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!