'The Walking Dead' season 10 finale is a satisfying conclusion to one of the show's best seasons in years
After six months, "The Walking Dead" season 10 finale will finally air the first weekend of October.
Was it worth the wait?
Yes. It's easy to see why the episode was delayed back in March. You can't exactly have a giant undead army threat with unfinished visual effects.
"A Certain Doom," directed by executive producer Greg Nicotero and written by Corey Reed, resolves lingering questions, has a few gory moments, and reintroduces fan-favorite Maggie (Lauren Cohan) back into the fold right before the series heads into its final, extended 11th season.
But you should probably rewatch a few episodes in order to get the full emotional weight of the finale, which is now being dubbed as a "special 'TWD' event" by AMC.
What you should recall if you don't plan to catch up: Beta has a giant herd of the undead and it's quickly approaching our heroes
If you don't have time to rewatch the past seven episodes of "TWD," just recall that Negan killed the leader of the Whisperers, Alpha. As a result, Beta, isn't coping too well. As he leads an army of the undead on a warpath towards Daryl, Negan, Carol, and the others, he's starting to visualize the walkers as speaking, living things who worship him.
There's a bit of a deeper meaning there. A few episodes ago, we learned Beta was a famous country singer before the apocalypse. He almost views the group of walkers as a giant army of his fans from the world before.
Why it's a satisfying conclusion: Showrunner Angela Kang ties up loose ends and sets up a clear direction for the show's final season
In February, Kang told Insider we would get a definitive answer on Connie's whereabouts by the end of season 10, and she delivers on her promise. After seven episodes, we'll finally learn the fate of Connie one way or the other. On the mid-season premiere, she was trapped in a cave-in alongside Magna. We later learned the two escaped but became separated.
If you've watched the series from the beginning, several moments play out as nods, tributes, and remixes to a few important scenes from seasons one and six. Father Gabriel gets a full-circle moment in which he redeems himself for locking his congregation out of his church years ago at the start of the zombie apocalypse. The episode perfectly balances the threat of the dead while providing updates on just about every single main character from the cast — even Dog —something the series lost sight of a few years back.
Fans who just recently played the zombie game "The Last of Us: Part II" may feel like they're having déjà vu from some of the tactics used to outmaneuver the Whisperers on the finale. Paired with Bear McCreary's score, there's at least one scene that feels straight out of a horror movie.
By the episode's end, the series positions itself to head into the final arc of Robert Kirkman's long-running comic of the same name. It also reminds us exactly why Carol and Daryl are getting their own spinoff series while providing a small hint at what it may entail.
The finale fails in two small ways
When you see a horde of thousands upon thousands of zombies, you don't expect everyone to make it out unscathed. You want to see some major carnage on both sides. Outside of a few moments of blood and gore, the stakes are never too high for our favorites.
Unlike "Game of Thrones" where any character could truly be unsafe from an ugly demise, "TWD" has started to feel like more of a zombie soap opera where most of the cast makes it through to the next day because there aren't too many people the series deems expendable.
The largest letdown comes late in the episode when three characters you've been waiting to see on screen together finally get their moment. The scene is over mere seconds after it begins. It feels like a wasted opportunity for a longer, choreographed sequence that could have been a fan-favorite.
Overall: The show moves forward with a clean slate into its final 11th season
Could the episode have been longer? Absolutely. After so much build-up to a huge showdown between Daryl's group and Beta's army, I wouldn't exactly call it much of a war. However, it's still a satisfying conclusion to what has been one of the most enjoyable seasons of "TWD" in years where Kang made major changes from the comics and built upon Alpha and Beta's roles from the source material.
"The Walking Dead" season 10 finale premieres on AMC on Sunday, October 4 at 9 p.m. You can watch the extended opening of the finale below.
Grade: B+
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