The fourth season finale didn’t quite play out the way that
I had expected it to. I thought that the majority of the episode would take
place at ‘Terminus’, and that we would find out more about the mysterious
sanctuary. I figured that Carol and Tyreese (along with baby Judith) would make
an appearance, and that there would be a hint concerning what happened to Beth –
supposedly that her abductors were somehow connected to ‘Terminus’. These
assumptions didn’t really come to fruition, and now there is a long wait to
find out what will happen next.
But I can’t dwell too much on what didn’t happen, and instead I will focus on what did.
The episode focussed predominantly on Rick’s character, and
was interspersed with flashbacks to the group’s quiet days in the prison (it
was nice to see Hershel again). Over the course of these scenes we saw Rick lay
aside his gun, and take up a quieter farming lifestyle – which is how we were
re-introduced to his character at the start of this season. The reason for
these flashbacks was supposedly to show us that Rick still has it within
himself to be a good man in spite of the savage nature of this world. Another
reason for these scenes could have been to have reminded us who Rick was,
because from hereon he will embrace the darker and more brutal nature of
himself. The first of the flashbacks was followed up with a lingering shot of
Rick covered in blood, with trembling hands, and with a haunted look in his
eyes. I once again made an assumption that this shot would resolve at the end
of the episode, but it reoccurred much sooner than that.
Although the ‘Terminus’ storyline wasn’t resolved, the fourth
season finale did provide resolution to the story involving Joe and his gang of
marauders. This occurred surprisingly early into the episode, and the scene escalated
very quickly. The abrupt nature of Joe’s appearance was definitely surprising,
and it really amped up the tension. Daryl stepped up, and was willing to
sacrifice himself to rescue Rick, Carl and Michonne – but that didn’t work out
too well. The group were very quickly overwhelmed, with Joe threatening to
first have Daryl beaten to death, and then to let his men have their way with
both Michonne and Carl, before putting a bullet in Rick’s head. The desperation
of this situation saw something snap in Rick, but he still tried to be the hero
(only to have it backfire) before he dug down deeper into his darker side.
This is where things got dark; as Rick overturned the
advantage held by Joe and his group, by biting a chunk out of Joe’s throat. The
shock of this allowed for Daryl and Michonne to overwhelm their aggressors, and
it seriously alarmed the final member of Joe’s gang – who was freaked out by
the animalistic look on Rick’s blood-stained face as he advanced on him. In the
aftermath of this, Carl looked genuinely frightened of his father – which is
unsurprising.
What is happening to Rick? Although his actions are
justifiable – considering the position he was in, and the threats that were
made towards his companions and his son – it is harder to connect with him. Characters
like The Governor went to extreme lengths to protect their dominion, but we
never saw him go full-on-Walker and bite a living man’s throat out. Rick is on
a dark path, and the villains he is confronted with will likely continue to
push him to even more violent extremes. He is likely going to have to become
just as bad as characters like The Governor (or maybe even worse) if he is
going to survive, as well as protect his own. The main difference is that we
have seen his evolution right from the start, and all the events that have
pushed him to such desperate measures.
The payoff to the Joe storyline was satisfying, although it
felt quite abrupt, as Joe has only made a couple of appearances up until now –
Joe and his group could have been built up even more since the mid-season finale,
in order to make this payoff seem like a bigger deal.
After this the group arrived at ‘Terminus’, and they wasted
very little time getting to the bottom of what’s really going on at the alleged
“Sanctuary for all”. This is where things got frustrating, as we have spent so
much time building up ‘Terminus’ only to spend a couple of minutes there –
during which there isn’t much time to find out a great deal – before things
turn ugly, without much explanation. Of course these discoveries are being left
until next season, but right now all we know is that the people of ‘Terminus’
are bad. That’s all. We have yet to see much evidence of their villainous
capabilities, apart from the fact that they threatened to kill Carl.
By now I have read other reviews that suggest what ‘Terminus’
really is, but this episode didn’t spend enough time there to get their
villainy across. I guess we’ll have to wait. The episode then came to an end on
a major cliff-hanger, which saw Rick boldly declare that he’s not worried
because they (the people of ‘Terminus’) “[…] are screwing with the wrong people”.
We’ve now seen what Rick is capable of, and what he is
willing to do – he is a dangerous man, even without a weapon in his hand – so this
statement makes a lot of sense, but it’s just a shame that (for now) it’s all
we’re getting. But, with that said, it definitely makes the Season Five
premiere a Must Watch event. The majority of the group are now reunited (the
revelation that Judith is still alive is clearly being saved until a later
date) and they are ready to turn the tables on their oppressors. It will likely
get messy, there will probably be a high body-count, and we may see other
characters embrace their inner-monsters too. See you again in October!
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