Uh-Oh SpaghettiOs: Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6 (Live Bait)

David Morrissey as The Governor in The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6

David Morrissey as The Governor in The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6

Been wondering what The Governor has been up to since he left Woodbury at the end of The Walking Dead Season 3? Good news everyone! The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6 (Live Bait) starts catching you up on exactly where he’s been. First, it flashes back to the moment when The Governor gunned his own troops down for their failure (as if you somehow forgot). Then it shows him camping with his cronies while a dumb freakin’ zombie trips over his campfire. Although Martinez helps out in the moment by shooting the walker, he takes off the next morning, leaving Philip to fend for himself.

It’s entertaining to watch The Governor’s decay over an indeterminate amount of time, as he grows an epic beard and wanders around torching everything in his path. The conflagrations and emo music playing during this sequence are pretty darn funny because they border on melodrama. Thankfully this part of the episode only lasts for a few minutes, since The Governor soon meets Lilly (Audrey Marie Anderson) and Tara (Alanna Masterson), who are holed up an apartment building with their father (Danny Vinson) and Lilly’s daughter Meghan (Meyrick Murphy).

Lilly and Tara are wisely reluctant to trust this haggard guy, who’s going by the alias Brian. They’re not total jerks, so they try to feed him some SpaghettiOs, which he strangely dumps in favor of cat food. What’s the deal with this new self-loathing Governor? Has he truly changed? Does he feel some remorse? It seems like maybe, after he does a number of charitable things for this family. He retrieves oxygen for Lilly and Tara’s ailing father and treats Meghan with soft, gentle kindness. “Brian” cleans himself up, teaches Meghan to play chess, and even deals with killing her zombie grandfather.

The Governor’s acts earn Lilly and Tara’s trust, so he convinces them to hit the road with their supplies. As they travel together, Lilly decides (unwisely) to sleep with him. Gross lady! You’re hooking up next to your own daughter and sister. Anyway, they find themselves in trouble near a heard of walkers and go running into the woods, where he and Meghan fall into a familiar pit filled with zombies. To protect the girl, Brian/Philip/The Governor goes ape shit and destroys those walkers with his bare hands. He scares the living heck out of Meghan in the process, but whatever. And then, to end The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6 with a major surprise, Martinez finds them! Bet you weren’t expecting that.

Did you like finding out what happened to The Governor after Woodbury? And do you think he’s changed? Finally, this week’s poll: Even during the zombie apocalypse, would you be desperate enough for sex that you’d risk doing it in front of your sleeping daughter and sister?

 

Liars, Liars Pants on Fire: Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 13 (Arrow on the Doorpost)

David Morrissey as The Governor on The Walking Dead

The Governor (David Morrissey) on The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 13 Copyright 2013 AMC TV

Warning: This Walking Dead Season 3 post contains spoilers. Please wait until after watching, before reading further. Similarities and differences between the show and the comic are also discussed, but whenever possible, details of the comic are left ambiguous in case you decide to start it later on.

Summary: Andrea arranges for Rick and The Governor to meet on neutral turf so they can negotiate. While the two men try to hash things out, their companions unexpectedly find common ground. At the prison, Merle fights with the others about whether they should take the offensive against The Governor.

At first I had absolutely no idea where Rick, Hershel, and Daryl were at the start of The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 13 (Arrow on the Doorpost). It was pretty exciting to see them sweeping a giant complex on the lookout for trouble. Hershel looked slick leaning out the car window with his M-16 and his gun hidden near his stump. Although once I realized what they were doing I was surprised Rick brought Hershel along on such an important mission given his disability.

Based on the trailers for this half of Season 3, I knew Rick and The Governor would have a face-to-face talk at some point, however I wasn’t expecting it to happen in Episode 13. After the previous episodes, there was nothing to suggest either Rick or The Governor was truly interested in a sit-down. There were also no actual scenes prior to Episode 13, which showed Andrea discussing terms of a powwow with either person.

Once they actually meet, poor Andrea tries to talk sense by encouraging them to “Save the bullets for the real threat (walkers),” but she’s thrown out of the room, and instead of fighting to stay, she goes off to sulk. Apparently even during the zombie apocalypse men still treat leadership like a boys club.

I know I accused Season 3 Episode 11 (Ain’t No Judas) of being the talky-est episode to date in this season, but Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 13 easily takes the prize. It was extremely frustrating to me because I felt like Rick and The Governor talk without saying anything consequential; they just dance around in circles. The Governor reveals that he doesn’t want peace, only surrender, while Rick indicates he won’t kowtow to demands. They trade verbal jabs as The Governor tries to warn Rick about messing with Woodbury’s numbers, and Rick cautions The Governor over throwing it all away.

Outside the meeting there are amusing interactions between Rick’s men and The Governor’s. They almost come to blows, before Hershel assures them there will be plenty of time for that later. As Milton intelligently points out there’s no reason they can’t explore the issues in their own way. Daryl and Martinez engage in a hilarious game of one-upsmanship killing zombies and smoking cigs. And guess what? They’re not all that different. Neither are Milton and Hershel who discuss documenting their history (pretty smart) and the science of Hershel’s survival. Good call on not showing him your stump though Hershel. I’d make Milton buy me a drink too before revealing my leg.

At the prison Merle argues very strongly in favor of sneaking out to defend his brother and to kill The Governor while they have the element of surprise. Merle tries the hard way, which ends with him getting wrestled down by Glenn and Maggie, as well as the nice way where he tries to sweet-talk Michonne. Neither work and everyone stays put. At least Glenn and Maggie make up finally with a quickie. Plus Glenn drops the “L” word. Way to go buddy! However I wanted to slap them both for leaving their watch to get busy. I kept thinking it was a horror movie and something terrible would happen because they were having sex. Thank god everything was okay.

Finally the conversation between Rick and The Governor boils down to an ultimatum: Rick can make all his trouble go away if he turns over Michonne. Did anyone believe that lying bastard would keep to his word? Hell no. Rick doesn’t and neither do we. But none the less, Rick must consider the option if Philip isn’t bluffing. So both men go back to their respective camps while intense music builds up tension. We see both Rick and The Governor lying their asses off like Axel Foley might say in Beverly Hills Cop.

The Governor says he’ll play nice, but reveals to Milton that he intends to slaughter Rick’s people and Rick avoids telling everyone about the offer on the table to trade Michonne.  Instead he lets everyone know they’re going to war while the episode ends on a creepy crane shot as Rick and Hershel discuss whether they actually should dump Michonne. Hey at least next episode should be a lot more exciting!

Click here to take this week’s poll: If you were Michonne would you team up with Merle to attack The Governor?

Were you also worried something bad might happen while Glenn and Maggie were “distracted?” Would you surrender Michonne if there was a possibility for peace? Weigh in with your thoughts on Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 13.