The Walking Dead season finale saw a record nine million viewers tune in to AMC to watch the zombie drama – the highest rated episode in the series’ history, according to rating reports.

The second season ended with a zombie showdown at Hershel’s farm. The episode featured many twists and introduced the fan favorite comic book character Michonne, who saved Andrea in the woods. The finale also revealed the possible setting for the show’s third season.

The second season of The Walking Dead has been filled with its ups and downs. Throughout the  tense nail bitters and simply stupid decisions, characters the viewers care about and the ones the viewer don’t, exciting twists and contrived clichés, and pacing and storylines that often stopped and started, viewers were never bored or tired of The Walking Dead and in all honesty who could be.

The show was ever changing and evolving this season, as it always has been. There was plenty that left people scratching their heads and wondering what or even where the story was headed after the incidents where trust and loyalty were challenged. Viewers also had to watch as the farm forced the characters into making inane choices for the sake of creating the danger the show desperately needed at times.

The second half of season two garnered a spark that pushed many things forward while reigniting interesting confrontation and situations between characters, even if there were times where it still lacked something. Ultimately, “Beside the Dying Fire” had a mixture of everything one would want from The Walking Dead. It had all the zombie fun the viewers could love, a few surprising twists, some truly confounding moments, and some gore and action to round it all off.

It was truly interesting that the shows finale opened up by essentially explaining how so many walkers happened to arrive at the farm. It’s pretty clear the zombies are attracted to noise and will eagerly follow it to what seems like the ends of the earth; unless that is, another sound makes them all turn in another direction. Though a bit forced, though long coming, the events leading up to and getting the group off the farm was one that needed to be done. And it was the perfect environment for a finale.

The way in which the walker’s arrival was shot was visually dramatic in that it followed Rick and Carl stumbling along in the darkness before panning in front of them to reveal the zombie heard in the background. It was a moment that gave the viewer a feeling of gleeful terror with a realization that everything was about to become total and utter chaos.

With many action sequences involved a lot of shooting, car driving, and fire burning. And as the zombie shoot out continued and the barn came to a crashing end, even more characters beyond Shane, Dale, Randall, and Sophia met their death.

Though the series does boast a large cast of characters, it continually paints the women as overly emotional, unhelpful, and constantly causing more problems for the group. It’s just hard to want to like the situations they put themselves in or the way that some of them act. These actions leave one to have many questions while watching the finale? It is left for many to wonder and want a female character to prove herself as strong, stable, and helpfully supportive in surviving the zombie apocalypse that was the present.

Andrea is certainly headed in that right direction after all her positive efforts in the final episode. But she still has much to learn and do. This could all become a possibility with the fantastically slick introduction of the hooded figure. Many fans of the graphic novels will be pleased with the entrance of the sword wielding, chained zombie totting character, and one can only hope that she remains throughout the show.

As for the male cast, Rick really had the most time transitioning his character towards something colder and more in control as thinking with his head and not his heart. Declaring that there will no longer be a democracy may lead to an interesting turn of events, but it marks a change in the man once hardened by hardship and loss.

And though the viewer’s get some great intimate scenes with Rick, the group’s lack of backing their leader is surprising to say the least. He’s constantly saving everyone’s life and putting his family last to save the group. We can only hope that this new path Rick has taken doesn’t send him spiraling out of control like it did Shane.

It’s hard not to like The Walking Dead. Even with its missteps and leaps of faith regarding choices and plot direction, the show proves time and time again to be an addicting piece of television culture. It may not have been a perfect finale, but it did offer plenty of tidbits to prepare its viewers for what’s to come and successfully closed the doors on Hershel’s farm. The next season of The Walking Dead has much to show us, and for the shows loyal viewers, it will all be worth it once the third season starts.