Back to his old ways

After last weeks Governor themed episode, we get another glimpse into The Governor to see if he truly has changed.

The Governor's former underling Martinez has started his own survival group and decides to take in The Governor and his new "family."

As the Chambler family stays behind at the new camp, The Governor goes with Martinez and two others on a supply run. Walking through the woods, they find tied up bodies with their heads missing and signs on them. One sign says "Liar" and another says "Rapist." Even with the ominous figures, they venture on into a walker invested cabin and The Governor has to save them.

It's interesting to note how The Governor tries to distance himself from his Woodbury days. remains changed. As the supply run group takes a moment to rest and search the cabin, The Governor plays coy with his past and takes every moment to shift the conversation from him to the others backgrounds. He does the same back at the camp.

Eventually, as Martinez and The Governor are driving golf balls atop an RV, The Governor gives us a glimpse that he might not have changed at all. He hits Martinez over the head with a golf club and then feeds him into the pit of walkers.

It's shocking and crazy at the same time sine this is the first true aggressive and psychopathic action The Governor has done since the fall of Woodbury. It's easy to think he did this to try and erase the last thing that could tie him back to Woodbury, but if he's trying to do that, killing Martinez isn't the answer. It was more of a selfish act, another first since leaving Woodbury, and could mean The Governor hasn't changed at all.

With the death of Martinez, the camp is not thrown into disarray as they have no leader. The Governor and the two men from the supply run decide to go on a hunt for food. They find a small group of survivors but decide to leave them alone. On their way back from the hunt, they find someone else raided the camp and took all the supplies.

This puts fear into The Governor and comes back to the camp to take Lilly and the other Chamblers away to find a new place to live. Unfortunately, the road is cut off by walkers and they decide to go back.

As morning comes, The Governor shows us he hasn't changed. He kills Pete, one of the supply runners, and then makes he way to Pete's brother but decides to make a proposition with him. As he explains a cover up for Pete's death, he begins to talk about how manipulation and coercion will keep the people happy and in control. In the end, The Governor assumes leadership of the camp.

This episode felt like a long character test for The Governor, and depending on who you ask, it's a pass or fail. As the episode comes to a close, we see that moment from two episodes ago as The Governor takes a watchful eye on the prison.

If you're the hopeful viewer, it's a fail because he really hasn't changed. The other side is a pass because he now is the enemy everyone wants.For me, I think it was a fail because I truly believed he had changed.

It's as if The Governor has come full-circle and the redemption tour was just to test his mental fortitude. To see if he would take his own life after defeat. However, the defeat seems to have made him even more dangerous. He's the enemy we've come to love and he's ready to make a new camp for his new group.

All in all, it was a decent episode but moved slow and wasn't as exciting to watch as last weeks. Aside from The Governor being his old self, there wasn't much this week.

This was really a set-up for next weeks show down at the prison. The next episode is the mid-season finale and it looks like war is going to happen again. It will be fun to watch if The Governor thinks he can take the prison.

Rating:

3/5

The Governor returns

This weeks "The Walking Dead" went in a different direction, giving viewers a glimpse into what The Governor has been up to since his defeat last season.

In the cold opening, we see The Governor watch his town of Woodbury burn and then embarks on a journey on his own. Now dirty, unshaven and much thinner than before, The Governor finds a small town with a family living in an apartment building.

No longer cool, calm and collected; The Governor is a shell of what he use to be. Clearly he has not recovered from his defeat and seems to have lost all energy. He looks like a lost old man who talks in short sentences and phrases. Indeed, the old Governor is gone.

As the family he meets explain what happened to them, The Governor looks disinterested. He even dumps a plate of food given to him and instead eats food from can he has with him.

In a way, and fans of Rick and his group would probably agree, The Governor deserved this path. Killing many people and survivors for supplies for his town was not the most noble thing to do. He also incited much of the violence between Woodbury and the prison survivors, lying to his residents to get them to wage war on Rick and his group.

While The Governor was a more ruthless character in the comics, the TV series portrayed him as more of a manipulative figure. Using lies and cohersion to get his way, The Governor was very good at making sure he got what he wanted.

Using his words was The Governor's strength. He almost seemed like he could talk his way out of any situation. Now, he barely talks and lets his actions do his talking from him.

We see this as the episode continues, The Governor traverses to the the floor above the family to retrieve a game board. He even ventures out to a hospital to get oxygen tanks for one of the family members. Risking his life as he gets overwhelmed by walkers, The Governor is able to escape with a couple of tanks of oxygen.  

Another interesting note to The Governor's new attitude is his fear of walkers. As he searched through the hospital, a look of panic crossed his face when a horde of walkers descended on him. The old Governor had no fear and took walkers on head first, even using walkers for protection and research.

As time passes, The Governor begins to get more acquainted with his new "family." Cleaning himself up and regaining some of his old attitude, it almost seems as if finding this family in need is part of a redemption tour for him.

Unfortunately, the family finds out the hard way of how the world works now when people pass away, and as expected, they freak out. After the shock moment, The Governor burns away the last remnant of his old self and decides to set back out, but with new company this time.

The last few moments of the episode are hard to watch, not because it's bad, but because it gets your heart pounding and makes you actually root for The Governor to finally get a win and survive. It's also nice to see The Governor hasn't lost his step in fighting off walkers, as he rips the throat out of one of them. Just as The Governor relaxes, we get to see an old friend come back into his life.

Another satisfying episode in, it was great to see how much The Governor had changed. That new change will be put to the test quickly however, as the next episode will see how much The Governor wants to stay on his road to redemption.

Rating:

8/10

'The Walking Dead' plays doctor

With last weeks ending in a shocker, "The Walking Dead" continues the plight of the prison gang dealing with a deadly virus.

With Rick returning to the prison, it was going to be interesting to see how Rick broke the news of exiling Carol. There was specualtion as to whether he would lie and say she died or if he would tell the truth.

He tells Maggie the truth and Maggie believes he did the right thing. As he tells Hershel however, he takes the news harder then Maggie.

With that said, this episode was really about Hershel and the dire situation in the quarantine area. We first see Hershel, Sasha and Glenn trying to resuscitate a dieing a survivor. Hershel does everything he could to save the man. In the end, they find a way to keep him breaathing, but some one has to help him to do it, like a manual iron lung.

The mood in the make-shift quarantine is not good. Hershel does his best to tend to everyone but the situation continues to grow dire every day. Almost every new scene has someone falling to the sickness and Hershel has to get another body ready to be burned. Hershel remains strong through it all, even after a grim conversation with Caleb.

Not letting the constant death drive him away, it really shows what kind of person Hershel is. He is the first person of the council to make an effort to take care of the sick in a physical sense. Hershel, like in the comics, has always been the voice of reason and all that is good. So having him play the part of healer is perfect.

After bringing Sasha back from the brink of death, things go from bad, to worse.

Just as Hershel was beginning to bring some order back into the area, some of the survivors who have fallen to the virus begin to attack and turn things into a frenzy. Lizzie, who recently came down with
the virus, lures one of the walkers away from Hershel. In an intense moment, the walker is seconds away from biting Lizzie and Hershel comes to the rescue.

However, the danger is not gone. After hearing gun shots, Maggie breaks through into the quarantine zone to help neutralize the walker threat. In another intense moment, Maggie and Hershel begin work on helping Glenn, who is now having trouble breathing.

Meanwhile, things get worse outside the prison as a big herd of walkers are able to push down one of the fences. In a last ditch effort, Rick arms Carl with an assault rifle as both of them mow down the walkers infiltrating the prison.

Just as things look like they are going all wrong, Daryl and the others return with the medical supplies. Hershel and Maggie are able to get the meds to everyone and it looks like the virus threat is over, but only time will tell.

The relief on Hershel's face says it all. All the hard work and optimism finally pay off. 

We did not get to see Rick break the news to Daryl or Tyreese yet, but hopefully we will next week. I don't see it being an easy conversation with either of them.

As the episode ends, we get a great teaser as for what's to come next. Now with the virus seemingly taken care of, it looks like a returning enemy is going to make his appearance in this season.


All in all, this was a very entertaining episode. It was great to finally get an episode focused on Hershel. Even though he is the oldest and missing a foot, Hershel showed why he is one of the strongest characters in the series. Taking a risk to his health, he stepped up to help out the sick and in the end, is the reason why Sasha and Glenn are still alive. He couldn't save everyone, but he tried his best.

Again, "The Walking Dead" shows us how good an episode can be without a lot of action. It was like watching an episode of "ER" with zombies.Unlike last week, every scene was important and had you on the edge of your seat.

Rating:

8.5/10

A bitter moment for Carol

In as cringe-worthy of an opening "The Walking Dead" has had in a while, we see a new, darker side of Carol.

Picking up from last weeks revelation, it's clear Carol has begun to take things into her own hand.

With Rick finding out about Carol, he decides to go on medical supply run as and tells Carol to come with him.  While searching abandoned houses, they find a young couple and help them kill a walker. Rick and Carol are cautious when talking with them but decide to trust in them to help raid houses.

We haven't had an episode to catch up on Carol and it's amazing how much Carol has changed since last season. No longer positive and helpful, Carol has become a shell of what she was. She shows no remorse for killing the two infected people and even gives a dose of reality to Rick as they look for supplies.

It also shows how much she differs on ideals with the council. Recruiting new survivors was important to the council and Carol has no interest in it. Instead of waiting for Sam, she advises on leaving. She also showed no remorse in finding the woman they had met dead and getting devoured by walkers.

In a way, Carol is portraying the role of realist, as opposed to the idealists in the council. The council hopes to cure the infected and continue to grow their ranks. Carol on the other hand, believes curing the sick won't work and wants to save those that aren't sick yet.

It's like Carol has fallen into the mood Rick did last season after the death of Lori. It's probably why Rick took only her with him for the supplies run as a final test to see where she is at psychologically.

Meanwhile, the supply run with Daryl, Tyreese, Michonne and Bob hits a couple of snags along the way.

It's clear Tyreese has not fully recovered from the death of Karen as he is brash in attitude and doesn't seem to care if he loses his life fighting walkers. There are some nice moment between Michonne and Tyreese, with Michonne trying to put a little optimism in Tyreese. It's a little reminiscent of the comics, where the two fall in love, well as close to love as you can get. It remains to be seen if that happens in the show, but for fans of the comic, it's a nice note.

We also get to see what has been on Bob's mind and his need for alcohol. It almost gets the group killed and gets Bob on Daryl's bad side.

As the episode comes to a close, Rick has decided on a punishment for what Carol did. It's a bold move by Rick because of the repercussions it can cause. In his mind, Carol did not pass the test in the way she handled meeting the two survivors. Hopefully Carol will find her self on her own and go back to the positive person she was becoming.

While this episode had a nice ending, it moved very slow. Many of the scenes with Daryl and his group seemed longer then they needed to be and it made the episode drag. Unless Bob will play a significant role later in the series, I really felt the scenes with him were not needed. Still better then the average episode, it needed that extra spice and it took long to get there.

Rating:

6.5/10