December 2, 2013

(Spoilers Below)

In the last episode, the Governor had butchered his way into becoming the leader of a new camper group and he has his eyes set on retribution against the prison. I'll stop right here and say I did enjoy this episode, but The Walking Dead needs to start developing some different type of story arcs because the constant relocation themes are getting annoying and only being used as a way to kill off central characters or scatter them around. I understand that nothing survives in Zombieland and anyone who dreams of better things is but a fool, but if they were going to destroy the prison all along then they should have done it last year and killed off the Governor at the end of season three too. Why did we need to have two episodes dedicated to watch the Governor come back for his vengeance? I'm also at the point where we need a spinoff show that features Carl, Mika and Molly.

As the episode begins, Brian is giving a life and death speech to his new marks. He immediately lies about Rick & Co. by telling them that they destroyed his last group because they're evil and they live in a juicy, ripe prison that could be all theirs if they're willing to take it from them. His mind has split from reality in more pieces than Sybil's ever did. You can see the wheels turning in his head as he's acting as vicious as ever, but trying to deny those same emotions by saying he's somehow different.

And here's a thing. I thought he had spread dead rats around which caused the virus and sent the zombies to the prison, but now I doubt it. He doesn't seem to know about the virus that spread throughout the prison and I imagine his people would be very susceptible to it.

"We can live there if we're willing to take it from them."

In a montage, he pistol-whips Michonne and gets the drop on Hershel outside the prison fences. He continues on with his story and tells the campers that they can take the prison without firing a shot. Lookie here, he's already captured two of them while he went out scouting.

They're gonna help us take that prison without firing a shot. We can have it and we don't need to kill anyone , but....we need to be prepared to.

Roll Credits.

The title of the episode could have been: Assault on Precinct 13, but we'll get to that soon.

The Governor is eulogizing his own Sermon On The Mount to the campers and continues with his speech by making his group believe that the people inhabiting the prison are really former prisoners there. He's a clever one and knows how to manipulate rubes in the post-zombie world. He blames them for murdering his already zombied daughter without mentioning that she was already dead and easily convinces them that they need to do this to survive. Surprisingly to me, Tara is the first to say she's in. That seemed a little too easy if you ask me.

I didn't realize it at first because it's hard to know all the people that come and go in TWD, but he kept certain people away from his theatrics like Lilly, but she heard him anyway. Lilly appears to be a normal person and isn't happy about his plans because she's against killing. He tries to reach her.

I'm gonna keep you alive. I'm gonna keep Megan alive. The only judgement on me I care about is whether you two are still breathing

He tries to use the "I love you," routine on her, but she's still shaken by his plans. If she's not careful he'll make her his Archduke Ferdinand, which was the spark that lit the first World War in 1914. He walks away from her and she's still upset.

Michonne and Hershel are tied up in a camper and Brian (he doesn't like to be called the Governor) tells him that it's not personal anymore, he just wants the prison so he can save his people. Michonne wants to rip his f*&king head off, but Hershel tries to reason with him. He admits to Michonne that he now understands that his daughter was dead when she killed her. I don't know why he said that. Did he believe it would ease some tension from the situation? She replies by saying she's going to kill him. Hershel quiets her and then tells him that his own daughters are in the prison and if he understands what it's like to lose a daughter then how can he threaten to kill his? His answer is, "Because they aren't mine."

The Governor moves the people from the camp who aren't going to attack the prison over behind the river which he says will protect them from the biters while they go..

Back at the prison.

The Governor is hitting them at the right time because they are a bit fractured themselves. Some are still weak and recovering from the virus. Bob has to live with him, putting his craving for alcohol ahead of the group and Rick has to tell everyone that he banished Carol. Rick finally tells Daryl that he banished Carol and he's fuming about it, but agrees to tell Tyreese to see what happens. When they find Tyreese, an explosion goes off before they can fill him in about Carol. They all come running outside and find the Governor with his camper brigade, their tank blew up the guard tower. He also shows them that he has Hershel and Michonne captive.

The Governor tells Rick that they have until sundown to leave the prison or he'll execute them both.

We need the prison, there it is. I have a tank and I'm letting you walk away from here. What else is there to talk about.

Back at the camper site, Lilly is staring at the river as a biter saunters in and starts heading towards her and Megan. She readies her gun, but the current takes him downstream so she holsters it. Megan is playing in the mud and sand and she has dug up a wooden sign, but unfortunately a zombie hand pokes through the mud too. In a second the decrepit zombie breaks free and bites down on Megan's neck.

Everybody is armed and pointing their weapons back at each other. The governor is explaining how powerful he is at about the same time he's let his new daughter Megan get killed by a walker. Carl tells Daryl that he could kill the Governor from fifty yards right now and end it all and I believe him.

Rick surprisingly makes a lot of sense when he tells the Governor that they can all live in the prison now, but in separate cell blocks and survive or nobody lives in the prison at all because once the shooting starts, the walkers will come and take down the fences and destroy it for good.

The governor takes Michonne's sword and puts it to Hershel's neck ready to decapitate him.

Rick's next monologue really shines as he begs teh Governor to stop now and join them. Nobody has to die, they've all done terrible things to survive, but they can all come back from it.

I know we all can change.

Hershel looks on at Rick knowing he's in big trouble with approving eyes. He knows that he's finally made it all the way back from his crack up and he feels like a proud father. Maybe he can save us all? For a moment it looks like The Governor is hearing Rick, but as he slowly turns he calls him a liar and chops into Hershel's neck.

In slow motion we see Maggie and Beth Greene scream in horror, Rick shoots the Governor in the arm and then everybody opens fire on one another. Rick gets hit in the leg as Michonne wiggles around from the ground and stands up with her wrists tied. As Hershel is lying on the ground still barely alive, The Governor finds him and hacks him over and over again, which covers him in blood. Tara is cowering beside a car and Mitch Dolgen is yelling at her to pick up her weapon. When the Governor looks up from Hershel's mutilated body he sees Lilly standing in front of him holding her dead daughter in her arms. He quickly takes her and puts a bullet in her brain. Tara is freaking out over the Governor's actions, but Alisha tells her it's too late now and they have to see this through. The Governor demands that they drive through the fences with their cars to kill them all.

Was there ever any doubt what he had planned? The tank plows through the fences, blasting the shit out of the prison as his troops follow behind it as they make their full assault.

Maggie yells at Beth to get everybody on their emergency bus and get out of there. Rick jumps The Governor and they start fighting it out. People are being killed on both sides which means they'll be a hell of a lot of zombies soon as I wrote that, zombies start marching on the prison. When Maggie gets back to the bus she finds that Beth isn't there yet so she goes looking for her. The bus takes off without us knowing all the people that are aboard.

Alisha and an old man pin Tyreese down with automatic weapons and are about to kill him when Mika and Molly gun down the old man and then Mika shoots Alisha squarely in the head.

The Governor is wailing on Rick and about to strangle him when Michonne spears him in the chest with her blade from behind. He lies on the ground gurgling in his own blood and Michonne stares at him for a minute relishing her kill and then leaves him to die or be eaten.

Daryl destroys the tank with a grenade and then kills Mitch who tries to surrender and then finds Beth. Rick is screaming for his son Carl, who kills a few zombies as they meet. He asks him where Judith is, but Carl doesn't know. They find her baby carrier empty, covered in blood.

Lilly finds the Governor on the ground, laying in his blood and kills him.

Rick is leading Carl away from the burning prison and tells him not to look back as as they cry for their fallen baby.

The end.

*I don't believe Judith is dead. She could be on the bus or with someone else. I have to believe that.

*How quickly will they all find each other?

*We say good bye to one of the best characters on the show, Hershel. He'll be sorely missed. Who takes his place as the moral center now?

* I believe Tara, Lilly and some of the others from the campers group will join up with Rick and Co.

* Rick's face is busted up bad and he has a bullet in his thigh while all their medical supplies are trapped in the prison or destroyed. How's he going to survive?

* Carol will show up and save a few of them.

The episode gets a B because of the great battle, but if it had closed out season three I would have given it a much higher mark.

The Walking Dead returns in February.0

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