The Walking Dead preview trailer shows Rick on the border between life and death

After being impaled and near death, this week’s The Walking Dead trailer teases Rick’s comeback. But did Rick make it out alive or is this all in his head?

Rick Grimes may survive! Or… not. The newest Walking Dead trailer for Sunday’s episode shows Rick back on his white horse leading a herd of walkers. This miraculous turn of events comes after last week’s cliffhanger where Rick was impaled by a rebar jutting from a slab of concrete with two herds headed his way.

As promising as it is to see Rick holding himself together and riding off on a horse seemingly alive, we have to consider the validity of these scenes because we also see Rick hallucinating about moments that happened at the beginning of season 1. Present day Rick sees his younger self laying on a hospital bed, which is where his story began. Some noticeable differences tell you that these scenes collide between the past and present, like the swarm of crows outside Rick’s hospital window in season 1.

Another blast from the past are glimpses of Rick riding in his cop car with what has to be Shane on the passenger side. We all know that Shane’s dead, so this has to be a hallucination prompted by Rick’s near death experience.

Watch The Walking Dead trailer for the 5th episode here:

What the clips seem to suggest is that Rick gets back on the horse and leads the walkers back to the bridge the way Daryl had suggested in the first place. Perhaps Rick is letting go of his obsession with not letting go, but is it too little too late? Did Rick have to put himself in death’s path to realize that his plans weren’t meant to be?

From what the clip previews, Rick leads the walkers to the bridge, perhaps an attempt to draw them over the edge and fall into the raging current below. This is made all the more ominous with a scene in the trailer showing Rick walking amongst many bodies, while lyrics are heard saying “the bottom of the river.”

If you look closely, one of those bodies is Jesus, meaning that this is probably just another one of Rick’s hallucinations. Thus the conversation in the trailer that briefly features Michonen may also be an illusion.

Since this will be Rick’s last episode, we can expect either a death or a departure. Given the amount of hallucinating that Rick is going to be doing during the episode, we’re going to really have to wait to see how it all pans out.

The Walking Dead airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. Are you ready to see the end of Rick Grimes? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.