Zombies: End In Sight, But Not The One I Want

This is it.  The recap of the last episode of The Walking Dead.  The last.  Ever.

Until the new season starts.

Which will feel like forever because I am seriously hooked on this show, people.

However I am thanking my lucky stars the folks at AMC had the decency to not leave me hanging.  There was a teeny bit of closure to this finale.  Which is more than every other episode.  All four of them.

Let's see, where did we leave the gang last week?  The CDC?

Ah, yes.  The CDC.

And, scene:

The group enters the CDC building.  Remember, last time they all packed up their gear and dying friend and headed off the mountain to find:

1. a cure
2. live people
3. shelter from the dead ones

Little did they know everyone else was (dum dum duuuuuum) DEAD.  Yes.  At the CDC all we see is, um, Jenner.  That may or may not be his name, but it is unimportant as he is blown to smithereens later.  Wait, I'll get to the massive explosion that destroys the entire CDC facility and all it's occupants.

Ahhh, now you're interested.

Yeah, so Mr. Jenner is it.  Half of the staff left to be with their families, then the other half got depressed and, well, disposed of themselves.  This guy stayed because he "owed it to his wife."  She was a scientist that became infected.

And this is where science comes in and makes the whole zombie take-over possible: your brain gets infected, then your whole system starts shutting down.  In a matter of time, this infection wakes up your brain stem, but just your brain stem so you can walk and eat people and not feel guilty or like getting to know them first.

Jenner shows us the brain scans of a patient.  Patient 19.

"Your wife was patient 19."

Whoa. 

**dabs eyes**

So anyway, what's going on with Shawn and Lori?  A little tension, maybe?  Now that Rick is back, girlfriend wants to be with her husband, and where does that lead the old, very-brief flame, Shawn?  Single.  And jealous.  And angry.  See, when they were finally let into the building and met Jenner, or whatever his name is, they found his stash of food.  Lots of food.  And the vino.

Oh boy did they love the vino!  A little too much.  And that's when we see Shawn get bold.

"I love you,"  he says to Lori as he shoves her against some arcade game.  Because nothing says love like bruises.  What else says love?  Unwanted friskiness.  She, obviously, gets a little upset.  She thinks he lied to her about Rick being dead, and all.

Now let's rewind a sec.  More like 30 minutes because I forgot something crucial here: we didn't really know what happened in that hospital while Rick was there in his coma.  Sunday night we found out.  Oh, it pains me to write this.  It was chaos.  Ultimate chaos.  And at the center of it all was the army.  They were shooting everybody.  So here's Shawn trying to get Rick outta there but he listens for a heartbeat and doesn't find one.

Great.

So he's all upset.  This was his best friend, remember.  He walks out of the room, trying to avoid being seen by both the walkers and the army and shoves a hospital bed in front of the door.

Hmmm....why try to protect a dead guy, Shawn?

Anyway, let's go back to the naughty scene.  Lori's hatred of Shawn, we see, is a tad unfounded.  Yes, throwing yourself on a person is never a good way to win them over, but she was operating under false information that he lied about Rick being dead.  Oh how things might have been different if she only knew...

**sigh**

I have a feeling future meetings around the dinner table are not going to be pleasant in the future.

But I digress.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but what is this countdown?" the old man asks of a digital countdown clock.

"That's the end of the fuel for the generators."  Jenner responds.

"What happens at zero?" someone asks.

"System decontamination." This is where the computer jumps in.  She's like a talking Google.

Decontamination.  This sounds serious.

Uh, yeah.  The place is going to blow up in an hour.  But here's the problem: Jenner locks everyone in.

This is what is so great about the way AMC makes a TV series.  I started to panic.  Like "Ohmigosh we are going to explode!" panic.  Thanks to Oliver's constant breath on my face (read: the smell of death) I was jolted back to reality.

We spend a good amount of time trying to talk Jenner into opening the doors.  And we all know he's going to.  If everyone explodes that's the end of the show.  It was the season finale, not series.

I don't remember what was said.  I'm in this thing for the action not the dialogue.  But eventually he opens the doors to the inner chamber they were in with four minutes to spare.

But not everyone leaves.  A couple of ladies stay because they don't want to die by zombie bites later, but the old guy convinces one of them to come with him.

There's a lot of relationship building here.  But I guess that comes with death and disaster.

So everyone runs to their vehicles and takes shelter and...

And....

AND.......

Boom.

That was a controlled explosion.  Because at the CDC of course they found a way to destroy themselves without destroying everything around it.

And there you have it.  On the road again.  Who knows where.  But we'll find out whenever we're back on for season two.