I have only one issue with the finale - the gov needed to die. I'm not interested in rehashing him again next season, nor am I interested in Rick having an arch enemy. They should have wrapped that story line up, instead if leaving for potential pop-ups in the future.
Otherwise, I'm good. As I said way back, they needed to come up with some pretty serious decimation for them to leave both woodbury and the prison - they didn't so it only makes sense that they'd stay. And staying at the prison, which is much more defensible, especially with a smaller number of people, makes far more sense.
Carl was the most interesting aspect of the episode. I think Carl did the right thing - Herschel was mis-reading the other kid's intentions. When you tell someone to lay down their gun and they try to hand it to you, especially to someone smaller like Carl, you have to assume their real intention is to grab that person, not surrender. They had the baby with them - it was Carl's job to insure their safety. Notice I said 'insure', not 'ensure'. He did that.
But Herschel is right in another way - it's not just about the act being the right decision, it's about Carl's mental state in doing it. If the line blurs too far for him, he'll start killing anyone and everyone that comes along, imagining threats there there are none and allowing paranoia to take over. It should make for an interesting story line next season.
Andrea dying I'm fine with, since she didn't have much to do going forward. She doesn't fit with the group anymore, and her particular dynamic has been supplanted by the others. She was a good choice for a main character to die, since her story was pretty much played out anyway. I also found it a nice circular loop of storytelling in that she was doing what Dale would have done had he still been there, even though she had scoffed at him for it last season.
They have taken a very drastic turn from the books at this point, more so than even in the past. It makes for an interesting situation - nobody wants to watch them sit around the prison next season, farming and scouting and waiting for something to happen. Without any clear threat, other than the zombies, it's hard for viewers to see where they're going, and I think that might have been another weakness with the finale. There was no set up for next year, leaving a lot of fans without any tease. I know that while I'll be tuning in once again come October, I don't have that same sense of anticipation as I did when they showed the prison in the background at the end of last year.
