While it seemed kind of silly for the Governor to go through all that preparation with his torture instruments just to decide “Eh, never mind!” when it came to using them, I will say Plan B was still mighty effective – lethally stabbing Milton and leaving him locked up with Andrea, so she could watch him slowly die and then, inevitably, come back and kill her? That’s pretty diabolical.
I was sorry to see Milton go, as he was an intriguing character. At least he and the Governor had some good back and forth first though. The Governor’s response to Milton asking what his daughter would think of him – “She’d be afraid of me, but if I’d been like this from the start, she’d be alive” -- was great, and one of many strong moments in the finale for David Morrisey. I especially loved the utterly terrifying way he said “Thank you” to Tyreese, after learning Tyreese and Sasha weren’t joining the attack on the prison.
But man, how freaking frustrating was Andrea in this episode? I suppose she had to go out the only way she knew how. But I can’t be alone when it came to yelling "STOP PAUSING!” at the TV as she kept completely stopping her attempt to get out of her handcuffs to look over at Milton. Andrea, this guy is dying. So if you want him to have any chance to live, you need to get free. But if he dies, he’s going to turn into a zombie. So if you want to live… you need to get free! Staring over at Milton every time he makes a noise does you no good! Nor does stopping to talk to him and not also still working on getting free at the same time. Have you heard of multitasking?!
The attack on the prison was fun, though, by design, anticlimactic. We got some good absolute carnage at the start, as the Governor’s men blew stuff (and zombies) up good, and it certainly was cool to discover it was indeed all a trap on Rick’s part – the opening having been designed to insinuate the group had voted to leave. And as a fan of the comic, it was a nice mark out moment seeing Glenn and Maggie in those riot gear uniforms.
The whole Carl scenario is one with plenty of room for debate. I will say this – when you tell someone to “drop” their gun, and they instead move to hand it to you… I’m thinking something is up. Yeah, they could have given that kid a second warning, but I can’t help but think Carl was being smart, given how iffy the whole “I’ll hand you my gun” thing was. If he’d dropped the gun and then Carl had shot him, it would be much more outright horrific, but the way it was presented… Hell, I can back Carl’s move.
The idea of course is to show just how cold and hard people can become in this scenario. Carl is basically living by the Governor’s “In this life now, you kill or you die” mantra. But he was making some good points about the people (or zombies) they failed to stop who then came back to (literally) bite people they loved. I'm curious what everyone else thinks about this, and I do admire it for not being a black and white situation.
The Governor massacring his people was an effective “Holy s**t” moment, but it also involved some suspension of disbelief. Not only did we have to believe not one of those many people, who were armed themselves, even tried to fire back rather than all run, but also that neither of the Governor’s main lieutenants would shoot him, or hell, tackle him from behind, in that moment. Yes, I know, these are guys who helped him kill innocent soldiers, but still… This was such a huge line-crossing moment of killing their own, I would think that someone would do something rather than just look uneasy. Or maybe they’re just the worst, Martinez included. It just didn't feel like it meshed with the little we knew of Martinez from his back and forth with Daryl in "Arrow on the Doorpost" though...
Let’s get back to Andrea though, since her death was really the big dramatic moment the entire conclusion hinged on. Which is one big reason this failed to be a completely satisfying finale.
I will admit, I typed “YAY!” in my notes when I realized Andrea was bit (that was a nice final act, Zombie Milton), so sure, I had the perverse pleasure of knowing this sadly wasted character was going out. But the fact is, she was a badly written, unlikable character for the entirety of this season, so to have the climax be all about her sad goodbye… It just didn’t feel like enough. And no, it didn’t have to be someone we loved dying instead. But something else needed to happen that made this feel more impactful. And the bus of people from Woodbury (the vast majority of whom we don’t know) coming to the prison didn’t fit the bill. Though, yes, I was amused to see Karen, who I’d joked about before as an odd “person in Woodbury who had a few lines to represent almost everyone else”, end up having a notable role in the finale.
One of the last things Andrea said was “I tried.” Well, Andrea, suffice to say, you failed. On behalf of your much cooler and more nuanced comic book counterpart, my condolences.
It is certainly great to see Tyreese and Sasha join Rick’s group though, especially since it didn’t have to involve some big fight first – given the brother/sister duo were already smart enough to be open to the possibility that something was very off in Woodbury.
As for the Governor surviving, that can be interesting next season, now that he’s much more of a wild card, out there with his small group of supporters, rather than ruling over a town. Though it did seem odd to not see him one more time after his big massacre scene, just to get more of a button placed on his important role all season and perhaps hint at where he's going next season.
It’s safe to assume Rick not seeing Lori at the end is meant to signify that he’s done with the whole hallucination thing – I’m thinking keeping Sarah Wayne Callies under contract for another season to play Ghost Lori is probably money best used elsewhere.
While she wasn't significant throughout the finale, it was very gratifying to see Michonne so firmly thank Rick for taking her in earlier this season and apologizing for not doing so earlier - underlining how much she's changed from the scowling, ridiculously silent character she had been. I'm very glad she's gotten the character redemption Andrea never fulfilled. Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.
