The Governor begins this episode by doing a brilliant job of placing blame on the group in the prison for the demise of his former utopia. He spoke grandly of not wanting to hurt people and kind of sounded like a logical guy. Of course, these people have no idea that Hershel and Michonne are tied up in his trailer. I especially enjoyed the moment when he accused them of mutilating him and killing his daughter. The Governor is a sly, little bastard. I know I refer to it a lot, but The Governor’s speech was very Walter White. He’s the supreme jerkface, yet, manages to make it look like he’s in the right and if you don’t agree with him, then there’s something wrong with you and your logic.
Let’s get the Rick/Daryl thing out of the way, shall we? Daryl is a good, logical man. He wan’t happy with Rick’s decision, but he understood it. Frankly, it went down the way I expected it to. Carol made a poor judgement call and Rick did what he thought was right. Daryl agreed with him. Done and done. It seemed as though Daryl was more disappointed in Carol for her choice than he was in Rick for his choice.
The visual of the tank rolling up to the prison , which has no walkers surrounding it, for a peaceful takeover is pretty hilarious. I realize that a lot of people were more than unimpressed with Rick’s plea to The Governor, but I really thought it was the adult thing to do. Rather than let his testosterone guide his judgement, he swallowed his pride and suggested SHARING the prison with THE GOVERNOR. Hershel was so very proud of Rick in that moment. Hershel knew his time had come, but he also knew that he and his people tried to do the right thing. Hershel was a noble man and he died a noble man.
If Daryl had reacted like a petulant child to the news of Carol, he wouldn’t have been there to organize everyone while Rick was trying to reason with The Governor. Daryl is a cool cucumber under pressure and that’s why we love him. This viewer never felt that he was in love with Carol, so much as he was repenting for his past sins and being a stand up guy for a woman who hadn’t yet had the pleasure of knowing one.
Well, as Dusty predicted, little Meghan had to go. I do believe her death was the price The Governor had to pay for his hubris. (Very Breaking Bad) It’s just so heartbreaking that the death of Meghan is what it took for her mother to finally admit to herself that Brian is a real asshole. Excuse my language, but I don’t have a nice word for him at this point.
So, the shootout was completely stupid and over the top. Hey guy, why are you blowing up the joint that you want to call home? Men.
Seeing the little girls carrying Judith out was so very sad, but they knew to do it because Carol had taught them well. Thank you to Carol for that amazing visual of Lizzy shooting Tara in the head. You go, girl! You may be dissecting rats and feeding the walkers, but it’s pretty clear who is going to prevail in the future: Carl and Lizzy. Speaking of Carl, what an awesome little Charles Bronson he is becoming. Carl takes care of business. Maybe Lizzy or Carl can take care of Tyrese for me. Seriously, why is he still alive?
Awesome physical fight between Rick and The Governor. That was a long time coming and it was pretty satisfying. As usual, Michonne saved the day. She didn’t cut his head off, but I can’t help but wonder if she had planned on keeping The Governor as a pet. Perhaps she just wanted the pleasure of killing him twice; once as a human and once as a walker. No matter the motivation, she wanted him to suffer; can’t really blame her for that.
So, our group has been severely fragmented, they all seem to be going in separate directions and it looks as though we might have lost Judith. I’m not willing to believe little Judith is dead until they say it straight out. After everything this show has put us through, I refuse to believe they would spare us the visual of Judith’s death. Sophia turned into a walker and Rick had to shoot her, Rick and Carl both had to kill Shane,( a man that they once both looked up to), Carl had to shoot his own mother, Daryl had to kill Merle, Michonne had to watch Andrea die and Maggie had to watch as her father’s head was chopped off:no way we’re getting off easy with Judith’s death.
“It’s over.”
“Don’t look back, Carl. Keep walking.”
Perfect ending to the episode. It’s all over and the only thing they can do is move forward if they want to keep surviving.