Everything in this post is a SPOILER if you haven't seen The Walking Dead mid season finale, so consider yourself warned.

The Walking Dead went out with not so much with a bang, but with a mushroom cloud in its midseason finale, with the destruction of the Prison, numerous deaths on both sides, and the survivors scattered to the winds. The biggest casualties, however, were Hershel Greene, in many ways the drama's embodiment of empathy and civilization, and The Governor, who ... well, was his polar opposite.

To mark the passing of the latter, who loomed large over the past season and a half, AMC has released a video with Robert Kirkman, Greg Nicotero, Governor actor David Morrissey and just about everyone else involved in the hit drama eulogizing the antagonist who, in the end, proved irredeemable.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Feb. 9 to finish out the fourth season.