"Welcome to the Tombs" is the sixteenth and final episode of the third season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 31, 2013.
In the episode, The Governor (David Morrissey) and Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) prepare for the upcoming assault on the prison.
Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) decide to not participate in the assault and stay on guard duty before preparing to leave, as the citizens of Woodbury become increasingly alarmed at The Governor's erratic behaviour.
However, the scenes involving Andrea were re-written by Scott M. Gimple and re-filmed one month after production ended to deliver a more satisfying conclusion.
The finale was watched by 12.42 million viewers upon its original airing, which (before the fourth season premiere) was the show's most-watched episode.
Tyreese informs The Governor that he and Sasha will stay behind to protect the citizens of Woodbury, as they only kill walkers, not humans.
The Governor angrily tosses the book aside and orders his men to search "the tombs", the maze of hallways within the prison.
A young man from the Woodbury group escapes on foot and runs into Carl and Hershel who were waiting out the attack in the woods on the perimeter of the prison.
Milton tries to retain consciousness long enough to help Andrea escape, and tells her he left a pair of pliers on the floor behind her she can use to break the handcuffs restraining her to the chair.
He only leaves alive his lieutenants Martinez and Shumpert, though he is unaware Karen has hidden herself under the bodies to avoid being killed.
Rick, Michonne and Daryl sit with Andrea and grapple briefly with her impending turn from Milton's bite.
Andrea insists she kill herself, and in an effort to reconcile her decision to stay with the Governor tells Rick "I just didn't want anyone else to die."
It features the last overall and credited appearances of Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes (via hallucination) and Laurie Holden as Andrea.
This episode also marks the final appearance of recurring actor Dallas Roberts, who portrays Milton.
[3][4] In an interview published March 31, 2013, TVLine asked Holden how long in advance she knew about her character Andrea's death.
"[7] Glen Mazzara said the decision to kill off Andrea occurred organically throughout the season and talks of it emerged half-way through.
Andrea's death, for example, I knew Rick was going to finally open up the gates of the prison after a season in which he's trying to hide away from the world and lock everybody away and keep them safe.
He realizes what that means -- that our group is now becoming isolated and will be picked off, that his own son is on the road to becoming the Governor (David Morrissey), so he has to open up the gates and let other people in and be compassionate.
As Roberts told Entertainment Weekly:[9] In 2014, at Walker Stalker Con Chicago, Greg Nicotero and Laurie Holden discussed in depth the death of Andrea.
One version included Andrea surviving the season finale and saving the people of Woodbury, leading them back to the prison.
"[11] Erik Kain of Forbes felt that although the episode had "many great moments", it was overall a disappointing finale, in part because "the show took the easy way out and didn't give us what it's promised.
"[12] Josh Jackson, writing for Paste, reviewed the episode more positively with a score of 9.3/10, commenting on the theme of "humanity when civilization has crumbled" and how this relates to several characters throughout the show's history and was highlighted again with the characters of Rick, Carl, and The Governor in this episode [13] IGN writer Eric Goldman gave a "good" review – a score of 7.3/10 – praising the prison group's trap and ambush in the beginning of the episode as well as the interesting questions Carl's actions provoke.
However, he felt that resting the episode's dramatic conclusion entirely on Andrea's death was ultimately unsatisfying and liked the fact that The Governor survived.