As always, there are spoilers ahead!
Season three of The Walking Dead is dead and buried, and now we’ve got a long wait for season four to rise from its grave. While there’s plenty of good stuff that happens in “Welcome to the Tombs,” overall this finale just doesn’t match the dynamite intensity of the first half of season three/badassness of season two’s finale.
Before we get into the recap, let’s check in with Dale.
Thanks, Dale! Glad to see your raccoon troubles got sorted out… more or less. Now onward, to the recap!
Despite Woodbury’s superior numbers and weaponry, Rick’s Rebels prove themselves to be the far better survivors in what ends up as a quick and not-so grand battle. The Gov, having permanently stapled a pair of Crazy Pants onto his body, rides into the prison with his army, guns a-blazin’ and rocket launchers a-firing, but Rick’s Rebels are nowhere to be seen. The Woodburians actually do Rick’s Rebel’s a favor by clearing out most of the zombies at the prison! They end up surprised, though, when Rick’s Rebels lure them into the heart of the prison and then scare them with smoke grenades and flashy gunfire. The Woodburians run away with their tail between their legs, with roughly zero casualties on both sides. Brilliant plan, Rick’s Rebels! Didn’t make for that exciting of a climax, but it was smart nonetheless.
The Woodburians decide that enough is enough— if Rick and his “psychos” want that prison, they can have it. The Gov doesn’t react too kindly to their cowardice, so he grabs a machine gun and mows everybody down. The only survivors are Karen, who hid under some dead bodies, and Martinez and Bowman, who still look incredibly freaked out over the massive body count. The Gov drives off with his two right-hand-men as very reluctant passengers, and then that’s the last we see of them this season. What the frickin’ frak! Why isn’t The Gov dead?! They’re going to leave us with blue balls until the show returns in October? Argh! The Gov killing his own men was the perfect way to add some tragedy while showing off just how much The Gov has gone insane… and given the fact that he killed Merle last episode, I’d say his time is up. Gov must go! Gov must go!
I think Carl was playing Hide and Seek with his humanity this season, and gave up on finding it. He sulks around angrily before the battle, furious that Rick would stick him with protecting Beth and Hershel. As the Woodburians flee, Jody, the young guy who has been running around with Tyreese, appears and surrenders to the well-armed trio. Carl ain’t having it, though, and pops the kid between the eyes while he was trying to give up his gun. Yowza! Carl’s turned into one cold mofo. When Rick tries talking to him about it, not only is he unrepentant about killing that kid, but he lists Rick’s previous decisions not to kill certain people and how it ended up costing several lives, including Lori. The young Grimes has a point, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s turning into a little terminator right before our eyes.
And lastly, Andrea’s story: she’s still tied up in The Gov’s torture room. After pounding on Milton for a while, The Gov fatally stabs him and locks him in with her so he’ll zombify and kill her. She spends what feels like several days trying to pick up some pliers with her feet, and once she finally gets loose, Zombie Milton attacks. She kills him, but gets bitten in the process. Michonne and company discover her, and Andrea does the noble thing and takes herself out before she turns. Michonne tearfully stays by her side the entire time, thus ending the proud reign of #teamblondeanddreadly. It was really sad to see Andrea, who was often a smart, tough character, transformed into someone so frequently incompetent this season. However, when she’s talking to the mortally wounded Milton she explains that the she always did what she did because she “just didn’t want anyone to die,” and Laurie Holden’s delivery is so innocent and kind that it really makes you feel for her. Alas, we won’t have to be annoyed any longer by her constantly making the wrong choice even when the right choice is slapping her in the face. Her death came at the right time, but I was annoyed at how she died— I was hoping for something a little more badass and redemptive.
Ultimately, the episode ends with the remaining Woodburians, including Tyreese and Sasha, joining Rick’s Rebels to live at the prison.
Likes:
- Relative lack of cast member casualties— Rick’s Rebels made it out (mostly) unharmed!
- Carl shooting Jody.
- Carl’s cold, hard lesson for Rick
- Carl’s reaction at the sight of Woodbury citizens showing up to the prison. He thinks it’s a namby-pamby move, and he’s sick of it.
- Tyreese and Sasha joining Rick’s Rebels
Dislikes:
- Lack of a dead Governor. GOV MUST GO! GOV MUST GO!
- Andrea’s quiet death
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This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
Dale’s Deeds written by Alex Langley.
The strongest disappointment for me in TWD are the decisions they made concerning Andrea. She just consistently made horrible decisions and doesn’t resemble the character from the comic at all. Which is a shame considering how much ” comic” Andrea has grown.
Hey there K! I have no qualms about the finale. It did what I expected it to do and that’s leave us, the viewers talking and speculating about what’s going to happen next! But after watching the episode a second time, I focused on Carl’s decision to shoot the kid. Here’s something to think about… Carl and Hershel asked the kid to put the gun DOWN. The kid walked towards them with the gun in his hands. It doesn’t matter if he was giving it up or not. The instructions were to PUT THE GUN DOWN. He didn’t, so Carl shot him. At first, I was like, WTF Carl, but after that second viewing… I don’t know if Ca
… I don’t know if Carl was wrong in shooting him.
I think Carl was justified in shooting Jody. Hershel ordered Jody to lay down his weapon, but he did not. Jody seemed to be slowly moving toward Carl’s position, possibly to make a grab for Carl’s gun (we don’t know Jody’s true motive). Jody said he was trying to hand over his weapon, but if someone is willing to murder you is certainly capable of lying too. The Governor’s people had demonstrated hostile intent, for that they forfeited their benefit-of-the-doubt cards. Jody, still armed, did not comply fast enough. In a situation like that, you only have a moment to decide and it’s your ass if you choose wrong. Carl’s only error was not being more straight forward initially about how it went down. Besides, Jody wouldn’t have fared much better if he had been with the other Woodburians.
Overall I agree with the review. It was a bit anticlimactic. Looked like Rick had hired The A-Team to deal with the Governor’s attack (lots of bullets, no one gets shot). They are pulling a Sofia with the Governor and seem to be intent on dragging it out as long as possible, though the Gov is running a bit low on manpower right now. It’s not like he can just call up a mercenary temp agency, though the writers will think up something. Thought Tyreese was going to rescue Andrea after that scene where he told his daughter he had to go check on something. That scene went nowhere. Next we see Tyreese, he and his daughter are up on the wall to meet Rick’s group. Looks like an error of continuity there. Now with Andrea gone, who are they going to get to drive the plot with their stupid decisions? Seems it’s at least someone each season. Season 3 was certainly uneven. Guess we’ll see if Season 4 is any better.
Points to KeithAllGamer for noting Tyrese’s nowhere scene — what was up with that! I thought they were gonna finally give this character a reason for being there but they couldn’t even get that right.
So that’s the big Woodbury vs Prison confrontation we’ve been building toward all season? Good grief…I’m surprised the zombies along the fence weren’t laughing their butts off. And why would Rick, Michonne and Daryl head for Woodbury to “finish it” when they couldn’t “finish it” with extra guns behind them and the Governor and his bunch right in front of them?
I’m beginning to lose faith in this show. On the other hand, aside from Game of Thrones and Justified, there ain’t much else on to watch…
“The young Grimes has a point, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s turning into a little terminator right before our eyes.”
Actually, my thought was that he’s turning into a miniature version of Shane.
Love your review of the episode. I am 50/50 on the writers deciding to let the Gov live. Its an interesting choice but its still a very anti climatic finale. In retrospect the episode is a good one, Just not the finale I wanted. Love Carls transformation, Glad Andrea is dead but hated that it was what they put the most stock in with this episode. I cant wait for next season as always but I wish this finale left me with a “wow” feeling instead of just one scene of “wow” (gov killing spree)