Season finales are hard, and they often leave audiences disappointed. When you spend an entire season building toward one huge climax, expectations are damn near impossible to top. Look at last year’s dramas, for instance: In the case of Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, the penultimate episode of the season was better than the finales of each of those series. It was the same, even, with Breaking Bad (as you recall, the penultimate episode was the Mike Ehrmentraut episode). Winding down isn’t nearly as fun as winding up.
That said, I did like the third season finale of The Walking Dead. My only issue with it is that, perhaps, the show tries too hard to please its audience, but in doing so, the season finale fell slightly short, but to the benefit of the future of the series.
If you’re reading this, you’ve already seen the finale, or at least I hope so. So I won’t bother recapping all of the events of the episode. Let’s instead just break it down by character, from the characters with the least movement to the most.
Glenn and Maggie — It was a great season overall for Glenn and Maggie. Much of the middle section of season three centered around the couple, from their abduction by The Governor to their efforts to come to terms with what happened to Maggie and Merle’s role in it. Last week, the engagement felt shoehorned into an otherwise excellent episode, and I didn’t understand the need unless they were attempting to forge a stronger emotional connection before robbing us of one of the characters. In the end, though, nothing happened. They were barely a factor in the finale. That said, I will miss Maggie the most during the offseason.
Beth Greene — Beth FINALLY killed a walker. Let’s give this woman a gold sticker, folks. She is not completely useless, after all. GET SOME, BETH.
Daryl and Carol — Likewise, Daryl and Carol were something of an afterthought in last night’s episode. Daryl crammed in a line about Merle (“Merle never did something like that his whole life”), and there was a sweet moment before battle where Carol and Daryl looked friendly together, but besides being soldiers for the prison’s cause, these two weren’t much of a factor in the finale, either.
Carol did get in a great kill.
Hershel Greene — Like he’s been doing for most of the season, Hershel basically just offered moral support last night, although him ratting out Carl to Rick would help to propel Carl’s transformation.
Tyreese and Sasha — These two, obviously, had major roles in last night’s episode, though they were passive advancers in the storyline. By choosing to stay behind to protect the children and old people of Woodbury, Tyreese and Sasha’s lives were spared and they were able to join Rick’s camp, along with the rest of Woodbury’s survivors. Their roles, all season, have basically been dictated by the actions of others. Their character traits, so far, can be reduced to: Sane Black Man and Sane Black Woman. Hopefully, they will further develop Tyreese’s character — make him a leader of the prison camp, perhaps — in season four, because Chad Coleman deserves to have a more active role in the series.
Michonne — If there was any question about Michonne’s place in the prison camp, there’s not anymore. Also, she can still wield that katana like a motherf***er.
Rick and Carl — This is where last night’s episode got really interesting, as least as far as character development went. Carl grew, although not necessarily in a positive way. He was absolutely right when he called out Rick for many of the failures of the prison camp — including the death of Lori. But Carl has adopted all of Rick’s extreme character traits, and none of his reasonable ones. Pulling the trigger and shooting that kid in the face was a total Todd from Breaking Bad move. Carl has lost his heart. He’s basically motivated by the same things as The Governor. “You kill or your die.” His survival instinct has taken over his rationality. “I did what I had to do,” he said to Rick. “Now go, so he doesn’t kill any more of us.” Then he dropped that badge like a motherf***er! PEACE OUT.
Carl has gone Joffrey, y’all. No longer is he a sniveling, whimpering little sh*t. He’s an evil little sh*t. Puberty is a real son of a bitch. I think I’m going to enjoy hating him in season four.
Andrea and Milton — I think we all expected that at least one of these two characters would die, but I did not expect that it would be both of them, or that The Governor would plot such a gruesome ending for the two. Milton was brave until the end; he sacked up in the last few episodes. It cost him his life, but he went out with some dignity. I’m going to miss Milton, and the friendship that he and Hershel could’ve had. Dallas Roberts did a fine job with that character in the limited screen time he had. I am bummed, however, that The Walking Dead has lost its scientific mind; I liked that they were experimenting, still trying to find a cure. R.I.P. Milton.
This scene was cut from the episode, by the way.
The big question, however, is this: Did Andrea redeem her character in the season finale? Spoiler: Andrea has not died in the comic book. They killed her in the series because, like Lori’s death, it was what the fans wanted. We didn’t like Andrea, and they listened. But here’s the problem: We didn’t like Andrea because they ruined that character. Up until the third season, she was fantastic, a bad-ass female character who hung with the bad ass dudes (Shane and later Daryl). Second season Andrea would’ve been a perfect match for Daryl. Third season Andrea was a mess. Basically, the writers backed themselves into a corner with Andrea: She was no longer redeemable, at least as a survivor. But could she redeem herself in death?
“I wanted to save everyone. Even the Governor for awhile,” she said. “I didn’t want anyone to die.” That message was hammered home in Andrea’s final minutes as a way to explain away Andrea’s stupidity over the course of the season. It didn’t, however, explain her stupidity in the final episode. She lacked a sense of urgency in trying to free herself. Terrible footwork, Andrea. Terrible. I also bet she wishes she had those boots on when Milton attacked her.
In the end, though, I think Andrea was too far gone to be redeemed. She saw the evil in The Governor. She saw his trophy case. She saw him pit people together in gladiator matches for the entertainment of Woodbury. She knew what he’d done to Maggie. She knew that he’d try to kill Michonne. The Governor could not be saved. She could’ve saved everyone else except The Governor, and in failing to do so, cost a lot of people their lives, including practically the entire town of Woodbury. And Milton.
The writers wanted to give her a hero’s goodbye, but personally, I refuse to give it to her. She died as she acted the entire season: Stupidly.
That said, I will grant the scene this much: It brought out the softer side of Michonne. MICHONNE HAS FEELS. I felt sad for Michonne, who lost someone that she cared deeply for, that she protected over the winter, that she had grown close to. I wonder, in fact, if that useless flashback from “Prey” might not have fit better somewhere in this episode, as a reminder to us of how close Michonne and Andrea once were. It might have added even more emotional power to that final scene.
RIP Andrea. Good riddance.
“There’s a threat, you end it, and you don’t feel ashamed about enjoying it. Smell the gunpowder, and you see the blood: You know what that means? It means you’re alive. You won.”
This is another instance where the series diverged from the comic book. In the comic book, The Governor dies during the assault of the prison. But the audience loves The Governor (or at least loves to hate him). Next to Michonne and Daryl, he’s basically the most compelling character on The Walking Dead. It would’ve been hard to recover from his death, to create another super-villain from scratch. This is another case where, I think, the writers (and Glen Mazarra) listened to the audience, and gave us what we wanted. The death of Andrea and the survival of The Governor may have also cost Mazarra his job: Maybe he’d strayed so far away from the comic book that Robert Kirkman wanted to bring in someone that would get The Walking Dead back on track.
I’m not unhappy that The Governor survived. We were robbed of a truly satisfying kill, but we were given a character that somehow became even more evil: Killing the Woodbury army, killing his best friend, Milton, and his lover, Andrea. He has nothing left except poor Ceasar and that black guy, who was like, “Uhhh. So … ”
My concern, really, is that they may have blown the best opportunity to kill The Governor, in terms of maximum satisfaction. I don’t know how we can ever hate him as much as we do now, and honestly, what kind of threat can he and two other guys really pose to Rick and the now large population of the prison? Where can that character possibly go? The Governor smelled the gunpowder. He saw the blood. But he hasn’t won. I’m not so sure the viewers have won, either.
RIP Allen.
It has been confirmed, also, that The Governor will reprise his character next season, if there was any doubt.
A Few Open Questions
— Why did they bring everyone back to a destroyed prison, instead of taking over Woodbury?
— I watched a few minutes of The Talking Dead last night for the first time, and I love their exchange about what Ceasar and the black guy must have been thinking in the truck driving away with The Governor. “So, should we turn on the radio now?”
— There’s a lot of old people from Woodbury over in the prison now. How is that going to work? Will season four be, like, The Walking Dead: The Cocoon Years, or will all of the senior citizens meet their demise? That’s a lot of useless characters to wrangle.
— I hope that Karen, the woman who survived The Governor’s attack on the Woodbury army, becomes the bad-ass Andrea we loved in season two, maybe a love interest for Rick, too? She’s not a character from the comics, so I wonder if she’ll even be a factor next season? I like her.
— We didn’t see enough of Daryl last night, but I wonder whether the death of Merle will harden him or break him?
— Is that the last we’ll ever see of Lori?
— Finally, I just want to say thanks to everyone for indulging me all 16 episodes of season three. It was fun, and I got a lot out of it, and as always, your constant feedback on the episodes have helped me to see it in new ways. I appreciate that. We’ll see you back here in the fall for season four.
