TV Recap: Walking Dead Season 3 Finale “Welcome to the Tombs”

What did you think of the Season Finale of The Walking Dead? What happens with the Governor? Andrea is still locked up in the torture room of doom too!  Violet gives her run down of the final episode of Season 3, while Josh throws in his commentary (look for commentary in blue!)  If you haven’t watched it yet, beware, there are tons of spoilers! Read on if you dare…

The episode opens to the Governor punching someone, but you can’t see who it is, as we’re seeing through the eyes of the person being punched. It quickly becomes clear that the person is Milton (or “Glasses Guy,” as I’ve been calling him all season. Seriously, how is this guy the only person on the show that wears glasses? I’m sure there are several other survivors with less than perfect vision, and it’s not likely that anyone’s wearing contacts at this point! Though I suppose one could argue the theory of Natural Selection, that anyone with bad eyesight has been killed off by the walkers, unless they were protected in a town like Woodbury, as Milton was. But I digress).  The Governor has figured out that Milton was the one who burned the walkers that they were going to release at the prison, a piece of information which I felt was pretty obvious at the end of the episode before last when the Governor and Milton were talking about the burned walkers.  The Governor brings Milton to his torture room, where Andrea is tied to the chair, and tells Milton to kill her.  Milton tries to stab the Governor, but the Governor easily overcomes Milton and stabs him repeatedly, leaving him in the room with Andrea to turn into a zombie and eat her.  As he leaves, the Governor makes the profound statement, “In this life now, you kill or you die.  Or you die and you kill,” foreshadowing all the killing yet to come throughout this episode.

I am not sure how many other people were fooled here, but my thoughts on the opening were, the eye first seen was Andrea being tortured, which proved wrong (being that of the Governor).  I then thought the person he was beating was Andrea (again wrong).  I really wish I knew why Milton would take such a beating though.  He has been portrayed as the nerdy “science guy” but you would think he would have had the smarts to avoid getting his butt kicked. 

Back at the prison, everyone is packing up. Carl seems pissed off at Rick for some reason, and Glenn comments that he’s never seen him this mad, even with Lori. Speaking of which, Rick is still seeing Lori. Michonne and Rick have a heart to heart, where she pretty much forgives Rick for considering handing her over the Governor, and thanks him for taking her in. Rick gives the credit to Carl, saying Carl’s the one that made the call and said she belonged there and was one of them.

I was very unclear as to why Carl was mad. Did he not want to flee? That was what appeared to be what the group had decided, but I could not be sure. Later it is answered however.  As for Michonne, she was surprisingly easy on Rick.  It makes you wonder what would have happened if the roles were reversed.

Meanwhile at Woodbury, the Governor and his people are gearing up to go attack the prison. Tyrese tells the Governor that he and Sasha are sitting this one out, that it isn’t their fight, and they’re going to stay behind to protect those who aren’t going to fight. Surprisingly, the Governor hands Tyrese a gun and calmly thanks him, without trying to change his mind at all, then they roll out in their humvees.  When they arrive at the prison, they shoot up the place, take out the guard towers with missile launchers, and kill all the walkers wandering around in the area before getting out of their vehicles and heading into the prison, which looks empty.  As they search what used to be the group’s sleeping quarters (how do they know exactly where to look?), the only thing the Governor finds is a Bible, open to a page with the following verse highlighted: “And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation,” John 5:29. Apparently, the Governor doesn’t like when it’s implied that he’s evil and damned, and he gets angry and orders that the group split up into two. They go into the tunnels and begin to hear noises.

The Woodbury residents initially seem organized.  Since I thought Rick and company had left the prison, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen here. Obviously some sort of confrontation had to happen, but I was not sure what it would exactly be at this point 

Meanwhile, Milton is still alive and tells Andrea that he dropped some pliers behind her earlier, and tells her to stab him in the head when she gets free (with what, the pliers? Ew). After awhile, Andrea is able to reach the pliers with her feet, and looks over at Milton, who isn’t moving. But he’s not dead yet, as he asks Andrea why she stayed at Woodbury after she found her friends. She says it’s because she wanted to save everyone, even the Governor, and didn’t want anyone else to die. Apparently, she can’t talk and attempt to pick up pliers at the same time, and Milton tells her she needs to hurry.

I don’t even want to talk about the pliers…or Andrea. Ok, fine I will. Hey Andrea? Instead of constantly asking if Milton is alive, and just staring at him as he’s dying, and trying to have a touching conversation with a soon-to-be zombie…Maybe, you can sort-of make an effort to get the pliers? I know they were kind of hard to grab, but if you spent more time trying to get them, you might not have gotten a zombie hickey! (SPOILER ALERT). 

In the prison tunnels, explosions go off, there’s smoke everywhere, everyone starts screaming and runs outside. Our crew is dressed in riot gear, firing on the Governor’s people as they run out of the tunnels, jump in their humvees and high tail it out of there. Hershel, Beth, and Carl have been hiding in the woods. A boy not much older than Carl runs into them, and Carl pulls his gun on the boy, telling him to hand over his own gun. Before he is able to do so, however, Carl shoots and kills the boy. He goes and brags to Rick that he “got one of the Governor’s soldiers.” But that’s not how Hershel sees it, as he tells Rick that the kid was scared and handing his gun over, that Carl had every reason not to shoot, but “gunned that kid down.”

To clarify for the “non-Call of Duty” minded, the “explosions” were Flash grenades, which are great for disorientation.  Worked pretty well on the untrained people of Woodbury, as they scattered out of the prison. As for Shane, err I mean Carl’s scene, we see a little humanity lost in Carl here.  In my opinion, regardless of knowing the other boy’s intentions of shooting or not shooting, Carl was too eager to shoot him.  The kid did not have the gun anywhere near firing capabilities. No, Carl shouldn’t have taken the gun in his hand, and yes the kid should have followed Carl’s orders to drop the shotgun, but Carl had way too quick of a trigger finger, killing a man who had not threatened him yet.  One other quick note, I was terrified for Maggie and Glenn when they removed their riot gear helmets. I thought for sure a sniper bullet was coming.

As the Governor and his people are driving down the road, he tells them to pull over.  It appears that his “soldiers” have now turned on him, so he guns them all down, except for Allen, who attempts to make a stand, pulling his gun on the Governor, but the Governor easily kills him too. He goes and shoots a few of the bodies to make sure everyone’s dead, but one lady is hiding underneath another body, and is left alive. The Governor, Martinez, and one other guy get into the truck and drive away. Wow, the Governor has gone off the deep end, killing his own people.

First reaction is,”WTF Governor?! You just mowed down your army!”  Then you realize he is the Governor. A psycho was barely hanging by a thread before.  Interestingly enough, the Governor even shoots Allen, who was all gung-ho to be on his side. 

Andrea is still trying to pick up the pliers with her feet. She looks over at Milton, who appears to still be breathing. She almost gets them, but then drops them. Tries again, gets them. She then pauses to look at Milton, who is now still. Then she works on using the pliers to free herself from the chair, while we see that Milton’s hand is beginning to move in a zombie-like motion.

I already had my rant here.  Ok fine, I’ll continue, stop wasting your time and grab the pliers!

Rick questions Carl about the boy that he shot. Carl defends his actions, saying that he couldn’t take the chance, and criticizes Rick for all the times he hesitated when he should have taken action, like when he met with the Governor. I think Carl’s words rang true with a lot of viewers who also questioned why Rick couldn’t have just killed the Governor when he had the chance. As Carl walks away, Rick finds his Sheriff star on the ground, which we had seen Carl pack up earlier in the episode. I think this episode marks a big turning point for Carl, and that his action of leaving behind the star symbolizes that he has put aside childish things, no longer idolizes his father, and has become his own man. But the question is, what kind of man?

This scene epitomizes my feelings of Rick.  While Rick’s actions may be blamed for the deaths of certain people by many viewers, including his wife, I do not feel this is fair.  Why? He does not have control over the actions of the people who he chooses to let live, which is most people if he can at all help it.  Rick is trying to maintain his humanity in a world ruled by inhumanity.  If the world was full of “Shanes”, the world would plummet into barbarism and treachery.  The zombies would have more humanity at that point, as at least people know where they stand with them.

Rick, Daryl, and Michonne decide to go after the Governor, while Glenn and Maggie stay behind to protect the others. Carol and Beth get some zombie killing action in as they open and close the gate to let the vehicles through. On the road, they come across the mess of bodies, some now zombies, which the Governor left, and discover the sole survivor.

Meanwhile, Andrea is still trying to escape from the chair, but she keeps pausing to look at Milton (keep working, stop looking at Milton, just hurry up, geez!), who has turned, and starts to go toward her. But we don’t get to see what happens as the camera cuts away to the closed door and we hear her screaming.

Last Recap I had predicted Andrea dying (the only prediction I had correct).  I wasn’t sure if she had met her end here yet or not though.  I was very frustrated with how her scene played out this episode. I wish the writers had came up with a better way to do what they did here. 

Rick, Daryl, and Michonne have made it to Woodbury, along with the survivor of the Governor’s massacre, while Tyrese and Sasha are guarding the gate. The survivor, Karen, tells them what the Governor did, and Tyrese lets them in, and they go looking for Andrea. They get to the torture chamber and find Milton on the floor, dead, but they also find Andrea laying on the floor. She has been bitten, but is still alive. She again gives the excuse for her actions that she just didn’t want anyone to die. She then insists on shooting herself while she still can. Michonne appears the most broken up and says she’s not going anywhere. Andrea’s last words were “I tried,” to which Rick replies, “Yeah, you did.” We see everyone else waiting outside while Michonne stays behind with Andrea, then we hear a gunshot.

My final feelings on Andrea: I have read and listened to people impressed with Andrea’s character this season.  I am not so quick to agree.  We start with her being rescued by Michonne. She was taken care of for a long time by her.  What did Andrea do when she got to Woodbury? Basically turn her back on Michonne.  Even after several warnings from her friend, she refused to leave.  After she is too deep in with the Governor, she still refuses to do anything about it, despite the hints of everything she learns about him.  I feel it was fairly evident where the Governor stood in relation to the prison group, and even his own mental state.  I feel up until about the episode “Arrow on the Doorpost”, Andrea was mostly concerned with having a warm shower and bed to sleep in, with 4 walls to keep the walkers out.  In “Arrow on the Doorpost” we do see a change in her, but by then I feel she should already be realizing who the governor really is, could have done something about it.

They all drive back to the prison, taking a busload of Woodbury residents with them. When they arrive, Carl is all pissed off about the new arrivals, demanding to know “What is this?” A valid question, considering that it wasn’t so long about that Rick turned away Tyrese’s small group, and now they’re letting in a much larger group of people. But mostly Carl’s attitude just makes him seem like a brat.

Overall, this episode was anti-climactic and did not even seem like a season finale. It feels like there should be one more episode after this one which should be the season finale.  I think we were all looking forward to a good showdown with the Governor, instead of seeing him run away like a coward and gunning down his own people. But apparently we’re going to have to wait about seven months for that. Where was the Governor even headed when he drove away? Is he planning on going back to Woodbury, or is he going off somewhere completely different? Who knows, since he’s apparently gone crazy. What’s going to happen at the prison now that they have so many more people to take care of? The newcomers probably can’t help with defending the prison very well, considering that the reason they were left behind in Woodbury was because they were too young, old, or frail to fight in the prison attack. And what’s going to happen to Carl in the season to come, now that he’s apparently adopted the Governor’s mantra of “You kill or you die.  Or you die and you kill”? All I know is, Rick’s gonna have his hands full next season!

My final thoughts of the finale:  I thought it was a good episode but a rather lacking finale.  I do wish it had handled Andrea better. I also did not really care for the trickery towards the viewers, making us believe that Rick and company had left the city.  I felt a rousing speech by Rick and seeing more of the prison group’s tactical plan would have been more interesting than the “shock and awe” approach taken.  I wish the confrontation between the Governor and Rick/Daryl/Michonne had taken place.  They all want a piece of him.  I do not know where they can take the Governor from here however, as he has just two or three men left to work with, who all probably think he is crazy. I also do not know how the prison group will take care of all of the newcomers, food is scarce as it is.  I agree with Rick’s decision though, adding a little more glue to humanity that tries to break and crumble around him.   I can’t wait until fall though to see what happens!