Well, that escalated quickly.
Just last week we were watching the pseudo-redemption of the murderous Governor, this week by mid-episode he’s killed off his competition for leader at the new camp and has already amassed his troops to lead another assault on the prison. This time he’s got Herschel and Michonne, whom he snuck up on and abducted, as bargaining chips as well as a tank…yeah an actual tank. The ultimatum is simple, Rick and co. leave by nightfall and no one gets hurt, if not they kill Herschel and Michonne, run the tank through the fences and kill everyone. Even at this point the Governor seems more stable than before, acting for the safety of his new family Lilly and Meghan. Rick refuses, choosing to take a stand at quite possibly the stupidest moment possible…I mean, they have a TANK, there’s no way to win. The Governor than takes Michonnes sword to Herschel’s neck and swings away, cleaving deep into the old man’s neck. Battle erupts as the Governor says his famous line from the comics, “Kill ‘em ALL!”. It immediately becomes apparent that there was never a redemption for the governor, we see earlier in the episode that Meghan, who’s playing a ridiculous distance from her mother given the fact that she was almost bitten at the beginning of the episode, unearths a zombie that was trapped in some mud who then proceeds to take a nice chunk out of her. Lilly rushes Meghan to the Governor at the prison (how she got there or even knew how to get there is never explained), the Governor takes one look at the little girl who we thought would redeem him and puts a bullet through her head. He then goes over to a barely alive Herschel and starts whacking away on him again until he is completely decapitated….this is where I took major issue. It was unnecessary and not a fitting exit for one of the most likeable characters on the show. It’s not even like you can say it’s done to show how evil the Governor is, as his story arc is at an end also. Not long after he finishes Herschel he and Rick throw down, and Rick gets thrown down. I mean really he gets treated like a bitch. I think this was a perfect time to get people back on team Rick and at least have the fight even, nope, Rick gets his ass whopped and is about 3 seconds away from choking to death when Michonne Kebob’s his aorta with her Katana, that’s it…donzo, Governor goes out via cheap shot.
Other High/Low-lights
- Daryl at his most Daryl-y taking out the tank with a grenade and the douchiest of the Governor’s new bunch with a merciless arrow to the heart.
- Carol's cult of mercenary little girls putting the lead to a group that had Tyreese pinned down.
- A bloody car-seat that was carrying little ass-kicker. No body, and everyone is separated so no confirmation on whether they actually went the comic book route and killed the littlest group member.
It kills me….I fight for this show hard, I do, but I don’t know what to think right now. I know I’m mad because Herschel was a favorite and they did him dirty but it’s also the horrible pacing of this season so far. The two Gov-isodes especially, we weren’t given enough time with him and his group to care even a little when they started dropping AND those episodes left us with no final time to spend with our prison group. I don’t know what they were thinking but I hope this is a one-time mistake of storytelling and not a sign of things to come.
R.I.P 10/23/2011-12/1/2013
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| May Spaghetti Wednesday Forever be on Tuesday |
A Dash of Dissent: Rocky’s Thoughts on “Too Far Gone”
Well! Here we are at the mid-season finale of season four, “Too Far Gone,” and I actually don’t have that many complaints. I mean, sure, I don’t think all the changes from the comics worked (no one is surprised I said that, right?), and I do think it took too long to get into the action part of the episode. But finally, it felt like the show was going hard, hard like the source material is. Not hard in the way I’ve wanted all season—ahem, that thing that was supposed to happen didn’t happen, and I guess might not ever happen?—but at least it felt like stakes were finally being reached.
Oh, and at least the Governor is finally fucking dead. Finally!
So let’s run through my final thoughts, and then we will leave season four to rest—until next spring, of course, when “The Walking Dead” returns for the rest of this divided-in-half season. John might not be watching then, I guess, since he’s so cut up over Hershel’s death? We’ll see.
+ Good: Let me reiterate: The Governor is finally dead! Jeez, that was a storyline that would not die, and I’m happy that it was Michonne who got to take him out, even if his new replacement wife Lilly delivered the killing gunshot. I do have some qualms—since what the Governor does in the comics is not transferred into the show, it feels like Michonne’s and Rick’s utter hatred of him isn’t fully earned, and that their respective killing feelings toward each other are a bit too exaggerated—but nevertheless I’m pleased we’ve finally reached this point. Let’s move on! Please, let the show move on.
+ Also good: Other deaths! Yes, that sounds callous and terrible and awful, and yes, Hershel dying (especially in the exact way and circumstance that another important character dies in the comics, but I guess they thought Herschel might have more impact in the TV show?) was pretty grotesque and brutal. But really, the show needed to go to a place where characters we actually like die, not just annoying ones like Andrea or outliers like Dale (who was killed off because the actor wanted to leave the show with former showrunner Frank Darabont). I’m not saying kill off Daryl or Glenn or Michonne, because that would be madness. But someone more affectionately regarded, but not adored, like Hershel does the trick. Another reason I am a terrible human: I do not care at all that Rick’s baby is dead (and that baby better not mysteriously appear in February, saved by someone on their way out of the prison). Sorry, it had to happen. And finally, I’m good with Carol’s adopted daughters becoming little murderers. It worked out fine for Carl; it will work out fine for them.
+ No one can deny this was good: Norman Reedus being hot and resourceful as Daryl, killing a bunch of zombies with his muscles and his grenades and his gun and his arrows and his muscles. Mmm, unwashed sweaty formerly racist muscles, turned into a beautiful and graceful killing machine.
+ Interested to see how this plays out: I’ve been pretty vicious toward the writing on this show so far this season, because the dialogue is often ridiculously bad. And this episode still had its weak spots both in terms of conversation and just general logic, like Lilly letting Meghan play in a MUDDY RIVERBANK DOZENS OF YARDS AWAY FROM HER, ALL ALONE, WHEN THE GIRL ALMOST GOT EATEN IN THEIR BUSY CAMP LAST WEEK. Like, maybe you should tether your daughter to you with a child leash, because clearly she is marked for death. But before that idiocy, I liked some of the bluntness of the dialogue exchanged between the Governor and Herschel, especially this:
Hershel: “If you understand what it’s like to have a daughter, how can you threaten someone else’s?”
The Governor: “Because they aren’t mine.”
Right?! So brusque and to-the-point and great, shocking given how much the Governor’s character development has sucked up until then. (Sidenote: Who is doing the Governor’s laundry? How are his blacks still so black? Is this a new kind of laundry detergent created for mostly boring TV villains?) Hopefully we’ll get more of that no-frills style next spring, instead of more crap like Tara’s girlfriend’s promise of “I will find you when it’s all over. I will find you.” You are not Daniel Day-Lewis from “Last of the Mohicans,” please stop stealing his lines.
+ And finally, zero fucks given about these storylines: Who is dissecting the rats in some corner of the prison? Do not care at all. Who was feeding the rats outside of the prison gate? I think the time for resolving that has passed. I’m going with Rick’s last words of the episode: “Don’t look back, Carl. Just keep walking.” Let’s do that with some of these plots, mmkay?
See you all in February! I’ll be the one hoarding pictures of Norman Reedus until then.
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