I think everyone really liked last week’s episode, which is awesome, because I think it’s one of the better episodes of the season, if not entire show. I can’t imagine Daryl fans weren’t stoked on it. It was a good mix of action and emotional beats and paced really well.
So after last week’s attack by the Governor, Merle and Daryl are back at the prison. Everyone seems to favor running except Rick, Glenn, and Daryl. Hershel gives Rick the business, asking him to snap out of it and do something. Rick goes outside to watch the fences. He sees (hallucinates?) something move out by the trees. Carl comes outside to tell him he should maybe let Daryl and Hershel lead so he can rest. We get a shot of the overrun prison yard and then credits.
At Woodbury the Governor is taking stock of his army with Milton. Thirty-five men and women, aged 13 and up. That’s what Rick’s group will have to deal with. Training is to commence as soon as possible. Andrea comes in during the discussion. She’s learned that something went down at the prison and is not pleased. The Governor says he had to go to make peace, and that Rick’s group opened fire on him. When Andrea says that wants to go see her friends, the Governor tells her that if she goes there, she can stay there.
Back at the prison, Glenn is uncomfortable with Merle living there. He wonders if maybe they could offer Merle to the Governor as a peace offering. Hershel goes to Merle to feel him out. They swap bible verse before Merle goes into what, exactly, the Governor will do to everyone at the prison. Suffice it to say, it’s not a pretty scenario.
Meanwhile, the Governor is taking a look at the newest recruits. It’s not exactly SEAL Team 6. That being said, the Governor does turn away an arthritic grandmother. He does play the nice guy in public very well.
Carol and Daryl discuss life in the prison, and Carol tries to make Daryl see that he doesn’t have to let Merle bring him down.
Not one to do what someone tells her, Andrea starts looking for a way out of Woodbury to see her friends. She enlists the help of Milton, who we all know is a great liar and loves being involved in clandestine operations. Milton immediately goes to the Governor (who’s looking at his nasty eye in the mirror) and tells him. The Governor instructs him to help her. Curious…
Milton and Andrea leave the perimeter and go walker hunting. They tackle a lone walker and cut his arms off below the elbow, and then put his open mouth on a rock andohmygodi’mgoingtopuke. Andrea stomps his jaw off and I pretty much black out. I have a strong stomach but the old curb-stomp gets me every time. That sound of tooth on rock? It is the worst.
The sound of my wretching draws in other walkers, and as one approaches Andrea and Milton, Tyreese and his group show up. Tyreese delivers a hatchet to the head of the walker.
Back at the prison, Michonne is doing some P90X when Merle walks in. He says he wants to put the past behind them and that him hunting her down was just business. “Like the gestapo?” “Yeah, exactly!” Merle is a charmer.
Andrea and Milton explain to Tyreese’s group what a walker pet is for, because, well, it’s pretty crazy looking, and then let them know about Woodbury. Milton offers to take them back to meet the Governor and Andrea heads out for the prison.
When she gets there, for a minute it almost looks like Rick isn’t going to open the gate for her. Ultimately, he does, but the reception is not a warm one. Carol’s happy to see her, that’s about it. She asks where Shane is. And Lori. AWKWARD. She tries to express sympathy to both Carl and Rick, who give her the stink eye like no one’s business.
After everyone expresses some degree of disdain for Andrea’s actions, she turns on Michonne. “What have you told them?!” “Nothing.” Great opportunity to bring up the aquariums full of decapitated heads, Michonne. Andrea says they can all come back with her to Woodbury, but Merle points out that that is definitely not the case.
Michonne and Andrea talk outside where for the second time Andrea again accuses Michonne of “poisoning” the group. Again, another great time to bring up how crazy the Governor is. Instead Michonne lets Andrea know how pissed she is that Andrea didn’t leave with her.
At Woodbury, Tyreese’s group is welcomed by the Governor. He tells them that if they choose to leave, they shouldn’t head north because of the dangerous group at the prison. Obviously they know who he’s talking about, and share their encounter with him, including Rick’s outburst. The Governor is very interested in any knowledge they have of the inside of the prison.
Meanwhile, Andrea and Carol are visiting Judith. Carol tells Andrea what happened between Rick and Shane, and what happened to Lori. She then tells Andrea that she should give the Governor the night of his life and then kill him in his sleep. “You can end this.”
They give Andrea a car (I should point out that the “nice guy” Governor wouldn’t give her a car) and before she heads off Rick hands Andrea a knife and her gun and tells her to be careful.
Andrea gets back to Woodbury and tells the Governor pretty much everything she shouldn’t—namely that Michonne, Merle, and Rick are all there. The Governor hugs her and they kiss. He’s obviously glad she came back.
At the prison, Beth sings Tom Waits’ “Hold On” while Daryl, Hershel, and Rick discuss Andrea’s visit. Rick seems surprisingly understanding saying “she’s in a jam.” Rick’s plan is to match the Governor in the aggression race. He’s going on a run in the morning, and taking Michonne and Carl, who he deems “ready.” He asks Daryl to stay behind, hold down the fort, and watch his brother.
As Carl looks out on the overrun prison, the actual Tom Waits version of “Hold On” starts to play. We transition to Andrea lying next to the Governor. She gets out of bed and gets her knife. She stands over the Governor, armed and naked. Ultimately she doesn’t go through with it. She turns to the window and the show ends.
Discussion Points:
ANDREA! What?! I’m pumped she was even considering killing the Governor. Does she know more than we think she does?
Does Andrea considering murdering the Governor redeem her at all?
TYREESE!! What are you doing?! Was Rick THAT mean to you? You’re on the wrong side dude.
The Governor’s army might be, uh, a little on the sad side, but he does have numbers. How worried should our crew be?
Carol: Secret badass?
Rick/Michonne/Carl team building exercise. I’m looking forward to Michonne proving her worth to Rick. I hope. Or at least slicing a lot of heads in half.
Who deserves to kill the Governor the most? Andrea? Glenn? Merle? Michonne? Rick?
Definitely think Andrea should kill the governor, if not, maybe create some unexpected plot twist and have Milton kill him!
Ha, Milton definitely should have been one of my choices. Poor, cowardly Milton.
Ending this weeks episode with a Tom Waits Song is just added whiskey to an already TWD Palooka!
Redneck curb stomp too cool
Really hope they let merl redeem himself
Think this season is jumping the shark with making Rick crazy for too long. Season is boring. Not enough walkers killed per show. Need to move on.
this season has been written and filmed. if it continues like this to the end and leaves us in a cliff hanger that makes no sense; I’m done with this show.
With all that is put into making TWD, having a few cliffhangers seems necessary, it’s worth waiting Sunday to Sunday to see what becomes of it.
Think about what Carol lived with for years. She was telling Andra to do what she probably fantacized about doing to her now dead wife beater husband a thousand times.
Andrea had zombie kill of the week this week
Survival tip one: get to an island! zombies can’t swim! once you kill all walkers on the island, your good to go! they could have driven to key west or Charleston, SC. They have an island with a fort on it!
Zombies don’t need to breath; so they can just walk to the island under the water. Nice try…
islands are a no go. I would go up in the mountains where its too cold for the zombies. They’d freeze before they’d get to my camp =)
The show could use some breaking benjamin music
Will Tyreese and his group realize who the governor really is?
If you aren’t helpful to the governor, you are expendable. I think they will figure it out pretty quickly…
Yeah i believe they will. In the end i believe some of the Govenors people will turn on him and help Rick.
I’m not sure. Some peeps may be so desperate for a taste of normalcy, they may have a blind eye (yes, pun intended) torwards what the gov. is really doing. The gov. is a showman as well. The verdict is still out…
What was that song at the end?
Man, it’s RIGHT UP THERE in the recap. Haha. Tom Waits.
I had it right right when he started singing at the end!
Is it just me or does the govenor have the patch on one and then the other. And no it’s not a mirror effect…
It was actually =)
I think she should sing some more! And what does everyone think about Rick and Andrea cause I could sense something hanging there, idk, maybe it was just me. Interesting!
Andrea could be thinking,”You and your people could get slaughtered”.
Rick could be thinking, “You could get slaughtered along with The Governor”.
the Governor is all about putting the weak and asthmatic on the frontline for the zombies to eat so then the stongmen can hunt down and attack the prison
Survival of the fittest maybe? Why bother to feed and protect the weakest of his herd?
Going to an island? Walkers are dead and they can walk, right? They’d probably walk right under the water and be all dripping and nasty when they attacked you in your sleep! I think I’ve seen them do it before, but can’t remember the movie……anyone?
Yes, it has been done…
Land of the dead(2005). Zombies not only walked underwater, they taught themselves how to use weapons(guns, hatchets, and my favorite a jackhammer).
I wish they would find Sofia already
You should watch season 2 again
I was a little disappointed with the show last night. It was short and filled with commercials. I pause the show at the beginning now for 10-15 minutes so I can fast forward through them and I STILL caught up to real time way before the ending. Do the producers think this may be kind’ve ripping off the viewers? Can’t they just sell commercial space for more and do less? I’m sure this comment will be deleted in a few minutes, that’s the way things role. Either way, I think Rick will be the one to kill the Governor in the last episode. This way they can keep the suspense building until the very end for a final shoot out.
We’re not going to delete comments for being critical. Comments will be deleted if they’re hateful, moronic, racist, etc. Last night’s episode was 43 minutes without commercials. Most shows are around 44 minutes.
I couldn’t WAIT to hear Hershel yell at Rick….”Get BACK here!” I had been looking forward to it ever since I first saw that in the sneak peeks. When Rick’s looking through the binoculars, I take that fleeting image as his hallucination has diminished. Just in time for some war!
I don’t trust Merle…the way he’s acting is not typical Merle. I would think he’d have more “beef” against Rick & the group than he would The Governor. Maybe that sentimental connection with Daryl in the woods did something to him but if I were Rick and the group, I’d have eyes in the back of my head!
There was no doubt in my mind that Milton would report to The Governor, regarding Andrea. There’s just no way Milton would go against The Governor, unless he gave up on life.
Speaking of Andrea, what she needs, if not to become WalkerBait, is to sit down & have a nice long chat with Hershel. I just picture her as a high-maintenance chick before the apocalypse… a successful civil rights lawyer who, in reality, only cared about herself & material things. Now she lets that selfish life blind her from a monster. I bet Hershel could talk some sense into her …wait, if Dale couldn’t do it….aw, she’s just gonna have to come around on her own! Anyway, I couldn’t help but think that the walker she chopped up Michonne style kinda looked like WALKER SHANE!!
I don’t fault Tyreese & his group giving up the goods on the prison…their first impressions of things weren’t good at all. We all know that first impressions with The Governor are totally different. Tyreese will end up where he belongs but not before he unknowingly gives The Governor what he needs for his war.
Michonne is recuperating…and something tells me that she’s gonna come out her shell like never before! I can’t wait to read about her in the comics!
I’ve already read that “this is a boring episode” or that “the show needs to step it up”. IMHO, this ep was NOT boring in the least! A true fan sees this show as more than just a zombie chop/slash/crunch/stab/shot!! I think it was meant to follow Rick and a group of people through the DRAMA of what happens BECAUSE of the apocalypse. I know we’re entitled to our own opinions but if you don’t know the names of the characters, if you missed relative details of the First and/or Second Season, or if you call any of the episodes “boring”, YOU HAVE MISSED SOMETHING!!! Go back & check it all out from Episode 1. If that doesn’t do it for ya, check out Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead and leave it at that…2 hours of a beginning, a middle, and an end.
i bet carl kills the governor, from the next week preview to the fact that rick wanted to take him, maybe to give him a feel for the bad people, not just walkers, out there, i think carl will sneak in with rick michone and the masked figure on the roof in two episodes and kill the governor, dispatch the entire town to the wilderness, then there will be a zombie massacre at woodbury and the group will have to leave AGAIN but this time not at the end of the season, they will follow them on the road for a couple of episodes
Andrea is thinking…
Impulse killing the governor would do her no good. The second in command would simply take over; and he might be just as bad as the governor. She would not get a trial, she would be shot on finding the dead governor. She just smarter than that…
Carol gave her something to think through. And that’s what she is doing; thinking it through. She isn’t stupid. She is going through all of her options. She is planning.
Remember: the governor did tell her if you go to see your friends at the prison, you cannot come back here.
She took a huge risk going back to the town. I totally think it was a test of her loyalty. She came back to the town and the governor; so he is happy she choose him over them. But, it is not necessarily true…
There are layers to this episode that will play out down the road. Building upon the drama of all of the players. On ‘Talking Dead’ last week they said that Tyreese and his group were not out of the show yet, that they would return. Good use of their characters I think! They could be very definitive as to the ‘war’s’ outcome.
Just like with Andrea; having been in both camps gives them certain advantages. Now, how they play it all out can determine the shows ending this season. ( Just wait and see… )
This is very much a character driven show; it is just unusual how often the whole thing can change with the sudden death of a main character. They can use the exit of a main character like Laurie to give Rick a small mental breakdown. Great plot value there… And also how it effects Carl; is key to his being able to step it up even at his young age!
Without all of the great plot, this show would quickly die as just another idiotic shooting them up & slice/dice ’em up show. It doesn’t take great writing skill for that kind of stuff. But, the writing in this show is central to making this a quality show!!! Just my own ‘humble opinions’ here…
Maybe this in the wrong place to ask this, or maybe it has already been answered, but if everyone is already infected with the ‘zombie disease’, why do they care if they get bit?
I guess at some point, the bites and scratches are just a matter of safety. Good question, I grant you that.
We all gotta die eventually…but some things could definitely take us out quicker. I think of zombosis like the most terminal of cancers. Did you see the first season when Jim got bitten and caught the fever? I’d like to think that they want to stay alive (like we’d try to prevent cancer) and they’d want to keep others around them from being bitten (like we’d want to protect our loved ones).
Maybe the virus is dormant until you get bit, or die. Then activates and you become a walker.
Regardless of Merle’s past, I have to take Herschel’s side. Merle isn’t innocent, neither is Rick, Michonne or Glenn, however, he is still a vital resource. Granted he is a racist ignoramus, he knows the enemy. I do believe Merle will ultimately perish, but not until after he proves his worth against the Governor and Woodbury’s militia.
Umm yeah the governors eye patch keeps switching eyes and i bet you didnt even notice i feel like im the only one that did someone else please tell me im not the only one to notice this its really erking me
I think Season 3 was wasted with too much Andrea. Wished they would have focused on Michonne more.
I believe Michonne’s time is coming…think the spotlight is gonna shift over to her.
This week is definitely all Michonne, Rick and Carl which should be great. Just afraid most of the rest of the 3rd season will deal with Andrea more than the other characters.
TIME TO NUKE THE MAYOR.
Can’t wait for tonights episode!
This show was good, but now the writers are going left. Rick’s group are not going to last as long as they keep following Rick. Rick is losing his mind and they are cruel to people who need help. Why is he still in charge?