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 seems to be having a flashback about Hershel's instructions during a much happier time back at the Prison. In a flash-forward 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 a bit further into the woods. Rick and Michonne must give chase. They all find a man in a large forest clearing and he is struggling to fend off a herd of walkers. Carl quickly raises his Beretta, 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 an abandoned pick-up and settle on camping near it for the night.

Later, Rick and Michonne are discussing matters, while Carl is resting in the pick-up. All of a sudden, Joe and his group show up to ambush Rick and Michonne. Meanwhile, Carl is ambushed by Dan at the car. Tony immediately recognizes Rick and the group realizes that they have successfully found their man - he is none other than the one who killed Lou. After Joe starts a tense countdown, Daryl appears and tries to put an end to the scene. Daryl says what he needs to, claiming that Rick and the others are good people, but Joe simply tells him that Rick was responsible for killing their friend. Joe snickers and calls Daryl a liar. He then makes a call for the rest of his group to beat Daryl to a pulp for lying, which is against Joe's rules. Joe then informs Rick that they are going to beat Daryl to death, rape Carl, then Michonne, and finally solve everything by killing Rick...

While Dan begins trying to rape Carl, Rick does a backwards headbutt that strikes Joe, who was pointing the .45 on him. Joe manages to fire on reflex (and misses), which momentarily deafens Rick. Rick then punches Joe, who counters with a pistol whip of his own, knocking Rick to the ground. As Rick easily gets back on his feet, Joe locks Rick in place by grabbing him, pinning his arms, and holding him still. Joe then asks, "What the hell are you gonna do now, sport??" Rick answers by biting into the villain's carotid artery, killing him. Michonne then takes advantage of the situation to kill Tony and Harley with gunshots to the head with Tony's revolver, as they looked on in terror when they saw their leader being murdered in one of the most cruel fashions. Daryl then uses the pause to knock Billy to the ground and maliciously curb stomp him to death. With all of his group members dead, Dan is still holding Carl hostage and tells every one to stay back or else he will not hesitate to kill Carl. Rick then grabs hold of Joe's pocket knife and marches right over to Dan, saying, "he's mine". Carl manages to escape into Michonne's embrace, while Dan becomes stunned by Rick's remark and intense facial expression. Rick uses this moment to stab Dan through the heart multiple times. Noticing that his father is now eviscerating Dan, Carl narrows his eyes...

Catching up with the flash-forward, Daryl hands Rick a rag and washes it in water for Rick to clean himself up with. Daryl begins blaming himself for having even the slightest bit of trust and faith in his erstwhile comrades, but Rick says that it was not on him and that he is Rick's brother. After the teams' eventual discovery of Terminus, the group then decides to momentarily split up and sneak inside, just in case Terminus isn't exactly the sanctuary that it's believed to be. Carl and Michonne then head off together, where they have a relatively bonding moment. Michonne admits that, after the apocalypse began and after her two best friends were zombified, she removed their jaws and arms and guided them around to protect herself from other walkers. She also confesses that what she did was sick. After this comment, Carl says that Rick is proud of him, but feels that, because of all of the terrifying thoughts in his head, he doesn't deserve anything and that he's just a "little monster". Meanwhile, Rick stuffs his Colt Python into a duffel bag full of guns and buries it in the woods outside Terminus as an apparent contingency (just if they happened to be escaping in that direction). The four then end up sneaking inside through one of the fences, and they enter a room where a whole bunch of people are, including the characters Gareth, Alex, and a woman repeating the "sanctuary for all" line into a radio transmitter system. This is presumably the same radio station that Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese, and Bob heard while in the car on a medicine run much earlier in the season. Gareth has the four put down their weapons and frisks them, welcoming them to Terminus and warning them not to try anything dumb as Alex shows them around.

While meeting Mary and being offered food, Rick quickly takes notice of numerous items in the Terminus survivors' 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 distinctive pocketwatch. Realizing that something is up, he angrily slaps down a platter of food that Alex is offering to Carl, grabs Alex, and holds a .45 that he took off of Joe to his face, demanding to know where their people are and why their group has the pocket watch, riot gear and poncho. Alex lies and claims that he found the pocket watch on a dead man, and Gareth also covers for the lie, claiming that the riot gear was found on a dead policeman and the poncho on a clothesline.

Alex is then accidentally gunned down and killed by one of his own, which causes a large shootout, with Rick, Michonne, Carl and Daryl fleeing. They are being forced down several alley ways that are riddled with bullets, indicating that the Terminus survivors have treated many other newcomers the same way. During the chase, the team briefly turns to their left as they are running and some bones and flesh scattered over a blue tarp can clearly be seen in the foreground. Muffled cries for help can also be heard from nearby railway containers. The group soon make it to the rails at the back of Terminus, but stop, as Terminus residents line up on the surrounding fences with guns that are aimed at them. Once again, Gareth orders the four of them to lower their own weapons. With no other choice, Rick surrenders. After this, Gareth calls them by specific codenames to walk into the boxcar positioned on their right: Rick (Ringleader), Daryl (Archer), Michonne (Samurai) and Carl (the Kid) in that order. After opening the door, they end up finding Bob, Maggie, Sasha, Glenn, Tara, Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene. Abraham remarks that they won't be there for long, to which Rick remarks "No". He then walks over to an opening in the side of the train car and says "They are gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out..." Abraham then asks Rick "Find out what?", to which Rick then responds with the very last line in this season: "...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
 * Melissa Ponzio as Karen
 * Kyle Gallner as Zach
 * James Michael Keats as Henry
 * Jilian McLendon as Chloe
 * Adam Daniels as "Prison Newcomer"
 * Unknown as Albert
 * Anissa Matlock as "Terminus Resident"
 * Keith Matlock as "Terminus Resident"
 * Summer Williams Houck as "Terminus Resident"
 * Joe Foley as "Terminus Resident".
 * Darien Johnson as Walker

Viewership
Upon airing, "A" was watched by 15.68 million American viewers, and received an 18-49 rating of 8.0. This marks a rise in total viewers and ratings from the previous episode, which received an 18-49 rating of 6.7 and 13.47 million viewers. This rating represents the season finale high to date, but below the all-time high of the season 4 premiere episode. Overall, season 4's average viewership of 13.3 million viewers was an increase of 20% over season 3. This episode has the third-highest number of viewers following "30 Days Without An Accident" (16.11) and "After" (15.76)

Critical Reception
Forbes  stated, "This episode, directed masterfully by Michelle McLaren of Breaking Bad fame, puts The Walking Dead in an interesting place. The story line takes our heroes into a dark place—and what can be darker than a locked railroad car?"

The Wall Street Journal stated, "As far as cliffhangers go, “The Walking Dead” gets an “A”".

IGN's Roth Cornet rated the episode a "Great" 8.0, writing, "The Walking Dead Season 4 finale served as a response to a question Rick has been asking himself nearly since the start of the series: What kind of man am I? The answer, at least to some degree, is whatever kind of man the moment demands of him; which is exactly what he’d need to be in order to make a strong and viable leader in this world. While I do feel that the conclusion could have been stronger, this was one of the most well-directed and executed episodes of the latter half of this season."

The Daily Beast wrote: "“A” was a deftly executed game of suspense. Whatever half-answers we got about Terminus raised ten times more questions, luring us deeper...The episode was also unprecedentedly dark—even for this show."

On the other hand, TV.com wrote: "The Season 4 finale had the chance to be something great; instead, "A" was an okay middle-of-the-season installment but a pretty crummy season-ender".

Deaths

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

Trivia

 * First appearance of Gareth.
 * First appearance of Albert.
 * First appearance of "Broadcasting Woman".
 * First appearance of "Terminus Scientist".
 * 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 Karen. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Patrick. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Zach. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Henry. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of Chloe. (Flashback)
 * Last appearance of the prison. (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.
 * Robert Kirkman stated: [The A refers to] Train Car A. They were put in Train Car A.
 * 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 film this episode.
 * This is the first time that a main cast member has been removed from the opening credits and re-added in the same season.
 * Carl's attempts to save the unnamed man from getting eaten alive was almost identical to a scene taken from Issue 51 of the comics.
 * In the comic it was just Rick and Carl that witnessed it. In the episode Michonne was also present.
 * 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.
 * There were five members in Joe's group in this episode, while there were only three marauders in the comics.
 * In the comics it was Rick, Carl, and Abraham that fought off the marauders, while in this episode it was Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl.
 * In the episode 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 "You screwed up, asshole." which is a variation of a line repeated by one of the marauders with screwed replacing the word "fucked".
 * This is the first episode in which we see Michonne kill a living person with a firearm.
 * When Rick teaches Carl about the rabbit snare it was a foreshadowing of 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).
 * People can be heard screaming for help when Rick, Daryl, Carl and Michonne are being fired upon by the Terminus residents.
 * The umbrellas in the Terminus courtyard appears to be the same exact one on the picnic table as seen in "Dead Weight" with The Governor.
 * Hollywood Reporter explains, "If you research how cattle are killed, the optimum approach is to have them take a series of corner turns before getting close -- if they see they’re being led to slaughter, chaos ensues. The camera follows Rick and company in a circular route through Terminus until they get out into the clearing. Cattle are also, as they near slaughter, guided in single file -- something Gareth did meticulously with each character, leading them to the railroad/cattle car in the short distance. There is also a “correct handler position for driving cattle” -- and director Michelle MacLaren set up the final scene by positioning Gareth in a perfect, textbook handler position... She also created maximum tension by showing the distance between Carl... Proper handling procedures also indicate that calves go last (or, if you will, parents go first -- reversing it causes panic and a chance the cattle will disperse)...cattle go forward in a single-file line but shouldn’t actually see livestock in front of them -- which is why Glenn and Maggie and the others were shunted to the rear of the car."
 * The prison flashback was the last scene shot in Season 4. This was because the actors' hair had to be cut shorter to match the earlier period.
 * This episode features flashbacks, similar to "TS-19", "Bloodletting", "Chupacabra ", "Prey" and "Alone".
 * The last lines said by Rick, "They're going to feel pretty stupid when they find out... They're screwing with the wrong people" is very similar to a line said by the same character in Issue 64 of the comics.
 * The scene that involving Carl almost got raped was actually more graphic than the one that being aired. Andrew Lincoln said to Hollywood Reporter that, “That scene was supposed to be more graphic, and we played it more graphic than that, which was a justification for the throat rip and everything, because it's something any father seeing his son about to be raped would probably do,” he said.

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.
 * Due to the climate problems during filming of this episode, it appeared to be late autumn, despite the fact that it couldn't have been more than a few weeks after the prison was overrun.
 * However, the climate during the prison attack appeared to be hot, so it could have took place over the summer.