[Here be spoilers!] I've been writing and reviewing mysteries and thrillers for two decades, but I usually don't catch coming plot twists unless they're very obvious.

So I've been watching this past season of The Walking Dead with dread as a writer and a viewer. I've been hoping it wasn't headed where it was going. Unfortunately it was, and I can't be the only person who thought the finale was too heavily foreshadowed.

I haven't read the comics, but as soon as I heard the word "Terminus," I knew there would be disaster ahead, since a terminus is an end in a railway line or just an end in general. It's not the same as a terminal. Had an English major been among the characters on that show, she would have warned everyone, "Turn back!"

Since I figured it had to be a trap, I wondered, "What could be waiting for them?" It couldn't be another kind of authoritarian mini-state like the governor's, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be Elysium, so I figured it had to be cannibalism. What other threat could be left in this Zombie Apocalypse? Especially when the driving need in show after show is food...

So, of course, as soon as people show up at Terminus, they're confronted with grilled meat. Way to make a subtle point, guys. And cautious Rick doesn't even listen to his own warning to observe the site carefully before climbing the fence. He's to blame for letting his folks be herded like livestock to slaughter.

A friend who's read the comics confirmed my suspicions, and I wish the show's writers had done something to make what was in store much less apparent. Well, maybe they tried. Maybe that's why they inserted pointless, boring flashbacks all the way through the finale, to distract people from the coming dark anticlimax by slowing the action way down.

It's all too bad, because the show this season has often been shocking, exciting, and deeply moving. The finale, though,buy dvd s, was a letdown.