This is an entry in the Walking Dead Recap series. If you're curious why I'm writing recaps of episodes
which aired up to a year and a half ago, check out this post.
Right now, Michonne is officially the downer of this series. Yes, I'm aware a boy shot his soon-to-be-zombiefied mother in the face during the previous episode, but seriously, Michonne. In fact, for the rest of this recap, she shall be known as Debbie Downer, Debbie, or DD. During the party in Woodbury, she continues her "glare at someone while standing away from the crowd " routine as the scientist complains to Andrea that it's wasting the generators to cool drinks. To top it off, she shoulders a random guy walking by as she turns to leave. As I've said before, she's obviously right to be suspicious of the Governor and Woodbury, but does she really have to be such an asshole about it?
Cut to the Governor in his room brushing the hair of an unidentified person. Perhaps another of the town's young ladies he's taking advantage of? Pan down to reveal a little girl walker whom he calls Penny. She's placid initially, but after a few seconds, she spazzes, and he has to restrain her. Hey, another deluded soul keeping his bitten loved ones around because of a misguided hope for a cure or another similarly doomed plan. After he gets her in a straitjacket and puts a hood over her head to calm her down, he whispers, "Daddy still loves you." That's probably supposed to be touching, but it comes across as really creepy. As he holds her, he looks out the window to see Debbie Downer staring up at his window. Intro.
We open on a crying baby in Maggie's arms. Hershel mentions the baby will need formula, and Daryl starts barking orders to everyone while we get a close shot of Rick with that ringing/muffled sound made popular in the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan. Way to step up and take charge, Daryl; this might be a bit of foreshadowing that Rick's hold over the group is weakening. Between his concealment of the information from the CDC and his killing of Shane, there are probably some pretty major doubts in the group about his ability to lead properly. Daryl might not be as likable as Rick once was, but I don't think anyone has to guess how committed he is to the group or where he stands on major issues. Rick snaps out of it, grabs an axe, and without looking at either of his children, runs back into the prison. Daryl takes Maggie on his bike to make a formula run to, you know, make sure Rick's kid doesn't starve to death.
While the Governor is giving a rousing speech to the townsfolk congratulating them on how far they've come, Debbie sneaks in his room to snag her weapon. She decides to do a little snooping and opens a notebook containing what looks like pretty standard notes and scribbles. Then she comes to a list of names with "Penny" at the end underlined multiple times. After that, there are pages upon pages of backslashes, one right after the other. In the list of psycho writings, this is just a little less creepy than the tiny text volumes from Se7en and far behind the gold standard of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." She tries to pry the door of the Govenor's secret room, but is interrupted by him, the scientist, and Merle walking in. The scientist continues to complain about having to put off experiments due to the party. DD scurries to a corner, and both other men tell the scientist to chill out as they walk out with some beer.
DD slips out a window with her sword across her back. She ends up in an industrial-looking courtyard (for a relatively small place, Woodbury has a good variety of settings) and discovers several walkers in a locked cage. She grins, lets them loose, and does her best Kill Bill impression on them. As she finishes, the assumed caretaker arrives. Why would the Governor keep walkers? The two most likely reasons I can see are both supporting the scientist's work: either to 1) cure the infection or 2) more quickly eradicate it. The fact that the Governor's daughter is a walker supports the former, so that's what I'm putting my money on.
In the Governor's office, he points out she can't break into people's private residences and break rules she's specifically been told to obey. She tries to rattle him by mentioning Penny, and he is taken aback for a few seconds. Unfortunately, she then says Penny was "just another girl," insinuating she was another of his flings. He then relaxes, knowing she has no idea what she's talking about. As he waxes on a bit about how she's basically a pain in his ass, she jumps up, grabs her sword, and puts it to his throat. After a few beats, she pulls it back and walks out.
At the prison, Glenn is digging the graves for the recently lost. The prisoners walk up to ask if they can help, and Glenn gives them the cold shoulder, tersely replying the lost were family when the prisoners called them friends. One prisoner mentions he's only had one friend he was ever that close to and seems envious that Glenn has the whole group. At this, Glenn softens just a tiny bit and lets them dig the graves while he goes to talk with Hershel.
Hershel tells Glenn Rick is still inside, and after looking back at the prisoners digging the ditches, Glenn morosely says part of him wishes they would have killed all the prisoners as soon as they found them. That way, nobody would have opened all the gates and everyone in the group would presumably still be alive. When Hershel replies the prisoners (Oscar and Axel; thanks for a reminder of the names, Herschel!) seem OK, Glenn recounts the story of T-Dog driving a church van to elderly people's homes during the outbreak to see if they needed help and says T-Dog saved his life "thousands of times." When he finishes by saying he would sacrifice any number of strangers for just one member of their group, it seems hard for him to say. While it is a constant theme in the show, this conversation is the most pointed yet about the willingness to sacrifice strangers for ones you know and love and is made even moreso by the fact that Glenn is the one saying it. When looked at through this lens, even a fairly compassionate guy like him seems to approve, at some level, of a horrible act like Shane shooting Otis and leaving him for dead. It seems the loss of the farm and the false sense of security is bringing others around to more of Shane's point of view right along with Rick.
The Governor brings Andrea back to his office and tells her the story from his side: Debbie broke into his room, "stole" her weapon back, and threatened his life when he confronted her about it. He paints the picture of a leader having to regretfully banish a citizen for disobeying the rules, and while Andrea initially defends DD, she eventually buys the Governor's version. She goes back to her room where DD is (conveniently) starting to gather her things. They go back and forth about whether they would be better leaving, with DD's dialogue limited to short, vague, foreboding statements. Hey, DD: you're not the oracle of Delphi. If you would explain your reservations and concerns in a clear, detailed manner, people might actually pay attention to what you say.
Glenn goes into the prison hallways to find Rick. He finds him at the end of a trail of slaughtered walkers, covered in blood and leaning against a wall. Glenn approaches carefully and finds Rick with a thousand-yard stare. When he touches Rick's shoulder to lead him back out, Rick pins him against the wall before throwing him back to the entrance. A dejected Glenn walks back to the entrance. I'm going to take the role of Andrea talking to Rick the way she once dressed Lori down: "Look at everything you still have: two kids, people who care about you, a defensible place to live. You have a boy who needs you now more than ever, a little girl who will starve to death if she doesn't eat soon, and people who look to you for direction because you demanded to be their leader. Get your shit together, grieve on your own time, and start doing something productive."
Andrea and DD head to the gate, and Merle talks to the guy on top, seemingly stopping them. DD gives Andrea a "I told you so" look, but then Merle opens the gate wide. DD seems a bit taken aback, then says they staged it all. Andrea calls her on it and asks if she realizes how crazy she sounds. She makes an impassioned plea for DD to stay, saying all that's waiting outside the walls is a life of constant danger and scavenging for scraps. Of course, DD declines and parts with "You'd just slow me down anyway." I'm sure she'll end up being right in the end, but I honestly dislike her more than the Governor at this point.
Side note: does Andrea have some weird psychological or physiological issue where she can't wear tops with normal-sized neck holes and sleeves? Literally every time I can think of her, she's wearing something with a neck that goes from shoulder to shoulder and normally either doesn't have sleeves or is loose/billowy. I'm sure she's been shown wearing a normal crew neck, short-sleeve t-shirt at some point, but I've been looking for it since about midway through season two, and I can't remember it.
Oh, please say they're going to watch walkers fight. Please say they found a way to make the walkers attack each other Battle Royale style and have Vegas-style betting on it. Nevermind, this is just dumb: some fake fighting with the least aggressive walkers we've seen thus far. I'm with Andrea on this: you want people to be terrified of the walkers because they should be. Those things are what nearly caused the end our civilization, and putting them in chains for cheap entertainment is sending the exact wrong message. If you need to blow off some steam, have boxing or more elaborate fake fights between the guards; I'm sure after going through everything Merle has, he wouldn't have any aversions to cutting his own head open with a razor after being fake-hit with a chair.
We're shown a touching scene at sundown as Daryl drops a Cherokee Rose flower at (I assume) Carol's grave. I like how they've used Sophia's disappearance and Daryl's relationship with Carol so soften his character and get away from the standard redneck fare we saw in the first season. He is my favorite character at this point, and because I see previews for new episodes from time to time, I'm glad he survives at least another season and a half. My only question during this scene: have we actually seen Carol's body? I know they found her headscarf next to T-Dog's body, but as with Merle and the asshole prisoner, nobody is really dead until we see the body.
More grieving Rick in the bowels of the prison ignoring the real or imagined screams of his newborn baby. Suddenly, a phone in that same room conveniently rings with him there. He walks over, picks up the receiver, and says "Hello" in his best Keanu Reeves voice.
Episode Prediction: Out of a desire to honor T-Dog's death and as a reaction to the prisoner's apparent show of loyalty, there will be a groundswell in the group to accept the prisoners into the fold.
Result: Glenn's willingness to give the somewhat sacred duty of grave digging to the prisoners seems to show he is warming up, but his chat with Hershel indicates he'd be willing to kill them both if it meant safety for the group. They appear to have been given free walk of the prison, so that's quite a bit better than what they had previously.
Result: B
Next Episode Prediction: We will follow Michonee outside the prison, and she will find other survivors, though not necessarily Rick's group.
Season Prediction: The two camps will come to know of each other and eventually come down to a fight with Woodbury assaulting the prison.
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