'The Walking Dead' Recap: Season 4 Midseason Finale 'Too Far Gone'

The Walking Dead’s fourth season midseason finale was six months and eight episodes too late. It is clear that the Governor’s now three episode arc was almost all setup in order for The Walking Dead to rectify its season three finale failure. And while “Too Far Gone” would have been a very satisfying end to season three, when considering that the show eschewed the chance at some real character drama for the much easier exploding variety it makes both this midseason finale and the inclusion of a Governor focused three episode arc all the more confounding and disappointing.

As discussed in last week’s recap, the lack of time actually devoted to the Governor’s tale of “redemption” makes any relationship he has with any character feel unbelievable. The biggest leap of faith required happened this episode. Opening with the Governor giving a pep talk to his new tribe, no one aside from Lilly questions his plan to take over the prison. Tara seems a tad leery when he mentions he has kidnapped both Michonne and Hershel but that doesn’t stop her from being among the first to rally behind the Governor. But the problem is barely any of these seems believable within the context of what the audience has seen. Why does no one question his authority? Heck, why doesn’t anyone question the need to take this particular prison? He has only been with this group for a short time and while there was one walker in the camp last week that shouldn’t be nearly enough to go from drunken happiness to we need as much safety as possible.

The more confounding aspect of the entire Governor three episode arc, however, is why did it need to exist at all? With the Governor dying at the hands of Michonne and Lilly, what was the need to see his travels back to redemption only to witness his power hungry fall for a second time. It never once seemed that the Governor loved Megan so much to justify his actions. In fact the Governor’s entire journey all the way to his attacking the prison only felt like a means to an end, like The Walking Dead wanted to rectify its season three finale mistake in order to give the fans what they want.

And it isn’t like The Walking Dead hasn’t done this before. Season two’s finale saw the farm go up in flames because things had gotten so repetitive and boring that a change of scenery was needed. But in that case, at least, it felt like a change was needed for the show. Things had gotten so stale on the farm that even walkers wouldn’t be attracted to the smell (thank you, I’ll be here all week). But “Too Far Gone’s” prison destruction was unneeded. In fact, the show had become much more interesting than it had been in recent memory in this season’s first few episodes.

Some of those interesting storylines were about to culminate in tonight’s episode as well, before the Governor fired a tank shell at a guard tower. Rick had just approached Daryl about excommunicating Carol and Daryl was not too happy about that. What would the fallout have been from Rick’s first leader-type decision all season? But now that the prison dwellers have had to scatter after the fight ¬¬-- who knows if and when they will meet back up – and the fact that everyone is in search for a new safe haven the confrontation and relationship drama between Daryl and Rick now will probably amount to nothing. The same with the revelation that Tyreese, Daryl, and Rick made when Tyreese showed the other two the dissected mouse deep within the prison. Sure, this will pop up again as there is now a psychopath – Tyreese’s diagnosis – amongst some of the survivors but it may not be dealt with if everyone doesn’t reunite quickly. And again, the more pressing issue will be to find new shelter.

At least it does look like there will be some interesting character pairings going forward, despite how unneeded they were at this juncture. Daryl and Beth, an injured Rick and Carl on the run, the bus full of no names besides Glenn, and Tyreese and the kids could all be potentially interesting storylines especially if they all don’t immediately meet up. Seeing Tyreese protecting Lizzie, Mika, and the other kids as he sends them out to gather supplies, Bioshock style, could be pretty fun to watch. But again this character division and prison destruction was more tacked on than naturally occurring in the larger arc of the story.

Perhaps the starkest contrast of quality between the schism stories of the first half of season four comes with the two recently redeemed and now deceased characters in Hershel and the Governor. While both characters felt like they had reached the pinnacle of their usefulness for the show, Hershel’s end felt satisfying. When Rick made his impassioned plea to the Governor and his people about how they can all live in the prison and that people can change, Hershel smiled before getting his necked thoroughly sliced. But his storyline had reached its end, he had helped bring Rick back from the brink while also showing everyone that he was more than just the sage elder of the group. Hershel’s story made sense within the context of the overall plot. And even though the Governor’s end also was justified, it was more because it was necessary as opposed to true to his character. His hodge-podge montage of falling in love with Lilly and Megan to his coup staging and final attack on the prison was thrown together so poorly that his character just needed to be killed off because it was clear he should have died at the end of last season.

And so now The Walking Dead takes a two month hiatus after giving the fans what they wanted all along from last season’s finale. Unfortunately it wasted two episodes and any chance at interesting character building and drama simply so the show could be on the move again. A season that started out so promising has now gone up in flames along with the prison it just destroyed. Do not give The Walking Dead any kudos for finally giving you what you wanted at the end to last season because this time the prison’s demise was unwarranted and shoehorned a very unnecessary redemption of itself, just to satisfy the fans.