The Walking Dead: A is the 16th and final episode of the season and shows how all roads lead to Terminus as the remaining survivors make their way towards the location. It opens up with a flashback at the prison during happier times when they were all adjusting to life behind the walls and Rick, Maggie and Glenn returning from a supply run. Hershel is watching Carl because of his recent killing of an unarmed kid and thinking about how he can tell Rick about this. It seems like such a long time ago as it jumps back to the current time with Rick sitting in front of a truck covered in blood and in shock. But how did things get to this point? We’re shown how Rick, Michonne and Carl have been traveling prior to this and in a seemingly ominous sign Rick explains the basic principle of a snare and how the animal that passes through it is caught in it. The irony is somewhat lost to them as they discuss Terminus and Carl asks how much should they tell those there about what they’ve been through. Fortunately what they’ve been through is not as bad as the one they hear crying for help because when Carl rushes to try to help they see he’s surrounded by walkers and it’s too late for him, and Rick holds Carl back. In this kind of world where the struggle between looking out for oneself and one’s group for survival and trying to hold on to what’s left of one’s humanity, are they just walking into a trap? And considering they’re trying to find the others do they even have much of a choice?

This second half of the season has done an excellent job with character development and giving me a greater appreciation of the characters. I wasn’t sure what was at stake with the season finale and how much could actually be covered considering certain parties didn’t even reach Terminus yet. And I actually liked the flashbacks used here because it was good to see how it was all connected and thankfully there wasn’t an overload of flashbacks either so the story could still move forward with new developments. And that it does as Rick, Michonne and Carl take up camp for the night, and while Michonne and Rick are talking with Carl sleep they’re ambushed by Daryl’s new group with the leader Joe especially angry with Rick. Of course Daryl would step in and try to offer his life in exchange for Joe not killing them and this leads to Daryl getting beatdown, and he obviously underestimated how twisted this new group was. But this was a very intense moment as this group not only started to beat up Daryl but the other 3 as well and one in particular targets Carl in the worst way. And this is fairly early in the episode but I still don’t want to give anything here away as what was an extremely intense scene that had Rick helplessly watching his son and friends being attacked led to possibly the most shocking scene in the series and it wasn’t gratuitous at all but perfectly understandable.

This sequence not only set the stage for this episode to reveal more about the characters in a very engrossing way but it also set the stage for the series moving forward in general with the most impressive change belonging to Rick. And one thing this show has made clear throughout is that the living are more dangerous to each other than the walkers will ever be because the walkers are limited to what they can do, and can easily be stopped, but the same can’t be said for the living. In an earlier episode we were shown some of Michonne’s backstory and then later how she opened up to Carl. This comes into play here in a deep discussion about becoming monsters as the details behind Michonne’s son being killed and why the two walkers she was with lacked arms and mouths are revealed. This was very well done and rather touching, and an excellent job has really been done with these characters. And it shows how they’ve truly grown together and also how far they’ve come within themselves. And in doing so it creates an interesting dilemma when all the characters are well-developed and likable in a series but where it’s inevitable that at least some characters will die at some point. And a group does reach Terminus so we’re finally shown some of the people who’ve been living there, and the pace of this episode was faster than some of the more recent episodes with a lot of story developments taking place. Yet the question of what makes for an excellent season finale as opposed to just an excellent episode seemed to pop in my mind.

Would it be better to have a mediocre season finale with a great cliffhanger ending or a great episode lacking a climactic ending? Of course the ideal would be to have both but in an ongoing series where there’s already so much change during the course of a season and therefore the strength is in the characters and not just the suspense, is it absolutely necessary to have that one defining moment or sequence at the end when the developments during the episode makes it possible for the next season to immediately get off to a great start? In terms of story, the ending felt anti-climatic but in terms of character development it was anything but anti-climatic and so I was not only satisfied with that but I’m very excited to see the changes that took place in this episode pay off next season. And I’m hoping we learn the fate of some other characters as well.

SUMMARY

The Walking Dead: A is an excellent episode bringing the season to a conclusion and what it lacked in a climax story wise was more than made up for in terms of character development and a set up for next season. I’m hoping that the character development remains for next season and the right balance was struck this second half of the season in showing the difference between what it takes to survive in a zombie apocalypse as a group and what it takes to be able to live. And in this episode there were some truly heartfelt moments continuing that trend. It reminded me of the song “Dying to Live” by Jonny Lang and now instead of questioning what they’re fighting for and why they’re doing it, they have their reason to live and prepared to fight for it. And I can’t wait until this show returns and see where it takes them.