Recently, on December 1, an estimated 12.1 million viewers from around the world tuned in to watch the extremely gruesome and climatic mid-season finale of “The Walking Dead”. The finale thoroughly highlighted the underlying belief of the season that —even during the zombie-apocalypse—the biggest thing to fear is people themselves.
Over the course of the highly lauded season, viewers watched in awe as Rick Grimes and his group suffered through a “zombie” influenza, the tragic loss of beloved members, and in the finale, their unfortunate clash with the governor.
This season, the governor made a shocking comeback. After the loss of his zombie daughter, Penny, the governor turned into, frankly, a psychopath. Knowing he was up to no good, viewers kept a close eye on him as he formed a new family. With this new “family,” the governor appeared to become an almost sane or normal person. However, his sanity was clearly never coming back because throughout the season he irrationally killed several people and brutally murdered two men that were leading a group of survivors, allowing him to be the sole leader. Also, in the finale, the governor killed one of the most influential characters of the whole show, Hershel.
Hershel’s death was the most emotional scene that has ever happened on the history of the show. Hershel kneeled bravely as he was held at gunpoint and eventually at sword-point. Rick (the group leader) was saying everything he possibly could to try to ease the situation and convince the governor to let Hershel and the other hostage, Michonne, go free. Unfortunately, Rick’s begging did not satisfy the governor, and the governor morbidly killed the most beloved character of the show.
Throughout the finale episode, an extensive list of deaths was created. Along with Hershel, little Meagan died, having been attacked by a walker. Also, an empty baby carrier stained with blood indicated a missing—and possibly dead—Judith.
Although the list of the dead was extensive and depressing, viewers actually had something to be happy about: the ruthless governor died. First stabbed by Michonne’s sword, then shot by his girlfriend (after she discovered she was in love with a psychotic killer), the governor will clearly never be a problem again.
The mid- season finale revolved around the clash between Rick’s group stationed at the prison and the governor’s group that wanted to take over the prison. The governor had manipulated his group and drilled into their heads that they needed to take over the prison, even though they had no true intentions of doing so. The fight over the prison not only caused many deaths, but also caused the prison to be completely destroyed, allowing no one to win.
Overall, this season has not really focused around the attacks of zombies, but rather the chemistry between the survivors. The group has had to deal with a zombie influenza, which caused many people to turn into zombies without even being bit, or dying first. Because of this, Carol was forced to make an abrupt decision concerning whether or not to kill the infected people. She killed them rather gorily, and was in return forced to leave the group.
The finale was without a doubt one of the most dramatic episodes in “The Walking Dead” history. It was filled to the top with great acting, incredible special effects, and an extremely emotional plot. After this electrifying, jaw-dropping mid-season finale, viewers are desperately waiting for the return of the show, which will premiere on February 9, 2014 on AMC.
