The Walking Dead’s mid-season finales have always been a bit of a lottery.
On one end, there’s the satisfying, game-changing action of Season 4’s prison battle, and on the other there’s the mostly lethargic winter finale from last year. One thing has united every mid-season finale, however – a huge, emotional event to push the show into new places in the season’s second half.
‘Start to Finish’ lacks that major dose of emotion, and fails to really change the status quo, so it’s perhaps not a surprise, then, that this is perhaps the show’s weakest mid-season finale to date.
It’s a real shame that The Walking Dead’s final offering of 2015 is as tepid and unsatisfying as it is, considering the vast potential the herd invasion of Alexandria gave, but ‘Start to Finish’ was unfortunately a bit of a letdown.
The episode has merit, however, and for large amounts of the run-time, it’s a decent offering. It starts superbly, with a frantic opening set-piece that manages to make the open surroundings of Alexandria feel positively claustrophobic while effectively conveying a feeling that the herd is genuinely a force of nature.
Admittedly, after this opening sequence, things slow down considerably and fail to pick up again, but it would be overly harsh to say that the wheels fall completely off after the opening.
Deanna, played with dignity to the end by Tovah Feldshuh, gets a generally satisfying send-off in the mandatory mid-season finale death, with ‘Start to Finish’ bringing her story to its natural conclusion with enough emotional finesse in a couple of solid emotional scenes with Rick and Michonne.
It’s slightly undercut by a strange choice to bring Glenn-esque ambiguity to whether she truly died (I’d be surprised if they pulled a Glenn here, but anything’s possible), but as secondary character deaths go, this was a reasonably impactful one.
Just occasionally, too, there’s the spark and thrills that the episode should have had, ahem, from start to finish, such as the numerous moments where the herd pushes further and further into Jessie’s house and Maggie’s uncertain escape onto a rickety guard-post – flickers of a more exciting and conclusive mid-season finale that would have delivered on the protracted set-up.
Despite all that, this really didn’t deliver on the eons of dragged out wheel spinning in the past few weeks. Partially, that’s due to some utterly contrived and poorly written plot points that seem cooked up to add a little mandatory conflict… which would be fine, if the ultimate source of conflict wasn’t walking around Alexandria for the entire episode.
Take Carol and Morgan, for instance, who decide to fight over the sickly captive Wolf for some reason during the herd invasion. The plotline is illogical, painting Carol as a bloodthirsty and irrational psychopath and Morgan as someone who has his head completely in the clouds, coming to a thoroughly unconvincing conclusion where Denise, a character we have little reason to care about, is put in peril.
There was potential in this captured Wolf plotline, but what ‘Start to Finish’ offers never convinces for a second as something these characters might logically do, and ends with a muddled and prosaic conclusion.
Then there’s Carl and Ron. Ron has been a frequently annoying presence this season, but he’s been far enough in the margins to never truly drag down the episodes.
‘Start to Finish’ drags him out into the spotlight, and he’s perhaps more obnoxious than ever, whining his way throughout the episode in classic mopey teenager style and putting the entire family in danger through his own stupidity. Ron is a pain to watch every time he’s on screen, existing only to fight with Carl – it’s safe to say that giving Ron a generous focus is one of the sixth season’s biggest missteps.
When Rick and co coat themselves in walker guts to make their way through the crowd, there’s a real sense that ‘Start to Finish’ is finding its mojo, putting a whole host of important characters in a tense and unpredictable situation. And then… it just kind of stops. Herein lies the crucial flaw of this mid-season finale – it’s an episode that’s wholly unsatisfying.
The episode genuinely feels as if there’s been a good five minutes or so lopped off, ending abruptly with a strange cliffhanger that doesn’t have a second to truly register.
I’m not against cliffhangers – they’re a staple of any mid-season finale, and The Walking Dead has used them well in the past (take last week), but there’s got to be some sense of conclusion. There’s none of that here – just a sinking ‘was that it?’ feeling as it becomes apparent that The Walking Dead is holding all the truly exciting material back for the mid-season premiere.
Frequently, during the last few episodes, the fact that the next week’s episode could see things truly get crazy has been comforting – if one week’s instalment didn’t truly deliver, the next was only seven days off. When the next episode is three months off, it’s a degree more frustrating – delayed gratification is one thing, and arbitrarily holding back on major plot developments for the sake of an underwhelming cliffhanger is another, especially when the resolution is so far off.
‘Start to Finish’ has one last saving grace, and it’s a clever one in that it’s a potent reminder that there’s some very exciting material on the horizon: the post-credits scene, in which Daryl, Abraham and Sasha are stopped by bikers, who ask for all their supplies because they all belong to a certain someone.
That someone’s name is Negan, and any comics reader will tell you that Negan’s appearance isn’t exactly good news for Rick’s group. In an underwhelming mid-season finale, the first mention of Negan is a clear highlight, and a very exciting hint for the future.
The Walking Dead hasn’t collapsed in its sixth season, and the first four episodes displayed a creative team at the height of their powers, combining thrilling action with meaningful character development. After that, though, it’s all been set-up, and ‘Start to Finish’ disappoints by essentially continuing the set-up for the huge moments that will inevitably come rather than offering cathartic resolution on its own.
There’s a lot to be excited for when The Walking Dead returns in 2016. The promise that the mid-season premiere is going to be huge, the inevitable appearance of Negan and the appearances of other, famous comic characters who I won’t name here are all worth looking forward to.
As for 2015’s adventures, they’ve unfortunately concluded with a whimper rather than a bang.
Aired at 9pm on Monday 30 November 2015 on FOX.
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