“The Walking Dead”(TWD) concluded their fifth season on 29 March in glorious “Walking Dead” fashion. Characters died, faced difficult life or death choices, and took out a lot of “walkers.”

Bravely filmed during the hot Georgian summers, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) leads his rag tag group through the dangerous wilderness of an untamed world before ending up in a civilized town called Alexandria, which is full of secrets and dangers.

By far, this has been arguably the most unforgiving season of the hit show with characters both beloved and despised biting the dust in some of the most gruesome and heart tugging ways possible. Perhaps most surprising was how the creators handled the deaths of many characters throughout the season with more taste rather than simply seeming to kill off characters because they could, like in season four.

This is also arguably the best season of “TWD” to have ever graced our television screens with an increased focus on characters, pacing, and suspense. Throughout the season, many of the characters that usually had smaller roles such as Chandler Rigg’s Carl Grimes or fan favorite Morgan Jones (Lennie James) grew into larger roles culminating in the season finale.

The actors all did very well in this season by portraying convincing transformations for their characters, specifically Melissa McBride’s Carol turn from an abused passive wife into a dangerous and formidable ally. There was also the startling transition of Grimes from a democratic leader to a more violent and less reasonable leader. Sonequa Martin-Green’s Sasha and Seth Gilliam’s Gabriel Stokes have also had an interesting season with both characters facing emotional crisis that come to a head in the season finale.

The emergence of a new threat also appears throughout the fifth season taking the form a mysterious new group that call themselves Wolves. Throughout the later half of season five, the Wolves have been causing trouble for Grimes’ group and have major potential to become a larger antagonist group in the next season.

With devastating losses and close calls, the fifth season of “TWD” is arguable the best season of the show so far and can hopefully only go up from here. Whatever the future holds for our survivors, it is clear that season six is going to have to live up to some pretty high expectations.