The Walking Dead is arguably one of the best shows on basic cable. Justifiably so, the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead is proof of this with more than 10.5 million people turning in to watch. Everything we could expect for a season finale, we received  from shocking character returns, new character arrivals, reunions, and action that rivals blockbuster movies.

On last week’s episode of the Walking Dead, Michonne teamed up with Rick to help the group  get back Glenn and Maggie. Milton and Andrea carried out a research experiment to try and understand a walker’s unconscious mind(the results are disappointing).Glenn and Maggie fail to hold out against the interrogations and intimidation of The Governor and Merle. They tell The Governor the location of the group’s camp and it’s members.

This revelation forces The Governor to keep secret; his torture of Glen and Maggie. The question is how long can he lie behind Andrea’s back? His vested romantic interest with Andrea lies on the verge of destruction. Rick and the group are planning on infiltrating the town and if Andrea finds out it’s most likely all but over for their relationship.

Spoiler Warning:

Rick and the group manage to sneak into the town but quickly, the town’s people start getting suspicious. A man walks into where they are hiding. They silence him and render him unconscious before he can alert the town.  This leaves them no closer to finding Glen and Maggie. Thankfully, just when they are out of ideas, a shot rings out revealing the way for them. The shot has come from Maggie and Glen’s failed attempt at trying to escape. Maggie manages to take out one of Merle’s men and gets a weapon off him but she is blindsided by another gunman behind her.

They follow the source of the gunshot and find that Glen and Maggie are being held captive. They proceed to pop flash and smoke grenades and retrieve Maggie and Glen from the  Merle and his stunned men. A shootout ensues as they escape from the building. Glen is hurt badly but straggles along the best he can with the group. Andrea, not wanting to take the sidelines in an attack, volunteers herself. The Governor turns her down and tries to pawn her off on a petty job of going house to house and calming down town residents.

Glenn and Maggie tell Daryl that Merle is alive and responsible for torturing them. Regardless, Daryl makes a stand on seeing his brother. Afterall, they are blood and he hasn’t seen him in ages. Daryl thought he was as good as dead when they left him on the roof. Rick convinces him that the group is too weak to get back on their own. He tells Daryl that he can come back at a later time. Daryl agrees for the time being.

They take the fight back to the street. Andrea ignores The Governor’s orders and helps the town defend themselves  She shoots at Oscar not knowing who he is . She is convinced by The Governor that they are just escaped prisoners. The longer they stay there; the worse their odds become of getting out successfully.  In the midst of the firefight, Rick sees a familiar figure appear from the smoke. It’s Shane! Before Rick can take it all in, Shane shoots and kills Oscar. Rick shoots Shane in the head and goes to check the body. It turns out to be just a hallucination.

I hope that Rick isn’t reverting back to his unstable self. Rick’s sanity might be questionable at this point. After the death of Lori, nothing has been the same for him. Many viewers can only think back on the episode where he had a conversation with Lori on the phone. Thankfully, Rick had the baby to help him through that hard time.

Back at the prison, Carl hears screams in the halls. It’s coming from a new group of survivors who escaped from the the forest. They didn’t escape unscathed though. One of them was bitten. They are led by a hammer-wielding man by the name of Tyrese. When Carl comes upon them, they are fighting off a group of zombies. They seem surprised to see a little boy come to their rescue. He leads them back to the safety of their cell block. He than decides to separate them from the group for the time being by locking them in a section of their cell block.

Around the same time, Michonne discovers The Governor’s daughter. She soon figures out that she isn’t human anymore and is ready to kill her. The Governor catches her in the act and pleads for her to spare his daughter. Michonne is hesitant but her strong stance against walkers leads to her killing his daughter. All the time invested in research that he and Milton went through was for nothing. He could never bring back his daughter now. I felt sorry for him despite his shortcomings. Michonne and him, get in a physical fight where Michonne barely escapes. She is confronted by Andrea in a standoff but Andrea let’s her go despite her anger.

Michonne meets back up with the group. They lost Daryl during the escape.  They don’t like the fact that she snuck off on them but they need her if they stand a chance getting back Daryl and getting back home. Daryl’s not in a good place right now. In his anger , The Governor has gathered the townspeople and has turned his back on Merle; Blaming him for bringing the outsiders to the town. He places Daryl and Merle, in the gladiator pit to decide their fate. It’s not quite the reunion that either of them were expecting.

Review Score: 9.7/10 (Television At It’s Finest)

Extra Rant: Little Carl has sure have matured since the first season of The Walking Dead. What’s not to like about the little bastard who not only is a good shot but has a good head on his shoulders. He picked up the responsibility of  leading in the  absence of his father. My favorite little man is doing big things.