OK, temper tantrum over. So what did you think? This episode was shocking in a way to me, but not in a twisty, turny way. It was shocking in that I never guessed I would find The Governor sympathetic or be rooting for him. I think Martinez was speaking for the fans in his “Holy shit” comment at the end – for that moment when you realize you’ve been sucked into sympathizing for this character who had killed Andrea, Milton, and Merle and was transformed in an archetypal, sociopathic villain last season. I even had that brief moment of thinking, well maybe if he apologized to the group at the prison and seemed really sorry, and showed them his new family …
One Broken Man
Once again, the show did an amazing job showing a man’s emotional break. We saw The Governor snap last season when he turned and killed his own soldiers. Where do you go from there? Apparently to destitution. Without even the energy or the will to fend off walkers lunging at him, The Governor wandered alone through ghost towns, growing a beard and presumably slowly starving.This is until he sees a young girl in a window, is taken in by her family, and starts to care about some people again.
The question that has been posed many times throughout the series, “Can you come back?” after you’ve lost your mind or humanity, was once again explored. The Governor seems to be attempting to do this by erasing the person he once was. He assumes a random name he read on a wall. He folds down the image of his old self with his wife and Penny to block out his own face. Later he burns that photo, starting with the corner of his own image. He also gives away the gun that he used to kill his Woodbury soldiers and so many others.
Although the question of coming back has been explored with several characters, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel with Merle. During Merle’s ride with Michonne to meet The Governor, the two talk about the number of people Merle has killed, and that Merle hadn’t killed anyone before the world turned – and presumably before he hooked up with The Governor. Michonne says they can just go back, but Merle says he can’t, and instead continues on to his suicidal quest.
But the question is, has The Governor really changed? While playing chess with Meghan, he still thinks like the king on the chessboard. Meghan asks about the pawns, and he responds that you can lose a lot of soldiers but still win the game. He tells Meghan, “That’s the king. That’s the guy you want to capture.” She intuitively draws an eye patch on the king chess piece.
After The Governor smashes in the head of the father because he has turned, Tara says, “He would have been grateful, that you stopped him from him.” The Brian Heriot part of the man might be grateful if someone saves this family from The Governor.
The Family
We met a family who had been living in their apartment for what must be close to two years now – and they’ve never ventured out far or learned how to kill a walker. Granted they had a child and an elderly parent, and it’s a dangerous world out there, but weren’t they a little curious as to what lay beyond? It left me wondering, how many more people are there out there like them?I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to lose sympathy for these people who won’t learn to protect themselves. We met the hippie couple two episodes ago who also were criminally inept at killing walkers, and now we meet this family. What do you think, was it a good move that they finally did leave their home, or should they have stayed put after spending so much time hiding in their home?
Other thoughts:
- I loved Martinez just shaking his head in disgust and walking away after he had to shoot the walker who walked through fire to eat The Governor. I also loved how The Governor woke up alone the next morning.
- How cool was the scene of Woodbury burning and The Governor standing in the midst of it, with walkers all around him?
- I want to know how walkers overrunning a town equals burning. We learned from Morgan’s maps in Clear that Rick’s old house and neighborhood had burned down. Walkers don’t seem to have the motor skills to light a match or turn on a stove, so where do the fires come from?
- I was laughing a little at the walker stumbling into the fire, and the one lunging at a half-dead man and missing and falling.
- What was with The Governor not eating what looked like SpaghettiOs and eating instead what I thought looked like cat food, but probably wasn’t? Was he eating the father’s corn beef?
- Random thought of the night – if a person was wheelchair bound and couldn’t walk while alive, can they walk when they’re dead?
- Unexpected scene of the night – The Governor pinky-swearing.
- Second unexpected scene of the night – The Governor laughing.
- Nitpick of the night – The Governor waiting for Meghan to come to him as the horde of walkers closed in, rather than running over and just scooping her up. It was obviously for dramatic effect – they wanted to show The Governor being accepted – but it bugged me nonetheless.
So what did you think? The episode was on the slower side in in first 20 minutes or so, but I thought the character moments made up for it. The time spent on the set up will probably be important in coming episodes.
