Now there was an hour of television. Laughter, tears, the predicted quotient of triumphant fist pumps and a lot more besides that. The fifth season of The Walking Dead has seen the show zigging when it could've zagged, proving to audiences that it still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve by constantly confounding expectations. The Terminus lot who were set to be the big adversary of the year were dealt with in record time, the group split up properly for the first time since they got together, and the ensemble cast rotated to introduce new character who wonder of wonders actually added something to the dynamic. It's been one of the most consistently strong seasons in the show's history, and the mid-season finale more than lived up to that. Coda saw a lot of plot threads finally come together into a satisfying conclusion (well, satisfying depending on your character allegiances; heart breaking might be a more appropriate word). It's a well-worn truism that the true walking dead of the title are the human survivors, not the hordes of zombies they regularly chop their way through as if they were jungle foliage, but the constant threat of an actual fatality remains ever-lingering. Especially after this week's episode, when the show reminded us that anybody is fair game, and the axe could drop at any given moment. Anyway, save that for the spoilers. Of which there will be many, as you dive into the six things that Coda got right, and four it didn't. The Walking Dead won't be returning until the new year, but there's plenty to chew over in the meantime. Spoilers ahead (and on the show's Twitter account, natch).
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
