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