‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Welcome to the Tombs’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One thing that we can all agree upon, is that fear is an emotion that is both powerful and sorrowful. The power aspect comes from the fact that it does indeed motivate us to avoid trouble when we sense it, making it quite useful in that regard. But the sorrow comes from the fact… that it really does make us do regretful things. For instance, it keeps us from happiness now and again when we fear the possibility of being happy or content and instead stay on a path that is stagnant and uncomfortable and… it also tends to motivate us to take part in some extremely stupid acts now and again for reasons that we don’t always understand. Wherein we just simply feed it and let it take over and it is the foolish acts it pushes us to do, that is paramount to our discussion today.
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Because that aspect of fear was explored in the season three finale of The Walking Dead. For ‘Welcome to the Tombs’ sees the good people of Woodbury, have the fire that is fear stoked by Philip ‘The Governor’ Blake. Since he offers up outlandish claims about the entire prison group and the incident involving Merle and he does such a fine job of selling it, that it takes over the hearts and minds of this town and motivates all of them to follow the Governor willfully and foolishly to the West Georgia Correctional Facility to wage all-out war. Making it one hundred percent clear how fear can brainwash us and control us and while that should have served as a cautionary and bloody plot point… this story instead opted to find a way to point out that fear can be used in a positive light as well.

For sometimes, being scared in a different manner… can pull us out of our funk and give us clarity and understanding and potentially move us away from dangerous acts and that is exactly what happened in this tale as well. Because while the bloodthirsty Mister Blake was searching for Rick and his friends… Mister Grimes and his team got the jump on the Woodbury crew. And their use of sirens and flashbangs and multidirectional fire, designed to terrify instead of harm, scared these ‘soldiers’ so well, that they realized that wanted no part of war and that they were foolish for following the Governor into it. Which in turn motivated them to run back home. Which should have made for a wonderful ending to this plot thread, one where the Governor was cast out. But instead, it ended badly when ol’ Phil decided to make everyone pay for betraying him… with a downpour of bullets.

However, despite the dark nature of that twist, this episode really tried its best to end on a happy note. A feat that it worked toward by having Rick and a small assault team learn the truth about what the Governor did and return to Woodbury to rescue anyone left alive. A move that quite frankly, spoke volumes to an underlying theme that’s hung over the show for many seasons now. In that, the only way forward for humanity in tough or disastrous times, is to stick together and show one another kindness. And if we can do that, then better days will indeed be on the horizon. Which was indeed a feel-good message to find in a dark tale, one that was reinforced by that bus arriving at the prison to unload good people who needed community and safety and security. 

But alas, a happy ending really wasn’t in the cards for this episode. After all, Andrea died horribly thanks to the Governor’s machinations and of course… the Governor got away. A move that at the time seemed to be his exit from the series but watching this a second time around… and knowing what comes next regarding him, makes his exit quite ominous in nature. But while we wait to re-live the tough moments that came out of his escape one more time, we can in fact, bask in the majesty of an intelligent and engaging finale. One filled with quality commentary on the human condition and beautiful moments to boot. Since it was wonderful to see Rick find peace and the best parts of his soul again and well… now that we have indeed come to the end of the Woodbury saga, the time has come to steel our nerves and turn to a season of storytelling that was bold and dark and devastating. Until next time.

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