Although a significant improvement over Year 2, the junior season of AMC's hit zombie serial still suffered from some of the problems that have plagued the series throughout its run, namely piss-poor characterizations and momentum-less midseason arcs.
I am hoping that The Walking Dead takes its cues for future episodes from this year's finale, and settles into a long-form storytelling mode comprised of small, stunning stories like this.
This is way too well-made a series to be dubbed a "guilty pleasure," even if a sizable percentage of the audience may watch purely for the visceral thrills of all that weekly bloodletting.