Thoughts on TWD Finale

Spoilers, obviously.

From the looks of comments on various sites, many people were disappointed in and/or didn't like the finale. Of course, many people did like the finale, but usually those who complain are louder or more vocal.

I am one of those people who did like the finale, at least for the most part.  I usually share my thoughts scattered throughout and at the end of my recaps, but I decided to have a separate post for this.

Where to begin, where to begin.

I guess we can start with Andrea.  I am so incredibly sad that she's dead.  Like I said in my recap, I actually gasped, like a big dramatic gasp like TV characters do when they watch TV, when she revealed she was bitten.  I thought she was going to live and they were just building up the drama by not showing anything.  Her story really is quite tragic.  She didn't want anyone to die; she wanted peace.  But she had so many opportunities to kill The Governor.  And because she didn't, she's dead, not to mention all those people who The Governor massacred.  Which is why I find her death so tragic.  T-Dog heroically went out saving Carol.  Lori's death was also extremely sad, but her death came with life, i.e. Judith.  Everyone has long forgotten about Oscar, but he wasn't that important anyway.  Hell, Merle went out with a bang in a heroic stand giving his brother and the group a better chance.  But for Andrea, all those people did die.  The one thing is that her real group- did not die, but that really didn't have too much to do with her.  Of course, there's the whole debate about hero vs.martyr, and bla bla bla, but I won't get into that.

But what bothers me, and I'm sure so many others, is that she kept stopping to talk or just straight up stare at Milton instead of working to get the pliers and break free.  And I'm supposed to believe that The Governor is able round up his army, attack and search the prison, fail, flee, slaughter his army, and Rick is able to regroup, chat up his everyone, talk to Carl, save Karen, and enter Woodbury ALL before Andrea is able to break free?  That makes absolutely no sense and nearly ruins it.  But Andrew being able to survive and then orchestrate that whole intricate Walker invasion thing back in the "Killer Within" when he had absolutely no experience with walkers and didn't even know about them until Rick found him, didn't make sense either.  Neither did The Governor being able to survive all those walkers AND being able to catch up with Andrea at the right moment in "Prey."

I'm just sad that we're never going to get to see Andrea become more like her comic book character

Now on to Milton.  For a supposedly smart guy, he was pretty stupid.  What did he think The Governor was going to do after Milton scorched the walkers.  He should have done something more useful.  Like kill The Governor when he had the chance.

I know many people, including the characters, were quick to criticize Carl, but he had good points.  He seemed to be the only one to acknowledge the fact that these people were ready to kill every last one of them.  They told that kid to drop his weapon.  He didn't.  He claimed he was going to hand over his weapon, but he could have easily struck Carl instead and started shooting.  The kid had at least a few feet on Carl.  That kid should have dropped his weapon like he was told.  You can see Carl think about it before he did it.

I'm conflicted about The Governor.

 I wanted him to die. Hard. With A Vengeance.  And no one thought to shoot back instead of running?  And as far as I'm concerned Martinez and Shumpert (yep, that's the other guy's name) need to go too.  They could have stopped him.  They were in shock, but still.  And I understand why they went with him.  Where are they supposed to go.?  And I kind of wanted to move on from The Governor.  Part of me was getting tired of him and how long can he really live for.

But the other part of me understands.  It's so obvious to have him die in the finale, and by keeping him alive past this season, they are preventing from going that root where there's a main villain each season who dies in the finale.

But I'm just mad that nobody went after him after they got to Woodbury.

I'm interested in seeing where we start off timewise next season.  Will they let us see things right from the end of the finale, or will they do a time jump, whether short or long?

This picture makes everything better

I know people are reading these!  Comment!  I would love to get a good discussion going.

"Welcome to the Tombs" The Walking Dead S3 Ep 16 Recap

Spoilers, obviously.

We start off with a close up of an eye, Lost style.  The Governor is beating up Milton for burning the walkers.  I guess it took an extra episode or so for The Governor to do something about it.   He tells Milton that "It's time for him to graduate."  But he ain't getting a diploma.   Milton asks him, "What would your daughter think?"  Answer: "She'd be afraid of me", but if he was like this from the start, she’d be alive.

Milton asks if he killed Andrea.  Nope, he throws him into his torture workshop where she has been cuffed to a dentist's chair.  He announces that he is going to the prison to kill them all.  He orders Milton to collect the tools.  Milton gets them but leaves pliers on the floor behind Andrea.  The Governor tells him to kill her now. No way he’s leaving this room without doing it. He turns around and tries to kill The Governor, but nope. The Governor saw it coming, counters, and stabs Milton.  It was a pretty weak attempt.  Now hes going to die and come back and tear the flesh from her bones. The Governor proclaims, "In this life now you kill or you die.   Or you die and you kill.”  Sounds just like a Hallmark Card!

Shiny

Carl is packing up.  He looks at the family photo Michonne helped him get and puts it in a bag, along with a mixtape for Beth.  He has Rick’s sheriff badge, which is pretty shiny.  First Glenn's engagement ring to Maggie, now the badge, there definitely has to be a few bottles of polish around.   Carl's all mad, and I don't know why.  At first, I thought he was mad about Rick almost betraying Michonne, but later I think it was because he wasn't allowed to fight with the group at the prison.  As they pack up the cars outside, Rick tells Glenn, Carl is still a kid; it's easy to forget. 

Daryl and Carol share a brief moment outside, which involves hand holding (!) albeit it was more or less Carol helping Daryl up.  Daryl and everyone else knows what Merle did, which I'm really happy about.  I'm glad they know that he helped.  And it probably did really help.  Merle took out some of their "real" soldiers (and Ben).

Michonne is surprisingly really understanding of Rick almost handing her over to The Governor. She thanks Rick for taking her in. Rick tells her it was Carl that made the call; he said she belonged here and was "one of us."

Before they all take off, Rick sees a vision of prego Lori happily rubbing her belly.

At Woodbury, The Governor is in full on demagogue mode and is stirring the makeshift army up. "They’re not going to stop until they kill us all."  Tyrese bravely tells The Governor that he and Sasha aren't going to fight other people.  They will stay here and protect the children, or whatever.  The Governor probably does everything to prevent himself from killing them and thanks them (almost deadpan like).

The Governor and his "army"  drive through the prison.  They blow up the guard tower. Take out the walkers in yard. Whatever happened to The Governor's rule about now wasting bullets?  Spikes take out  the wheels of one of the gun trunks. They blow up the other tower because they can. I don't really get who all these people are.  I didn't recognize too many faces of the extras, and I didn't see any of the adolescent's like Karen's asthmatic Noah, but they still seemed to have a lot of people.

The Governor and the Woodbury army enter C block, but its empty.  Gov walks past a cell, then goes back to pick up a bible with John 5:29 (which I only know because I googled it) highlighted.   How was he able to see that?  I'm supposed to believe that one eyed Governor was able to walk past a dark cell and see a small bible in the corner?

Milton isn't dead yet.  He tells Andrea about the pliers behind her. If she drags her foot she can get them.  He instructs her, " You are going to find something very sharp, and you are going to stab me in the head."  Wise words.  Maybe it's a proverb.

The Woodburian army is searching the tombs.  Smoke grenades or something goes off, alarms start, and they all start freaking out.  They run out.  Glen and Maggie, who are actually wearing the gear for once (thank you!), start firing, but it looks like it was more to scare them away because they weren't really shooting at anybody, more like, near them.  The Woodburians drives off. Glen takes off helmet, and I got scared that it was going to be like the that guy in the opening of Saving Private Ryan who gets shot right after he takes off his helmet, but all's good.

A young/teenage guy from the Woodburian army, whose name, I learned from The Talking Dead, was  Jody, runs into Carl, Herhsel, and Beth in the woods.  They point their guns at each other.  Hershel tells him to drop it. He says he will and that he is going to hand it over, but still hasn't. Carl shoots.

Uhhh, what if The Governor had guys attack from the woods?  What would have happened then?

They regroup. Beth and Judith are wearing matching hats heh. 

Carl tells Rick he is coming to Woodbury and that he took out one of the soldiers, that’s what he was there for. Hershel tells Rick that the kid was handing the gun over.   Hershel tells him Carl did not have to shoot. "He gunned that kid down."

Gov wants his fleeing army to pull over.  He drives in front of them to stop. 

They don’t want to fight.  They aren't soldiers. They can keep the prison.  Gov loses it.  Man, he's a sore loser.  I wouldn't ever want to play Risk or anything with him, but that may be more of Milton's game.  He starts shooting his own people.  Allen points his gun at The Governor, but does nothing. Gov shoots him. Martinez and other guy Shumpert look like they don’t know what to do, but don't stop him.  

Gov walks over and starts shooting bodies.  Karen is hiding under one that the Governor actually doesn't shoot.  Looks like he’s taking a road trip with Martinez and other guy.  Well you know what they say, if at first you don't succeed, massacre your makeshift army and drive into the sunset with your henchmen.

Andrea is still trying to get the pliers. Using her perfectly pretty pedicured feet (Wow, Woodbury has everything!) she tries to pick up the pliers.  She keeps freaken stopping to see if Milton is still alive.  She drops them. Eventually she gets them in her hands and starts using them on the cuffs, but stops AGAIN to look at Milton. 

Rick, Michonne, and Daryl are getting ready to go to Woodbury.

Rick goes to talk to Carl about the boy he shot.  

"Was he handing it over?" 

 "He just attacked us." 

"Yes he had."

"Was he handing it over?" 

Carl explains that he couldn't take the chance.  He didn't kill the walker that killed Dale, Rick didn't kill Andrew, he came back and (more or less) killed mom (and T-Dog).  Rick let the Governor go and he came back and killed Merle. "Now go, so he doesn’t kill anymore of us". Carl totally Lawyered Rick.  He drops the sherrifs button. 

"Carl, tell me what to do."

Of Mice and Merle

"This Sorrowful Life" The Walking Dead S3 Ep 15 Recap

Spoilers, obviously.

Rick, Hershel, and Daryl are having a Brain Trust meeting.  They fill Daryl in on the Michonne deal. They need Merle, and Rick is going to talk to him. Alone.

Merle's ripping up a mattress looking for some drugs. Rick asks him, "Do you even know why you do the things you do? The choices you make?"  He tells Merle about the Michonne deal and that they need his help. Merle is “honored” to be in the "inner circle".  Merle tells him The Governor won't kill Michonne, he’ll take out her eyes, torture her.  Rick is going to let that happen to her for a shot?  Merle tells him "You’re cold, Officer Friendly.  Heh, that is what Rick called himself back on the roof in Season 1.  Merle says they are going to need wire, not rope, nothing she can chew through. And to answer Rick's question, Merle doesn't know why he does the things he does.  It's a damn mystery to him.  But he knows Rick; he’s going to back out of doing this.

But if we wore all that gear, we wouldn't look as cool!

Maggie and Carl are distracting walkers by banging pots and pans, while Michonne, Glenn and Daryln hammer barbed wire into the ground outside as a way to to try and stop The Governor from driving in again.  Daryl makes a point to tell Rick that it was Michonne's idea because she is a damn asset to the group and Rick is an idiot for thinking he should hand her over to The Governor.  Michonne says they don’t have to win, they just need to make it more trouble for them than it's worth.   And why is Carl the only one wearing a bullet proof vest?  Seriously, they are on high alert because a madman and his army may attack them at any second and they have all this prison armor gear hanging around and no one but Carl thinks to put any of it on?

Inside, Carol asks Merle if he’s with them.  He’s here for his brother.  She tells him it’s time to pick a damn side.  Merle notes that she is different from what she was like in the camp and calls her a late bloomer. She responds that maybe he is too.

Glenn, for whatever reason, still won’t let go of that whole Merle almost killing him and and the Governor terrorizing Maggie thing.

Daryl goes to find Merle, who’s busy looking for crystal meth.  Merle tells him he thinks Rick is going to change his mind.  Daryl says he is going to go with whatever Rick says, to which Merle retorts "Where’s your balls?"  Merle: Your people look at me like I’m the devil for grabbing up those lovebirds.  But now they want to do the same thing he did: snatch someone up and bring her to the Governor. People have to do what they have to do to survive (A baby's gotta do...). Merle continues, maybe they need someone to do their dirty work.  Daryl says he just wants his brother back.

While Hershel prays with Maggie and Beth, Rick is outside getting wire/phone cords or whatever to tie up Michonne. He sees Lori again, AGAIN. But this time he tells himself she is not there.

Rick tells Hershel he can't go through with this.

Too bad. Merle has already decided to take things into his own hands.  While he and Michonne clear a hall of walkers, he knocks her unconscious and ties her hands together.  Uh, don’t you think Michonne would have known better than to go off alone with Merle into a dark hall?  And another thing about TV shows.  So often characters hit each other in the back to momentarily someone out, but there is never any further damage, i.e. concussions.  They did this on LOST all the time.

Merle and Michonne are out walking now, but Michonne doesn’t really have a choice.  Merle uses Michonne’s sword to kill a walker.  You mean other people can use that?  It's not like some King Arthur Sword in the Stone thing? He is surprised she didn't run away. She smiles. She wanted her sword back before she left.

Daryl is going to go find Merle and Michonne. He refers to Rick as family

Merle’s got Michonne tied up and on a leash. Racist.  Michonne says someone who is truly evil doesn’t feel a thing. That person is light as a feather.  She thinks Merle isn't like that; he's burdened.  Merle says he has killed 16 men during this whole thing.  Well, we know one was Gargiulo. Then there were those army guys

Glenn asks Hershel for his permission to marry Maggie.  He doesn't know if they will last the week, so he wants Maggie to know how much he loves her.  Hershel gives him his blessing. But tells him not to get her pregnant.

Merle ties Michonne to a post as he hotwires a car, with only one hand!  But impressive as it is, he manages to set off the car alarm, alerting every walker nearby.

Michonne kicks a walker down, then smashes its head before getting Zombie Kill of the Week by using the wire to wrap around and decapitate a walker, you know, kind of like how you use wire to cut clay.

Merle finally notices the walkers and kills a bunch.  He shoots one that is about to attack Michonne and then the two take off in the car he hotwired. 

In the car, Michonne says this could have been Merle’s shot for a whole new beginning, but he chose to stay on the outside.  No one is going to mourn him, not even Daryl; he’s got a new family.  He tells her she’s as much on the outside as he is, girl.  She says "maybe," but once The Governor is done with her, she won't have to live with herself.

Glenn goes ring shopping. It doesn't take very long.  The walker he got it from was practically giving it away.  He cut off the finger of a female walker pressing against the fence.

Michonne tells Merle both of them could just go back.  Merle says he can’t go back.  He cuts the wires binding Michonne’s hands together, gives her her sword back and lets her go.  Before he drives off, he says he has got something he needs to do alone.

Daryl and Michonne run into each other. He asks if she killed Merle.  She tells him he let her go. Daryl mumbles something about going after him.

Merle is sitting in the car, drinking some kind of liquor with the radio blasting.  Or I guess it’s a CD because it can't be the radio.  He attracts a bunch of walkers and leads them to the rendezvous point where they were supposed to deliver Michonne.  He sneaks in the building and starts taking shooting the Governor's men who are focused on the walkers.  I don’t know why he didn't wait to start shooting until he saw The Governor, or at least Martinez. 

Run, Andrea, Run

"Prey" The Walking Dead S3 Ep 14 Recap

Spoilers, obviously.

Flashback. Andrea and Michonne sit around a fire while Michonne's pets are tied to a tree.  They're eating something from a can and I get distracted by the way Michonne holds her spoon and doesn't chew. Andrea asks Michonne where found her pets.  Michonne knew them.  According to her they deserved what they got and  weren't human to begin with. Ooooh, characterization! So that’s implying there was some kind of abuse, I’m guessing.  

I wonder why they decided to open with this because besides the scene, Michonne wasn't in the episode. Although the scene shed some light into Michonne’s character, it didn’t really do anything for Andrea's, when this was an Andrea-centric episode.

Woodbury: The Governor sets up chains. He makes a weird jizz face.  Okay then...

My body is ready

Milton watches The Governor arrange all of his torture tools, which include a deer saw, scalpel, a bone saw, knives, needles, an electric bone saw, a funnel to force someone to drink water so they don’t die, a catheter, and pills, you know, all the standard stuff.  He asks the Governor how his workshop helps Woodbury and tells him to move on The Governor can't; it was his daughter.  Milton says it’s done it doesn't matter.  "Oh, it’s all the matters," responds The Governor

Milton shows Andrea the Governor's workshop (not to be confused with Santa's workshop) and tells her that he is going to kill Rick's group.  He tells her to leave. No, she has to kill him.. They watch the Gov record himself whistle, so if you didn't know he was a big cray-cray, you do now.  Andrea points her gun at the Gov but freaken Milton grabs her hand to stop her. Milton tells her that "killing the Governor doesn't save your friends." Uh, yea it does. Andrea tells Milton to come with her to the prison, but he says he can't because he belongs here.

Martinez is collecting weapons. Andrea reluctantly gives up her piece and ammo, but keeps her knife. The Governor says he wants Andrea to come with him when they see Rick in case Rick tries anything.  She bites her lip, plays dumb, and smiles at him

Tyrese and whatshername Sasha are on guard.  He’s not a good shot.  Andrea tries to trick them into leaving their post, so she can leave But they’re not buying it.  They try to stop her from leaving, but she pulls her knife  She can't stay here, the Governor is not what he seems (read: more than meets the Eye).  He’s done terrible things  Gee, someone's like to the party.  She jumps down and starts running. Sasha says we shouldn't have let her go. "What would you have liked me to do, shoot her?'  Pshh you probably would have missed.

So, why didn't Andrea just try and kill The Governor some other time when Milton wasn't there to ruin everything.  And she could have hid that car Rick gave her, this way here she could have just driven there if she needed to.

Tyrese and Sasha report to Martinez and The Governor. Martinez says they should have stopped Andrea and Tyrese asks if this is a prison camp. Uh no, Rick’s at the prison, duh.  The Gov feeds them a story about Andrea being crazy because she was out by herself all winter.

The Governor tells Milton he’s going after Andrea. Milton tells him to let her go; she just wants to be with her people. The Governor figures out Milton was talking with her. He gets Milton against a wall and asks if she knows about the “deal” and Michonne.  His silence tells the Gov that she does.

Allen tells Tryese not to screw this up for them. They don’t want to get kicked out of Woodbury because of him. Allen has been mad that Tyrese saved his wife when he says he could have.  Okay, next time Allen or Ben is in danger, Tyrese shouldn't step in, or else Allen might get mad.

Andrea’s running down the road.  A truck is coming. She hides in the woods and catches her breath against a tree.  A walker grabs her from the other side of the tree and two more walkers approach. It looks like it’s the end for her. BUTTT, she props her feet up and blocks them. Bamfdrea stabs one, breaks the arm of the tree hugger, and then kills the rest. Wow

Martinez takes Tryese and co. to a pit of walkers that the Governor is going to unleash on Rick's group. Tyrese doesn’t like idea.  One thing leads to another and Allen and Tyrese start to fight.  Ben tries to come to his dad's aid, but Tyrese just effortleslly pushes him down, which may be my favorite part of the episode.  Next, Tyrese holds Allen over the zombie pit for a bit.  Martinez and the other guy were unfazed by the whole thing

Andrea’s running on the plains. The drives by and spots her.  I don't know how because she was hiding in the plains and he only has one eye.  He tries to run her over. RUN FORREST RUN. She runs into the woods. Zombieland Rule 1: Cardio

Andrea runs into a building. Governor follows in. We then get a few minutes of a cat and mouse game.  In my notes I wrote down: Intense. Scary, Anxiety. Just think of a really F'ed up version of that scene in Matilda when Matilda and Miss. Honey are hiding from the Trunchbull in her mansion.  He whistles again, menacingly. He tries to get her to come out by telling her to come back to Woodbury, her home. Obviously, she doesn't come out so he starts smashing windows with a shovel, which is a perfectly normal reaction. The  Governor would be better at hide and seek if he had use of both of his eyes. It stays really intense. 

Yep, I've reached the conclusion that this window is in fact broken

 The Gov thinks he has Andrea backed against a door with nowhere to go.  He tells her “it’s time to come home.” But she has a smug expression on her face as she pulls the door open and hides behind it, unleashing a group of walkers.The Governor fights his way and I’m hoping we get to see him get bitten.  It would have been really shocking if the Governor did in fact die now. Andrea sneaks away.  She should have slashed his tires or something.

Andrea sees the prison, smiles and puts her hand up.  She’s made it.  But the governor lunges out and grabs her.  I actually exclaimed “Nooo!”  He covers her mouth.  Rick’s on guard.  He sees it, but thinks he’s seeing things so ignores it.  DAMN IT RICK.  THE ONE TIME THERE'S ACTUALLY SOMETHING THERE YOU DON’T GO AND CHECK IT OUT.

Elsewhere, a mystery man sets the walkers in the pit on fire and most are burnt to a crisp.  Who ordered their walker well done?

Okay, so the Governor really should have been killed, and so should have Andrew from the first half of the season, but I guess it's plausible that he was able to fight his way out.  But what is not plausible is how The Governor was able to fight his way out and catch up to Andrea and get to her exact spot.

The Governor arrives back to Woodbury in his truck.  He tells Martinez he didn't find Andrea. You know it's bad when he's even lying to Martinez.  

Martinez tells the Governor someones torched the walkers.  The Governor doesn't really care, I mean it's not like they are running low on walkers.  They assume it was Tyrese who did it.  The Governor tells Tyrese and co. that the walkers are a scare tactic and asks him where he got the gasoline. Tyrese doesn't know what he’s talking about. 

Milton tells The Governor that "It’s a real shame about the pits." He hopes he finds out who did it. The Governor tells him he already has.

I know Milton's all proud of his little act of defiance, but he didn't really do much.  Okay, so he set fire to the rain to some walkers.  All they have to do is walk outside and get new ones.  It kind of reminded me of a little kid doing something small to defy his/her parent.  Now, if Milton didn't stop Andrea from killing The Governor, he wouldn't have even had to burn the walkers.  But hey, I'm still rooting for Milton to be one of the many possible characters who kills The Governor.

The camera gives us a tour of the Gov’s workshop. He’s got Andrea in his torture chair.  Can't say I was surprised.  I didn't think they would kill her off without showing it.

Only two more episodes!

When Rick met the Governor

"Arrow On The Doorstep" The Walking Dead S3 Ep 13 Recap

Spoilers, obviously.

This episode was basically just a bunch of pissing contests.  Rick and the Governor, Daryl and Martinez, Hershel and Milton, and Glenn and Merle.

First off, watch this clip from Wayne's World 2, this way here I can get all the Governor-Eye jokes out of my system, although I don't promise anything.

Rick, Hershel, and Daryl arrive at a remote location and start scouting the perimeter.  For a moment, I was a bit confused as to how Hershel was driving, but then I remembered you only need one leg to drive.  For the first time ever, you can't see Daryl's sleeveless arms because he is wearing a leather jacket, probably since it it looks extra cool with his new crossbow.

I should buy a boat

Rick enters a little building and the Governor emerges from the darkness like a cartoon villain.  The Gov puts up his hands and smiles, "We've got a lot to talk about.  Eye agree.  He says he could have killed the prison group, but he didn't.  Rick points his gun at him, while the Gov puts away his.  The Gov acts like he is all ready to negotiate, but he has a gun strapped to the side of the table he is sitting on.

Martinez pulls up with Andrea and Milton to where Daryl and Hershel are waiting.  Andrea is surprised the Governor is inside.  Uhh, isn't that why they are all there?

Andrea being Andrea barges in and wants to make peace.  She tells them to save the bullets for the real  threat.  But Rick knows that the Governor is the real threat.  He tells him he knows all about him and what he did to Maggie. The Governor says he's here to move forward.

It's pretty amazing that we are 14 episodes in and this is the first time Rick and the Governor are coming face-to-face.

Outside, Daryl calls Milton the Gov's butler.  Martinez thinks it's funny.  Maybe he's picturing Milton in a fancy butler outfit.  Milton counters by calling Daryl a henchman, which is what Martinez actually is.  The whole thing reminds me of the scene in The Outsiders when Two-Bit makes fun of the Socs' pants.

At the prison, Merle wants to go and kill the Governor now since they know where he is.  Also, for some reason, he's allowed to be near all the guns, but whatever.  Glenn and everyone say too many things can go wrong and of their people can get hurt.  Carl pipes up that his Dad can take care of himself.  Glenn tells Merle that he's putting his foot down: it's not the right time

I wonder why Merle didn't put up a fight earlier before they left.  I mean, he does have a point.  If he went with them he could have just came in and shot the Governor.

The Governor doesn't negotiate; he's here for Rick's surrender.  Rick gets mad.  Andrea gets mad.  The Gov tells her to go outside and let the men handle this.  Rick agrees.  Heh.  Rick calls the Gov the town drunk.  At some point, I don't know when, I don't know why, Andrea told the Gov how Judith might be Shane's, and the Governor brings it up. Ugh Andrea.  Come on.  The Governor does this weird tapping thing and announces he brought whiskey!  Maybe he is the town drunk.  Is that the same stuff he seduced Andrea with?  Is he trying to seduce Rick?

Don't drink it, Rick

Daryl and Martinez hear walkers approach.  They get all "No, after you" so Andrea stabs the first one in the eye.  She could have gone all Kate Austen and asked "Should I get a ruler?"  but she didn't.  Martinez unnecessarily twirls his bat and takes out a walker.  Daryl puts his new crossbow to use, hitting two for the price of one.  He finishes the job by throwing a knife (Zombie Kill of the Week) before Martinez can get to it.  Daryl won.

Martinez shares that he lost his wife and kids.  He makes a surprisingly candid remark about how this whole meeting is just a joke, a little dance.  He and Daryl bond over a smoke.

Milton and Hershel also do some bonding.  Except Milton tries to get to second base with him.  He asks Hershel if he can see his amputated leg.  Hershel tells him to at least buy him a drink first.  They laugh like friends.

The whiskey didn't work, so the Governor tells Rick about losing his wife in a car accident.  That's nice, but we aren't here to talk about that.

Merle’s packing up a bag of guns, he doesn't need permission. It’s his brother out there.  Glenn won't let him out of his way.  Time to fight.  Michonne and Maggie get involved, but Beth (!) ends it by firing a shot.  In a way, it was kind of endearing to watch Merle try and go, believing it was best for his brother

Andrea asks Hershel what happened with Maggie.  Hershel tells her the Governor is a sick man.  Andrea says she can't go back there.  Hershel tells her she is one of them, but if she (re)joins them, it's final.

Gov claims that he didn’t even want this; they chose him to be leader.  Somehow he knows about how Rick brought back all those guns, which I think is kind of dumb, but whatever. The Gov says the fight will go down to every last man (or asthmatic teenager).  They can end it today.  The Gov takes off his brownie/Oreo  looking eyepatch.  Again, no one cares.  He wants Michonne. Man, these close up shots really show how awesome Rick’s beard/scruff is.

Merle tries to get Michonne to come with him.  He says the folks here ain't killers.  Michonne argues that Rick and Maggie are and says Carl put down his own mother.  Merle just says that was a mercy killing.  He thinks they should go.  He can alert Daryl through hunting calls.  Which I would actually like to here.  Hehe. Imagine if it was just something like BARK BARK.  Or maybe it’s like the Hunger Games Whistle. Michonne tells  He’s on his own, if he gets people killed, its on him.  

Glenn's on watch.  Maggie comes out and Glenn apologizes for making it all about him. Maggie just wanted him to see her. Boo, what does that even mean?  Glenn saw you, girl.  They hug and kiss while they're supposed to be on watch and I get really nervous that someone is going to shoot one of them while they aren't paying attention.  Apparently, zombies are a big turnoff , but Maggie wants them to watch, so they then get it on in the garage or whatever.  Aren't they worried about getting pregnant?

Rick tells the Gov that killing Michonne is beneath him.  The Gov tells him he can save everyone. "How do I know you will keep you’re word?" You don’t The Gov claims he doesn’t care about Rick. Rick has 2 days. Right, because giving Hitler the Sudetenland totally worked.

Time to go. Andrea looks like she wants to go back to the prison but feels she should go to Woodbury like she has some kind of plan.

Daryl rides back on his BAMF motorcycle with Rick and Hershel in the car behind.  Gov, Martinez, Andrea Milton return at their place too. Gov tells Martinez to kill the others but keep Michonne alive. Milton overhears, and asks what about the deal.  Gov says it's best way to avoid a slaughter. Milton says it is a slaughter. Did Milton just step up. Woah.

The Gov lies Andrea, but shes done, even though she pretends she believes him.

Rick tells the group the Gov wants the prison and wants them dead. They are going to war.  Merle says Rick should have got him when he had the chance, which is kind of true. I mean, he could have just shot him.  But maybe if Rick did just kill him, the Gov would have just became a martry and the people would  have retaliated.  But who would have led them?  Martinez?  Nahh.

Outside, Rick tells Hershel the truth about the Michonne way out.  Rick says the Gov would just kill them anyway, but what if he doesn't?  He didn't tell them because they need to be scared. Hershel assures him they are. Hershel says Michonne has saved pretty much everyone's lives; she’s earned her place. Rick agrees. Rick told Hershel this because he is hoping he could talk Rick out of it.

I like how Rick didn't really consider giving up Michonne because the Governor would obviously just kill them anyway, but is still imagining the (im)possibility of the Gov just leaving them alone if they do.

Again, really interested in seeing whats going to happen next week.  I know Andrea has been getting a lot of criticism, and she deserved most of it in the first half of the season, but we’re seeing her really trying to save lives on both sides. Plus she really is a bad ass.  And it looks like Milton is starting to cut the leash.

How crazy would it be if Milton was the one who kills the Governor?