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Carol (Melissa McBride) and Dawn (Christine Woods) at the prisoner exchange during the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead season five. SPOILER ALERT
Poor Maggie.
As Daryl (Norman Reedus) emerged from the hospital carrying the limp body of Beth (Emily Kinney), it didn't signify just the end of the girl herself, but also the death of the hope that had briefly flickered for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) that she might once again connect with anyone from her family.
Trigger happy ... The Walking Dead season 5's hospital scene.
Beth had always seemed so young, so tiny, so frail, but in the time of her incarceration in the hospital-cum-prison run by Dawn (Christine Woods) and her crew of rogue cops, she had gained a certain strength. She'd been jail-hardened. How fitting, then, that when she finally made a stand against the delusional, unhinged autocrat it was with a small set of scissors hidden in her wrist bandage. It was not much more than a shill, really. She stuck it to the man - who just happened to be a woman - but she got a bullet through the brain for her efforts.
Dawn, naturally enough, got one in return.
In the almost-shootout in the hospital corridor, Daryl was enraged, Carol (Melissa McBride) shattered and Rick (Andrew Lincoln) trigger happy - but then again, when isn't he these days? Outside, when Daryl emerged carrying that tiny rag doll of her sister's body, Maggie, poor Maggie, was utterly crushed.
Daryl (Norman Reedus) carries Beth (Emily Kinney) out of the hospital.
She'd long since resigned herself to having lost all her family, and to making the beginnings of a new one with Glenn (Steven Yeun). But then along came word - 'Beth's alive; she's in a hospital in Atlanta; we're going to get her out' - and the world was suddenly full of hope. Twenty-odd minutes later, nope.
Rick and his small band of guerrillas had gone into the hospital to enact a prisoner exchange. Two of ours (Beth, Carol) for two of theirs (two cops). Ricks' preferred option had been a frontal assault, but calmer heads - that of Tyreese (Chad Coleman) especially - had won the day.
This was another showdown between our heroes and a totalitarian state. They started this season in an extermination camp; the mid-season finale, called Coda, had them doing battle with a police state housed in a featureless five-storey building reminiscent of a Soviet-era office block.
Dawn was the Stalin of this world, allowing corruption and wanton cruelty to flourish, and stamping down only when her own authority was threatened. 'You don't need them to love you,' she told Beth. 'You only need them to respect you.'
In the end, they did neither. Those she had allegedly protected were only too glad to see her go.
The final shot had the remaining members of our wandering tribe in a cluster in the car park; there were 13 of them, like Christ and his apostles.
But who here is the Messiah? Surely it's not Rick - he's more avenging angel than lamb of God. Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) has the stigmata - a nail wound to the foot - but he's still seeking salvation rather than promising it. It might have been Eugene (Josh McDermitt), with his crazy mullet and his promise of a cure in Washington, but that turned out to be a lie.
But actually, there were 14 of them in that final tableau. Little baby Judith, no crib for a bed, huddles in a pack on Michonne (Dana Garai)'s back. Maybe she's their best and only chance: so long as there is new life, there is hope.
Not much, mind.
For all the religious symbolism that informs The Walking Dead, nothing resonates quite so much in this zombie-infested realm as the words written above the door of Gabriel's church: 'He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.' On twitter: @karlkwin Follow Entertainment on Twitter
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