Note: The following recap of The Walking Dead is presented in two parts, a la Thought Pollution’s “Both Sides of the Coin” reviews.
Liam liked this episode?
The most recognizably good thing about these two Governor-centric episodes is the filmmaking. They take chances with structure and visual storytelling in a way that isn’t always common for this show. This is evident in the cold open, which cuts back and forth between a chess match between The Governor and Meghan and the moment where Martinez pulls them out of the walker pit, starting right back where the previous episode, “Live Bait,” left off. This technique is hardly anything new – Breaking Bad did it brilliantly in its final season and was far from the first show or movie to do so – but episode director Jeremy Podeswa, who’s done solid work on Boardwalk Empire, handles it well.
Additionally, the acting by David Morrissey in the role of The Governor, is demonstrably better than it’s ever been. He sells the “calm” version of the character in the early scenes and in those with his surrogate family. When the madness that he’s kept at bay is finally unbound, the rage is real and frightening, not the cartoony and (as I said last week) Grand Guignol version of rage that reigned supreme in his disastrous scenes throughout the end of season 3.
So, for most of this week, we’ve got Governor, Tara, Lilly and Meghan attempting to integrate into the camp that Martinez – Gov’s former right-hand man – runs. He’s walking a string-cheese-thin line, looking to honestly protect the girl, his girlfriend and her sister, but also having no interest in pledging fealty to anybody. He doesn’t want to be master and commander of anybody’s camp, either, at least not at first, but his deep well of egotism – the undoing of any psychotic – won’t allow him to live and let live. So he not only clubs Martinez in the head with a golf club AND FEEDS HIM TO THE ZOMBIES IN THE WALKER PIT, but also murders one of the poseur-militaristic brothers who served as Martinez’s henchmen and then enlists the other, meaner one, played by the excellent Kirk Acevedo, as his new Martinez.
But there’s an interesting question here. When he says “I don’t want it!” over and over again to Martinez as he’s turning the poor guy into zombie lunch, is it because he doesn’t want to have to lead at all and bear responsibility, or because he doesn’t want to play second banana to anybody? It’s hard to tell, but it’s making me actually think, which isn’t a frequent occurrence with this show. Then again, later on he makes a point of being all, “I’m leading this camp.” Weird.
When he finally arrives at the place where we first saw him, just outside the prison, he’s definitely in full Governor mode, but something seems lucid that wasn’t there before. Which is dangerous. And, oh yeah, dude’s got a fucking tank. And a new assistant nutjob. Shit does not bode well for Rick and everyone else at Chez Prison.
The last intriguing thing I want to mention about this episode is the number of haunting visuals it contained. The beheaded human corpses found in the woods marked with words like LIAR and RAPIST and MURDERER. The collection of still-squirming zombie heads in the abandoned cabin. The glut of walkers stuck in the middle of the road, legless, half faceless, groaning but unable to even reach out at prey. Martinez’s horrified screams as he’s lowered into the pit and torn apart. The zombified Pete, chained to cement at the bottom of a lake as an instant trap. I can’t say I loved this week’s installment of The Walking Dead, but it was definitely interesting, and that’s always appreciated.
Liam hated this episode?
No, no, no, no, no. Never, never, never. Nothing will come to nothing.
Those paraphrased lines from King Lear just about sum up my feelings regarding seeing The Governor back in crazy mode. Why? Seriously, why? Why do they have to go back down this goddamned well of confrontation build-up and blow-up? Didn’t you guys remember how awful that shit ended up being last year/this winter? You didn’t even have the budget to do a full, all-out goddamned battle!
Scott M. Gimple has to remember all of last year’s problems. After all, they’re the reason behind his current gig as showrunner. And I will continue to believe that most, though certainly not all, of them stemmed from Robert Kirkman’s ego as a comic creator and love of fan-service as well as AMC’s budget shenanigans, rather than any epic fuckups on the part of season 2/3 showrunner Glen Mazzara. So why does Gimple seem to be going down what appear to be the same stupid roads, after doing pretty well, never poorly and occasionally great in the first six episodes?
Maybe he wants to end The Governor’s storyline with the midseason finale, which, if it’s well-executed, could at least be okay. The thing that sucks is, just when Governor was starting to get really interesting, they sent him down a different (and, in all fairness, better) version of the same crazy avenue. It just seems like Gimple and co. taking the easy way out.
Also, aside from Morrissey and Jose Pablo Cantillo (who played Martinez) and the aforementioned Kirk Acevedo (who once played Miguel Alvarez, one of my favorite characters on OZ) there wasn’t much in the way of good acting here. Nor was there any great amount of good writing in the script by new series staffer Curtis Gwinn, other than the opening chess scene and the monologue by Governor about his abusive father.
I’m feeling thoroughly meh about what might happen in next week’s episode, but I’ll be there trying to give it a fair chance. The outcome of that hour will probably determine whether or not I continue to recap the show when it comes back from its winter hiatus in February 2014.
Liam can be reached at lgreen@thoughtpollution.com or via Twitter (@liamchgreen).