The Walking Dead knocked it out of the park with their season five premiere. The episode was jam packed with enough blood and guts to satisfy even the most critical fans.

Last season ended on a cliffhanger with Daryl and the entire group reuniting at Terminus. Fans were left wondering if they were going to stay stuck in the train car and become zombie food.

The first few minutes of the episode was enough to make anyone squirm. It started out with a flashback of Gareth, the leader of Terminus and the Terminus group trapped in a train car that looks like the one Rick and the others are in. He started questioning if he and his friends were good people, why were they being tortured while audible screams could be heard.

The season opener gave a little bit of background into what Terminus actually is but not enough. The obvious is that Terminus is a group of survivors that were taking refuge at a compound and had to start fending for themselves after being tortured and raped by a group of unnamed captures.

The confusing part is how do people go from being considered good to being unable to think twice about killing anyone who crosses their paths. With all of these holes early into the story, hopefully more background information into Terminus’ history will be revealed throughout the season.

Even with all of the chaos, reunions were the best part of the opener. Rick and Carl were ecstatic that Judith was found to be alive. Daryl even had a tearful get-together with Carol, who easily is turning into a favorite character already this season.

The characters did not disappoint fans and newcomers of the show either. Of course Daryl, Rick and other veterans were impressive from the minute they started showing their warrior survivor skills at the beginning of the episode.

Some fan favorites have morphed into the zombie fighter personas that everyone has hoped would happen during the last four seasons. One of the themes of this season will be how the crew becomes much wiser and tougher.

Anyone who is new to the show would most likely be confused on some of the details, even with the background information. Watching the show from the first season is definitely recommended before starting season five to fully understand all of its significance.

Season five’s opener was full of both mayhem and joy that will excite old fans and attract many new ones.

For a first episode to be a dark show, it was just great to see a happy ending. Extensive details were put into this one episode so it is just foreshadows how much of a roller coaster the rest of the season will be.

The Walking Dead airs on AMC, Sundays at 9 p.m.