Day 2 of San Diego Comic Con is underway and we just got rewarded for our patience and vigilance with one of the most highly anticipated trailers of the entire convention: Season 5 of The Walking Dead. Prior to this reveal all we had was a brief 10 second clip and Steven Yeun (Glen’s) remarks to E! News about how he couldn’t believe some of this season was legal.

I remember a couple of scenes I would look over at what was going on in the scene and I would be like, ‘What the eff? What are we doing? How is this legal?’ It’s grounded and real, too; it’s not like torture or gore for no reason – Steven Yeun

Well now that we’ve seen the trailer, we can surmise what he was talking about even more. From further support for cannibalism to huge explosions and battles this is truly going to be an action packed season. So let’s slow down the trailer, put some puzzle pieces together, and see what we can predict about this season.

Texas Chainsaw Cannibals?

Though we’ve still yet to get 100% confirmation on the whole cannibal thing, the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. From the railcars full of prisoners, trap metaphor, human sized barbeques and the courtyard of human carcasses picked clean down to the bones, the writing seems to be on the wall – literally! Though this trailer gave us the most disturbing new evidence of all. So disturbing that I had to watch it twice just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

In the trailer we see our heroes bound and gagged as they’re told that the Termites ‘didn’t want to do this to them’. Could this be torture maybe? Though the guy who looks an awful lot like Shane swinging a bat at Glenn’s head seems a bit much. As we watch more of the scene unfold we realize this goes from bring ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ to just down right ‘what the eff?’.

During one interrogation-like scene we spy one guy in a heavy plastic apron covered in blood splatter. To make matters worse, we see what appears to be meat hooks in the background of our tied up heroes. Though the most disturbing evidence comes when we see a man hovering over a table while the sound of a buzz saw can be heard. The screen gets blurry which makes me think this is the last thing one of our heroes sees before blacking out – and hopefully not worse. If this had all been one huge misdirection, then it’s a brilliant one; but there’s only so many ways that scene can be taken.

Reunited:

As we saw in the little mini teaser during the Summer session of Talking Dead, Carol and Tyreese are still alive and well with baby Judith. Well ,that ‘alive and well’ part might be wrong as we see them running from a horde of walkers in the teaser. Though in this full trailer we see them back with Rick and the others; and most importantly we see Rick holding baby Judith.

Now aside from there being a happy reunion – and looking like all of our heroes are still together – we notice that these reunion scenes take place outside of Terminus. Do our heroes escape? Are they running an errand for Terminus? Or do Tyreese, Carol and Judith lead a heard of walkers right to Terminus’s front – and still unlocked – door?

Will You Join Terminus or Watch It Burn?

In the trailer it seems as though our heroes make a deal to leave Terminus if they promise to become one of them; and deliver true on this ‘Get To Washington/Save The World’ deal. At the what’s going on? Well on one hand, they could get offered this deal only to become overrun a day or so later. Though if you look through the images it looks like there might be one of two scenarios the might pan out.

Since we see almost all of our heroes banded together in the woods, we know they all make it out safely at some point. We can also see that Gareth is with them for part of it, about which Rick is mentions to Carl that he doesn’t trust Gareth. Add in some scenes with “we’re not leaving without our people” and “where are our people”, and we get quite a different idea.

It seems as though Gareth might leave with Rick and a group to go out and complete this Washington mission. Now it doesn’t make much sense for all the prison group to leave with Gareth since he is the Terminus leader and could be killed in a second if our heroes needed a way out. Gareth must have some hold over them, meaning he still has some of their people.

This could be a preliminary trip that leads back to Terminus and reveals the more sinister side when they can’t find all their people – please don’t let someone we like be eaten. Either way, at some point Terminus will become over run and fall just like the CDC, Farmhouse, Woodbury and the Prison before it. Which way this season will go remains to be seen. Either way, both paths look amazing and drama filled. Can’t wait to see what’ll happen.

New Chance at Sanctuary:

During the travels we find our heroes come across an old church which will be run by newcomer Seth Gilliam who will play Father Gabriel, whom you might know from the comics. In some of the scenes here it looks like we find all of our heroes gathered and ready for the trip to Washington, so again it looks like all will be safe. Though I can’t help but shake the feeling there’s someone I’m missing . Unless our heroes are guilted into joining Terminus because it kept its crazy under wraps for a while and then showed it later on.

Improved Weaponry:

One quick little thing to touch upon is Michonne’s katana, which in the trailer has been crudely updated to be dual sided. As if she wasn’t badass enough right? Last season it was Maggie’s street sign this year it’s a dual sided sword. You just gotta love Walking Dead weaponry. It also looks like Darryl upgraded his bow to the kind Joe’s gang was carrying. So I guess they get to rendezvous with their bag of weapons after all.

Beth’s Fate?

First we though Beth ran off without Darryl. Then we though she was kidnapped and turned into Beth Burgers by Terminus. Well it looks like neither of those were true as we find Beth alive and well and in . . . . actually I don’t know where she is. From an aggressive warden to make-shift medical units, it looks like Beth wandered onto the set of Orange is the New Black and Scrubs.

Now this could be part of Terminus; but with giant elevator shafts and what looks like a hospital parking lot, I honestly have no idea where Beth could be. Perhaps readers of the comics could give me some insights into this location. Regardless, let’s just be happy she’s dead … yet.

In the weeks to come I’m sure we’ll get even more exciting reveals for The Walking Dead. I’m also fairly certain I’ll watch that trailer about a hundred more times. Either way this trailer was amazing and I couldn’t be more excited for Season 5 to start. The Walking Dead returns to AMC Sunday, October 12 at 9/8c