That's because the tension with Alexandria/Ricktatorship was pretty much fabricated by Rick and Carol. No one else in the group was having a major problem integrating. They were taking positions of leadership naturally without staging a coup. It fizzling out is the only thing that made sense, really.

They could have staged it with more people and that would have been fine too, but I don't think it's so crazy to a point we should assume the show is trying to make us believe only a dozen people live there. Most people probably just legitimately don't give much of a shit because /everything has been so easy for so…

And it's a pretty minor easily explained detail to focus 2 long paragraphs worth of critique over.

I don't think attendance to the town hall was compulsory. I'm sure plenty of people were just, like, sleeping at home.

He went out there to bait him into a fight. That's the only reason.

I think that once you show up with a sword and straight kill a guy, no one's going to trust you with a scalpel anymore.

There's a bit in this episode where Maggie, Deanna, and Reg all discuss things they've lost and Maggie's jaw is very squarely set to imply she is thinking of Beth and the rest of her large family she's seen die.

Exactly re: Rick becoming cemented. Rather than everything falling apart — the CDC, the farm, Woodbury, the prison, Terminus, etc. — something finally fell together. It doesn't mean the conflicts are over though.

Yeah the editing was rough. I see what they were going for, sprinkling everything with "Rick Grimes Is Awesome Here's Why" anecdotes to bring that arc to its peak, but it made following some of the stories difficult.

Because being what his 'idiot father' used to be was about to get them all fuckin exiled.

"Instead of giving us an ambiguous situation in which Rick’s time outside made it hard for him to adjust to “normal” life again, we get a bunch of soft idiots who need to be taught a lesson in how to stay alive. Any pretense otherwise from earlier in the season is gone." You have a point here that the Alexandrians are…

I was full of pure joy when he and Daryl met and the map came into play. I haven't felt that as a viewer in as long as I came remember, maybe ever, during this show.

Yeah my viewing party was all talking about Who's Going To Die and what our likely candidates were. The fact that we were totally off base is refreshing. (All though we did all figure Pete had to bite it by the end of this story.)

Morgan's very pro-forgiveness or at least anti-violence right now, it's a hard switch for him from the last time we saw him. We can only assume (I hope we get a flashback episode next season) that Rick's visit in Clear was an impetus for this change. So I'm sure it's alarming. But really, Pete just straight up…

The fact that this finale took me by surprise and instead of being a big blowout ending on a theme of forgiveness and change for the future was what made it so great to me. There will never be a lack of danger but eventually these people's lives have to go somewhere positive or they're going to die. We don't want them…

Yeah all of that on top of the fact that Olivia orchestrated a fradulent election to get Fitz in office. Hiring a relatively incompetent SoS isn't beyond that line.

It's murky, because Mellie coming out in support of the issue was framed as being directly opposed to Fitz's official stance on the issue.

Everytime that theme song comes on it's my cue to zone out and go get a snack.

Hillary Clinton also served as a Senator from New York for several terms before the secretary of State position.

It was paradox once and factor another time. All the Brenda.