Well, folks, the day has finally arrived.   Ever since The Walking Dead Comic-Con trailer came out in mid-July, all of us have been glued to that clip trying to piece together Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) relationship, the introduction of the Governor (David Morrissey), and how it would all play out. With tonight’s episode, we finally get to see all of those little clips come together to show us the mystery behind the Governor and Woodbury and setting the stage for what should be a fantastic season.

We’ve been teased with that military helicopter scene for months now, and we finally get to see that storyline be resolved tonight.   The episode opens with the same footage, and Andrea and Michonne heading towards the wreckage. Within minutes of arriving at the scene, what appears to be a rescue team shows up to help. Two of the men die in the crash, but the third survives and the handsome leader of the rescue team seems legitimately concerned and urges everyone to get the man back to the “infirmary” immediately. While all of this is going on, Andrea and Michonne are hiding in the woods trying to be quiet, but apparently they aren’t quiet enough.   After Michonne sacrifices her loyal pets to try and prevent them from being discovered (which I’m sure shocked the sh*t out of most of the fandom, myself included!), it doesn’t do much good as they are discovered anyways. Andrea turns around and thinks she has seen a ghost when she stands face to face with Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker).

From this point on in the episode, there’s not much action, and the focus is primarily on character development with the spotlight being on the Governor. I’m not a big zombie fan, and I enjoy much more the episodes with emphasis on the stories and the character interactions. So, I can safely say that this episode will probably end up being in my top five. When we are first introduced to the Governor, he seems like a really nice guy.   He goes to the crash site and helps that survivor, even though he doesn’t have to. He takes Andrea and Michonne back to Woodbury and provides them with food, medicine and a safe place to sleep, no questions asked and nothing expected in return. If first impressions are any indication, this guy should win the Man of the Year award.   But, we slowly begin to see that this man’s charm and charisma may be hiding his true intentions, as things start to not add up.

The first sign of trouble is Andrea and Michonne asking to leave. The Governor keeps saying they are free to get their weapons and leave, but always ends up changing the subject, indicating that he actually doesn’t want them to leave or he is holding them hostage but in a very subtle way. The second indicator is this brainiac that the Governor has working for him. The Governor mentions to him how much he loves his tea, and then, he makes sure that Andrea drinks some of his tea at breakfast. I strongly suspect the tea has some kind of drug in it, possibly to make a person more docile and controllable? If you are the leader of a peaceful community, then you shouldn’t need drugs to force people to stay.

The writers really did a superb job developing the Governor character up to this point, because I was convinced that even in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, there were still a few guys left, and the Governor was one of them. Then, just when you think you’re comfortable with the idea of the Governor being on the good side, boom – through some very fast-paced scenes, we get to see the Governor’s true colors.

Even though Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of the group are completely absent in this episode, I couldn’t help but think how similar these two leaders are and the very subtle ways the writers are revealing this to us. I’m sure all of us were appalled to see the Governor gun down those men from the military base, but he did it strictly for survival and to help the town of Woodbury, which he is responsible for. He certainly didn’t seem to enjoy it. Does that sound familiar to anything that may have happened in last week’s episode?   In “Sick”, Rick allowed an innocent man to die in order to protect the group. Like in the Governor’s case, it was all about survival. This apocalypse makes you calloused, and both the Governor and Rick did what they had to do to protect the people they are entrusted with.

The major differences in these two characters aren’t really revealed to us until the end of the episode. We see the Governor looking at a picture of himself with a woman and a child, probably his wife and son who are also likely to be dead since we never see them. What we see next comes close to topping my list for being creepy. The Governor’s whole pickled zombie head collection (including that of Michonne’s two pets and the head of the pilot he was trying to “save”) completely freaked me out. Then, I remembered that this is a man who probably lost his entire family. From that family photo we see, he looks like an ordinary guy who at one time was probably a decent man. But, losing everyone that you care about can change you, and without a doubt, it has changed this man.

Then, I thought of Rick. Just like the Governor, Rick has a wife and a son, but they are still alive. We’ve already seen Rick change drastically from the man we saw in season two, and it makes me wonder what kind of man he would become if he had lost both Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and Carl (Chandler Riggs). Would he continue being a good person at heart, or would he become even more calloused, perhaps borderline psychotic, like the Governor?

All in all, I thought this was an excellent episode, and honestly, I enjoyed it more than the previous two episodes, even the premiere. It may not have been as action-packed and gory as the others, but we learn a great deal about these new characters, which in my opinion has been one of the strengths of this series.

So, what did everyone else think? Do you think there is still some good left in the Governor, or are you with Michonne in that he can’t be trusted?

 

 

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