"...Screwing with the Wrong People." Walking Dead Season 4 Finale

SPOILER WARNING! Mild to Medium Rare spoilers discussed below. Recommend you NOT continue if you don't have the  season finale under your belt - in other words, "DON'T OPEN - DEAD INSIDE..."







We've got over six months to think about it. I'm going on record as being very happy with season 4 of The Walking Dead. People are bound to find things to complain about - "Nobody got killed!" "They didn't explain what happened to (Fill in Blank)." But if you've been paying attention, you should know by now that new showrunner Scott Gimple has been working out of a high altitude, big picture plan - he's got a firm grasp on what makes this show work, and he's got no problem with impulse control. He knows how to dole out just enough plot in one sitting to intrigue and keep you coming back for more.

These last eight episodes have been fascinating. So much of this season has been about what this world does to children and we've seen them in all manner of disturbing situations this year. Frankly, I think Gimple, Robert Kirkman and company made disturbing television history with The Grove this season. Putting it mildly, that was rough sledding - and I'd argue that on some level, Gimple knew that nothing could trump that episode for leaving an emotional gut-punch. We've never seen anything quite like that before, and in many ways, that's going to go down as the emotional finale of the season. It would have been a synthetic and predictable move to try and out-devastate what happened then - what Carol did. From where I'm sitting, that was absolutely the right call.

With Carl, we've been following a boy both on the verge of turning into a man and at risk of turning away from his father. After last night's episode, Carl will never wonder about the ferocity of his father's devotion to him again. We've been watching Rick struggle with his identity and his fear of the price that the behaviors of survival extract, really since Lori died. On the road, beset by Joe and his "Claim-Jumpers," with Carl in the worst kind of peril, Rick struggled no more. To save their lives, Rick essentially became a Walker, in a sequence of such avenging brutality, it made Bronson and Eastwood gasp.

I think The Walking Dead deserves some props for not killing anyone off last night, but also for not making it easy and giving us the mechanical structure of too many answers. Many characters' fates are still in the wind, and I'm just dying to see Melissa McBride again. We may not have the answers yet that many of us expected, but I know that I care deeply about all of those whose whereabouts remain uncertain. This was a tremendous year of storytelling and I love that these guys have the confidence and patience to take risks with the show and keep us guessing, keep things fresh...to keep us caring. I can't wait for October, and after this year's run, I trust Gimple and Kirkman to serve up equal portions of both rich character and wrenching suspense.

And speaking of serving, season 4 saw all the rabbits finally arrive at Terminus - so if you're still perplexed at what's going on there, well, let me fix you a plate...