The Walking Dead Ep. 316, Welcome to the Tombs

The Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 16: Welcome to the Tombs

TV rating

TV-14

ZPAA rating

Teens and up

Gore level

7.0 out of 10--Usual zombie kills though not as explicit as usual; Some ghastly human wounds and bit of gore here and there.

Other offensive content

Some bad language; lots of human-on-human violence, including children killing children; dubious sanctioning of human-on-human violence; mercy self-killing (see an interesting and worth-while discussion on the topic here, but it does have spoilers).

How much zombie mythology/content

Nothing new this episode.

How much fun

Another grim, bittersweet episode.

Synopsis & Review

The final conflict happens as the Governor mounts up a major attack on the prison after he lost eight men at the end of the last episode. Rick and friends are still getting ready, but are they getting ready to run or to stand and fight.

Andrea's fate is dragged out through the episode. For someone who tried her hardest to keep people from dying, she has little to show for it other than a slow, steady stream of death all around her. But that is pretty much the show, right?

In other complicated situations, Carl is following in his father's footsteps--he wants to be a responsible adult and take what he thinks are the necessary steps to keep everyone safe. He shows signs of going too far, even if he isn't seeing the ghost of his mom yet. Rick on the other hand is finally pulling himself together. The poetic moment where he picks his sheriff's badge was pretty sweet.

The conclusion wasn't quite as satisfying as I wanted it to be. There's still some major loose threads left dangling. That keeps us viewers wanting more, I suppose. Or debating about what will happen next season.