The third to last The Walking Dead episode of all time ends with a sentence that, to me, is… The Walking Dead finale saves.
Commonwealth General Mercer, who is otherwise so loyal to the regime and so cool, intercepts Eugene on the way to his execution and speaks the now legendary words into the camera: “Let’s get the poop steaming!” In the original, the putsch is introduced with even more swear words: “It’s time to fuck shit up!”
The scene is a stroke of genius. Mercer actor Michael James Shaw says so improvised (!) movement not just to Eugene – he says it straight into the camera to all of us and fuels my anticipation for the finale that I thought I had lost two millimeters before the finish line.
Mercer’s brilliant improvisation sums up the ending of The Walking Dead
It was in the script
“Time to take over this place!” (in the original: “Time to take this place!”), showrunner Angela Kang tells Entertainment Weekly in an interview. Michael James Shaw has improvised on a whim and it was only in the editing room that it was decided how well this mood would affect the episode.
© AMC
The Walking Dead: Mercer
But it’s not just the look into the camera and the determined words that give the end of the episode so much emphasis. Kang and her team did a good job in the fourth and third to last episodes, so in the finale finally get all strands together.
In the eight episodes of Season 11, Part 3, those responsible for The Walking Dead have the task of huge ensemble ready to tell. Even if we take away all the characters whose story is being continued in a spin-off, there are still dozens of characters left.
The feeling that we are in the same boat with “our survivors” around Negan, Aaron, Maggie, Eugene and co two tricks generated: On the one hand, they are correct flashbacks nostalgic at the beginning of each episode. On the other hand, the fourth and third to last episodes, namely Outpost 22 (Outpost 22) and Faith (Faith), bring back feelings that were believed lost: Outpost 22 is in truth Alexandria.
We spent almost half of the series in Alexandria. Rick freaked out there. Rick recovered there. Carl died there. Our survivors led a thriving community there. Alexandria was our first real home after the apocalypse. We connect it to humanity and family happinesswith Carl and baby Judith on the porch.
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The Walking Dead: Carl and Judith
Now it’s part of a totalitarian regime that has Negan and his pregnant wife up against the wall. But at the end of the episode, humanity wins again. Nameless soldiers rise above the kill order and all ours favorite characters are pulling in the same direction. With Luke (Dan Fogler), a long-missing character is even brought back.
Directing and editing do a lot of work to let the scattered parties work as a unit. Mercer’s declaration of war cements all of these efforts into a single sentence and sentiment: There’s no turning back! The Walking Dead finally feels like someone is making a again correct end of series want to tell.
Scrambled past failure? The greatest horror series of our time deserves an epic finale
Before the motivation to the end dominated frustration: At the latest with Rick’s departure in Season 9, many fans have gone with him. Unstoppable spin-off announcements have shrunk the appetite for the parent series. We know about Negan, Maggie and Daryl’s survival because of their continuing series.
Even Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan regrets his spin-off was announced ahead of The Walking Dead finale, writes E Online. This anticipated knowledge, boring subplots and unnecessary procrastination with 24 instead of 16 episodes in season 11 have the later years of The Walking Dead rendered meaningless.
© AMC
The Walking Dead: Michonne and Rick
Because of this years of dawdling, the legacy is already fading before the finale rolls on. But the past influence on pop culture in general, the zombie genre in particular and on Andrew Lincoln’s beard remains in the cultural memory.
The Walking Dead, and all the fans who have stuck with it for 11 years, deserve a throwback finale that tells the story to the end. Regardless of whether Rick and Michonne will return in the final episode, it has to feel like a worthy conclusion.
And this hope lives, because finally we are all united in the same motivation: It’s time to fuck shit up!
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