It’s been quite awhile since AMC’s The Walking Dead shambled onto Sunday night television, and I have to say, I’m kind of glad.  The strength of the past two seasons has been in it’s characters, mostly Carol and Darryl.  Carryl?  Darrol?  What is the appropriate pairing name for those two, anyway?  It looks like 17.3 million total viewers on Sunday with 11 million among adults 18-49, making it one of the highest rated series premieres of the year, and completely dashing their record last year.

But in all honesty, season 3.5 and 4 have kind of been everywhere, until Greg Nicotero fully took over the series as director and helped bring the team to Terminus last season.  Last night’s “No Sanctuary” was one of the most bloody and ruthless episodes to date, and I couldn’t be happier.  It had the right mix death, destruction, flaming zombies, fireworks (literally, roman candles and such), danger for our heroes, and the salvation of the main team.

I’m trying not to be really spoilery here, but I say again, as a devoted watcher of the show from the beginning, I’ve loved watching the development of Carol’s character.  Aside from Carl and Darryl, probably the three biggest changes in strengths and growth of the series.  I had the pleasure of meeting actress Melissa McBride when she was awarded a Saturn for her portrayal of the character, and goodness was she elegant.

You might have also noticed the cello piece that played during the scene at the end of the episode.  You guys remember who does the music for the show, right?  Emmy winning composer Bear McCreary.  There was even a small promo spotlight during one of the commercial breaks of McCreary doing his thing in the studio.  Maybe this means we’ll FINALLY get an official TWD soundtrack release?

We have very high hopes for this season of TWD, as I think all long time viewers do.  Don’t let us down Greg, don’t let us down.

Here are the first four minutes of last night’s episode: