The Walking Dead – Season Finale – ‘A’ Review and Discussion

I was both scared and excited going into this finale. It turns out I didn’t need to be too scared. While there were some very dark moments, our team, otherwise known as “Us,” were still alive at the end, as far as we know. The only fatalities were on the “Them” side. The excitement was rewarded tenfold as The Walking Dead knocked it out of the park for what was the most action-packed, suspenseful finale to date, with the possible exception of season 2.

The episode was split into two sections – the first focusing on the journey of a few members of our group to the utopia they had hoped to find, otherwise known as Terminus. The second on what they found when they got there.

The first part becomes very dark as Joe and his gang finally catch up with Rick, Michonne, and Carl, and threaten to rape Carl and Michonne and kill Rick. Daryl, who had looked like he might be headed down a bad path, is forced to see the true nature of this gang he has joined up with, and true to character, steps in to defend his friends – putting his own life on the line. Daryl tells Rick later that he didn’t realize what they were. He knew they were bad but they had a code – and that explanation makes sense given what Daryl had seen of them.

Like the characters, we, the audience, have been somewhat sheltered from the horrors men like Joe and his gang have been inflicting on others. We’ve heard stories of rape and murder second-hand, and have seen the after-effects on many occasions. But like the prison group, we’ve been mostly kept in a safer place where ideals like faith and goodness can still flourish. This was a close up look at the ugliness of what the world has become, with the assault perpetrated not only on just any members of our group, but the family Carol had referred to as their first family in season 2 when she asked Lori to approach the Greenes about cooking a group dinner. While the scene with Carl about to be raped was very graphic for TV, even cable TV, it was eye-opening and raised the stakes, and drove home why changing did in fact seem necessary in this world.

This first half also provides a turning point for Rick. In a moment nicely illustrated by a slow motion, almost out-of-body reaction after a gun goes off near his ear, Rick emotionally snaps as Carl is about to be raped and becomes the man that Shane had tried hard to convince Rick he needed to become in season 2 – the man who would do anything to protect his family without hesitation or regret. Walker-style, Rick uses the only weapon at his disposal and lunges for Joe’s throat with his teeth, taking a chunk out of him and puncturing an artery, killing him.

In the second half, Carl, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl make it to Terminus, but smartly approach the settlement cautiously – scoping it out first and hiding a weapons cache where they can easily retrieve it later, should they need it and be able to break free long enough to get to it. Their distrust is revealed to be deserved, as Rick notices items that had belonged to their group (Hershel’s watch (given to Glenn), Daryl’s poncho (worn by Maggie), and the prison riot gear) had been appropriated by members of the Terminus community, and those people were lying about where they had come from.

While we don’t know yet know what the plan is with the Terminus group, or what motivates them, clues are written on the walls of a room that looks to be a memorial for people they’ve lost. “Never Again. Never Trust. We First, Always.“ I’m guessing they once were not so different from Rick and his group, but trusted the wrong people and were betrayed. That tragedy forced them to change and become the thing that had hurt them.  There are also hints of the plan in their decision to not kill the newcomers immediately, and a quick view of a pile of what looks to be remains of humans or animals that the group passes as they are running for their lives - fueling speculation that that group may mirror the comic book story and be cannibals.  

Like in the earlier episode “Alone,” in which which we saw multiple instances of traps (Beth stepping into an animal trap, Daryl setting a noise trap, and the food in a funeral home neatly left behind like a people trap), we saw a trap in this episode as well. Early in the episode, Rick explains the mechanics of a small animal trap to Carl and Michonne, telling them that it force the animal in a certain direction to where it will be caught, with a noose fastening around its neck. This foreshadows what is to come at Terminus, with Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl dodging snipers who appear to be aiming only at their feet. The snipers seem to be leading them to the place where they want them – a place easy to capture them and load them onto a train car where Glenn, Maggie, and their group are being held.

Everyone’s a Monster and Everyone Changes

In a pre-finale season rewatch, one thing I noticed but hadn’t focused so much on my first time through was the irony of Carol’s words to Lizzie and Mika. Carol had urged them to change and said that everyone changes. The ironic twist was that Lizzie, in trying to turn Mika, was really just literally following Carol’s advice and trying to change. In Lizzie’s mind, the walkers wanted them to change and become like them. And in many instances we’ve seen a gradual blurring of the line between the living and the dead. After the Governor snapped and killed his own people, he became like the dead, walking among them like he was one of them. Michonne has also had periods of doing the same. It was the realization triggered by seeing a walker who looked a lot like herself that snapped her out of it and motivated Michonne to start living again. So Lizzie wasn’t totally wrong. Carol’s message was that everyone changes, and becoming a like a walker is just one form that change can take.

In this episode, Rick also changes, yet this time around I was cheering for it. In season 2, I remember there being a lot of debate in the fandom on whether Rick or Shane was right. Do people need to change and do whatever it takes to survive, or is it better to retain your values? Rick’s been waffling over this question for several seasons now, afraid of reaching a point where he can’t come back from, but he seems now to have definitively picked a side. It’s not the one I had expected, but somehow it feels right and good. 

But when the Governor picked a very similar side – he committed to doing whatever it takes to protect his family and survive – it seemed wrong. Is this an “Us vs. Them” perspective skew on things, or is it a difference in the details in how you define change? Whereas Rick would bite out the throat of a man attacking his family, I still do not believe he would murder innocent people to steal for his group. So the distinction might be in the details.

Adding another level of comparison to frame this debate, in the finale, we’re presented with flashbacks to another turning point in Rick’s evolution, where Rick was heading in the opposite direction of where he is now. In this flashback, it isn’t an “Us vs. Them,” but “Us vs. Us” comparison, and we see Rick, concerned about how Carl is changing into a cold killer, heeds Hershel’s advice to put away the guns and start planting beans. That also felt right and good.

I don’t have the answers to these questions – what is right or wrong – but I’m impressed at how skillfully this show has managed to zigzag back and forth between these two points of view – or more than just two really – and portray these different perspectives with enough sympathy so that the audience remains split on the issues and keeps an active debate going.

So what did you think of the episode? Did it match your expectations? How excited are you for next season? Let me know in the comments.