"Coda" is the eighth episode and mid-season finale of the fifth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on November 30, 2014.

The episode marks Lennie James's second uncredited post-credits appearance in the fifth season as Morgan Jones.

Meanwhile at the hospital, order starts to break down when the officers fail to recapture Noah or report in, and others soon begin to lose faith in Dawn's leadership.

Walkers break out of the school and chase Gabriel limps back to the church, where he is cornered against the fortified front door and experiences the fear of his parishioners.

Just as the walkers are about to break through the door, Abraham's group arrives in the fire truck, bringing the news that Eugene's mission was a lie.

Meanwhile, Rick meets up with another pair of officers and proposes to trade Shepherd and Licari for Beth and Carol.

Despite Dawn's own shock and pleas for mercy, an enraged Daryl immediately pulls out his own pistol and shoots her in the head, killing her.

In a post-credits scene, Morgan continues to follow Gareth's marks on the trees, coming across the school and later the church, where he makes an offering and laughs.

Scott Gimple confirmed the opening sequence — in which Rick chases down Lamson — is an homage to the comic book series in which similar events take place over the Prison-Woodbury conflict with Caesar Martinez, the loyal second-in-command to The Governor.

[7] Laura Prudom of Variety commented positively on the episode's ending and praised the performances of Lauren Cohan (as Maggie Greene) and Norman Reedus (as Daryl Dixon), saying: "The episode’s final few moments did prove to be some of the series’ most powerful yet — both Lauren Cohan and Norman Reedus gave truly gut-wrenching performances after Beth’s death, and it was heartbreaking to see Maggie’s rapid transition from elation at learning her sister was alive to utter devastation at seeing her dead over the course of twenty minutes.

Club gave the episode a B− grade, saying that the finale "reminds us that, whatever else it’s learned, the show still hasn't given up on its most beloved trick: killing people because it can.

"[9] Kelsea Stahler of Bustle felt that killing Dawn wasted "a perfectly good season 5 villain", which represented a "missed opportunity" to have a female character be the "big bad" and to have the narrative for the rest of the season be based on a conflict between two women (Dawn and Beth).

[10] Rob Bricken of io9, in addition to calling the plot one of the "worst of season 5" and the story "more laughable than moving", also criticised the deaths of Dawn and Beth as a "wasted opportunity".