I thought the first half of the season was great, but the second half was so busy trying to set up the finale, it never had traction nor was it compelling (minus the episode Clear with Morgan). The Glen/Maggie marriage storyline was too late and too much in the background to be meaningful. The Andrea storylines didn't make a lick of sense. The Gov'nuh was fairly menacing in the first half, but afterwards, he was just meh. Attacking the prison with a walker-bomb just to mess with them (but later saying they all need to die); having a gun ready to shoot Rick and not shooting him; gunning down his /entire/ town.... Even the Darryl/ Merle story was unbelievable, especially the Merle half. The Lori-visions were poorly executed, and the decision to have Tyresse and Co. go to the Village instead of the Prison didn't really make them compelling characters. They were no sooner introduced as bad-ass replacements for T-Bone et al than they were neutered. The Prison-Woodbury battle in the comics was the scale I was hoping this finale would be. Instead, we get a brief shootout and it's a victory. A bit lackluster, IMHO.

How do you guys feel about the storytelling decision to keep the prison around a little longer? I realize that the show is not the comics, but some plot choices are simply not working in the show whereas the comics plot alternative (which are the only plot alternatives that we have seen executed) seems to work beautifully.