The spoilers will be recaps/my favorite and defining moments from the most recent season of these shows, they will, however, be giving away lots of information, if not the entire plot of shows, and may not be understood if you haven’t actually watched the show. Also, please don’t read them if you haven’t seen the shows. Just watch the shows!

…because if there is one thing The Walking Dead knows how to do, it is tear your freakin’ heart out, put it back in and have it working  just to tear it out again.  Can you blame a farmer for having hope that there is a way to cure the walkers? Sure, it probably isn’t the best idea to keep a bunch of them locked up in your barn, but who knows, they might good to play video games with. And poor Sophia. Having to watch Rick shoot her like that was just heart-wrenching, but a very daring, and dare I say necessary, move for the plot. Especially after having to deal with Carl getting shot earlier in the season. I want to see where this plays out with the gang slowly tearing apart, not unlike the flesh of some of the unlucky ones.

After leading us through a few seasons of twists and turns with a lot of “so she is good! wait no, she is evil. No, she’s good. Wait…evil, but also good?” Season 3 takes us to a place where the series can finally progress further than ever before. There have been a few cases of deus ex artifact in the series, in which a main character could have died, but was luckily saved by an artifact. Now, season 3 ended with a bang, literally. The season 3 finale, which was actually episodes 11 and 12 aired back to back, tied off the end of season 3 and sets up for a great season 4. In season 3, we find out Pete’s mom is actually not only a regent, but after the events of episode 8, the keeper of the Warehouse’s “life.” A paraplegic child who had a bracelet that allowed him to walk again has that bracelet, actually an artifact, taken away from him by Pete’s mom, and has now grown up and is out to get revenge on the warehouse gang. Anyway, after new addition to the warehouse gang, ATF Agent Steve Jinks is “fired” for turning that gun on Mrs. Frederick because of some moral uncertainties, having it turn out that he was a double agent for the warehouse was genius. In no way did they even give a hint that he was working as a double, but it wouldn’t have mattered. As Placebo’s cover of “Running Up That Hill” (originally by Kate Bush) starts to play, right after Jinks tells Claudia he is a double agent, we get the whole story in a short montage. Honestly, this is one of my favorite uses of music in a TV show I have seen in a while, and one of the shows later on this list knows how to use music just as well. The whole scene was perfect. “Emily Lake” essentially dying when H.G. Wells has her memory given back to her, followed by the scene. When Pete slowly backs out of the room with Myka and Claudia downstairs, running down the stairs, Myka asking “Pete, what is it? What’s wrong?” And just his voice cracking as he yells “Claudia, I said get back to the car!” Claudia’s persistence and Pete’s final “Please get back to the car…” in a near whisper as Claudia runs up the stairs as the song starts to really build. Claudia’s scream just kills me. Even before you see it, you know what it is. Oh, poor Jinksy.. And that is only the first half of the finale. We’ll just skip to the end. Wells’ sacrifice as she is able to transfer the field that will protect the rest of the gang from just that one spot (odd plot device, but I’ll ignore it) as she, along with the rest of the Warehouse, is completely destroyed. Mrs. Frederick DIES, or loses her immortality, however that worked, she was somehow connected by life to the warehouse. I’m just hoping the end when Artie says that they haven’t lost, at least “not just yet,” while holding the stopwatch isn’t another deus ex artifact that undoes the finale.

After a less than brilliant season 5, which followed season 4 and what was probably the best season to date, season 6 started off with tons of potential. Season 5 ended by giving Dexter, and the writers, a chance to reboot. A fresh start. They gave that to Dexter and then…well…it kind of fell short. Don’t get me wrong, I was hooked throughout the season, but some corners of plot the writers wrote themselves into and couldn’t get out of without the obvious twist of “Travis is crazy and Gellar has been dead and is now just his psychotic imagination,” kind of led the season to a rough patch. I loved the Brother Sam character and to seem him go was a shame, but almost necessary. The odd episode of “Nebraska” in which Dexter lets loose was somewhat needed, yet kind of awkward. Colin Hanks and Edward James Olmos proved to be great “Big Bads” as a team, but after the obvious twist, Hanks’ Travis began to fall short. He fell completely off the wagon and did things completely opposite of the character he was set up to be in the first half of the season, but I went with it. Yet, as we reached the end of the season, I was more excited about the whole Louis story than I was about the Doomsday Killer. The fact that Dexter had an admirer, seemingly of his blood spatter work, but somehow connecting him to serial killers in a way and then sending him the ITK prosthetic hand…I want to know more about Louis. Talk has been that he is a third brother or knows about Dexter in someway and wants to go under his wing. However this turns out, I am excited. And, while yes, for the first few seasons we really didn’t want Dexter to get caught, FINALLY! What should have happened at the end of season 5. After an awkward turn where Deb is falling in love with her adopted brother, she catches Dexter RIGHT AS HE DROPS THE KNIFE. I was kind of disappointed that they didn’t really let us know where the Louis story was going, but the final scene where Dexter turns after plunging a knife into Travis’ chest to see Deb and says “Oh, God…” was great and I forgave leaving the Louis thing open ended. I think that ending was great and also tongue-in-cheek after having Dexter battle back in forth with the season’s theme of religion and ending the season with him saying “Oh, God.” I just hope they don’t turn this into “Dexter on the run.” I doubt they will, but the writers, despite a pretty good, if sloppy, sixth season, gave themselves plenty to work with.

I thought that the moment you found out Carrie was taking clozapine, an antipsychotic, that the series was going to try to take that and turn it into “Carrie is crazy, this entire game is in her head.” But no. They dealt with it perfectly. It became an obstacle for her, knowing well that what she was saying had to be true, but being trapped behind this obstacle that she is just “crazy” and “unstable.” The more we find out about Sgt. Brody, the more it seems like he really is the terrorist. Then we find out his partner, Tom Walker, is still alive and working for Abu Nazir, the show’s Al Qaeda terrorist leader. What was great about that moment is that when were pretty much told up front that Brody is not the terrorist and are lead to believe so because Tom Walker is apparently still alive. What was great about that was that even Brody didn’t know. He really thought he had killed Walker. Then we find out that Brody really is a terrorist, with Walker being another pawn in this game, to get Brody through the metal detector wearing the vest he planned on obliterating himself and half of the most important people in the country including Vice President. The finale was done superbly. Taking it day by day, starting with Brody recording a video of himself to be found after the attack. Continuing through until the pivotal moment where he is in the room, ready to go, switch in hand and…it doesn’t go off. I loved it. It seemed slightly expected, but I was just as nervous as he was and saying “Don’t do it, man…” out loud. Seems like a lot of these shows run off dramatic irony. That is especially true of this show and Dexter. And at the end when Brody’s daughter convinces him to not go through with the suicide bombing, we are left to wonder if Brody had changed his ways. Wait, no we aren’t. He convinces Nazir that he now has the tactical upper hand, as he is getting ready run for political office, and become even more valuable as he may eventually reach the top and be in a room with a bomb strapped to his chest and the president right next to him. Kills Tom Walker, for good this time, and walks away. Meanwhile, Carrie is in the hospital about to voluntarily undergo electro-shock therapy for her condition, when she connects the dots that Brody knew Nazir’s son who was killed in an attack by a US Drone, thus starting this whole revenge plot against the VP who ordered the attack, which would help prove Brody knew Nazir and that he was a terrorist. Except for one side effect and one small event. The therapy causes short-term memory loss, Carrie said “Brody knew Nazir’s son” and it was taken by the nurse as a mumble that everyone does as they are going under anesthesia. Oh, boy, am I getting more excited for this series to really take off. Tons of potential.

“I won.” Two simple words and the summation of pretty much two seasons worth of story arc for the show coming to an end. And was it brilliant. Even though it was only a few months ago, I still say, and feel that I will continue to say in the vain of Jeff Albertson, Best. Finale. Ever. I, along with plenty of people I’m sure, was yelling at the TV “THERE IS NO WAY GUS CAN STILL BE….” *camera pans to the left* “oh…well…um…” giving a double meaning to the title “Face Off.” The season was near perfect. While there are still things to gripe about, in the long run, you just forget about it because seriously, the ending could not have been better. It almost felt as if there was nothing left to set up the next season. I mean, sure, I feel Walt has finally “broken bad” with endangering innocent elderly people in order to get out of this corner with Gus he had found himself in. But to be honest, throughout the whole thing, I was still wondering “well, wait, what about Mike?” which will definitely prove interesting in the next season. But the clincher, the one thing that tied it all together at the end. We find out in the last few minutes that Brock was most likely poisoned by a berry found on a common plant called the “Lily of the Valley” which has sweet berries that kids sometimes eat and accidentally poison themselves. So Gus is dead. The blame is off of Walt, who Jesse had accused of poisoning Brock with the ricin that had gone missing, who he then convinced must have been Gus to get  him to turn against Walt. A seemingly plausible argument and good way to push the plot forward. So we finish the season figuring that is what happened. That is until the very last moments when we are given a shot of Walt’s backyard and the camera zooms in on a plant, the card of which reads “Lily of the Valley.” End season.