The Walking Dead Season Finale: Five Questions Raised

Last night's season finale of AMC's The Walking Dead may have been ratings gold for the network, [...]

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Last night's season finale of AMC's The Walking Dead may have been ratings gold for the network, and fairly well-received among fans (certainly moreso than last year's finale, which enraged many loyal viewers), but it didn't do all that great a job of answering the questions left over from the season-long build-up to Terminus. Some questions were answered -- but only if you paid close attention and made some intuitive leaps -- while others were simply left totally unresolved. What are the things that we really wanted to know coming out of the episode?

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How are Terminus dealing with their more practical needs? Okay, so let's assume they're cannibals (see the link above) and getting their protein needs met when people show up to take advantage of their hospitality. We can also safely assume that the vegetable garden they have is taking care of the permanent residents. They're wasting a LOT of bullets to scare people down a path, when it seems like there has to be more efficient ways of doing it. The Walking Dead Escape-style tableau that played out while Rick's group were making their way through the A-path trap was so riddled with bullets, it's clear this isn't the first time they've done it. So...where are they getting their bullets? It doesn't seem plausible that it could all be coming from people who arrive at Terminus, since many of those people would have spent most of their bullets en route (both Glenn and Maggie ran themselves out of bullets completely by the time they arrived at the railroad tunnel). They've also got the appearances of a pretty sophisticated community set up, but where is the gas to power all of those generators coming from? What about the bullets? Obviously the building where Joe, Daryl and the other Marauders made camp was full of cars which had been emptied of their gas. Could that be from Terminus?

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What is their plan for walkers? Again, a big part of the their strategy here might be for the people en route to Terminus to take care of these things for them. If you've got 20 people showing up every couple of days or so, they will be killing walkers and clearing out threats to the community as they travel -- even if it's only for their own good. Still,  between the tunnel collapse, Abraham blasting up the small herd with machine guns and then The Walking Dead Escape: Terminus, it seems to me like there ought to be a LOT of walkers headed this way based on noise alone. Meanwhile, Terminus's front entrance is far from fortified. Around the back where Rick, Daryl and company came in, it would be difficult for walkers to make their way in...but if you just walked up the tracks making noise and bringing a herd of walkers with you, what would stop them from overtaking Terminus when you arrived? (Hey, Carol...there's an idea for you.)

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Where is the rest of the group? Beth was taken by a mysterious car with a cross in the back window, and we haven't seen or heard from her since. Some figured she'd been a victim of The Hunters, other that she had been abducted by the Claimers and still others that she would be found (dead or alive) at Terminus -- but none of those (as far as we know) are true, and all series creator Robert Kirkman is saying on the matter is that there's more to her story -- but that we might not even get it in Season Five. Meanwhile, all we know about Carol and Tyreese is that they're still out there. Last night on Talking Dead, host Chris Hardwick asked showrunner Scott Gimple about the pair, suggesting that they might turn out to be inside one of the other boxcars and already hostages, Gimple contested that idea, saying that they were "out there somewhere," but not in one of the boxcars. It's likely they haven't yet made it to Terminus, since they were likely slowed down by traveling with the kids and the baby, and also camping out overnight at The Grove. So...will they appear in the season premiere?

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How will Rick's guns come into play? Will Rick somehow either find a way outside of Terminus, or send someone else (Carl? Daryl?) to do it for him? If so, what will be the plan? If not, will Carol or Tyreese come across the bag and be able to identify Rick Grimes's trademark Colt Python, which he left behind in favor of a gun that carried more bullets and would hurt less if the bad guys took it? Obviously, his decision to bury this bag will somehow play into their salvation. The real question is: how?

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What new characters from the comics will we see? I fully expect that we'll finally see Morgan (Lennie James) rejoin the cast for a while in Season Five -- something that fans have been begging for since he first reappeared in Season Three's critically-acclaimed episode "Clear." He actually joined the cast in the comics when Rick and Abraham (who would have been Michonne on TV if it played out the same way) returned from the supply run where they ran into The Marauders, the street gang who tried to rob them and rape Carl. Who else? Well, the obvious answer is probably Father Gabriel, who first appeared around the same time as The Hunters -- a group of cunning cannibals who were stalking Rick's group. Rick and company found sanctuary in his church shortly after the deaths of Billy and Ben (characters for whom Lizzie and Mika are stand-ins on the TV show). So timing-wise, he's about right. And, you know -- a cross in the window? Could it be that Beth is actually in better shape than anybody else?

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