*Spoiler alert
If there’s anything The Walking Dead has proven during the course of its four seasons, it’s that the show finds its strength in building its characters. As the season four finale aired Sunday night, fans saw something that hasn’t happened since the conclusion of season two: an episode with a truly memorable cliffhanger.
Unlike the season three finale, which features a bus load full of new people to join the prison community with a rather optimistic tone to it, this episode leaves fans on the edge of their seats upon seeing Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and company trapped inside an 18-wheeler at the mercy of their sadistic captors. This scene is made all the more chilling as Rick delivers the closing line, “They’re screwing with the wrong people.”
The finale also shows us a different side to Rick than fans are used to. While the season opens with him seeking to live a more simple life as a farmer, this episode reveals the monster within him and every other character. As he crosses paths with a gang he had made enemies with in season two, this encounter leads to an ugly display of vengeance with the gang doing unspeakable things to Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne (Danai Gurira).
Upon seeing his son at the mercy of these animals, the protagonist we all know and love is shown attacking the gang leader by biting into his neck and killing him in the same manner as a walker. This is followed by him stabbing the man who assaults Carl several times. While graphic, it’s this kind of relentlessness the writers have been displaying, which is a major highlight of the series.
Another strength of this season is show-runner Scott M. Gimple’s decision to separate the group midway through. Following the hiatus brought on by the return of The Governor (David Morrissey), the survivors of the prison were scattered into smaller groups. This dynamic opened doors for secondary character and story arcs, which culminated nicely in the finale.
Although seasons two and three tended to get boring as a result of being driven by one overarching concept, this point in the series has benefitted from having several angles and character perspectives. In particular, Gimple and his writing staff have been building up to this idea of Terminus, which Rick and the other survivors were told would be a place of refuge and safety.
Though it’s no surprise that Terminus actually turns out to be run by a group of psychopaths, the manner in which this revelation plays out makes it no less captivating. Whether it was Carol (Melissa McBride) being forced to kill her surrogate daughter as a result of the child’s insanity, or simply the introduction of Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), this season has had tremendous success in shocking, surprising and delighting devoted fans.
It’s no secret either that Gimple proved to be more faithful to the source material than previous showrunner Glen Mazzara. While Mazzara tended to drift far away from the stories laid out in Robert Kirkman’s comic books, Gimple has pulled many of his ideas for this season straight from them.
Furthermore, the matter of who will make it out of Terminus alive is not the only question lingering among fans. Though most of the survivors have been reunited, Carol and Tyrese (Chad L. Coleman) are still somewhere in the woods trying to care for Rick’s baby daughter Judith. Nor have we seen Beth (Emily Kinney) because she fled from a massive walker attack against her and Daryl (Norman Reedus).
Probably the most significant factor of this season is the mission of Abraham and his team to go to D.C. in order to attempt to return things to the way they were before the zombie outbreak. The idea of a restored world after so much time in the apocalypse is not only intriguing, but it provides the series with a more substantial direction. Time will tell how this story arc plays out.
By also incorporating more hopeful elements, such as the love between Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan), the show makes sure to avoid being simply an eerie bloodbath every episode. Now with new territory to explore in season five, I’m eager to see the Scott M. Gimple era of The Walking Dead continue in the fall.
