We Didn’t Start the Fire: Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 14 (Prey)

Laurie Holden on The Walking Dead

Andrea (Laurie Holden) on The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 14 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: Milton tells Andrea about The Governor’s plot to massacre her friends, so she flees Woodbury to warn them. Furious that she’s chosen the prison over him, The Governor leaves to hunt Andrea down personally. Meanwhile, Tyreese and his daughter clash with Alan and his son because they refuse to blindly follow orders and they start to suspect The Governor isn’t actually the man he claims to be.

The pre-credits sequence in The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 14 (Prey) features a flashback to when Andrea and Michonne were traveling together. They’re huddled around the campfire while Michonne’s chained up walkers restlessly moan and groan. As usual, the tactless Andrea prys by asking her who they were, prompting a brilliant response from Michonne, “They deserved what they got. They weren’t human to begin with.”

Speaking of inhuman, shots of the chains morph in a brilliant transition into freaky disturbing images of The Governor creating his own little torture chamber for Michonne. That sick puppy is getting all kinds of twisted pleasure out of the process. The only reasons I see for them showing these moments are to remind us of the bond between Andrea and Michonne, as well as to foreshadow Andrea taking Michonne’s place (at least temporarily) at the end of the episode in The Governor’s chair-o-punishment.

I know I complained about Episode 12 (Clear) because it only focused on one group of people, but I actually didn’t mind the almost exclusive concentration on Woodbury in The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 14 because of how suspenseful the episode is. The majority of the thrilling elements come from The Governor’s chase of Andrea, which feels like a classic slasher film villain stalking his hapless prey (Oh hey, that must be why the episode is called “Prey!” How clever!).

Thankfully Andrea is smarter than the traditional horror movie victim, since she stabs her way out of being pinned down by walkers in the woods and sicks a horde of trapped stairwell zombies on Philip. If I were her though I would have either stayed to make sure the bastard died or stolen his truck. After all she did to escape, I couldn’t believe that The Governor cornered her near the prison and got her all the way back to Woodbury tied up without her putting up enough fight to get away. I did like the moment near the prison where crazy-ole Rick was on watch and thought he saw something in the woods before shaking it off.

I also enjoyed the parts of the The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 14 that follow Tyreese and his daughter. I chuckled when his daughter mocks him for being a terrible shot and desperately hoped when they let Andrea sneak out that they’d go with her. I’m happy that they heeded Andrea’s warning about The Governor not being what he seems., and that we got some hints about some of Tyreese’s backstory with Alan. Their conflict at the biter pit was awesome. It honestly made me think that Tyreese was the one that torched all of the zombies there at first, but then later on when Tyreese apologized to The Governor for running his mouth, I wasn’t so sure and suspected Milton of doing the deed.

That brings us to this week’s poll. Click here to let me know: Who do you think torched the walkers in the pit?

Do you think someone will warn the prison about the impending slaughter? If so, who will it be? Any predictions for the next episode?