"The Walking Dead" Season Finale Recap

Carl and another boy open the prison gate. A car comes through and it’s Rick, Glen, Maggie and another survivor. Maggie and Glenn embrace Hershel, who is waiting for them. Meanwile, Tyrese and Carol seemed to have been busy slaughtering walkers through the fence. Rick joins in. Of course, this is just a flashback playing through Rick’s troubled mind as he sits outside a truck in the woods, his face scratched up and his bloody hands shaking.

Rick, Michonne and Carl are in the woods making a campfire. The group is extremely hungry so Rick takes Carl and Miconne out from their camping spot to find food and set a trap. They walk down a trail and decide to stay just one more day to rest. The group is close to Terminus. Carl wonders if they will tell the new people of Terminus all they’ve gone through. Rick says they will tell them who they are. “Who are we?” Carl asks. Before that question can be answered, a walker walks out ready to get slashed. Rick goes to a trap set up and picks up a rabbit. Rick is teaching them how to make traps when tey hear a man screaming. Carl rushes to the scream, the two following. A stray man is in the open and is surrounded by walkers. But before Carl can shoot it, Rick stops him and they watch the man get devoured by the walkers. The three take off the other way and back on the tracks, the group of walkers following them. There are more walkers in front of them.

Hershel draws back the curtain from Rick’s cell room. It’s early in the morning. Beth walks in and takes baby Judith to tend to her. Rick straps on his duty belt.

Rick, Carl and Michonne slash theI walkers but keep on running. They walk down a street, hoping to find some neighborhoods or store. Instead, the find a beat-up old pickup truck with only one walker nearby. They settle at the truck. By nightfall, Rick and Michonne sit in front of a small fire as Carl sleeps in the truck. But before they can settle in for the night, HH (Head Hoodlum) and his band of merry hoodlums surround them, putting guns to their heads. HH is hellbent on getting revenge at Rick for killing their friend.

HH feels like justice will now be served. Before HH can make the countdown to zero, Daryl steps in, telling HH that “these are good people” and just to let them go. HH slighly disagrees with Daryl. Daryl says if HH wants blood, to take his. Daryl drops his crossbow. Two of the henchmen begin beating Daryl to death. The other one grabs Carl out of the truck and holds a knife to his throat. HH says he will kill off Daryl, Carl, Michonne and then finally, Rick. The hoodlum knocks Carl down and tries to sodomize him. Rick headbutts HH, allowing HH to shoot the gun right next to Rick’s ear. The two ensue in a fight. Michonne knocks off one of the guy’s hands. As HH holds Rick down, Rick bites into HH’s neck. This is Michonne’s perfect opportunity to grab a gun and shoot Daryl’s assailaints and Rick heads towards the hoodlum that attacked Carl. Daryl recuperates, while Michonne holds onto Carl...whose staring at his dad repeatedly slashing the attacker.

Hershel talks to Rick about the pigs in the woods and about domesticating them. He also suggests planting seeds for the plants. Rick tells Hershel he needs to go outside the prison but Hershel suggests Rick stay at the prison to make it permanent, most importantly, because Carl needs him. Hershel expresses his gratitude and wants the group to focus on a new start at the prison. Daryl revs up the bike.

Rick still is sitting outside the truck with Michonne inside looking over a sleeping Carl. Daryl walks up to Rick and wets a towel for Rick to help clean up. Daryl sits down next to him. Daryl admits he didn’t know who the hoodlums were. Daryl told him he and Beth got out together but now that Beth is gone. Daryl knew they were bad but he had to join for survival. Daryl also admits that the three of them were targeted and Daryl wanted to leave but he was conflicted. Rick puts no blame towards Daryl and welcomes him back in open arms as a brother. Daryl tells Rick that anyon would’ve acted the way Rick did to the HH. Rick’s way of violence and brutality is solely for the protection of his son and the rest.

The four continue on down the tracks. They stumble across a sign....its the map to Terminus. Rick thinks it’s best to go into the woods and to observe Terminus from the distance. They observe it through a barbed-wire fence. Rick thinks the best course of action is to spread out but also stay close to surveillance the area. Daryl and Rick go together while Carl tags with Michonne, which even baffles Michonne. Michonne tells Carl he never asked how Andre died. Michonne and baby Andre, along with Michonne’s boyfriend Mike and his best friend Terry, ran to a refugee camp. Michonne said things at the camp grew unstable, with people leaving and giving up. Michonne was coming back from a run and saw the fences of the camp were down. She heard the walkers. Mike and Terry were high and were bitten. Michonne let them turn purposely and cut their jaws and arms. She chained them up so she could drag them around sadistically. It was out in the world when Michonne realized the walker friends made good camoflauge. Andrea, Rick, and Carl saved Michonne. Carl confesses that he feels like a disappointment and like a monster. Michone hugs Carl.

Rick drops down his bag full of equipment and loads his gun. Meanwhile, Rick buries the bag just outside the fence. The whole group jumps inside the fences of Terminus. They breach inside one side of the building. The group infiltrates what looks like a gym made into a communications room. One man walks up to them, asking them if they are there to rob them. Rick and the rest hold down their weapons. The gentlemen named Gareth welcomes them to Terminus. Both groups seem nervous and tense. Gareth breaks the ice and tells them they found a sanctuary. Gareth asks them to lay down their weapons and a man named Alex would take them to another part of the building. Rick and the group lay down their weapons and are patted down. The men, surprsingly, give them back their weapons. They follow Alex.

Alex leads them outside. A woman named Mary is there grilling food. Michonne asks them why they let people in. Alex says the more people, the more chances of survival. Rick notices Hershel’s pocket chain in Alex’s pocket. Rick walks up to Alex, grabs him and holds a gun to his head, demanding to know where the watch came from. Now everyone has their weapons up, all in different directions.

Back in C-unit, Carl, Beth and Patrick are in the cell. Carl is sitting at the table assembling his gun, Beth is tending to Judith and Patrick is playing with Legos. Rick tells Carl to come with him and leave the gun behind.

Rick yells where the watch is from while Alex demands everyone to put the guns down. Gareth walks up. Alex says he got it from a dead guy and one guy got the riot gear from a dead cop. The poncho was from a clothes line. Gareth asks Rick what he wants. Shots are fired. Rick and the group escape, stopping a few times to take shots. The doors begin to close. Rick and the group find an open door and are still being shot at. They pass an area covered in bullet holes and burns, as well as train carts with people yelling for help, and then pass an area full of human remains. They find a strange room lit with a thousand candles and writing on the wall. They try to escape the fence but they are all surrounded.

Gareth yells at them to drop their weapons. The group does. Rick is demanded that he goes to the train cart. Then he tells Daryl to go. Then Michonne. Carl is left standing alone. “Ring leader” “Archer” and “Samurai” stand in order at the cart. Then he tells Carl to go. He tells Rick to go in the cart. Rick slides open the cart and walks inside. Daryl , Michonne and Carl follow. They huddle inside the dark cart. Glenn, Maggie, Sasha and Bob appear, along with Tara, Abraham and his gang.

Rick, Carl, Hershel, Beth and baby Judith are back outside the prison yard, digging into the ground. Rick jokes Carl needs a farming hand and puts Carl’s hat on Beth.

 “They are going to be pretty stupid when they find out...” Rick says. “Find out what?” Abraham asks.

Janes Notes: For starters, it has been my own version of March Madness in the life of Jane. Life’s priorities and a vacation to Vegas (no mob museum *sad face*) took up my life. It took me awhile to play “catch up” on  “The Walking Dead” but I HAD to tune into the finale and recap it. “The Flowers” made me cry and made me think of John Steinbeck. WHY OH WHY didn’t we ever know what caused the virus. Where is Beth??

My friend mentioned last week that Terminus was a HUGE trap for human cannibals and I thought that was kinda far-fetched but hell, I don’t put anything pass this show anymore. However, I knew something was off about Terminus BECAUSE of the actual name Terminus. The word itself makes me think “Terminal” or “the end”, whether it‘s the end of a line or the end of the life (Terminal at an airport, Terminal illness, etc.). Being an Ancient Rome geek, I also knew Terminus was the god of “boundaries” and from what I recall, stones were set at borders. Sacrifices and offerings were made to the god Terminus.

I decided to dig into this a little further. Terminus had a holiday called Terminalia;

The Terminalia is celebrated in honor of the god Terminus, who ruled over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between properties. On the festival the two owners of adjacent property crowned the statue with garlands and raised a rude altar, on which they offered up some corn, honeycombs, and wine, and sacrificed a lamb. It is the traditional end of the Roman year (novaroma.org) 

Let's take a look when Rick and the three try to escape. They first run through a disheveled scene where tere are cars and walls filled with bullet hols and burns, along with many crates big enough to hide people. They then pass next to a place of human remains and then past train carts with people trapped inside. The come across building "A", pictured above. There is what looks like a bust of the Virgin Mary. "Never Again. Never Trust. We First, Always" are written on the walls as well as many names. Hundreds upon hundreds of candles are lit. Flowers and small statues decorate the names. This is the end of the season. This is where apparently, many lives have ended. The candles and flowers...or garlands...and such are in the middle of the memorial and serve as an altar. But instead of lambs being sacrificed, it is the survivors being sacrificed to some sort of deity. That and I think the Terminus Cult are too busy sacrificing because I will tell you one thing, they sure as heck haven't been practicing shooting! 

Picture Credit: The Walking Dead Wikia

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