This season has been really, really good. But it still hasn't reached the heights of Battlestar Galactica. It's a little closer to the 3rd or 4th season of Galactica. Some standout episodes, and some uniform quality, but still a little disappointing.
This is reflected in a season finale that is a little light on the action. To be fair, it does include some more character moments, including one of the most hopeful scenes that the show has had to offer.
The Governor has been a difficult character for me. There's far too much time spent with the Governor where he's acting completely reasonable, just a bit fishy. I was used to the comic depiction, where he rapes Michonne, which really helped to cement his status. Here, a lot of his evilness is either against parties we don't care about, or it's just an issue of poor taste (like using walkers as weapons).
This handling of the Governor was a bit frustrating. I'd rather that he was a charismatic, ruthless ruler, one that brought out the worst in people. Here, he's a bit less charismatic, but he's not exactly ruthless. He's unpredictable, because he's a habitual liar.
So, it's actually a little satisfying in this episode. We have the heroes at the prison remain clean. They don't kill any of the Governor's men (as far as I could tell). Instead, we get the Governor killing his own men in a bout of frustration. We also finally get a witness to his madness, who is able to report to the rest of his community that he's lost his mind. It's a comforting sequence. So much of the drama in this, and many other shows, is built on a lack of communication.
We get a dark sequence for Carl, as he decides to kill an armed teenager. While Herschel argues that the teen posed no threat, I actually see it from Carl's point of view. The teen could have easily dropped his gun in surrender. Instead, he holds onto it, and it's pointing in Carl's general direction. It's nicely put together, since this leads Rick to consider his approach to things.
Which leads to the ending. The remaining people from Woodbury join Rick and the gang at the prison. They don't play this up the way I would expect, but it's nice to see that such a hopeful ending was the note that the season ended on.
