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. It aired March 31, 2013 at 9/8c on AMC. The episode shattered the zombie drama's own ratings record yet again, scoring 12.4 million total viewers in its initial 9 p.m. broadcast and 8.1 million in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. The numbers represent series bests in total viewers and in the demographic.

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. "Now 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 military trucks and a other vehicles. 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 destroy 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 unsure 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 explicitly 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 Shumpert watch in horror. Allen, being the last soldier standing (save Karen, who is hiding underneath a corpse), points his gun at The Governor in a desperate panic, but is easily taken down with a shot to the head. The Governor, out of ammo, gets in his truck and motions to Martinez and Shumpert. 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 died because he didn't tell anybody about the walker, Lori died because Rick didn't kill Andrew, and Merle died because Rick didn't kill The Governor, even though he was in a room with him alone.

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. They get into a little gunfight, until Karen 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. Michonne rushes to her aid, with Rick behind her. Andrea tells Rick how she had tried to stop them. "You're burning up." Michonne says to Andrea, who exhales and pulls her coat away from her collarbone to reveal a bite wound from Milton. 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, as well as Andrea's body in the back of a truck. 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.
 * Nikki O'Neal as Woodbury Survivor.
 * Nicholas Wayne Whatley as Woodbury Survivor.
 * Brendon Cornwell as Woodbury Survivor
 * Gregory French as Walker.
 * James Barker as Walker.
 * Jordan Christian as Walker.
 * Edi Carson as Walker.
 * Ying Hung Yu as Walker.
 * Don Teems as Walker.

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 could either refer to The Governor's army being ambushed in "the Tombs" or that Rick brings the people of Woodbury to the prison at the end of the episode.
 * "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 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 or possibly all remaining survivors from Woodbury, including Tyreese, Sasha, and Karen, join Rick's group after knowing that The Governor is a murderer.
 * 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. It is also symbolical that she asked Rick's gun, back in Atlanta when Rick showed her how the safety works.
 * Andrea is the fifth main character to die in the television series.
 * 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 most of the deaths in this episode.
 * 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 committing 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 committing suicide.)
 * After this episode premiered, on the Talking Dead season finale, they were "phone-bombed", as host 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 original Atlanta group.
 * As of this episode, only The Governor, Martinez, and Shumpert are the remaining Woodbury soldiers. The rest were either killed by The Governor, taken in by Rick's Group, or it is unknown what happend to them.
 * As of this episode, only 5 survivors remain from the Atlanta group (Rick, Glenn, Carl, Carol, and Daryl).
 * The Walking Dead Facebook stated there would be 27 deaths in this episode. They ended up being Andrea, Milton Mamet, Jody, Paul, Allen and 22 Woodbury soldiers.
 * This is the highest viewed episode having 12.40 million views in the U.S alone of all The Walking Dead episodes topping the season two finale "Beside the Dying Fire".
 * This episode begins with a close up of The Governor's eye that then zooms out which is homage to "Seed" where the episode begins with a closeup of a walker's eye before zooming out.
 * This episode marks the first and only time Milton attempts to kill a living human.
 * This is the first episode in which Carl kills a living person. In this case, he shoots Jody.
 * Oddly enough, Dallas Roberts, who portrays Milton, is not credited in this episode.