The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 6: Live Bait

After five very intense episodes we finally get a breather, as all the regulars take the week off and the Governor fills in.

Thoughts:
• I'm not quite sure how I feel about this episode. It was a nice break from the recent action filled and highly stressful episodes, as it had a slow, dreamlike quality that was somehow unsettling. It may have moved a bit too slowly though, bordering on the dull. 

I'll give them props for trying to give the Governor some extra depth here, as the comic book version was a terrible, mustache-twirling cardboard villain. But I think they're running the risk of humanizing him a bit too much. We should be terrified of him, not sympathizing with him.

• Considering this episode was a flashback and last week we saw the Governor staring ominously at the prison by himself, it's a good bet we shouldn't get too attached to his new companions.

• At the beginning of the episode Martinez and Fake Dhani Jones ditched the Governor in the middle of the night, proving they're two of the smartest people in the post apocalyptic world.

• So after being ditched the Governor goes back to Woodbury and burns it to the ground. Then he wanders aimlessly long enough to grow a long, bushy hobo beard. Then at the end of the episode he literally runs into Martinez again! 

How the hell did that happen? Did he walk in circles for six months? Or is there only one road in this area that everyone's forced to use?

• Funny how the walker population seems to respond to the needs of the script. When Daryl and his team were searching for medicine, they met up with a herd of walkers 10,000 strong that impeded their mission. In this episode the Governor stumbles down the street in a daze and fortunately only encounters one or two easily avoided zombies. And later when he's outside digging a grave there's nary a walker to be seen.

• The Governor meets the Chambler family, who just happen to have a little girl named Meghan who's the same age as his deceased daughter Penny. Did anyone in the audience NOT think he was eventually going to bond with Meghan and see her as a surrogate child?

• Lilly and Tara Chambler must be either very stupid or very desperate to let an obviously unstable hobo like the Governor into their apartment. 

• Not sure why the Governor felt the need to use an alias. Maybe he's trying to distance himself from his past. The "Brian Heriot" name he gives them is the same one he saw scrawled on the barn during his wanderings.

By the way, in the novel Rise Of The Governor we find out that his real name was "Brian Blake," and he took the name of his brother Philip after killing him. There's also a Tara and David Chalmers in that book. I guess this episode is kind of an alternate universe version of that story.

Any second I kept expecting one of them to say the wrong thing, causing him to snap and break their necks like twigs.

• "I didn't realize the end of the world would be so boring." Haw!

• The Governor goes upstairs to Bill Jenkins apartment. Inside he sees an empty wheelchair and two prosthetic legs on the floor. He finds the legless, zombified corpse of Jenkins in the tub. A couple of things here:

First of all, how the heck did Jenkins manage to crawl all the way across the room and get into the tub without help? Why not wheel himself over next to the tub, remove his legs and then just slide in?

Second, his undead body was lying in the tub with a gun in his hand. The implication is that he crawled into the tub before committing suicide. But wouldn't most people shoot themselves in the head? He wouldn't have turned into a zombie if he'd done so. I guess he must have shot himself in the chest.

• Meghan's grandpa David has lung cancer and needs pure oxygen to survive. I'm wondering how long an oxygen tank lasts? A day? A week? How long as David needed one? A month? How many tanks did they have stored in their apartment before they asked the Governor to bring them some more?

• Looks like the zombie virus is also a cure for cancer!

• The Governor teaches Meghan to play chess. As he explains the rules he tells her the pawns are the army and the king controls them all. Hmm… I'm not quite sure, but I think there might have been jusssst a subtle hint of symbolism there…

• I get that they may not have had much choice, but a lumbering delivery truck doesn't seem like the best choice of vehicle for the apocalypse. Aside from the fact that it promptly broke down, it seems like it wouldn't be very fast and could get stuck easily.

• As the Governor and Meghan flee the zombie herd, they fall into a freshly dug pit with perfectly smooth sides. Setting aside the skill it took to dig such an impressively geometric hole, why was it there? Was Martinez trapping walkers so he could have gladiator fights just like they used to do back in Woodbury? I guess we'll find out next week.

The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 7: Dead Weight

Again with an all-Governor episode this week. Remember when this show was about Rick and the people at the prison?

It's a bold move to spend this much time examining the show's main villain, and I applaud them for taking such a big chance. I'm just not sure it's necessary. At the end of last season the Governor lost everything and was bent on revenge against the prison folk. Now in these two episodes we see he wanders aimlessly for a while, gets a chance at redemption, fails, and is bent on revenge against the prison folk. He's right back where he started. So why bother with this storyline?

Then there's the fact that we only get sixteen episodes per season, so the Governor's story has to move along at a breakneck pace in order to squeeze it all in, which harms the pacing.

Thoughts (SPOILERS!)
• The Governor repeatedly calling Meghan "pumpkin" was creepier than any herd of walkers ever could be. 

• That tank is definitely an impressive and formidable weapon. But I'm wondering-- what do tanks run on? Gas? Propane? Special tank fuel? If it's something besides plain old gas, is there enough of it laying around? It'd be embarrassing if the Governor intended to use it to knock down the prison fence and it ran out of fuel halfway there.

• I can't believe Martinez took the Governor in, knowing what he knows about him. The writers try to gloss over this questionable bit of motivation by having Martinez say he'd have abandoned the Governor if he hadn't had other people with him.

It would have been more believable if Martinez had given them a hot meal and then sent them packing.

• Another example of the breakneck pace of these two episodes-- Tara meets a former army soldier named Alisha, and within the space of a day or two they're a couple. I guess there probably aren't a lot of lesbians around in the post apocalyptic world, so when two of them meet they gotta move fast.

• I didn't quite understand the whole mud pit full of zombies thing. Was that a natural occurrence or did Martinez put it there to restrict access to and from the camp? And if it was natural, wouldn't the mud eventually dry out and the walker's all escape?

• Martinez's walker pits don't make much sense either. I'm assuming he ordered them dug around the perimeter of the camp to trap zombies, but the one we see is pretty small and there's a ton of space all around it. In order to be effective it seems like they'd need to dig a continuous trench around the camp.

• I don't want to get too spoilery in reference to the comic book, but it does feature the Governor attacking the prison with a tank, and things don't go well for Tyreese. Let's hope things turn out better for the TV version of the character.

• The Governor, Mitch and Pete go on a supply run and see a small woodland camp of ten or fifteen survivors with lots of supplies. Mitch wants to steal their stuff, but Pete says no and they continue searching elsewhere. When they come back by the camp, they see everyone's been slaughtered and the supplies are gone. 

Mitch is livid and says he knew they should have raided the camp when they had the chance. If I was Mitch I'd have a bigger concern-- who the hell killed everyone in the camp? The Governor says it wasn't walkers, so that only leaves humans. I doubt anyone from the prison did it, so that means a third group is out there somewhere. A third group that isn't very nice.
  
• The Governor kills Pete because he's an indecisive leader. He then goes to Mitch-- Pete's  brother-- and tells him he killed him. Mitch gets over Pete's death in record time and pledges allegiance to the Governor. Another example of that unfortunate accelerated pace.

• The episode ends with the Governor lurking around outside the prison, and aiming his gun at an unsuspecting Michonne. 

I really don't think they'd kill off such a popular character, but you never know on this show. All I've got to say is if they kill her off after they finally figured out how to write her character, I'll personally fly to showrunner Scott Gimple's house, knock on his front door and punch him in the throat. And then I'll get mad!

The Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 14: Prey

This week TV Andrea and the Governor play cat & mouse.

• So we start out with a really pointless flashback to when TV Andrea and Michonne were touring together. I thought Michonne was finally going to reveal the fact that her "pets" were her boyfriend and his buddy (as readers of the comic have known for years), but instead we got one of her patented uninformative non-answers. 

Her response that her pet walkers were "never human to begin with" kind of hints that their origin may be different than in the comic... maybe this was a setup for some future Michonne-centric episode, who knows?

• Finally, the scales fall from TV Andrea's eyes and she sees what a creep the Gov really is. So what brought on this revelation? The fact that he regularly holds zombie gladiator events in the town square? No. Fish tanks full of zombie heads? Nope. Zombie daughter on a chain? Laws no. Hearing that he ordered Glenn beaten and almost raped Maggie? Uh-uh. None of that stuff caused her to see the Governor for what he is. All it took was hearing that he plans to attack the prison. That's great that TV Andrea's still loyal to her friends there, but cheezus... plotting to kill the prison group is probably the least crazy thing he's done so far.

• The Governor cheerily prepping his torture room was very disturbing. Especially if you know anything about the comic book.

• TV Andrea finally grows some balls and comes thisss close to shooting the Gov in the head, but Milton stops her. When she asks him what the hell, he confesses that he knew the Governor in the before time. Does Milton love the Governor? Not that there's anything wrong with that! I'm just speculating.

• What's up with the Governor's creepy whistle? Is he just doing it because he knows it makes him sound insane and therefore intimidating, or is it supposed to be a walker call?

• TV Andrea asks Milton to come with her to the prison but he declines, saying he doesn't know anyone there. He knows Herschel, doesn't he? I thought they became BFFs last week. Daryl gave him a Sawyer-esque nickname, so he kind of knows him. He knows Michonne. And he knows TV Andrea. There's four people right there.

• I wish Tyreese and his group had stayed at the prison so we could get to know them better. Tyreese was a cool character in the comic and it feels like he's being wasted here.

• So Tyreese and Allen decide the best time to air their dirty laundry and have a slap fight is while on an assigned mission and they're six inches away from a pit of hungry walkers. Got it.

Their little tiff seemed like it came out of nowhere and had little or nothing to do with anything. I'm guessing the writers were laying some groundwork so that when Allen turns on Tyreese sometime in the next two weeks it won't seem like it came out of left field.

• I get why Andrea jogged rather than drove to the prison. It's been at least a year, maybe two since the zombie outbreak and most of the world's cars are probably dead. It's a shame that there apparently aren't any bicycles in this world.

• So who set fire to the zombies in the pit? I don't think it was Tyreese or Sasha. The obvious culprit is Milton. He sure seems guilty when the Governor questions him about it. That's not necessarily proof though, as Milton sounds guilty when he says "Hello." 

I'm thinking Milton is a little too obvious though and it'll turn out to be someone else. Who that may be, I have no idea.

• I think this is the first time we've seen roasted zombies on the show. Roasted zombies that are still "alive." Nasty, effective and disturbing. 

• I really enjoyed the game of hide and seek between TV Andrea and the Governor. Very tense and effective.

• TV Andrea gained a lot of points in my eyes (and almost made me like her again) when she unleashed a walker tsunami on the Governor. Now THAT'S the bad ass Andrea from the comic that we all know and love! 

• Alas, she lost all the points she gained when she calmly strolls out of the factory, walks right past the Governor's SUV and continues jogging to the prison. Jesus Jet-skiing Christ! I thought I was gonna have a stroke when she did that. Let me say it again, loudly and through cupped hands: She left her murderous boyfriend's ride sitting outside so he can use it to resume his hunt for her. I've never wanted to slap a fictional character so much in all my life.

• It happened again! TV Andrea finally reaches the prison and makes the fatal mistake of looking happy. Of course she's immediately captured by the Governor, who somehow escaped the zombie horde. Anytime someone on this show experiences even a tiny sliver of happiness or pleasure they're killed, captured or worse.

• Not sure how the Governor dragged TV Andrea back to his SUV and secured her inside without her making any noise to alert Rick. I guess he could have knocked her out.

• At the end of the episode I was sure the Governor had been bitten. The way he was holding his arm made it look like it was hurt. I half expected him to go to his torture room and chop off his forearm in order to survive. Maybe he just sprained it?

• That last scene with TV Andrea strapped into the chair was chilling. Would not want to be her next week.  

• I wonder if the Governor will end up getting killed in the season finale? I'm torn on this-- on the one hand he's a great villain played by a great actor and I'd hate to lose him. They'll never be able to top him. On the other hand if they keep him around for three or four seasons we're gonna get bored with him. If I had to guess I'd say they'll kill him-- always leave the audience wanting more. 

• This episode brings up something I've always wondered: Do actors get paid for episodes in which they don't appear? Rick was the only character from the prison to pop up this week. Did the rest of the cast get paid this week? Do their contracts specify they get compensated for 16 episodes even if they're not in every one?

The Governator

Big news this weekend for Walking Dead fans-- the infamous Governor is coming to the show (in Season 3) and has finally been cast! And the winner is: British actor David Morrissey. No, not the mopey singer, the guy in the photo above.

It's an odd bit of casting if I do say so myself. In the comic book (SPOILERS!) the Governor is the sadistic ruler of a large compound, who routinely resorts to torture to get what he wants. He bears more than a passing resemblance to actor and former makeup wizard Tom Savini- about as far away as you can get from David Morrissey and his leading man looks.

Supposedly Tom Savini has been campaigning for the part of the Governor since the TV series began, saying the character was obviously modeled on him and the producers need look no further to cast the role.

Personally I don't care who gets the part, as long as it's not Savini. The role of the Governor requires a charismatic actor who can go from charming one minute to cruel the next. In my opinion, Savini just doesn't have the acting chops. Looking like the character ain't enough.

Actor John Hawkes was also rumored for the role. I'm not familiar with Mr. Hawkes' work, but I could see him in the part. He's got that lean meth-head look (well, he does!) that would suit the Governor very well.

For fans of Doctor Who, David Morrissey needs no introduction. He played Jackson Lake, the man who thought he was a future version of the Doctor in the 2008 Xmas Special The Next Doctor. He's a great actor and has the charisma and screen presence the role demands. Whether he can pull off a convincing American accent though remains to be seen. Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick on the series, is also British and you'd never know it from listening to him on the show, so I suppose there's nothing to worry about in that regard. I'm sure he'll do fine.

To be perfectly honest though, I'm not all that excited by this news. I was never a fan of the Governor story arc in the comic, and am not looking forward to it showing up in the series. For one thing, it was incredibly dark and disturbing. Parts of it were actually difficult for me to read, as it openly flirted with torture porn. Aw, heck, who am I kidding? It didn't flirt with it, it drove it up to Lookout Point, threw it in the back seat and knocked it up. There's no way the TV series will be able to properly duplicate this storyline, even on AMC. It'll have to be significantly watered down, which, even though I didn't care for it, defeats the purpose of including it in the first place.

Another reason I'm not a fan of the Governor storyline is because it was so over the top. Up to that point everything that happened in the comic seemed real and plausible, or as much so as a story about a zombie apocalypse can be. Rick and the other characters were relatable and seemed like real people. Their problems were realistic as well, as they worried about food, shelter and basic survival.

Then along comes the Governor, an over the top character who rules his world with an iron fist, killing and torturing at will. He even forces his enemies to fight in an arena, gladiator style. With the advent of the Governor the series went from realistic to cinematic. It was like Darth Vader or Voldemort* wandered into the comic. Suddenly there were villains and torture and it became an action movie as the main characters tried to escape the evil clutches of the Governor. That was a big mistake, in my opinion. It took me right out of the story, which wasn't a good thing. I'm afraid the same thing will happen to the TV series. Ah well. The producers didn't consult me and ask me what I thought.

By the way, back in Season 1 of the Walking Dead, I predicted that Merle Dixon, everyone's favorite racist meth head, would end up becoming the TV version of the Governor. Looks like I got that prediction wrong.

* Jesus Christ, are you kidding me? Spell check doesn't flag "Voldemort?"

The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 8: Too Far Gone

Holy. Crap.

Death, destruction and utter chaos! The Walking Dead mid-season finale had it all.

This episode played out very much like it did in the comic book. In fact it's probably the closest the show's been to the comic since the pilot. 

This is both good and bad. Good in that it's cool to occasionally see the comic book come to life. Bad in that in the comic book, once the whole brutal Prison vs. Woodbury storyline ended, they've never really been able to come up with anything to top it. I have an uneasy feeling that the same may happen on the TV series. I hope I'm wrong.  

• I'd like to nominate The Walking Dead for Most Improved TV Series of 2013. There were a lot of problems in Season 3 (like not knowing how to handle Michonne, and TV Andrea's infuriating behavior), but Season 4 has stepped things up a notch or twelve and for the most part has been a vast improvement.

Thoughts (BIG HONKIN' SPOILERS AHEAD! LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK!)

• When they showed Carol in the "Previously..." clips, I half expected to see her pop up in this episode. I still don't think she's gone for good, especially since her name is still in the opening credits.

I'm betting Rick and Carl will run into her on the road at some point in the second half of the season. Won't that be an awkward moment?

• At the beginning of the episode the Governor makes a big impassioned speech to his new army, urging them to follow him and take over the prison from the "monsters" who occupy it.

I'd have liked to have seen at least one or two of his followers say "Nuts to that!" and bow out. Yeah, he's a charismatic leader, but he ain't that charismatic.

Yes, Tara looked like she was having second thoughts, but she didn't do anything about it until the shots started flying.

And why is Mitch being so loyal to him? Didn't the Governor kill his brother last week? Is soldiering so ingrained in him that he'll follow anyone who barks orders?

• Shortly before the Governor captures Hershel and Michonne, we see the two of them dousing a pile of brain-dead walkers with gas so they can burn them.

I get that they need to burn the bodies, but using gas to light 'em up seems awfully wasteful to me. There's a limited supply of gasoline left in this world, and I'd think they'd want to save every drop for their cars. Surely they've found alternate flammable substances on their supply runs; things like lighter fluid, kerosene or alcohol. 

And I hope for everyone's sake they dragged those bodies as far from the cell blocks as possible before they burned them! All that rotten meat roasting on an open flame? Yeesh!

• The Governor captures Hershel and Michonne and holds them hostage. Hershel's handling of the Governor was very skillful and impressive. He expertly deferred to the Gov's authority and came pretty darn close to talking him out of his plan. 

I guess we can now add diplomat to Hershel's long list of skills!

• Back at the prison, everyone's apparently been in suspended animation for the past two weeks as Rick just now tells Daryl about how he banished Carol.

Yes, I realize the series re-round time to show us what the Governor's been up to since being run out of Woodbury, and we're just now catching back up to prison time, but it was still kind of odd.

I wonder why we had to sit through two full Governor-centric episodes? Wouldn't it have been better to cut back and forth between him and the prison?

• Speaking of Daryl, he got over Carol's banishment in record time. I have to say, this season has been moving along at a breakneck pace! They've crammed a huge amount of story into these first eight episodes. 

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. If this was Season Two or Three we'd have got an entire episode (or more!) of Daryl fuming about Carol before finally coming around.

• Seeing Maggie and Glenn all giddy and talking about their anniversary made me extremely nervous. Generally on this show whenever a character experiences a happy moment they're immediately killed off by the writers.

I'm thinking new showrunner Scott Gimple knows that we know this, and he's now just playing with us.

• In a similar vein, Sasha's little moment with Bob made me think one or both of them was gonna get the axe, but they managed to survive (more or less). See, they are playing with us now!

• So who's been dissecting rabbits in the prison? The most obvious answer would be our young little psychopath Lizzie, who I'm pretty sure was the one feeding rats to the walkers. Animal cruelty is generally one of the signs of a psychopath. Is Lizzie really the one who killed Karen and David? Did Carol confess to the murders to cover for her?

And if it's not her, then that means someone else in the prison's gone a little nutty in the head.

• We have a title! When Rick's speechifying to the Governor, he says, "We’ve all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive, but we can still come back. We’re not too far gone."

I have to say I've never been a fan of incorporating titles into dialog.

And really, Spell Check? You didn't flag "speechifying?" Thanks, George W. Bush.

• This rematch with the Governor more than made up the somewhat anticlimactic battle in last year's season finale. But the thing is, without that episode, this one wouldn't have been nearly as good. Rick and the Governor now have a past, which made their battle resonate all the more.

• Long live Hershel Greene! I'm really going to miss him. After Dale died he became the moral center of the show; the wise and centered voice of reason. 

At least he got a chance to shine a few weeks ago when he singlehandedly kept (most of) the flu patients alive.

It'll be interesting to see how the show fares without his knowledge and wisdom.

• Speaking of Hershel, why'd the Governor start with him instead of Michonne? Hershel's never done anything to him, while he has a whole list of reasons for killing Michonne.

I'm guessing he started with Hershel because he knew that would hit the Prison Team harder?

• I was getting nervous about Tyreese's chances for survival too, seeing how things turned out for him in the comic book version of this plot line. Luckily he made it through the episode.

• At one point Alisha (Tara's new girlfriend) corners Tyreese and is about to shoot him. But then Lizzy and her creepy kid squad show up, with freakin' guns, and freakin' shoot her in the freakin' head! I don't know who looked more surprised, Tyreese or Alisha. 

Seeing tiny kids shooting an adult was pretty disturbing, more so than any zombie hit so far. Look at the little Frankenstein monsters you've created, Carol!

• The Governor leaves his new main squeeze Lilly and his substitute daughter Meghan near a river for safekeeping, reasoning that the swift waters will keep them safe from walkers.

That whole sequence was masterfully shot. The scenes of the fumbling zombie getting closer and closer as Lilly nervously watched it before it was finally swept away had a subtle and understated tension about them. Then just when it seems the danger's passed, Meghan digs up a "flash flood" sign, and you just knew the mud was about the hit the fan.

• OK, the Governor planned to kill everyone in the prison so he and his army could move in. So I think if I was him I might have toned down the tank use just a bit. What good is a prison full of holes going to be? I suppose by that point he wasn't thinking very clearly.

• When the zombie came up behind Daryl and they immediately cut away-- I thought I was gonna plotz. I didn't think they'd kill off their most popular character, but on this show you never know.

• As the prison fences fall, scores of walkers slowly filter back in. At one point the camera lingers a little longer than usual on one female walker in particular.

Does she look familiar? She's Clara, the crazy woman Rick met way back in the first episode of the season. She's the one who killed herself so she'd become a zombie and could be with her dead husband's head forever.

I have to admit I missed this little cameo and didn't realize it was her until it was pointed out to me.

• As the Governor was choking the crap out of Rick, I knew Michonne was going to pop up and kill him. But that's OK. Sometimes it's good to know what's going to happen.

I liked that Michonne didn't bother to finish him off, leaving him for the walkers as if he wasn't worth the effort.

And I'm glad to see Lilly finally kill him, so he can't improbably pop up again in Season 5.

• Rick stumbles through the prison screeching for Carl. He finds him, then they look for Baby Judith, only to find her empty, bloody carrier on the ground.

I have to say, Rick and Carl's plaintive howling in this scene was heart-rending. Especially Carl, who sounded like a wounded animal moaning.

So Judith didn't make it. Or did she? I doubt even this show would kill an infant, but you never know. And of course-- SPOILER WITHIN A SPOILER-- she was killed in the comic. 

I'm subscribing to the TV Death Rule though. They ain't dead unless you see the body. And sometimes not even then. Yeah, there was blood in the carrier, but I'm betting someone from the bus grabbed her out of it.

• The episode ends pretty much the same way as the storyline in the comic-- with Rick and Carl leaving the ruins of the prison behind and scurrying off to an uncertain future. WIll they hook up with the rest of the prison crew? Where will they go now? I know where they end up next in the comic, but how closely will they follow that template? We gotta wait until February to find out!

The Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 8: Made To Suffer

Well, here we are at the dreaded mid-season finale. No more Walking Dead until sometime in February, as AMC jealously doles out the episodes and tries to stretch them out as long as possible. Remember when networks would produce a season of 24 episodes and air them all once a week until they were done? I miss those days.

There've been a couple of slight missteps (who or what is buried in Carol's grave?) but so far this season continues to be a vast improvement over last. Nothing seems padded this season; things have moved along at breakneck speed. We've had some truly shocking deaths and new character introductions and the show has deviated just enough from the comic to keep me guessing. Let's hope they keep up this streak for a long time to come.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

• It's Tyreese! Everyone's favorite hammer-weilding ex football player. Tyreese was a big part of the comic book for quite a long time, so it's nice to see him finally pop up on the show. I was just talking about him a couple of weeks ago too, wondering if, when and how they might introduce him.

I'm assuming the young black woman in Tyreese's group is his daughter Julie, and the white guy is her boyfriend Chris, both also featured in the comic.

• A few weeks ago when T-Dog died, Oscar the Friendly Inmate rose up to take his place. Many internet wags criticized the show, saying that the writers can only handle one male black character at a time. I rolled my eyes and dismissed such claims as nothing more than fan wankery. But then this week Tyreese appears and a few minutes later Oscar bites the dust. I hate to say it, but perhaps there's something to this theory after all?

By the way, did anyone NOT think Oscar was going to die in the Woodbury raid? He might as well have been wearing a bright red shirt over his prison coveralls.

• Axel trying to hit on the 17 year old Beth ("Interesting!") was just wrong, wrong, wrong. I have a feeling they're gonna need to keep a close eye on him.

On the other hand, it was hilarious when he thought Carol was a lesbian just because she had short hair.

• Carl has rapidly gone from a nuisance and annoyance to one of the most valuable and rational members of the team. He single-handedly saved Tyreese and his group, gave them a cell in which to stay, then locked them up until it could be determined if they were trustworthy or not. Not bad for a ten year old kid.

• Kudos to Tyreese for realizing Carl saved his group's lives and actually thanking him, in an effort to show they could be trusted. Let's hope Tyreese sticks around for quite a while.

• Rick decides that the best time to have another cuckoo flashback is during the raid on Woodbury, as he hallucinates Shane coming toward him. Nice touch that they actually got John Bernthal to come back for the five second scene. But what the heck was up with his Wolverine hair?

• When Daryl said, "I'll catch up to you," did anyone in the audience NOT think he would end up getting captured?

• Glenn calmly ripping up a zombie in order to use its bones as a shiv? Not a guy you want to mess with!

• So I guess Michonne was a little peeved that the Governor sent a hunting party after her a couple weeks ago and decided to sit calmly in his apartment until he returned and then kill him? Chick knows how to hold a grudge.

• We finally got to see the zombie heads in the aquariums looking around and snapping their jaws. Maybe they were doing that the first time we saw them, but if so I sure couldn't see it.

• Michonne wins the "Bone Headed Move Of The Week" award. She's just found the Governor's secret man cave full of tanks containing "undead" zombie heads. Then she spots Penny and actually unchains her and removes the bag from her head. Then, and only then, does she seem surprised that Penny's a zombie! How the hell could she NOT realize this? Why else would you have a little girl bagged and chained in your house? At the very least you'd think she'd be able to smell Penny; I doubt she gives off the refreshing scent of baby powder. Bad writers! Bad!

• Interesting to see the Governor totally freak out and surrender in order to save Penny. He actually seemed almost sympathetic in that moment. TV Governor is definitely more subtle, nuanced and interesting than the cartoonish comic book Governor. The comic book version was so over the top and unappealing as to be laughable, but the TV Governor can actually be a complex character at times, leading you to wonder if he's really a bad guy after all, or just willing to do whatever it takes to protect his people. He's a lot like Rick in that respect.

• The Governor should consider himself lucky that all he lost in his battle with Michonne was an eye. Things played out much differently and much more horrifically in the comic, as the Gov lost many more parts.

• Andrea was mighty accepting of the Governor's explanation as to why he had a wall full of zombie heads in his man cave. His answer of "I look at them to remind myself of the horrors out there" was a lit-tle thin, if you ask me. If I was Andrea I'd have said, "Ah, of course, that makes perfect sense," and then causally whistled as I slowly backed out of the room and got the hell out of Woodbury.

She was even more accepting of the fact that he was keeping his undead daughter chained up in his room. The least she could have done was shudder a little as she realized she's been sleeping with this nut job. I suppose it's possible she does finally realize that he's Cuckoo For Cocopuffs, but knows that she can't just walk out without getting a bullet in her back, and is biding her time.

• At first I thought the Governor's "outing" of Merle seemed to come out of nowhere, but then I remembered that he lied and told the Gov that Michonne was dead. It's not nice to lie to the Governor.

• So the Dixon brothers are reunited at last. Believe it or not, this is the first time the two have ever been onscreen together in "reality." Daryl hallucinated a conversation between Merle and himself last season of course, but this is the first time the two have ever physically appeared together since the series started. Weird.

• Who was that holding a gun in the foreground as the crowd called for Merle and Daryl's deaths? It seemed too deliberately shot to be random. Most of the Woodbury residents seem to be unarmed. Was it Andrea? Is she going to save the Dixon boys?

• Some have suggested that the Governor is staging Merle's "arrest" so he can escape with Daryl and reveal the location of the prisoner. Um... the only thing wrong with that theory is the Governor already KNOWS the prison's location. He said so last week, when he chastised Merle for saying it couldn't be safely de-zombified.

• Obviously Daryl and Merle are going to escape, as they're not going to actually kill them off. But what next? Is Daryl going to bring Merle back to the prison? Will Rick let him in? Certainly not without locking him up in a cell. I get the feeling Daryl's going to have to make a choice between blood family and adopted family.

Walking Dead News: The Governor And The Return Of Merle!

I guess I should put a big ol' SPOILER tag here, in case you don't want to know any details about Season 3 of Walking Dead. You've been warned!

This week we got our first look at actor David Morrissey, who'll be starring as The Governor this fall. Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before, but it looks like November spawned a monster! Get it? Morrissey? Stop me? Spawned a monster? Hey, hey, take your coat off and get back here.

By the way, I don't know who that's supposed to be there in the background. The Governor's Filipino Pool Boy, perhaps?

I first covered the news that Morrissey was the Governor earlier this year, so I won't rehash old news. I wasn't quite convinced that Morrissey was the right man for the part, but he looks sufficiently badass here, so I'm willing to give him a chance (I'm sure he'll no doubt be greatly relieved to hear he has the support of my highly influential blog).

The comic book version of the Governor bore more than a passing resemblance to makeup artist/actor Tom Savini, who in fact lobbied long and hard for the role. As I'm not a fan of Mr. Savini, I'm not particularly torn up that he didn't get the part, or that the final character looks nothing like him. Based solely on other things I've seen David Morrissey in, I think they made a wise choice.

The Walking Dead producers keep insisting that they're not going to water down the Governor character for TV. Don't you believe a word they say, as they are big fat liars. There is absolutely no way that the TV show will be able to faithfully depict the comic book version of the Governor or the whole Woodbury story arc. It's just not possible. The Governor was a sadistic and depraved dictator who routinely resorted to torture and dismemberment to get what he wanted. That whole Woodbury comic book storyline was just brutal, and at times hard to get through. There's no way they can pull it off on TV, no matter what they say. Remember, early this year these same producers kept telling us that John Bernthal wasn't leaving the show, so right there they've proved they can't be trusted.

Also this week, actor Michael Rooker, better known as Merle Dixon, was spotted on the set. As you know, Merle has been a constant presence on the show despite the fact that he's only appeared about three times (and even then, one of those times was as his brother's feverish hallucination!). So is Merle back for good, or is he still a figment of Daryl's imagination? I'm guessing he's back for real, as one of the Governor's men. I have a bad feeling that when he does show up again, things aren't gonna go well for Rick. Remember, Rick's the one who handcuffed Merle to the roof of a zombie-packed building and left him there, causing him to saw his own hand off to escape. Things like that tend to make you hold a grudge.

I need a TARDIS so I can hurry up and see Season 3 NOW!