SPOILERS AHEAD
The Basics:
Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl find their way to Terminus.
The Analysis:
The season 4 finale of "The Walking Dead" certainly delivered. Not in the way you may think, though. The episode starts out with Rick, Carl, and Michonne running into Joe's gang. The showdown was just flat out epic. So many feelings and ideas were conveyed through this scene. Daryl shows up and breaks the one rule that Joe's gang feels is most important (don't lie). This leads to one of the biggest scenes ever for Rick. With Daryl getting the crap beat out of him, Michonne almost on the brink of death, and Carl getting borderline raped, Rick decides to bite Joe's throat out. And then he guts the guy that almost raped Carl. This most certainly leads to a darker path for Rick, which I can't wait to be explored.
This episode stayed with that group the rest of the episode. A brief, important scene was held between Rick and Daryl, were Rick tells Daryl he is his brother. This was important for both, so they didn't feel guilt about what happened. The group winds up at Terminus, and obviously takes the back /door in. Here they meet Gareth. This is the scene that confirms this group is *SPOILERS* the Hunter/cannibal group from the comics *SPOILERS OVER*. That is where this finale started setting up the next season (thats what I meant when I said the finale delivered, but not in the way you think).
Things go south when Rick sees members of Terminus in possession of some of Glenn and Maggie's possessions. This lead to a pretty cool action scene and then a pretty good showdown. Gareth kind of flexed his muscles a bit. They got led into a train cart, where they find some of their group. They got reunited with Glenn's group. The intriguing part is that Carol and Tyrese weren't seen at all this episode, nor was Beth. Did they make it to Terminus, or are they still out there? I'm willing to bet Carol and Tyrese got to Terminus at one point (due to the powdered milk outside of the train cart), and that Beth is still out in the world somewhere.
The flashbacks were there to show Rick's arc come full circle. The journey from farmer to willing to do anything to survive was a long path. While I wasn't a huge fan of the flashbacks (mainly due to wanting to see more of the Terminus story unravel), I did enjoy Hershel's appearance. The Rick's in this episode were two completely different people . I cannot wait to see this more lethal, deadly, and even level headed Rick can do. The only problem I had from him this episode was his line. I wished it would've been "Who we are.", because it would've brought the episode arc full circle.
Overall, this was one of the better episodes of this season. Not quite on par with Hershel's death episode, but still quite good. It had some great scenes straight from the comics, and the action was fantastic. Some interesting story threads were left out for next season and I can't wait. Next season is shaping up to potentially be the best yet.
Highlights:
9 out of 10 Stars
The Basics:
Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl find their way to Terminus.
The Analysis:
The season 4 finale of "The Walking Dead" certainly delivered. Not in the way you may think, though. The episode starts out with Rick, Carl, and Michonne running into Joe's gang. The showdown was just flat out epic. So many feelings and ideas were conveyed through this scene. Daryl shows up and breaks the one rule that Joe's gang feels is most important (don't lie). This leads to one of the biggest scenes ever for Rick. With Daryl getting the crap beat out of him, Michonne almost on the brink of death, and Carl getting borderline raped, Rick decides to bite Joe's throat out. And then he guts the guy that almost raped Carl. This most certainly leads to a darker path for Rick, which I can't wait to be explored.
This episode stayed with that group the rest of the episode. A brief, important scene was held between Rick and Daryl, were Rick tells Daryl he is his brother. This was important for both, so they didn't feel guilt about what happened. The group winds up at Terminus, and obviously takes the back /door in. Here they meet Gareth. This is the scene that confirms this group is *SPOILERS* the Hunter/cannibal group from the comics *SPOILERS OVER*. That is where this finale started setting up the next season (thats what I meant when I said the finale delivered, but not in the way you think).
Things go south when Rick sees members of Terminus in possession of some of Glenn and Maggie's possessions. This lead to a pretty cool action scene and then a pretty good showdown. Gareth kind of flexed his muscles a bit. They got led into a train cart, where they find some of their group. They got reunited with Glenn's group. The intriguing part is that Carol and Tyrese weren't seen at all this episode, nor was Beth. Did they make it to Terminus, or are they still out there? I'm willing to bet Carol and Tyrese got to Terminus at one point (due to the powdered milk outside of the train cart), and that Beth is still out in the world somewhere.
The flashbacks were there to show Rick's arc come full circle. The journey from farmer to willing to do anything to survive was a long path. While I wasn't a huge fan of the flashbacks (mainly due to wanting to see more of the Terminus story unravel), I did enjoy Hershel's appearance. The Rick's in this episode were two completely different people . I cannot wait to see this more lethal, deadly, and even level headed Rick can do. The only problem I had from him this episode was his line. I wished it would've been "Who we are.", because it would've brought the episode arc full circle.
Overall, this was one of the better episodes of this season. Not quite on par with Hershel's death episode, but still quite good. It had some great scenes straight from the comics, and the action was fantastic. Some interesting story threads were left out for next season and I can't wait. Next season is shaping up to potentially be the best yet.
Highlights:
- Darker Rick
- The action
- Gareth seemed interesting from his few minutes
- Terminus story looks great
9 out of 10 Stars