'The Walking Dead' Season 10 Episode 16 Review: [Spoiler] dies in a bloodied, cathartic and yet anti-climactic finale
The dance of the dead is a slow and painful one. After months of waiting, 'The Walking Dead' Season 10 finale saw the light of day. There had been grand theories about what the finale would hold, who would die and who would live. Who would face redemption and get that sweet kiss of death while getting their intestines torn out by thirsty Walkers? Well, put *most* of your theories to rest, because Season 10 seemed to have a cathartic ending...for most of the survivors. We were literally whooshed past the Walkers. For compensation, there was some blood.
In the beginning, we see Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) prepare for the Whisperer War, while giving sprinkles of hope to Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), who is sure that the end is coming. He has his motivational ammunition ready and lets her know that there are 'five' teams to take down Beta (Ryan Hurst) and his bloodied squad. As he explains, we see the rest of the people, including the welcome return of Maggie (Lauren Cohan). But again, set aside your rosy hopes because Maggie doesn't have much to do yet apart from breaking down a door, so if you expected her to have a war of words with her arch-nemesis Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), you might have to wait a bit.
And so, in the episode, Carol (Melissa McBride), along with Daryl (Norman Reedus) rub blood on themselves and walk through the Walkers. They lead the pack and there are a few casualties, but none too precious because we haven't had time to be invested in them. The Beta chapter comes to a cathartic and quick conclusion and the mask falls, as Negan watches. It's a bit unsettling to see how well Negan has worked his way into the communities, but then the showrunners have been determined to redeem him for the past few seasons. He has a close bond with Lydia (Cassady McClincy), who stops Carol from taking a drastic step. We say goodbye to the Walkers and hello to more trouble, though we don't quite know what it is yet. There is a heartwarming Carol-Daryl moment to make fans happy as well, promising the spin-off that we really didn't need.
To be honest, catharsis is very sweet but this episode felt rather anti-climactic (kill us later) and craven fan service. It was laced with tension and suspense in the beginning, but somehow it began to wear off at the end. The dangerous situations had rather easy solutions and didn't feel entirely satisfying. Well, let's see how Season 11 plays out, now that we don't have Beta to leer at anyone.
'The Walking Dead' airs on AMC, Sundays at 9 pm.
