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| The Governor's got some balls. No, seriously. Look in his hands. |
Warning: The following review definitely contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.
This week, we see a slow return to the classic Governor. While not necessarily a poor episode (certainly better than last week's episode), a lack of characters we care about ultimately makes this week's episode falter. What revives it, however, is its ability to make the Governor a villain all over again, and that's pretty damn neat.
Picking up right after last week's episode, we start the episode with the Governor and Megan in the pit. Martinez, finding them, helps them out, and brings the Governor and the family he is with back to their "camp." What ensues slowly turns into a horror movie, with the Governor playing the part of the man to be feared.
The Governor doesn't like the answer he receives from Martinez as to whether or not he could provide necessary protection for the group, so Martinez gets a club to the head, followed by a kick off the trailer, followed by a dragging to the walker pit where he is subsequently mauled head first, all while drunkenly playing golf on the roof of an RV. Precious. Later on, another dude is shived brutally by the Governor, because he was "good" in the sense he did not want to rob a small group found in the woods of their supplies. This man is thrown to the bottom of a body of water, and there is a nice scene where the Governor is looking at the newly-turned zombie struggling to get back up.
The ending to the episode sees the Governor outside the prison gates, first spotting Rick and Carl, then seeing Michonne speaking with Hershel. He raises his gun and points it at Michonne, then it cuts to black. A fantastic cliffhanger, leading into what seems to be a fantastic mid-season finale.
The Governor is a complex character. Last week, we saw many of the Governor's good aspects. Megan, reminding him of his daughter, brought about a change in him that made him much more sympathetic. This episode took the concept of the Governor possibly changing, and tore it to shreds. This isn't a bad thing at all, considering viewers are looking forward to the next confrontation between Rick's group and the Governor's.
While on the topic of the Governor's group, with the exception of Megan, they seem very dull. There is a lesbian relationship that is explored in a relatively odd manner, seemingly popping out of nowhere after a couple of comments exchanged between two people. I do not think that this was unnecessary by any means, it was just approached in a lazy fashion, feeling very rushed. The other members of the new group of people...are pretty much just bodies to be killed off when the shit hits the fan. We, as viewers, really don't care about any of them. Although a rather harsh statement, if all of them die I really don't care, and neither will the viewers. Except for little Megan. We don't even know their names, save a select few.
The two-episode Governor centric story-arc, while an interesting distraction from Rick's group, falls short as a whole. This episode did a great job of making the Governor someone to be feared again, but the other members of the group provide absolutely nothing noteworthy. The death of Martinez was a great scene, powerfully conveying the animal that the Governor can become. Besides the Governor's villainous intentions, everything else was uninteresting. I do like that the arc brought us from the end of Season 3 right up to the present from the Governor's point of view, with a fantastic performance from Morrissey, but I feel that two entire episodes dedicated to this "character study" of sorts seems to be a bit too much. Hopefully, it will all pay off and pave way to a great mid-season finale.
Rating:
7/10
(7 out of 10)
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