The Walking Dead Midseason Finale

The Walking Dead Midseason Finale aired last Sunday to bring us a pretty decent episode. A lot happened in this episode to bring us forward in the series instead of toiling in The Governor centric plot line that should have been ended last season. 
Spoilers ahead...

So, our episode started out with the Governor pulling up to the prison and ambushing Hershel and Michonne. I thought it was a little bit ridiculous that the people that had been following the Governor for all of 24 hours would be so cool with infiltrating an armed prison to rob it of supplies. But, on the other hand these people are desperate... right? It was good to see the Governor and Michonne interacting again but really, the Governor was doing most of the legwork here. I do not think that

So much potential, such little execution... unless you count zombie killing

Danai Gurira is a bad actress but the writing for her character consists of "DO SOMETHING BADASS WITH YOUR KATANA!", "CUT A WALKER IN HALF", "NEVER SMILE UNLESS CARL SAYS SOMETHING PLAYFUL" and that's about it. The Governor on the other hand is a pretty well drawn character, especially with the last two episodes showing his development. Combine that with David Morrissey being an amazing actor and the character has really come a long way. 
Anyway, we later come to the showdown between Rick and The Governor with the Governor trying to scare Rick out of the prison. Like most scenes between these two, it explodes into chaos. The Governor kills Hershel causing the entire prison group to freak out and begin a chaotic battle. 

The death of Hershel was something that the writer's had been planning since the end of season two but because of Scott Wilson's acting and the rifts it would cause with the rest of the prison, they kept him around. Now however, with the prison group being split apart and all hell breaking loose, it seemed the right time for him to go. As much as I wish that the Governor could have swung that katana the other way and killed Michonne, Hershel's importance reached an all time high during the infection and then an all time low after it ended. Things were too happy with Glenn and Maggie and Beth seemed too content with death. There needed to be something huge to bring all three characters (not to mention the rest of the group that had become attached to Hershel) to conflict. The second major death was of The Governor. This was something we all saw coming and really, something that had to happen. In many ways this was the episode that the season three finale should have been. Instead of giving us the terrible ending of season three, a variation of this episode should have happened.

Why do all evil people have eye patches and trench coats?

The Governor was a great villain but he had run his course. I am happy however that he went out with such a bang... literally. Having the Governor blow a hole in the prison, kill Hershel, and almost kill Rick was a fitting end to such an evil character. Finally, the last two deaths of the episodes were of Meghan, Lily's little girl and supposedly of Judith, Rick's baby. Meghan was a smart move. It showed why Lily would be a good-guy later on in the show (she got to kill the Governor) and it hardened her to become a Carol-ish character. Both of them lost their daughters and had terrible spouses (or boyfriends). Also, it gave the Governor something even more terrible to do to make us want him dead. Finally, there was Judith. Although we don't know she is dead, it is pretty safe to assume. I'm mixed on this one. On one hand, it was bold and shocking and made hope seem to be at an all time low. On the other, it was a little unnecessarily brutal. We more just have to wait and see how this affects the other characters to see if it was a smart writing decision.

R.I.P.

Finally, at the end of the episode we saw the death of the prison and the anarchy that ensued. Now, the group seems split apart giving a good opportunity for unique plot lines that can develop each character individually. It will be interesting to see how Carl and Rick fair on their own or how Glenn and Maggie deal with the death of Hershel. Also, I look forward to seeing the new characters from the Governor's camp being developed. Now that they don't have a leader it begs the question of who will step up to the plate. Seriously, talk about bad luck, they had three leaders in something like five days, each one getting successively worse than the last.

Overall, though this episode didn't leave me dying (haha) to see the start of season 4B, but I will certainly watch it. This midseason finale was a solid episode that didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth like the season 3 one did. 

Rating: 8/10