A

"A" is the sixteenth and final episode of Season 4 of AMC's The Walking Dead. It aired on March 30, 2014 at 9/8c on AMC, and on March 31, 2014 at 9pm on Fox.

Plot Synopsis
Rick is having a flashback about Hershel and a much happier time back at the Prison. In a flashforward right afterwards, Rick is seen sitting outside by a car, his face and hands both bloody and trembling.

Rick, Carl and Michonne are camping out in the woods, sitting by a charming fire before going to check one of their recently installed snare traps for animals. They ultimately find a small rabbit and, after Rick thoroughly explains how it was caught to Carl, the latter hears a cry for help and takes off running further into the woods. Rick and Michonne must give chase. They all find a man in a big forest clearing and he is struggling to fend off a herd of walkers. Carl raises his gun, but Rick stops him, seeing as though they are clearly outnumbered and it is too late for the man, as the walkers cave in, first ripping out his right eye. A few walkers then notice the three as they make an escape. Rick, Carl and Michonne then pass a railway crossing and fight a few walkers in the way before continuing their retreat. The group eventually finds a car and settle on camping near it for the night.

Later, Rick and Michonne are talking with Carl in the car. All of a sudden, Joe and his group show up to ambush Rick, Michonne. Meanwhile, Carl is ambushed by Dan at the car. Tony immediately recognizes Rick and the group realizes that they have just found their man; He is none other than the one who killed Lou. After a tense countdown, Daryl appears and tries to put an end to the scene. Daryl says that they are quite good people, but Joe responds by telling Daryl that Rick killed their friend. Joe snickers and calls Daryl a liar before making a call for the group to beat him to a pulp. Joe then informs Rick that they are going to rape Carl, then Michonne, then beat Daryl to death, and then finally solve everything by killing Rick.

While Dan tries to rape Carl, Rick does a backwards headbutt that hits Joe in the stomach, who was pointing the gun on him. Joe fires on reflex (and misses). Rick then tries to punch Joe, but Joe manages to dodge it before countering with a punch of his own, knocking Rick to the ground. As Rick easily gets up, Joe locks Rick in place by grabbing him, pinning his arms and holding him still. Joe then asks, "what the hell you gonna do now, sport??" Rick answers by breaking loose and brutally biting a huge chunk out of the villain's neck, eventually killing him. Everyone pauses in shock and looks over to Rick. While Daryl overwhelms two of his attackers, Michonne also then takes advantage of the situation to shhot/kill the remaining group members - minus Dan. Dan is holding Carl and tells them to stay back or else he won't hesitate to kill Carl. Rick, with his face splattered in blood, marches right over to Dan and says, "he's mine." Dan releases Carl and the man is simply so stunned by Rick's actions that he freezes in terror, allowing Rick to stab him to death, presumably through the chest. After witnessing this, Carl narrows his eyes while he is in Michonne's embrace.

Catching up with the flashforward, Daryl hands Rick a rag and washes it in water for Rick to clean himself up with. Daryl begins chastising himself for having even the slightest bit of trust and faith in his erstwhile comrades, but Rick says that it wasn't on him and that he is Rick's brother. After their eventual discovery of Terminus, the group then decides to momentarily split up and sneak inside, just in case Terminus isn't a sanctuary as believed. Carl and Michonne head off together, where they have a relatively bonding moment, with Carl saying that Rick thinks he's proud of him, but feels that because of all of the thoughts in his head, he doesn't deserve it and that he's just a "little monster". Rick puts his Colt Python into a duffel bag full of guns and buries it in the woods outside Terminus, just in case Terminus isn't exactly as it seems. The four then sneak inside of the fence, into a room where a bunch of people are, including Gareth, Alex and a woman repeating the "sanctuary for all" line into a PA system. Gareth has them put down their weapons and frisks them, welcoming them to Terminus and warning them not to try anything stupid as Alex shows them around.

While meeting Mary and being offered food, Rick takes notice of numerous items in the Terminus survivor's possession such as Glenn's riot gear, Daryl's poncho that Maggie was wearing, the Hitchhiker's orange backpack (that Glenn took from the Prison) and even Hershel's pocketwatch. Realizing that something is up, he angrily slaps down a plate of food Alex was offering, grabs Alex and holds him at gunpoint, demanding to know where their people are and why their group has the pocketwatch, riot gear and poncho. Alex lies and claims that he found the pocketwatch on a dead person, and Gareth also covers for the lie, claiming that the riot gear was found on a dead cop and the poncho on a clothesline.

After Mary unintentionally shoots and kills Alex, a shootout ensues with Rick, Michonne, Carl and Daryl fleeing, being forced down an alley way that is riddled with bullets, indicating that the Terminus survivors have treated other newcomers the same way. During the chase, some decayed bodies (very briefly) can be seen scattered all over the floor in the background, which raises even more questions.....They soon make it to the back entrance of Terminus, but are outnumbered, as Terminus residents line up on the fences with guns that are aimed at them. Once again, Gareth orders the four of them to lower their weapons. After this, Gareth calls them by specific codenames to walk towards the boxcar towards their right: Rick (Ringleader), Daryl (Archer), Michonne (Samurai) and Carl (Kid) in that order. Inside, they find Bob, Maggie, Sasha, Glenn, Tara, Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene. Abraham remarks that they won't be there for long, to which Rick remarks "No" and says that the whole Terminus group is plain stupid. Abraham asks what the Terminus group is going to find out and Rick responds with the very final line of the season: "They're gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out.....they're screwing with the wrong people."

Co-Stars

 * Keith Brooks as Dan.
 * JD Evermore as Harley.
 * Davi Jay as Tony.
 * Eric Mendenhall as Billy.
 * Irene Ziegler as Broadcasting Woman.

Uncredited

 * Tinsley and Anniston Price as Judith Grimes.
 * Jilian McLendon as Chloe.
 * James Michael Keats as Henry.
 * Kyle Gallner as Zach.
 * Melissa Ponzio as Karen.
 * Adam Daniels as "Prison Survivor".
 * Darien Johnson as Walker.

Deaths

 * Unnamed Man
 * Joe
 * Tony
 * Dan
 * Harley
 * Billy
 * Alex

Trivia

 * First appearance of Gareth.
 * First appearance of Albert.
 * First (and last) appearance of Alex.
 * First (and last) appearance of the Unnamed Man.
 * Last appearance of Joe.
 * Last appearance of Tony.
 * Last appearance of Harley.
 * Last appearance of Dan.
 * Last appearance of Billy.
 * Last appearance of Hershel Greene. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Patrick. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Zach. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Henry. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Chloe. (Flashback)
 * This is the only episode of the second half of season 4 where all of the credited main cast appear.
 * This episode has the shortest title in the series, simply being the letter "A".
 * The letter "A" is seen everywhere in Terminus, and is painted along doorways and on canisters found throughout the location.
 * This is the first season finale that did not receive more U.S. viewers than the season premiere.
 * Scott Wilson (Hershel Greene) is listed in the opening sequence for the first time since "After". He returned to the set to film.
 * This is the first time that a main cast member has been removed from the opening credits and re-added in the same season.
 * When Carl attempts to save the unnamed man from getting eaten alive was almost identical to a scene taken from Issue 51 of the comics.
 * One exception is that it was just Rick and Carl witnessed it, while Michonne also witnessed it in the episode.
 * The scene where Rick, Daryl, Michonne and Carl fight off Joe's gang was very similar to the fight against The Marauders in Issue 57 of the Comic series.
 * One difference is that there were five members in Joe's group, while there were only three marauders in the comics.
 * Another difference is that it was Rick, Carl, and Abraham that fought off the marauders in the comic series, while in this episode it was Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl.
 * Rick and Daryl also talk about the events of the previous night after Joe's gang is killed, similar to Rick and Abraham's conversation in Issue 57.
 * Joe also says the line "You done screwed up, asshole." which is a variation of a line repeated by one of the marauders with screwed replacing the word "fucked".
 * The ringing in Rick's ear and his zoning out after forcing Joe to fire his gun near Rick's ear is similar to him doing the same thing in "Days Gone Bye" after shooting a walker in the tank at close range.
 * The group is officially reunited as of this episode with the exception of Tyreese, Carol, Beth and Judith.
 * They all only appear via flashback in this episode.
 * This is the second season finale with a cliffhanger ending, the other being Season 2.
 * The scene where Rick teaches Carl about the rabbit snare shares similarities to Terminus. Rick explains that the snare is set among a frequently used path (Railroad Tracks) and when the rabbit follows the path (the shoot out that forced Rick's group through a certain path through Terminus), then the snare captures the rabbit (The Box Car).
 * The shrine with the candles has the following painted on the walls: "first always" "never again" "never trust" "we first always"
 * Rick's line "They're screwing with the wrong people" that he tells the group inside of the boxcar in Terminus is a variation of the same line Rick said regarding The Hunters in Issue 64, with the word screwing replacing the word "fucking". This is what the line originally was in the script.
 * People can be heard screaming either the lines "HELP!!", "Help Me!", "Hey over here!", "Get them off me", "Over here" and "Help us!" during the scenes where Rick, Daryl, Carl and Michonne were being fired upon by the Terminus people. The screams can be heard within the boxcars before they reach the back.
 * This slightly hints that the people of Terminus are keeping people in boxcars or they were just simply screams from survivors in Terminus who heard the gunfight.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Albert begins shooting at the group, his gun is a black AK-47. However, when the group nears the box cars, it is a normal color.