We’ve been waiting for months to see the season 10 finale of The Walking Dead, and despite some disappointing flaws, it mostly lived up to the hype.
We’ve been anxiously waiting for several months to see the season 10 finale of The Walking Dead after it was delayed thanks to the coronavirus. And now, it’s finally here.
Plenty of cast and crew members have been teasing the finale during the break, with Norman Reedus (Daryl) even comparing it to Game of Thrones, saying it has a similar “super war battle.” So does it live up to expectations? The short answer: yes.
“A Certain Doom,” most certainly lives up to its title. It’s tense, thrilling, action-packed, and delivers on all the twists, shocks, and revelations you expect from a Walking Dead season finale. It’s not without some glaring flaws, the main one being that it should have been longer to accommodate more fighting.
There’s a hell of a lot to unpack here, so let’s get right into it. Be warned, there are major SPOILERS below!
There are two main things going on in this episode: the battle between our survivors and the Whisperers, and Eugene’s group on their adventure to meet Stephanie and learn about the Commonwealth.
It begins right where the previous episode left off. Our survivors — basically everyone from Alexandria — are stuck in a hospital as Beta and his horde of both zombies and fellow Whisperers close in. We get a nice scene from Father Gabriel, who delivers a powerful monologue to kids scared about their survival. Gabriel really was the high point of this episode. It’s great to see how far he’s come from the guy who was too scared to do anything. He’s now a key figure in the group, and this episode makes him a real leader. It was his plan, he motivated everyone. It’s been great to watch his character develop over the years. Seth Gilliam deserves a lot of credit.
We then cut to the second storyline: Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko and their new friend Princess travel to the agree-upon meeting place to (hopefully) find Stephanie and discover her community: the Commonwealth. At this point in their journey, Eugene is uncertain about continuing and contemplates giving up. However, Ezekiel manages to convince him otherwise. I have a hard time understanding exactly why Eugene’s thoughts changed so rapidly in the space of one episode, but he comes to his senses quickly.
We cut back to the battle, where Gabriel and Luke are laying plans for escape. They intend to try and lead the zombies away by getting in a wagon and blasting music, drop the wagon off a cliff, and hoping the zombies will follow. Sounds simple, right?
The obvious issue is how to escape to the wagon without being eaten. To do this, Daryl, Carol, Magna, Beatrice and Jerry band together to do the classic Walking Dead plan first seen in season 1 when Rick and co smear themselves with zombie blood and walk among the dead. It’s a nice callback to the many times they’ve used this technique in the past. Except this time, they have to avoid Whisperers as well.
Before they set off, we get some lovely character scenes, starting with a conversation between Carol and Lydia. Lydia actually thanks Carol for killing her mother, Alpha. While she won’t admit it, I like to think Lydia sees Carol as a mother figure, something that becomes more apparent later in the episode.
Negan refuses to leave with the team going to the wagon. He almost appears to have accepted his fate. Also, he knows that if he goes out there, the Whisperers will spot him at a glance. In a rather touching scene, he hands his protective walker mask to Lydia so she can stay safe. The survivors remaining in the hospital fire down arrows, trying to pick off the Whisperers.
Once the group is out among the dead, the tension really begins to build. We get some great shots. I particularly loved the point-of-view shot through Beatrice’s mask. The Whisperers remain true to their name. Everything is very quiet and there is a lot of sneaky whispering going on.
And then we get the first death, the only death of a so-called “good guy” in the episode. When Beta catches on that there are survivors among them, he calls out for everyone to stay calm. That’s when Beatrice, one of the survivors from Oceanside, is caught and attacked by a Whisperer. Unfortuately, Carol is unable to save her. It’s sad to see Carol walk away rather than help, but really, Beatrice was too far gone. I liked Carol’s expression of shock, sadness and fear as she slowly ambles away.
After escaping the Whisperer horde, our team heads to the wagon to enact their “Pied Piper” plan. The song they play is “Burning Down the House” by Talking Heads. Killing walkers to the beat of classic 1980’s pop? Yes, please!
Of course, things don’t go entirely smoothly. Mid-way through the song, walkers destroy the wagon and kill the music, meaning everyone has to lead the walkers to the cliff by foot. Due to her experience leading walkers with the Whisperers, Lydia volunteers to complete the plan, along with Carol. The others head back to the hospital to get everyone out.
And that’s when we get the moment we’ve all been waiting for. When the survivors make their escape, Negan attacks Beta. In the comics, this was a memorable, badass scene. Lucille — Negan’s baseball bat — gets broken. In the show, however, it’s pretty disappointing. My biggest problem was that the fight was nowhere near long enough, considering how much hype there was for it. I felt like they breezed over it because they needed to cram so much more stuff into the episode.
I can’t fault the effects, though; it’s unbelievably gruesome. The “twist” is that Daryl arrives just in time to kill Beta by sticking a knife in each of his eyes. If you watch The Walking Dead for the blood and gore, you will love this. I just felt it was a little rushed; definitely an anticlimax.
We also learn Beta’s true identity, which was teased in previous episodes: it turns out that Beta was, in fact, a famous country singer pre-apocalypse. Both Negan and Daryl realize this once his mask is ripped off. It’s a good twist that gives Beta more depth.
Back in the hideout, Gabriel makes a stand as walkers are about to break down the door and kill everyone. This is a great scene, and yet another example of why he was my favorite character in this episode. He’s prepared to die to save the others, and I really thought he was going to! But just as the walkers break through the door, in walks Maggie with her new dual-wielding masked ninja partner; we don’t know his name so the description will have to do for the moment. It’s a bit random to see Maggie just show up in the middle of a battle, but I’m not complaining. Talk about returning in style!
Image: The Walking Dead/AMC
Next, Lydia and Carol approach the cliff where they plan to drop the walkers. It looks like Carol is going to commit suicide. At one point, she literally takes a step to fall to her death, but Lydia saves her life. (I would have been more worried about Carol’s fate if we didn’t already know she was getting a spinoff.)
It’s good to see Lydia and Carol forming a relationship. It’s also very satisfying to see hundreds of walkers fall to their deaths. This is the scene that shows why the team needed all that extra time; there are a lot of CGI zombies!
Afterwards, we get a lovely reunion between Maggie and Judith. There are no words, but their faces say it all. As expected, we learn nothing about where Maggie has been or who her new friend is. I suppose we’ll have to wait for the six extra episodes airing early next year.
Carol and Daryl also meet up again and chat about running away together. It feels like a plug for their upcoming spinoff. “You’ve still got me,” Carol says. “New Mexico is still out there.”
The final two scenes give us huge twists. The first is that Connie — who supposedly died in the cave when Carol blew it up in the midseason premiere — is alive but not well. Disorientated and delirious, she collapses and is found by Virgil, the strange guy from Bloodsworth Island. I think we’ll see more of Connie in those six additional episodes.
Finally, we visit one more time with Eugene and his crew. They arrive at the designated place to meet Stephanie. Instead, they are greeted by hostile warriors from her community. They wear the same Stormtrooper-esque armor as they do in the comics. It’s official: the Commonwealth is here!
And that’s the finale! Overall, I really enjoyed it. The battle was a little underwhelming, especially the face-off between Negan and Beta. Each character was given a chance to shine, even if that meant some didn’t get as much screentime as they should have. The unlikely returns and big twists were fun, too.
The finale also does a good job of setting up season 11, as well as those six extra episodes. There was a lot of pressure for this finale to deliver, especially since we now know there’s only one more to go! I think they pulled it off.
Grade: B+
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