"No Sanctuary" is the fifth season premiere of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on October 12, 2014.

In the episode, Rick Grimes' (Andrew Lincoln) group struggles to figure out a way to escape Terminus, whose inhabitants have resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Concurrently, Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) devises a plan to rescue Rick's group after learning they are in danger.

[1] The show achieved its previous series-high ratings during the fourth-season premiere, "30 Days Without an Accident", which garnered 16.11 million viewers.

[2] The episode is considered by critics and audiences to be one of the show's best, citing the fast-paced action, dark themes, and performances by the lead cast as high points.

Rick encourages the group to fashion makeshift weapons such as a zipper used as a wire saw to carve a wooden blade as they relate their experiences that led to Terminus, and Gareth's men throw a flash bang into the container, and knock most of them out, and Gareth has Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Bob secured in a butchering room to be bloodlet so that they can be fed to the Terminus people.

Sam and three other captives have their throats slit and killed before Gareth arrives, asking about a gun bag that he had seen Rick carrying.

Carol and Tyreese, caring for Rick's infant daughter Judith, are following the tracks to Terminus but hide from a walker herd.

A camouflaged Carol approaches the train yard, and she ignites a propane tank near the fence that explodes, creating a breach for the walkers to enter, causing the citizens of Terminus to panic.

After cutting his restraints off with the wooden blade, Rick kills the two butchers and the group heads to another room filled with weapons.

[3] "No Sanctuary" marked the first episode that featured Michael Cudlitz, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Alanna Masterson, and Andrew J.

[6]Lauren Cohan, who portrays Maggie Greene, made similar comments regarding the episode, saying some of the scenes were "so disturbing", she did not think they would make it on TV.

[9]"No Sanctuary" can be seen as a transitioning stage for Rick Grimes, who has accepted his brutality whilst retaining his humanity, after attempting to live a peaceful life in the fourth season.

[9] Gimple noted that Rick would not respond positively to Carol's return had she not be responsible for assisting in their escape and reuniting him with his daughter.

"[8] Gimple knew the backstory of Terminus while the characters were traveling there in the previous season, and stated that it echoes what happens next to Rick's group.

Gimple explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Morgan's appearance was the "beginning of something" for the character, but would not state further; he instead said, "Looking at him, how he's dressed, how he's acting — it's not a 42-minute episode there — but you get some hints about where he's at.

The episode's opening scene involved primary characters Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Glenn Rhee, and Bob Stookey being brought to a slaughterhouse and lined up over a trough with other Terminus captives, who are violently hit over the head with baseball bats before their throats are slit to drain their blood.

[14] Another scene involved Rick's group escaping from the slaughterhouse and passing by several crates, one of which read: "Arctic Expedition Horlicks University, Attn: Julia Carpenter".

In filming the scene, the special effects team custom built the tank out of foam to control the size of the explosion.

Still, AMC's megahit finds itself in a very good place, from the current makeup of its ever-evolving cast to the latitude it has earned to take unexpected detours.

Club gave the episode an A− grade, writing: What's most striking about "No Sanctuary," apart from its attempts at thematic resonance, is how quickly and brutally the question of Terminus is resolved.

I wouldn't have been exactly excited about that, because the longer you stay in a community full of murderous cannibals without any major character being killed, the more the tension just drips away, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption to make, especially when taking into consideration how tricky it was going to be to build the rest of the season.

Without the prison home base or an obvious major villain (goodbye, the Governor), we need something to create structure—a group of psychos who harvest human flesh seems like too good a concept to dispose of immediately.

While last season's 'Indifference' and 'The Grove' elevated Carol's character, 'No Sanctuary' made her even more fan-accessible by using her no-nonsense approach to the zompocalypse as a way to shift her into full warrior mode".

[26] Terri Schwartz of Zap2it not only gave the episode a positive review, but she also commented on the emotional aspect of the show, writing: "It's truly an impressive feat of storytelling when a show like 'The Walking Dead,' now entering its fifth season, can continue to tell a fresh story that delivers increasingly effective emotional payoffs.

"[27] In his 4 star review, Vulture's Richard Rys wrote: "If this episode is any indication of what's ahead in season five, it's gonna be an ugly, bloody ride.

"[28] In yet another 4 star review, Rebecca Hawkes of The Daily Telegraph wrote that the episode "was a powerful season opener that blended the expected quantities of gore and action with one of the show's starkest statements yet about the moral realities of its post-apocalyptic world.