicholas, Glenn, and Noah trapped in revolving glass doors surrounded by zombies. Nicholas refuses to follow Glenn’s directions and ends up getting Noah killed. As noted on The Talking Dead afterwards, this season has a very high death count. Surely one or two more people are on death’s door as we approach the finale.

Inside Alexandria

Lots happened around the compound! Let’s break it down by character.

– The episode started and ended with powerful moments from Father Gabriel. He’s set up a small place of worship in one of the town homes at Alexandria, but begins tearing up his Bible when he senses demons within the community. Those demons? Rick and his group.

At the end of the episode Gabriel visits Deanna and speaks of a “false light” — he warns that letting Rick in was not a good idea, and that they don’t deserve this paradise. “They’re not good people. They’ve done things — they’ve done unspeakable things,” he says over images of Rick, Carol, and Eugene. “The day will come where they’ll put their own lives before yours.”

The whole time Gabriel is speaking to Deanna, Maggie is listening from below the stairs. This’ll surely come in handy later when Maggie can warn Rick about Gabriel’s message. Maybe they can hop on the offensive and repair their image, or kill Gabriel before he causes any more trouble.

Gabriel certainly isn’t wrong, but he’s not right either. In our opinion, Rick and co. definitely add many good things to Alexandria.

– Daryl looks like a badass on the motorcycle he’s been given in exchange for recruiting.

– Before dying, Noah met with Deanna’s husband to ask for weekly lessons about wall building. Hubby is impressed by his interest in keeping Alexandria safe because it means he’s in it for the long haul. It’s a shame this scene had to happen on the same day Noah died.

– Abraham and Rosita are now a thing, if their sleeping together is any indication. And Abraham earns himself the role of construction leader when he takes out a slew of zombies on his own then insists that they continue to build their wall with only a few hours of daylight left. Deanna is okay with his new position but doesn’t love how Rick’s people are taking on numerous leadership roles.

– Rick meets with Jessie in her garage where she’s reeling from an owl statue being torn apart by hoodlums in Alexandria. He promises to figure out who did it but comes up empty on suspects. Later, Jessie’s husband Pete stops by Rick’s house to offer him a beer. There’s clearly tension between the two but they both play it friendly.

– Carol continues to show her dark side when Jessie and Pete’s son Sam drops by her house. With the power out, he’s bored and wants more cookies. She reluctantly offers to help him bake, but only if he steals the chocolate himself.

Sam manages to steal the chocolate, and Carol continues to bring the bad attitude. She’s downright mean, but that doesn’t deter Sam from trying to ask some softball questions. “We don’t have to be friends, we just don’t have to be quiet,” he tells her while baking.

Then, things turn dark. Sam admits to breaking his mom’s owl statue. He then asks Carol why she stole one of the guns (“To protect myself”) and then subtly reveals that he (and probably his mom) want to steal a weapon. It seems like they want the weapon to kill Pete, because at the end of the episode Carol eerily tells Rick that Jessie’s husband needs to be killed — she senses he’s been abusive. This is similar to what occurs in the comic series, in that Pete is abusive toward his wife.

What did you think of ‘The Walking Dead’ 5×14?

How do you see this season ending? It looks like there are going to be several battles within Alexandria within the next two episodes — chief among them will be Rick v Pete. We’re also eager to see how Deanna reacts to the death of her son, and if she’ll connect his passing to Gabriel’s warning.

The Walking Dead continues next Sunday, March 22 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on AMC.