Tag Archives: Martinez

One-Eyed Bri: The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7 (Dead Weight)

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Jose Pablo Cantillo and David Morrissey in The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7

Jose Pablo Cantillo and David Morrissey in The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7

Just in case you didn’t get enough of him in the previous episode, The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7 (Dead Weight) delivers another healthy dose of The Governor. Rescued from the walker pit by Martinez, The Governor aka Brian, has settled into playing house with Lilly and her daughter Meghan. He’s gotten frighteningly comfortable with Meghan, calling her “Pumpkin” and teaching her how to play chess.

Not-so-shockingly, The Governor’s methods of parental supervision match his zombie apocalypse leadership style. He shows Meghan no mercy even though she’s just learning the game, and he doesn’t let her take too long to decide on her maneuvers, “You can’t wait forever. You’ve got to make a move.”

With the rest of his new group, The Governor seems like he has turned over a new leaf. He allows Martinez to lead and acts like a team player during the supply run he makes with his new pals. I love that his crew includes Charlie Francis from Fringe (aka Kirk Acevedo) and Victor from Dollhouse (aka Enver Gjokaj). These guys are great. How can we get them more work? I got the sinking feeling as I was watching them however, that their characters wouldn’t last very long hanging out with The Governor. He earns himself a terrible new nickname during this scene: One-Eyed Bri. Yuck.

Sure enough, my intuition was right, because The Governor kills Martinez shortly after by feeding him to walkers in the pit. All the while he bizarrely repeats “I don’t want to…” over and over. What a nut. Then he takes out Pete (Enver Gjokaj) and intimidates Mitch (Kirk Acevedo) into falling in line. I mean Mitch has to be left alive since he’s the only one who can drive the tank they’ve got.  Poor zombie Pete is chained to the bottom of a pond, unable to escape his watery tomb.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7 heads to the next logical spot near its close, as The Governor assumes leadership of his new camp and plots to attack Rick’s group at the prison. I was pretty disappointed in the show’s writers for pushing the mid-season finale toward the spot they should have ended with in Season 3. I don’t understand why they decided to drag everything out just to have The Governor attack the prison again, especially since he’ll probably meet the same fate he does in the Walking Dead comics.

Based on that, I offer up this week’s poll: Do you think the show’s writers should have done the epic showdown at the prison last year? Or do you feel that the additional time they gave was necessary for character development?

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

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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?

 

Philip Waxes Poetic: Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16 (Welcome to the Tombs)

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Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes in The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16

Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes in The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16

Warning: This Walking Dead Season 3 post contains spoilers. Please wait until after watching, before reading further. SERIOUSLY, there are some mega spoilers here, so don’t read ahead unless you’ve seen the episode or you absolutely don’t care about learning major plot points.

Summary: The Governor tortures Andrea and leaves her for dead, so that he can storm the prison with his army. However he quickly discovers that his troops don’t have what it takes to kill the prisonfolk, because they’re chased out. Afterward Rick, Daryl, and Michonne travel to Woodbury to finish the fight, although they’re surprised to find that that the people of Woodbury are anxious to switch allegiances.

Just as Season 3 opens with a closeup on a zombie eyeball, its finale, The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16 (Welcome to the Tombs) starts by focusing on a human’s. It slowly pulls back to reveal The Governor’s one good eye as he’s face-punching the crap out of…dun…dun….dun…Milton, for torching the walkers! Guess Milton finally grew a conscience (pair). Too bad it wasn’t Morgan who did it like some of us suspected.

Milton tries to reason with his captor, however The Governor is beyond saving. Philip issues Milton a scumbag ultimatum: kill Andrea or die. Milton tries to kill Philip instead, but sadly he gets crazy stabbed and left in the room to become a walker with a chained up Andrea. That’s sadistic Phil! During this scene he delivers a scary insightful comment akin to Jule’s Ezekiel 25:17 from Pulp Fiction, “You kill or you die. Or you die and you kill.” I think Jules would agree; that’s some cold-blooded shit to say.

Back at the prison everyone is making plans seemingly to flee. Carl is acting like a big baby giving Rick the silent treatment while they pack. The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16, is actually the first episode Carl has annoyed me all season long. Unbelievable after all the “Get Out of Here Carl” memes from Season 2. Michonne and Rick then have a heartwarming moment where she thanks him for taking her in. I really like her now.

Speaking of other characters I love, Tyreese politely declines The Governor’s invitation to fight, while offering to keep guard over the remaining folks. I was shocked The Governor tossed him a gun and said “Thanks.” Once The Woodbury troops arrive at the prison, they’re hooting, hollering, and blowing stuff up like they have unlimited ammo. Kudos to the writers and director for creating a massive amount of escalating tension as the Woodburyians comb the cellblocks looking for trouble. The highlighted bible passage sitting out was brilliant.

I was fairly disappointed however by what I felt like was an anticlimactic end to that fight. A few grenades plus Glenn and Maggie shooting and yelling scatters everyone to the wind. Then the pissed off Governor kills his troops for punking out, while his lackeys Martinez and the other dude just sit there in silence. Plus The Governor lives to see another day. UGH! I was hoping he’d get a huge satisfying death during the prison siege like he did in the comics. I was fascinated though by the whole piece about Carl shooting an innocent kid and trying to deny he did anything wrong.

I dug that Rick, Michonne, and Daryl found the one survivor of The Governor’s wrath and they went to Woodbury together where they got Tyreese and Sasha to switch teams. There was some good suspense leading up to Andrea’s bite. I loved the shot of Milton’s reanimated fingers just before the commercial, as well as the one of a closed door with screaming on the other side. It was touching when everyone came together to wish Andrea goodbye. Michonne even got misty!

The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16 ends on a happy-go-lucky note with the Woodburyians joining Rick’s group. Rick has regains his humanity (which I’m happy about) and he no longer sees Lori (thank god). But it’s not an ending that feels right to me. Not many characters die (at least important ones) and that closing seems uncharacteristically upbeat for the show. I didn’t have any significant attachment to Milton, Andrea, or Allen so none of their deaths got to me. Plus Andrea’s death was completely avoidable if she just tried to escape faster instead of wasting time. I was hoping for a huge throw down with lots of death and drama like in the comic. Sadly I didn’t get it.

Click here to take this week’s poll: Were you satisfied by the Season 3 finale?

Any predictions for what will happen in Season 4?