As someone who isn’t as wooed by AMC’s The Walking Dead as others, this third season has been its most impressive stretch yet, and contained a couple of the better hours of TV so far in 2013. But almost more enjoyable than the show itself is the fact that the creative team behind the series seem to finally understand the criticisms that the show has received since its premiere, and they’re dedicated to changing things. More on that in a bit.

The third season finale is this Sunday night, and “Twenty-seven people die,” according to Andrew Lincoln in a Rolling Stone story. “It’s safe to say it is all hands to pumps. It’s a crazy season finale.”

Twenty-seven people is quite a handful, even for this show of ragtag non-regulars who populate backgrounds. Chances are, most of them will come from the Woodbury side of things, and there’s probably a cheat happening somewhere, involving a flashback to before the outbreak, when a group of people get in a car wreck or something. One of Rick Grimes’ Prison Gang will probably take a shanking as well. I daresay Herschel, after falling down a time or two, will be one of the unlucky bunch. Should next season take them past the prison, I don’t see this group waiting around for his bumbling ass.