Bloody Rick: He didn't let the walkers in to Alexandria but Rick (Andrew Lincoln) sure knew what to do once they arrived. Photo: AMC

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS

They were the words we knew had been coming all along. "Rick, do it."

That was all the urging Rick needed to pull out the pistol Deanna had tried to ban and, at her command, execute Pete, the wife-basher who had just slit the throat of Deanna's peace-and-light architect husband Reg.

A place to call home? The survivors contemplate the welcoming but somehow unsettling environs of Alexandria. Photo: AMC

And with that, the Second Amendment triumphed over wishy-washy liberalism and The Walking Dead lurched unmistakably to the right.

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Not that it hasn't done so before, and not to say that it will stay there, for above all else The Walking Dead is an arena in which competing political philosophies do gladiatorial combat - not to the death so much as "until next time".

And with the finale drawing a record audience of 15.8 million viewers in the United States, and with catch-up viewers topping the 20 million mark, there are likely to be a lot of next times.

This won't end well: Rick and Pete (Corey Brill) fast became enemies, and rivals for the affections of Pete's wife Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge). Photo: AMC

Read more:

The Walking Dead season 5 finale recap: Bloody Rick takes a lurch to the right