Welcome to the Tombs

Welcome to the Tombs is the sixteenth and final episode of Season 3 of The Walking Dead and the eighth of the second half of the season and the Season 3 finale. It aired March 31, 2013 at 9/8c on AMC.

Plot Synopsis
The Governor brutally beats Milton for torching the pit of walkers. Milton wonders what Penny would think of her father now. "She'd be afraid of me," the Governor admits. "But if I'd been like this from the start, she'd be alive today." The Governor brings Milton into his torture chamber, where Andrea is bound to the chair. He declares his plans to kill everyone at the prison.

The Governor orders Milton to gather his tools and kill Andrea, but Milton instead attacks the Governor. The Governor overpowers Milton and stabs him in the gut. "You're gonna die and you're gonna turn, and you're gonna tear the flesh from her bones," he tells Milton before leaving the room, "in this life, you kill or you die... Or you die and you kill".

Meanwhile, Rick and the survivors pack up the prison and load supplies into the cars. Rick tries to talk to Carl, but Carl ignores him. Looking up to the catwalk, Rick sees a hallucination of Lori staring back at him. As Daryl mourns his brother, Carol praises Merle for improving their odds against the Governor. In the cell block, Michonne forgives Rick for considering the Governor's offer and thanks him for allowing her into the group.

Back in Woodbury, the Governor assembles his troops. Soldiers pile into a military truck and a jeep. Tyreese informs the Governor that he and Sasha will not join the fight, stating that "this isn't their fight", but offers to stay behind to guard the women and children. After a tense moment, the Governor consents. The Governor and his soldiers arrive at the prison, where they shoot up the guard towers, mow down the walkers in the prison yard and storm the cell block. But they find no sign of Rick's group.

Back in the torture chamber, Milton slumps against the wall and tells Andrea that he secretly left a pair of pliers by her feet. He tells her to stab him in the head once she cuts herself free.

Meanwhile, the Governor splits up his troops to investigate the dark prison corridors (known as the "tombs"). Smoke grenades go off and the prison alarm sounds. Walkers attack the Governor's men, forcing them to retreat outside where Glenn and Maggie ambush them with gunfire. The Governor's army quickly flees the prison.

In Woodbury, Tyreese checks in on the women and children. He and Sasha agree they may have to slip out when the Governor returns as they are not sure of how they will be treated and of the Governor's intentions. Milton asks Andrea why she stayed in Woodbury after learning her friends were alive. "I wanted to save everyone," she says. "Even the Governor, for a while." He urges her to hurry with the pliers. She removes her shoes and tries to grab them with her feet.

Back at the prison, Hershel, Beth and Carl watch the battle from the adjacent forest. A teenage boy from Woodbury escaping on foot runs into them. After being explicity told to put the gun down, the boy instead insists on handing it to Carl and moves towards him, to which Carl responds by shooting him. Rick and the others decide to chase down the Governor. Carl tells Rick he wants to fight, then brags about killing one of the Governor's soldiers. Hershel clarifies that the "soldier" was just a scared boy on the run. "He drew on us," Carl insists.

Meanwhile, the Governor halts the retreating caravan in the middle of the road. "What the hell are you doing?" he screams. The Woodbury residents refuse to fight, insisting the prison is not worth their lives. Enraged, the Governor opens fire and slaughters them, as Martinez and Shupert watch in horror. Allen points his gun at The Governor but is easily taken down with a shot to the head. The Governor gets in his truck and signals to Martinez and Shupert. They reluctantly get in.

Andrea grabs the pliers with her feet then drops them. Milton is dead, but his fingers start to move.

As they prepare for pursuit, Rick again asks Carl about the shooting. Carl admits the Woodbury boy had surrendered. Still, he says, "I couldn't take the chance," pointing out that Dale, Lori and Merle all died because he and Rick did not seize opportunities to kill potential threats.

Glenn and Maggie offer to help guard the prison in case the Governor returns. Rick, Michonne and Daryl leave in pursuit of the Governor. Rick's group finds the aftermath of the Governor's roadside massacre. Karen, the lone survivor having hidden in one of the abandoned trucks approaches them with her hands raised.

Meanwhile, Milton rises as a walker. He shuffles toward Andrea, who manages to cut through her bonds with the pliers just as Milton reaches her. Their screams echo through the hall.

Tyreese and Sasha are standing guard at Woodbury's gate when Rick's group arrives with Karen. She explains to Tyreese how the Governor killed everyone and tells him to stand down. Rick mentions that Andrea never made it to the prison, and suggests she could still be in Woodbury. They head to the interrogation room and notice a pool of blood under the door.

Inside, Milton lies dead and Andrea huddles against the wall. Her neck has been ravaged. Michonne cries as Andrea apologizes for her actions and insists on shooting herself. "I know how the safety works", she says as she asks for Rick's gun. Rick lets her know that she is one of them. Michonne stays with Andrea while the group waits outside. A gunshot sounds.

Afterward, Rick's group returns to the prison with a school bus filled with Woodbury's survivors. Tyreese leads the survivors into the prison. "They're gonna join us," Rick tells Carl. Rick looks up at the catwalk. Lori is nowhere to be seen, and Rick knows that he has made the right choice.

Other Cast
Co-Stars
 * Travis Love as Shumpert.
 * Daniel Thomas May as Allen.
 * E. Roger Mitchell as Paul.
 * Tanner Holland as Jody.

Uncredited

 * Dallas Roberts as Milton Mamet.
 * Adelaide and Eliza Cornwell as Judith Grimes.
 * James Barker as Walker.
 * Edi Carson as Walker.
 * Unknown as Ms. McLeod

Deaths

 * Jody
 * Paul
 * Allen
 * Milton Mamet (Alive and Zombified)
 * Andrea
 * 22 Unnamed Woodbury Soldiers

Trivia

 * Last appearance of Andrea.
 * Last appearance of Milton.
 * Last appearance of Allen.
 * Last appearance of Paul.
 * First and Last appearance of Jody.
 * The episode's title refers to The Governor's army being ambushed in "the Tombs."
 * "The Tombs" (as called by T-Dog in "Killer Within") are a portion of The Prison that is infested by walkers, as mentioned by Glenn in "Home."
 * This is the first episode where Carl kills a living human. In the episode "Killer Within" he shot Lori after she already died from blood loss to prevent reanimation.
 * This episode marks the second time a survivor has committed suicide since TS-19.
 * Coincidentally, Andrea attempted to commit suicide in this episode as well.
 * Fifteen survivors from Woodbury, including Tyreese, Sasha, and Karen, join Rick's group.
 * In the comic series, Rick's group had the most casualties and were forced out of the prison. However, in this episode, The Governor's army ended up being massacred by their own leader, and the remaining Woodbury citizens that were set aside as incapable of combat were taken into the group, leaving Woodbury as an empty town.
 * Andrea says "I know how the safety works" to Rick when asking for his gun to commit suicide with to prevent her reanimation. Andrea had previously said the same exact line to Rick in "Wildfire", when she threatened to shoot him as he approached her cradling Amy's corpse.
 * Andrea is the fifth main cast member to die.
 * This season finale marks the first season finale in which Rick's group is able to hold their own in their home and was not driven out by walkers or other survivors.
 * In TS-19, the group was forced to leave the CDC before it exploded and in Beside the Dying Fire, walkers overran Hershel's farm.
 * The Governor has either indirectly or directly caused all the deaths in this episode
 * He indirectly caused Jody's death by recruiting him into his Army
 * He helped kill Andrea by killing Milton, who bit Andrea as a walker
 * He killed Allen, Paul, and his soldiers directly
 * Coincidentally, Amy was bitten by a walker on the neck, similar to Andrea. However, Andrea prevented her reanimation by commiting suicide while Amy reanimated.
 * This episode features the deaths of the most living characters on the show, with a total of 27 living characters dying.
 * This episode marks the first time Beth has left the prison since the group's arrival.
 * Similarly, to date, Carol is the only member of Rick's group never to have left the prison since the group's arrival.
 * The bible passage that was highlighted and found by the Governor is John 5:29, "And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." In this chapter, Jesus heals a sick man and preaches about everlasting life and that "...the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (John 5:25).
 * This episode marks the very first time you see Michonne cry. (She cried because of Andrea getting bitten, and commiting suicide.)
 * After this episode premiered, on the Talking Dead season finale, they were "phone-bombed", as Chris Hardwick called it. This was the first time throughout two entire seasons that this has happened.
 * With Andrea's death, Carol is now the only female survivor left from the orginal Atlanta group.