The Walking Dead: A (4x16)

Dammnnnn. Series finale time, and they're not messing around. Let's talk about this craziness.

Rick, Carl, and Michonne continue on their journey towards Terminus. Along the way, Rick dreams back to happier times at the prison with Hershel, when Hershel taught him how to domesticate the pigs and start growing crops. Rick then taught Carl how to do the same, which got him away from his weapon-focused state.

In the present, however, things aren't so fine and dandy. One night, while camping, Joe and his men turn up and ambush Rick. They hold a gun to his head. However, before Joe can kill him, Daryl shows up and begs the men to let them go. Daryl tells them that if they want blood, they can punish him in place of Rick. However, Joe proclaims that Daryl is a liar for saying that Rick is a good person, and he tells the rest of the group to kill Daryl. A struggle breaks out, in which Joe promises to make Rick watch as they kill Daryl, and then as they rape and kill both Michonne and Carl. Rick manages to spin around in Joe's arms, but his arms are pinned, so he bites Joe's jugular to kill him. With Michonne and Daryl's help, Rick is able to drive the rest of the men back. He brutally stabs Carl's would-be rapist.

Rick is a bit shaken by what happened, obviously, and it seems that Carl is too. Daryl apologizes to Rick for getting mixed up with guys like that. Rick says it's not Daryl's fault, and he's just happy to have him with them, alive. The four travelers reach Terminus, and decide to go in the back way, so they can get a look at what's going on before they have to explain themselves to anyone. At first, things seem okay... they talk to some of Terminus' men, who ask them to lower their weapons before getting something to eat. However, Rick then notices Glenn's watch from Hershel on one of the men, and he immediately realizes that things are not alright.

Rick, Michonne, Daryl, and Carl try to defend themselves from these men, but they are eventually herded by gunfire through Terminus, and they end up trapped. (We see, disturbingly, an enclosure with human bones in it, as well as a weird altar room with names written on the floor). The four of them are ordered to enter a train car. Inside, they find Glenn, Maggie, Bob, Sasha, Tara, Eugene, Abraham, and Rosita. Rick angrily declares that these Terminus folks are messing with the wrong people.

Yikes. Things are getting real. I'm really excited about the next season, now. You know who wasn't in that train car? Carol, Tyreese, and Judith! Also, we still don't know what happened to Beth. I need my answers!

Let me just start off with the one element I didn't enjoy. I thought the flashback stuff with Hershel was a little bit... overkill. It was supposed to show us how Rick had been in a bad place, and then he had learned to garden, and he got out of the bad place. But now, seeing as he's willing to rip people's throats out with his teeth, he is clearly in a bad place again. In my opinion, we didn't need to see the flashback to get this. It felt like overkill. As nice as it was to see Hershel again, I would have cut these scenes in their entirety, if it were up to me.

However, that's just one small thing. Over all, I think this episode was amazing.

They really weren't afraid to go very, very dark, here, as we saw that Joe's men were actually capable of raping Carl. It was very unsettling to watch. Equally unsettling, however, was Rick's reaction to it. He kills Carl's would-be rapist, and then the camera just focuses on Carl's face as we hear the squelching, horrible noise of a knife entering a body again and again and again. It was extremely disconcerting. Actually, I think the sound of the knife might have been even harder for me to take than the part where Rick bit Joe's jugular. Or maybe it's tied. That whole scene was quite disturbing.

Also I must talk about Daryl. How cute was it that Daryl offered to die to save Rick! I loved that. And I loved how worried Rick was when Daryl started getting beat up. In a world as messed up as this one, it's tempting to think that this is every man for himself. But Daryl proves differently.

Also - Terminus! Cannibals! I mean, that's been a theory that I've seen before... but to have it confirmed! That freaky altar room seemed like maybe it was some sort of sick tribute to all of those who had died to become meals? And did you notice that when they were offered food, it was ribs? Ugh.

My mother pointed this out when we talked about the episode - when Rick, Michonne, Daryl, and Carl are put into that train car, the other eight people in there don't act all that excited to see them. They seem... defeated. Hopeless. It doesn't paint a very cheery picture, that's for sure.

And then you have Rick's last pronouncement. Maybe it was cheesy and overly dramatic, but after everything that's happened, I feel like it was appropriate. He knows what he's capable of, and he's not about to go down easy. Honestly, Rick's development in this episode was pretty much the strongest part for me. We can see this darkness in him, and we can see that it's going to help him survive - but that it's not exactly a good thing, in the long run.

I'll stop there! I'll miss this show a lot. I really want to know what happens next!

8.5/10