After an incredibly emotional episode last week that left the audience fairly polarized on the moral and ethical decisions made regarding the fate of Lizzie Samuels, ‘The Walking Dead’ returned with a considerably lighter episode. Of course, the popular AMC zombie drama was not without it’s usual amount of walker kills, group tension, and plot twists, but compared to the previous episode that saw the two youngest members of the cast (excluding Baby Judith) make their final appearances on the show, the penultimate episode of season four contained many joyous moments, especially for fans of Glenn and Maggie.

In the final episode before the season finale, we catch up with three different groups of survivors who are all on their way to Terminus, the mysterious safe haven that welcomes all comers. First, we momentarily visit Rick, Carl, and Michonne as they continue along the train tracks towards their destination while being playful with each other. Then, Daryl is shown assimilating to the set of rules instituted by Joe and his group of rowdy marauders, while still keeping Beth and the rest of his old group in the back of his mind. Finally, the majority of the time is spent on Glenn and his quest to find his beloved wife while Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, and Tara are in tow.

Just like the rest of the season, this episode managed to show us why all of the main characters are survivors. Everyone highlighted in this installment exhibited qualities that we wouldn’t have seen if the crew from the prison was simply kept together. For example, Glenn is showing that he’s more of a leader worthy of being followed. And Carl is letting loose and acting more like a kid his age, except his best friend is a badass wielding a katana. While everyone has shown great growth since the battle with the Governor, I feel like those two might have made the biggest strides since they’re not relegated to strong second tier characters.

However, out of everyone in this episode, I enjoyed Eugene the most. Of course, the hopeless romantic in me loved seeing the happy couple finally get back together, but Dr. Porter had some pretty hilarious moments this week in between having the group’s best interests in mind. I was cracking up when he said, “That there is a video game worth the preorder.” He had me again later on when he was arguing with Rosita about navigating and said that he had been exposed to “the travails and vagaries of worlds both real and virtual”. I may have messed that quote up, but regardless, the idea that Eugene considers his video game experience a valuable asset that makes him a qualified navigator greatly amuses me. But even though he was saying goofy things like that while rocking that ridiculous mullet, he still manages to stick his neck out for some of the only good people left in this world and that is simply commendable. That being said, since I have read the comics, I’m very curious as to how close to Eugene’s arc the writers are sticking to because there are some really interesting things that may or may not be coming up that are possibly foreshadowed in this episode and I can’t wait to see if those things happen or not.

The last thing that I’ll take note of is how anxious I was during this entire episode. Aside from last week’s Steinbeckian tale, the group has mostly gone unscathed. There haven’t been many huge developments besides Lizzie and Mika, so I was sort of expecting something bad to happen to Maggie or Glenn or Beth. But then when none of that actually happened, I was relieved until I realized that next week is the season finale. Now that nearly everyone has reached Terminus, some stuff definitely is about to go down. We’ve seen it before. Woodbury seemed really great at first too. So whatever catch there is to Terminus should be a big deal since we’re almost overdue for the writers to tear our hearts out and stomp on them. Even if one of the main characters doesn’t die, I expect some sort of big event or twist next week, so I hope that I’m not disappointed.

It’s hard to believe that the fourth season of ‘The Walking Dead’ is almost over already. Hopefully the finale lives up to the quality of the rest of the season.

Final Score:

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‘The Walking Dead’ starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yuen, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, and Danai Gurira airs Sundays at 9:00pm on AMC.