(spoilers from everything up to and including the final episode)
Season four of zombie apocalypse drama The Walking Dead came to a close at the weekend, and has probably been the most uneven and inconsistent to date.
After season three ended with the brilliant David Morrissey’s Governor still at large and angrier and more unhinged than ever, he looked set to be the main source of drama in future episodes. So the fact that it takes five whole episodes before there’s even a whiff of him shows that things may not have been paced as well as they could have been.
A bit of suspense is fine, and there’d be no problem waiting for his big arrival if those first handful of episodes didn’t feel quite so aimless.
After finding some sort of stability in the prison (albeit fragile) the first few episodes were spent wondering who would be bumped up by a lethal flu outbreak spreading through the survivors. Turns out the answer is no one, which is nice in terms of not making you want to cry, but also a little pointless. There was definitely a sense of filler to these episodes; killing time until The Governor reared his snarling head again.
Then, when he eventually does arrive at the prison gates (giving arch nemesis Michonne an intense one-eyed stare) there’s another two episodes to wait before the you-know-what hits the fan, as what he’s been up to since murdering most of his army in a tantrum is revealed.
These two Governor centric episodes are easily the weakest of the season. It’s not because David Morrissey isn’t great in the role, or because the other characters are missed (the latter part of the season showed that the show can work brilliantly focusing on only a couple of character per episode) but because what he was up to was so remarkably uninteresting.
He’s evil. He meets a nice family and turns good for a few days. He changes his mind and turns evil again. Surely they could’ve come up with something a bit more gripping?
Thankfully though, when the first vaguely uninspired seven episodes are over, the series finally finds its feet again with the mid season finale.
The episode showed that the show still had the ability to shock an audience, with the beheading of lovely Hershel by the Governor proving to be one of the most harrowing scenes to date.
It was also fairly surprising to see the Governor bow out quite so soon; it was quite sad to see the back of his character because he brought so much to the show, but equally there was something wonderfully satisfying about watching Michonne shove a Katana through his evil, evil heart.
So with him gone, and the survivors all separated into their own little groups, it was hard to tell what direction The Walking Dead would take for the second half. Thankfully, it was a good one.
The decision to separate the group into little fractions after The Governors attack was a risky one, but it really paid off. It seemed like names had been picked out a hat to decide who would team up with who, as the pairings seemed very random; Rick, Carl and Michonne made sense, but Maggie with Bob and Sasha, Tyreese with the children and Carol, Daryl with Beth and Glenn with a bus full of extras seemed like strange combinations.
But it worked so well. Teaming up relatively unused characters like Sasha and Beth with fan favourites Maggie and Daryl gave them time to flourish and bring their characters out a lot more; a really quite lovely episode focusing solely on Daryl and Beth was a prime example of the show heading back to those simple, character based moments it had in the early days.
And part two also managed to topple the shock of Hershel’s beheading with The Grove, one of the most horrific episodes to date. I was initially dubious about how Carol turned from mouse to killing machine quite so rapidly, but it was worth it for this episode alone.
There was an Of Mice And Men feel to the episode, which showed more than the show ever has before how the zombie apocalypse has changed people. There’s been something a little strange about little Lizzie from the start, but I didn’t expect her lack of understanding of the dangers of the walkers to go quite so far. The fact that she stabbed her little sister to death to turn her into one so they could live their lives together was brutal enough, but Carol then going on to have to kill her herself was brutal. The acting in this episode was faultless and it’s rightfully being hailed as one of – if not the – best episodes to date.
The rest of the series saw all of the survivors heading for the ‘sanctuary’ of the mysterious Terminus. Anyone familiar with the show can tell instantly that it wasn’t going to be a land of rainbows and smiles (this is The Walking Dead; happiness is illegal) but quite how dark it will be remains to be seen.
Glenn, Maggie, Abraham and co arrived there together in the penultimate episode and were greeted by the smiling Mary. Instantly we don’t trust her, but we’re not sure why (though the fact we greet her roasting an unknown meat on the barbecue gives us a hint we may know where this is going). They aren’t seen again until the last few minutes of the finale, which, strangely, was the weakest part of season 4 part two.
It started strongly, with Daryl and the unpleasant gang he became part of finally catching up with Rick, Carl and Michonne. Their attempted rape of Carl was horrible to watch, but demonstrated the changes Rick has gone through brilliantly.
As someone who was a huge Lost fan back in the day, and had to endure a lead character as mind-numingly noble and boring as Jack Shepherd, it’s a joy to have a lead character as emotionally complicated as Rick. He’s a good man who’s done horrible things, which has subsequently led to a darkness in him. Biting a mans throat out – no matter how evil the mans intentions may have been – is surely something that’s difficult to come back from. And his growing ferocity is demonstrated beautifully in the final line of the season: “they’re screwing with the wrong people.”
With Joe’s gang having been disposed of surprisingly early on, the rest of the episode felt a bit hurried. The majority of the characters imprisonment in Terminus is a really interesting point to leave things at, it just felt like there was a bit too much left unanswered. At least a mention of Carol, Tyreese and Beth would have been nice.
Undeniably, The Walking Dead’s season four has been a little patchy, yet it’s also provided some of the finest moments to date. And with so much potential horror to come in Terminus, October can’t come fast enough.