'The Walking Dead' Long Live Carol, the Badass Recap

You wanted action? The season 5 premiere of "The Walking Dead" has it for you.

The new season started off with a literal bang as Rick and the gang found themselves locked in a container at Terminus, awaiting whatever terrible fate the weird cannibals had in store for them.

We left off with Rick declaring that their enemies would "feel stupid" when they found out that they're "screwing with the wrong people." For a few moments it seemed like Rick might be right, as we got a suit-up montage of the team making all kinds of makeshift weapons out of whatever they had: belts, wood, etc.

But that threat ended up being an empty one, as our heroes were prepped at the wrong door and a smoke grenade from the ceiling dropped them all pretty quickly.

What followed was some of the worst horrors that we've seen on this show, and that's saying a lot for a show about flesh-hungry zombies. Glenn, Rick and Darryl were lined up on their knees in front of a trough and left to sit and wait while two butchers systematically hit each victim with a bat and then slit their throats to drain their blood.

It's a reminder of how well this show does suspense sometimes. It's not always about zombies jumping out from around corners; sometimes it's the turning of the screw (or the swinging of the bat) that really gets you.

Fortunately, Rick et al were saved at the last moment by a big explosion outside.

A time jump reveals that the saving blast actually came thanks to Carol, who is officially a certified post-apocalyptic badass. She and Tyreese manage to take one of the Terminus gang hostage, with Tyreese left to watch him along with baby Judith.

There's a lot that happens, chronologically, all at once: Carol gets a skillful and/or lucky shot with a bottle rocket that sets off an explosion at the compound, letting in not just zombies, but FIRE ZOMBIES. The chaos is enough for Rick, Darryl and Glenn to fight their way out and rescue all the others in the process.

Meanwhile, in the cabin, Tyreese's kindness and/or unwillingness to kill leads his hostage to turn the table and threaten to snap Judith's neck unless Tyreese goes outside into a pack of walkers. Tyreese goes beast mode, takes them all out bare-handed and comes back in to pound Mr. Detroit Hat's face into the ground.

Rick and co. finally reunite with Carol—and, subsequently, with Judith—when they go to find their weapons cache. Herein we see the theme of this episode, which has played out over and over between our three storylines: When you finally lose your humanity you're either the cattle or the butcher.

For Rick, he was dangerously close to the edge. It's understandable that he would order Glenn not to headshot the butchers so that they would "let them turn," but that doesn't make it any less dark. Then we have Rick gunning down living humans with an assault rifle, and attempting to get the group to go back into Terminus to kill every last one of them.

But it's Glenn and, surprisingly, Carol who convince Rick that isn't the way to go. Glenn argues that they should open up the other containers and release the prisoners because "that's still who we are." As for Carol, she might be the butcher now, but she knows when to kill and when to not.

It's official, though: with Carol's fight in that weird candle-shrine room (colored flameless candles? Really?), she's the one who will get s--t done.

Also notable: we got a bit of a glimpse at what Eugene's supposed "cure" is. Apparently he was in on a project to weaponize certain biological agents, and he claims he knows a way that they could "flip the switch" and have one virus attack the other, and "fight fire with fire."

Which, as Eugene himself admits, sounds pretty badass.