Over by the picket fences and malted Scotch of Woodbury, Andrea and Michonne continue to follow utterly polar trains of thought when it comes to the suspiciously austere security of the town and its charming rouge of a leader. As began last episode, Andrea starts becoming quite the smitten kitten for The Governor, and who can blame her. He’s outwardly kind, willing to share his spirits and has a calming southern drawl that could wilt the leaves off a huckleberry bush – I’m sorry, I won’t do that again.
Our now sans-katana Michonne on the other hand remains far more curmudgeonly and suspicious, finding blood spatter and bullet holes in The Governor’s newly acquired military vehicles, quipping “did the walkers learn to use guns too?” I’m beginning to like this character’s icy demeanour, though I do hope they give her a spotlight sometime soon to show the warmth beneath. So far, she is just Lurch to the Adam’s Family.
Still intent (and content) on leaving and heading for the coast and hopefully a secure island, Michonne is sidetracked by the aforementioned swooning Andrea who wants to stay just a few more days. She also gives some hopefully but ultimately infuriating information to Merle regarding his brother’s last known location at the farmhouse, even pausing to connect on the fact they were both abandoned by the same group. Oh, and to ask why they never hooked up. I think the terms whore and carpet muncher may have come up.
Appealing to what may be left of The Governor’s inward humanity, Merle drops the hint that he, understandably, wants to head out looking for Daryl. Of course refusing, stating that he needs his one-handed puppet rooted domestically, he tosses out a meaningless promise that if he comes across more substantial proof of his whereabouts, he’ll join him on his search. Foreshadowing anyone?
The Woodbury arch was certainly far less compelling than in last week’s episode, but while seemingly less significant events transpired just down the road, things where more than made up for at the prison. I initially pondered that the return of the Walkers to West Central was an excuse to toss in some bloodshed, not to mention ultimately having to clear the prison (again) of zombies would be a rather monotonous endeavour to say the least.
Then the rather striking and unsettling parallel emerged that nobody and nowhere is safe – Woodbury, for it’s the man behind the curtain and the prison for both the imminent zombie threat and the ghost of Rick’s past transgressions. This has obviously been a basic overlying theme for the entire series having been set in an undead wasteland, but it hasn’t yet hit this close to home.
So here begins the more blatant spoiler segment of this recap with the group now being two short – yes two – with one death in particular looking to have deeply unhinged two of our leading men.