Cliched headline and lede aside, the explosive “The Walking Dead” season finale concluded with, well, an explosion.
Though it has not yet earned the universal critical acclaim afforded to original series “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead” spent its six episode first season becoming a legitimate ratings success for AMC. Its viewership has been clocking it at more than double that of fellow AMC series “Mad Men,” while its adults 18-49 rating, nearly one of the best on cable, regularly dominates many broadcast shows, including NBC’s heavily-hyped freshman “The Event.”
And it is hardly as if the critics dislike it–the show is absolutely being hailed as a legitimately creative success.
Sunday’s “TS-19” marked the culmination of the abridged first season; a second season of thirteen episodes has already been ordered. As with most of the previous episodes–and most of AMC’s shows–the hour’s success was not about how much happened but, rather, the intensity of that which did happen.
Undoubtedly, there was an enjoyment cap placed on Sunday’s episode. Insofar as anyone could have predicted the CDC facility, also known as “Walking Dead”‘s version of “Lost”‘s ‘hatch,’ would not remain a long-term safe haven for the characters, there was little surprise when it became clear that the survivors’ stay came with a check-out date. Similarly, insofar as there was no way every character was going to die, no one could have truly believed Jenner’s claim that there was no escape from the facility once its self-destruction mechanism activated.
Still, given those obvious dramatic limitations, the acting and pacing was strong enough to make for a compelling final episode as the pieces fell into place for the next chapter of the series.
The episode was fairly straightforward. Upon entry into the CDC facility, the survivors immediately believed their journey was over. They had found a secure building with showers, food, alcohol, cots, books and even arcade games; with the outside world essentially destroyed, the group was unlikely to find anything quite so homey elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the stay was to be short-lived. Having used up all of its backup power, the facility, which contained secret biological weaponry and research, was programmed to self-destruct. Assuming everyone who valued life would have been out of the building by the time the thirty minute countdown kicked in, the building also locked down, effectively trapping all the survivors inside. For Jenner, who had lost his wife to the ongoing struggle (she was revealed as the “TS-19” patient whose brain was studied to understand the zombie reincarnation), there was no urgency to escape. All hope was lost, and an instant, painless death was preferable to an agonizing struggle on the outside with death still inevitable. He allowed for an additional lockdown in the control room, creating a second brick wall against the survivors’ escape.
Accepting death, he neither had an incentive to uncover a way out of the building for those who still wanted to live nor a fear of threats against his life.
Jacqui joined in his philosophy that with life no longer worth living on the outside, a painless death inside the facility was preferable. Initially, so too did Andrea. The rest of the survivors, however, did not even consider instant death an option. Their pleading eventually convinced Jenner to open the control room, and thanks to Rick’s grenade, they were able to blast through the CDC’s bulletproof glass windows and escape at the last moment.
Andrea, emotionally destroyed in the wake of her sister’s death, initially showed no intention of living past the time of the explosion. Her savior turned out to be Dale, who powerfully noted that how unfair it was to make him care about her survival only to “check out” at the first sign of struggle. Dale essentially played an emotional game of chicken with Andrea, vowing to follow her decision–if she wanted to die in the CDC, he would die too. If she wanted to escape, he would escape too. With literally seconds left, she chose to leave, and both survived the explosion.
Prior to the explosion, Jenner whispered something to Rick. Given the blood tests earlier in the episode and the renewed emphasis on the Lori-Shane affair, many are speculating that Lori is pregnant with Shane’s baby. While Jenner just as easily could have been revealing another potential safe haven or location of promise, it would seem odd for Jenner to so calmly accept his death if he knew a viable path to safety existed on the outside. Something personal about the group seems the far more likely option.
That Lori-Shane dynamic made for the only other notable development in the episode. In an inevitable flashback scene, set at Shane’s final encounter with a hospitalized Rick prior to the outbreak, we learn that Shane did not simply manipulate Lori into bed–he at least had some reason to believe Rick was truly did.
Amid an environment of chaos, fueled by military personnel attempting to control the outbreak by killing all walking zombies and patients, Shane sneaks into his partner’s hospital room to plot an escape. Stressed and scared, Shane is unable to determine how to unhook Rick from the machinery and medicine. Worse, when a power outage kicks off Rick’s life support machine, a “now or never” moment ensues. Rick shows no heartbeat or other signs of life, and though Shane retains enough hope to barricade the door, he realistically has to conclude that Rick has died (or at least will die soon).
Obviously, that sympathy goes out the window when a drunken Shane attempts to rape Lori at the CDC, but the evidence at least suggests that Shane did not simply lie about his best friend’s death in order to bed his wife.
Hardly a perfect episode, the true value will nonetheless be realized going forward. Instead of forcing the group into a bubble, either by having them ‘defend’ the CDC or bunk at the hospital in Atlanta, the show put the survivors back at square one–they are vulnerable to zombie attacks and have no end-goal in sight. The difference is that a cast of characters, all with their own secrets and personalities, has been positioned to compensate for the lack of non-stop zombie action with compelling storytelling and drama.
