As we open on a landscape, it's raining. If we're going by A Farewell to Arms rules, somebody is going die. We follow a walker through the woods, then...holy shit, it's Cutty! He runs toward a woman's screams, and we meet the rest of his crew: two guys and two women. One of the women gets bitten, but they take her along anyway after some debate. They go through a broken fence into some abandoned buildings, and as the camera pans back, we see it's the prison.
Andrea and the Governor lovingly talk to each other in front of a mirror just every couple never does. She takes off, and he goes into his secret room. He turns on soothing music, opens the cage door, and Penny rears out after him, snapping her chain taut. He keeps trying to stroke her hair and talk to her, but she only has eyes for the bowl of what I can only assume is the flesh puree that is sitting on the table next to him. He insists she look at him, but she just keeps trying for the bowl. He eventually gets frustrated, kicks the CD player away, puts her hood on, and puts her back in the cage.1
Glenn and Maggie were apparently left together in his cell with a shirt for her to put on. A still-bloody Glenn starts to ask if the Governor did anything sexual to her, and she interrupts him to say the the Governor barely touched her. She gives a short monologue about how they've been so concerned about surviving the walkers that they all forgot how bad people can be. Glenn again asks if the Governor assaulted her, and she again says he didn't. They finally embrace. Glenn goes over to the dead walker and pulls its arm off. Maggie walks over looking concerned as he continues to mutilate the arm. He eventually pulls the jagged bones of the forearm out and gives one set to Maggie, assumedly to use as a weapon.
Rick, Daryl, Oscar, and Michonne are gathered near the Woodbury wall, checking out options.2 Rick states the obvious that they can't make a frontal assault, and Michonne indicates she can get them in another way.
The Governor and Merle are talking about the prison and competing group. The Governor shows some admiration for their setup, but bristles when Merle asks if they should relocate the people of Woodbury to it. He says the people love Woodbury because it reminds them of the world before the outbreak, and sending them to prison cells would destroy that. He says the proper way to address the issue is to kill everyone in the other group and leave the prison to the biters.3 Merle brings up that his brother is with the group, and the Governor casually says Merle can talk to him and get him to switch sides. He closes by telling Merle to take Glenn and Maggie to the "screamer pits," assumedly to execute them.
Rick and the rest have broken into the town and are holed up in a building. Between her inability to pinpoint the Governor's exact location and the presence of people where she said there would be none, Rick and Daryl are opening questioning her usefulness and talking about cutting her loose. Now I'm not usually one to side with Michonne, but I guess they forgot she just got them into the walls without being discovered. A town patrol guy comes in after seeing their movement through the windows, thinking they are citizens who are simply where they shouldn't be. They capture him, quickly question him, then knock him out when they realize he doesn't have the information they need.
Back at the prison, Axel is sitting in a bunk with Beth and the baby. Axel compliments her on how well she handles the baby, then asks how old she is. Normally, that would be a relatively low creep factor, but with that mustache, we're bordering on disturbing. Thankfully Carl and his itchy trigger finger are in the cell with them. When she replies seventeen and he says, "Interesting," while smiling, we go on full Amber Alert mode. Carol arrives to asks to talk with him. They adjourn to the main cell block area, and she immediately tells him to stay away from Beth. He apologizes, saying they didn't have many women in prison and inferring Beth is his only option since Maggie is taken and Carol is a lesbian. She laughingly says she isn't a lesbian, and once it dawns on him, he goes into full Rico Suave mode, leaning on the stairwell and repeating his "interesting" line. She sighs, says it's not, and walks away.
We quickly cut away to the Woodbury holding cells and immediately see Glenn and Maggie jump the team sent to get them. Glenn fights with Merle as Maggie uses the walker's bones to stab a henchman in the neck. He fires his gun randomly while falling, bringing all guards in the town running.4 Rick and the group take advantage of the chaos and start moving that way themselves. Maggie gets Merle at gunpoint and prevents him from cutting Glenn's throat, but reinforcements quickly arrive and relieve her of her gun.
I realize Glenn probably accurately figured they were coming to kill him and Maggie, but what exactly was the plan with the attack? Merle always has at least one other person with him, and both are likely to be armed. Definitely a desperation move.
Merle and the reinforcements have Glenn and Maggie on their knees and proceed to put bags over their heads as they hold hands. They get them to their feet and lead them out of the room. Rick's group has found the cells (How did they find it so quickly? Did they follow the guards? I don't think Michonne was ever there.), and toss some flashbangs and smoke to grab their people. The guards politely abstain from firing a shot until they're around the corner.
The townspeople have heard the shots and the guy Daryl knocked out earlier has come to. When the gathered citizens hears him say there are several armed strangers in town, they start to freak out. The Governor tells everyone to go home, lock their doors, and stay calm. Andrea wants to help fight, but he, afraid she might see her friends, tells her to watch after the citizens and stay away from the action. He tells his troops to shoot to kill on sight.
Ricks' group of six people, some of whom are carrying automatic rifles, somehow manages to get down the street and duck into a building without being seen. Glenn tells Daryl about Merle (including his role in their injuries), than apologizes to Rick for giving up the information about the prison. They notice they've lost Michonne, and Rick says they should leave her behind. Daryl protests that he needs to see Merle, but Rick reminds him Daryl he might be the difference between the group living and dying outside the town walls. He reluctantly agrees to go.
The Governor and his advisers are having a pow-wow to decide their next move. Merle, oblivious to the fact his brother is one of them, is in favor of killing the whole lot. The Governor agrees and refers to them as "terrorists." Not sure if the writers are trying for some political commentary here; we'll see if the terrorist narrative comes up again. Andrea again lobbies to get into the fight, but the Governor insists she deal with the populace. She continues to make her case as they walk away from the group, and he finally tells her to simply do as he says. She agrees.
We find Michonne in the Governors room, where she eventually settles in a chair with her unsheathed sword across her legs. Not a terribly strategic position considering she's 10+ feet from the door and the Governor always has a pistol on him, but whatever. To be honest, I'm a little surprised Michonne isn't going to utilize the "levitate in thin air somewhere above the enemy and drop down" like she did with Merle's guys.
Back with Ricks' group, Daryl throws some smoke grenades into the street, and they make their way to the wall. A fairly generic firefight ensues, with the noteworthy results being Oscar dead, Daryl staying behind the "provide covering fire,"5 and Rick killing an imaged Shane, and the group going over the wall.
Back at the prison, Carl and Beth are loading empty gun magazines, and he's making plans in case nobody comes back from the Woodbury run. They hear noises from the "tombs" (their word for the labyrinth of hallways and rooms deep in the prison), and Carl goes to investigate. He finds Cutty's...err...Tyreese's group in the maintenance room and helps them fight off the walkers who have wandered in behind them.
Michonne is still waiting in the Governor's office. She hears noises from his secret room and kicks the door down to investigate. She is clearly horrified by the heads in the aquariums, but moves on to the cage built into the wall. She sees Penny (with a sack over her head) and assumes it is a normal child caged up. Michonne assures her everything is going to be alright and unfastens the leash from Penny's neck. I felt awful, but watching this the first time, I really did hope Penny would take a bite out of Michonne. It would either get rid of one of the more annoying characters in the show or force her to cut off an appendage with her sword and maybe learn a little humility.
Michonne gets Penny's hood off, sees she's a walker, and immediately prepares to run her through. With perfect timing and without making enough noise to alert Michonne, the Governor comes in. He begs Michonne to not hurt Penny, giving up all his weapons and showing real concern at the prospect of Penny being hurt. Despite this, he continues walking close to Michonne, and she never tells him to back off. Michonne puts the pieces together, makes her decision, and runs Penny through. Unfortunately, her ninja-like fighting skills switch is in the "off" position for this one, and we get a lengthy fight with several "weapon is just out of reach" scenes. Michonne eventually stab the Governor in his right eye with a piece of glass, and just as she's about to finish him off, Andrea comes in with a drawn pistol. She allows Michonne to leave, and afterward, she looks around the room, taking in the walker heads and Penny.
Back at the prison, Tyreese's group gets into the holding area, and Carl points out they need to take care of the bitten person who has died. He dispassionately aims his pistol, but Tyreese stops him and says they take care of their own. He tells the dead woman's husband and his son to clear out, and just as he starts the swing, Carl closes the door to the cell block and locks it. Tyreese's woman freaks out and yells at Carl to open the door before Tyreese jumps in to tell her to calm down. Beth asks if they should help the new people, and Carl replies, "I did." Between the deadpan delivery and the oversized hat suggesting a Lord of the Flies-esque child leader, that scene was genuinely disturbing.
We get a nice closeup of the damage the glass did to the Governor's eye, and while the doctor insists he rest, he gets up and tells her to get out. Andrea arrives and asks why he was fighting Michonne, and he bitterly says Andrea would know more than him. She brings up Penny, and he immediately gets sorrowful and nearly collapses against the wall. Milton and Merle show up, and the Governor comes back up with a steely, menacing look.
Outside the walls, Rick and the group encounter Michonne and disarm her. They make no attempt to disguise their distrust of her, but she pleadingly points out that they will need help either getting back to the prison or going back for Daryl. For once, she seems to realize she really needs help.
The Governor has all the citizens meet at the industrial area where the walker matches happen and gives a speech about how fear not known since the Woodbury walls went up has crept back into their lives, how he has failed them, and that he's afraid of this new "terrorist" threat. He says they have a traitor among them, then points the finger at Merle, saying he led the outsiders to Woodbury and helped them get in. The Governor then brings in Daryl and asks the crowd what to do with them. They respond by calling for an execution. Cut to black.
Major Themes
- Woodbury is scared/pissed off. Only the Governor and a few people knew about the prisoners, so the rest of the town just thinks these people are attacking them out of malice or greed.
- The Governor is officially on the offensive. With Penny double dead, he has nothing but vengeance to live for.
- Rick's group is stretched to the limit as far as fighting capabilities. Daryl has been captured, Oscar is dead, Axel seems more interesting in getting laid than firing a weapon, Hershel is only barely mobile, and Glenn can barely walk. The new people could be major assets.
- The Governor is crushing Rick when it comes to leadership abilities.
- Both sides are losing people. This is going to have to come to a head relatively soon.
Episode Prediction: Rick and the group will make a small incursion or none at all once they realize what they're dealing with, most likely running back to their vehicle once they see a convoy going out of the compound.
Result: Not even close. Rick and the team got into the perimeter and somehow managed to sneak around in plain sight with automatic weapons while rescuing Glenn and Maggie.
Grade: F
Next Episode Prediction: Merle will die saving Daryl and somewhat redeem my shattered "Merle is a good guy deep down" theory.
Season Prediction: After witnessing the heads in the aquariums and Penny, the seeds of doubt have been planed in Andrea's mind, and she will eventually abandon the Governor and/or the current version of Woodbury.
1. The Governor's pad demands the same suspension of belief as the Batcave, though to a lesser extent. In both cases, the person using it probably needed help to build it/set it up (contractors, carpenters, electricians, etc.), and you'd think the people who helped would tell their friends/family to spoil the secret. Although the Governor's setup took far less work, and he seems much more likely to kill everyone who worked on it.↩
2. The light is from the spotlights on the wall is obviously on everyone, and they're all moving around to switch weapons and talk. I'm all for equal opportunity, but the Governor really shouldn't let blind people patrol the wall.↩
3. One of the things I've really liked about the series is how each group has their own word for the zombies: walkers, biters, etc. Geographically diverse populations have always developed their own patois/vocabularies over time, and this is simply that process done in fast forward. A neat wrinkle that makes the world feel a bit more real.↩
4. I find it interesting that Merle can torture Glenn all he likes in the cells and nobody hears anything, but as soon as one short burst of gunfire goes off, the entire place can hear it and starts sprinting that way.↩
5. In this show, as soon as someone says, "Go ahead, I'll be right behind you," they are basically guaranteed to be killed or captured.↩
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