The Walking Dead season finale drew in massive numbers of viewers Sunday night with its season finale. The Walking Dead has been steadily increasing its number of viewers since the show started, with about 26 percent more viewers this finale than the last season finale. Only two other episodes of the Walking Dead had higher viewer counts, the season four premiere and the mid-season return in February. With the cliffhanger that was left this season, the season five premiere should break even more records.
Season Four Finale Plot
The season four finale saw the main characters begin to meet up on the path to Terminus. This was refreshing, as this final half of season four has followed individual characters since the destruction of the prison. All season it has been hanging in the wings that the characters would finally meet up. Signs along the path instructed all characters to go to Terminus, flaunting the catchy mantra “Those who arrive survive.”
At the end of the last episode, we saw a few of the characters arrive at the ominous Terminus and seemingly be greeted warmly. This episode, we did not flash to those characters to find out what happened to them. Instead, we followed the on-again-off-again ringleader Rick for most of the episode, as he travelled with his son and Michonne. The band meets up with the murderous team that Daryl has been travelling with, and we find out just how sick and twisted they are as they threaten to kill all of them for the murder of one of their more devious members. Rick gets the upper hand on the team by biting the jugular out of the leader and using the shock to free his companions and kill the rest of the group.
The battle weary team then sneaks in the back way at Terminus, to a seemingly innocuous welcome. The happy ending soon turns raw, though, as Rick recognizes items from his missing compatriots being worn by Terminus staff. Our heroes are forced into a boxcar, where the earlier arrivals from the prison are already being held captive. The season ends with a dramatic statement from Rick “They’re screwing with the wrong people.”