WALKING DEAD Mystery Villain Revealed
For those of you Walking Dead fans hoping that the mystery villain we were introduced to in the Season 5 premiere was Negan from the comics, you should know that it's not. That was my first thought while watching the episode, though. SPOILERS ahead.
If you watched the episode then you know it gave us a little background information on the leader of the group, Gareth, residing at Camp Cannibal Terminus. There's a lot more to this character than we initially realized. Yes, these guys were a group of evil assholes, but apparently they weren't always that way.
It was revealed in some flashback scenes that Gareth and his people did in fact initially envision Terminus as a "Sanctuary for All." But after taking in a group who tortured and murdered their people, they took back Terminus and decided to not trust any newcomers and do whatever it takes to protect themselves, including luring in outsiders and eating them.
The big question is… who was that big mean-ass guy who entered the train car at the end of the episode to torture Gareth and his family? Showrunner Scott M. Gimple calls him the "Large Man," and maybe you may have already figured this out, but he was also the long-haired guy that Rick sets loose from the train car that is quickly eaten by a horde of walkers. VFX artist Greg Nicotero talks about the character in an interview with THR, and explains why he needed to exist.
"He's one of the dudes that took over Termius. At the end, when they go back into the train car and you see them, that's the same guy. When they're saying, 'You're either the cattle or the butcher,' Mary says, 'We put the signs up because we did want to save this place and want it to be a sanctuary and then they took it away.' Them being willing to take people in, it was the biggest mistake they made and it turned them. That's a big theme on the show because it shows how you can start out as a good person and with a few flips of the switch, be not such a good person."
Gimple added:
"Bad people came in and did things to Gareth and his group. Gareth and his group did bad things to people. Does that mean that Rick and his group do bad things to other people? I don't think Gareth thinks he's the same as the 'large man' or the people that came in. I think he is a lot more pragmatic. [Gareth's mother told Carol] that they came in, laughed, and took the place over within weeks and they did horrible things and left. Gareth is a little amused by Rick saying that he's going to kill him. But other than that, Gareth isn't laughing. He's very serious about this. There is a gravity to the whole thing for Gareth. It's the banality of evil but in some ways, it's another day at the office at Terminus. But they're not sitting there laughing and enjoying it."
I guess there's a good chance that the rest of the "large man's" group could turn out to be The Hunters from the comic. They spy on Rick and the crew as they are traveling to Washington, D.C. in the comic. Gimple addresses this group in the interview, saying,
"The Hunters are very purposeful. In the comics, they thought they just had to do what they had to do. There was no enjoyment from it. The only person who seemed to enjoy that sort of thing in the comics was The Governor."
I'm sure everything that we've seen in this first episode sets up an even bigger shit-storm later on. I'm looking forward to seeing what that will be!