Welcome to the Tombs

"The Walking Dead" ended It's third season with a few surprises. This episode was the 16 of the season "The Walking Dead's" longest season to date. And, for me it was not as good as I'd hoped. Certainly the previous episode was of a higher quality with an ending that packed more of a punch.

Plot In a Paragraph: Andrea (Laurie Holden) is still strapped to the torture chair intended for Michonne. The Governor (David Morrissey) is thirsty for blood and sets off for the prison; looking to settle a score with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his little band of survivors. Meanwhile, Carl (Chandler Riggs) is becoming just as bloodthirsty as the Governor. And passive Tyreese and Sasha are caught between the two parties

The ending of this episode focused on a main characters death. Some viewers might be saddened by their passing, but this reviewer was more than happy. This characters decisions were strange, naive, inconsistent and downright stupid.

After two solid season finales this was a bit of a let down, but I suspect once The Governor has licked his wounds, like The Governator, he will be back.

Wow... what a disappointment. Coming from an incredibly slow second season where people just couldn't stand that farm anymore, the third season promised a lot from the first few episodes. But all of our hopes were thrown away starting with the third to last episode.. The one where they chat on a table during the entire episode, OK to be honest they killed one walker lurking around as a comic relief maybe. Up until the 13th episode things had gradually piled up so that us viewers would believe an all out war would be inevitable at some point, climaxing after Rick and Carl found all those guns, and we all saw it: Assault rifles, grenades, shot guns, explosives even body armor for crying out loud. Than o the second to last episode nothing happens, leaving the season finale as a promise of war. Far from it, the governor assembles his group of people to invade the prison, they all come in at 100% blowing the tower, busting through the gates. They start making their way in and I was certain Ricks people would ambush them at any moment and just show some firepower but instead they all bail out at the sound of three miserable firecrackers, can't even call those a bomb. Think about it.. After they all bailed out, you'd think Rick's group would follow them and fire ONE bullet … but no. The governor himself had to kill nearly all his man just so we could get some action on the season finale. Resuming lamest season finale I've ever seen from all times.

While I think the third season was great overall.. I dont think the finale quite delivered and lived up to my expectation! To me it all feels like it is missing something! Either some more scenes or perhaps a new scenes, cause some of the plotlines are still unresolved!

The things i do like is the stuff around Andrea! While she was never my favorite character, i liked her arc here at the end where she tried to avoid bloodsheth cause she was tired of all the death, since death had a huge impact on her in the beginning of the show!

The guvernnor commits to his insanity, hate and lust for revenge to the point where this no going back for him! However i dont like that his arc and storyline just... stops!

Overall it leads to a rushed conclusion and I was surprised when ghe credits rolled..as I thought there would be more!

What a disappointment. The beginning of the season was good, but second half - nearly a disaster, and it all finished with one of the worst episodes ever.

I really like Morrissey, but his character in the show was transformed from insidious leader to a psychopathic and revengeful jerk. Woodbury, which could become a second group of survivors, equally interesting, is in fact a group of faceless sheeps. Michonne - a unique and odd personality - in the last several episodes is as plain as everybody else.

The development of the final episode was slow and predictable, several times I expected that creators will surprise us, but they haven't. I don't understand why they need walkers in this show, if all the main characters are doing - is walking around and talking.

Had heard nothing but great things about 'The Walking Dead' from friends and IMDb reviewers. It took a while to get round to watching, both from being busy and also not being sure whether it would be my cup of tea. Finally getting round to it a few years ago and slowly working my way through it, having had a very long to watch and review list, 'The Walking Dead' turned out to be very much my cup of tea and as good as the hype made it out to be, have found it extremely addictive.

Season 3, as far as previous episodes go, has been very solid. It still shocks me at how an intelligent, well-made (so much so that it is easy to mistake it for a film) show about zombies could be made when so many films have tried and failed abysmally to do so. Having said that, "Welcome to the Tombs", while not a bad episode at all, was a disappointment to me and many others. It is not as strong reminder of how Seasons 1-5 of 'The Walking Dead' to me were absolutely brilliant and seeing the show in its full glory days (Season 6 was uneven, Season 7 was a huge disappointment and am still debating whether to watch Season 8). It is my least favourite episode of the season and should have been much better as a season finale.

Certainly "Welcome to the Tombs" has a number of good things. It, like all the episodes before it, is superbly made. It has gritty and audacious production design, effects that are well crafted and have soul rather than being overused and abused and photography of almost cinematic quality. The music is haunting and affecting, having presence but not being intrusive.

There are moments of thought provoking writing and some tension and emotion. The beginning does intrigue. The episode sends off a major, if divisive, character in a way that was emotional and respectful. Personally did not mind Andrea, she was not as meaty or likeable as other characters but there was a laudable effort in making her interesting this season and it came off reasonably well.

Similarly, the Governor is a sinister character but the most impressive character and the most developed one is Carl, at his most relatable and meaty in a while. All the acting is spot on.

For all those good things however, there are drawbacks. It was an uneven episode of 'The Walking Dead' and my least favourite of Season 3 and of the show actually up to this point. As a finale, it does disappoint. The whole story that covered most of the season cried out for resolution and closure and the ending and showdown just felt anti-climactic, under-characterised and unfinished and some characters behave stupidly. Would have liked more tension, adrenaline and guts, they came in spurts but generally were somewhat lacking and it made the atmosphere bland. Some of the events and outcomes lacked the surprise element.

Carl aside, the character development is nowhere near as strong as other episodes. Nowhere near as meaty or complex (which even in lesser previous episodes the show did such a good job in doing that) and any attempts happens too late in the episode close to when it's over.

Aside from an intriguing beginning, "Welcome to the Tombs" takes too long to get going and is bogged down by too much talk (not uncommon with Season 3 but it's particularly problematic here). Making the ending feel rushed on top of the aforementioned problems.

Overall, not bad, some elements are very good, but uneven and for a season finale, in a season that did boast some great episodes and was of solid quality generally, it should have been much better. 7/10 Bethany Cox