Section 4.6.1
Flash back to The Governor having just mowed down his troops on the roadside. We watch the trio driving off into the distance, then see them that night at a campfire with three tents in a row. The Governor is unaffected as a walker crawls toward him, so Martinez shoots her for him. We are shown The Governor emerging from his tent the next morning, alone, the other tents (and Shumpert and Martinez) now gone. We see The Governor drive a truck through the gates of Woodbury, and then we see him standing in front of the town hall that is now on fire, as the camera pans around to show the whole town on fire. We are shown images of The Governor on the road, with a long beard, as a conversation is heard between him and two women, where he's explaining he's been on the road for two months after being the sole survivor of a town where the man in charge "lost it", saying he barely got out alive. He passes a barn on the side of which is written notes to missing loved ones, one of which is named "Brian Heriot". He collapses on the street in a small town, spots a girl (Megan) in a window of a nearby building and hobbles in to find her. He's greeted at the door by a woman with a bat (Lily, Megan's mother), and then a younger woman pushes the door open holding a gun. The Governor drops his weapon and backpack as the title music begins to play.
- Sooz: I will try to be objective in my review but must admit that prior to seeing the episode, I read a spoiler that gave pretty much a spot-on play-by-play of this episode... so none of it was a surprise. I'm glad to see that Shumpert and Martinez ditched The Governor. He needed that ego check (and a good flogging) after what he did. I'm a little surprised that they watered down the backstory so much (from the comics) and had him pick up the name "Brian" from the side of a barn. That's a sentence I never thought I'd say... hey you, where'd you get your name? From the side of a BARN. Heh.
- Gen: First thing, when the Gov wakes up the next morning and Shumpert and Martinez had just left him there, I laughed. I did really like how they took us back to where we last saw those guys though. Wish they had done that with some of the other characters in the past like Andrea & Michonne!
The two women are grilling The Governor. Tara, the younger woman, claims to have been Atlanta police, threatening him if he tries to hurt them. When asked his name, he gives them the name he saw on the barn, Brian Heriot. He says he only plans to stay in the building for the night, and finds another apartment in the building to stay in. The older of the two women bring him a plate of Spaghetti-Os which he dumps out the window after she leaves. The little girl is shown playing backgammon with homemade game pieces with an old man with an oxygen tank; this is her grandfather. The girls hear The Governor outside the door bringing the plate back and is brought into the apartment, offered a seat and some coffee. They explain that their father used to drive for a food company and had a truck full of jerky and canned goods the day the zombie apocalypse broke out. The Governor helps them move their father to bed, who explains that Tara has been to the upper floors of the apartment building to kill the walkers but they just keep getting back up; he requests The Governor go upstairs and retrieve a backgammon set his friend had left under his bed for Megan. The Governor complies and finds an amputee walker in a bathtub that Tara has shot in the chest, who he kills and takes a gun off of.
- Sooz: I'm not sure how I feel about The Gov being so blindly willing to go out on a limb for these people who were just shoving guns in his face. Are we trying to establish that he's really a good guy that would do anything to protect a kid and just got a little out of control for a while? Not sure I buy that, but that seems to be what they're eluding toward here. He'll be losing it again sometime soon I'm sure. But hey, if you weren't sold on jerky in the pre-apocalyptic world, just know that you can survive just by snapping into those slimjims.
- Gen: At this point, I'm not too sure what to think of "Brian". Could he really be that down and out that he's a changed man? Have we seen the last of the "Evil Governor"? Maybe that scene at he end of episode 4 where he was standing in the bushes and the creepy Governor music was there just to throw us off. Maybe it will turn out to be something we're not expecting?
The Governor brings the game back and goes back to his apartment alone. He takes out a picture of his wife, Penny, and himself, but folds the picture over to hide himself. In the morning, Lily comes in and sees the picture as The Governor awakes. She offers him some food for the road and tries to give him his gun back, but he tells her to keep it (showing her the one he found the night before). He explains that the walkers have to be shot in the head. She tells him that her father is dying of cancer and needs more oxygen. She asks if he will go raid a closeby retirement home for more before he leaves, and he does. He escapes with two full tanks. Lily follows him to his apartment to play nurse and clean up his battle wounds from the trip to the home. The two bond as she explains that Megan thought The Governor was her father coming home when she saw him on the street. When Lily leaves to get supplies, Megan asks The Governor about what happened to his eye. The pair bond over a vague version of the story of his losing his eye trying to protect Penny.
- Sooz: Ahhh, finding new love in the ZA. I suppose of all the possible Gov story lines that were speculated about, him finding a replacement family was not even suggested... so good job writers for throwing us a new one there. Just a little trivia tidbit... his wife in that picture is actually one of the producers.
- Gen: A new family for the Gov! Who saw that one coming?
The Governor and Megan are setting up a chess set while The Governor is watching the girls tend to their father in through the doorway of the bedroom behind Megan. After a time, Lily comes out to retrieve Megan, giving her the understanding look that her grandfather has passed. The Governor tries to get the women to leave his room, knowing he would turn, but they refuse. In very short order the man reanimates and The Governor has to put him down by bashing him in the head with the tank. The Governor is shown out in a yard digging a grave as Lily approaches and helps drop the man's body in. Back in the apartment, The Governor and Lily come in, but Megan hides from him, now afraid of him. Tara explains that she understands now that everyone will turn and that her father would've wanted him to stop him from hurting them. The Governor returns to his apartment and sets his family photo on fire. He gathers his things and goes to say goodbye, but Lily says they're going to come with him.
- Sooz: The Gov is creepily creepin' on Lily. I felt a little dirty watching that and I'm not sure why... is it because he's creepin' or that we're watching him creepin' (any time I've ever done that the last thing I wanted was for anyone to catch me doing it). You've done it too, you know you have, so you can't say he's a creep for doing it, can ya? But that escalated quickly, huh? And on top of that he creepily burns his family photo just in case we didn't get that he's picked them out as his new wifey and daughter. The fist bump between Tara and The Gov had to be the most awkward thing I've seen in a while. Morrissey just doesn't seem like the 'fist bump' type, but I guess there was a point to showing how wrong any type of attraction to her would've been so Lily was a natural fit of the two. Of course they establish later that she's a lesbian anyway, again, seemingly overstating another point.
- Gen: The last thing I think we would have expected "Crazy Phil" from season 3 to do would be to take 2 women and a little girl with him on the road. I'm starting to think that maybe he is a changed man and he had to hit rock bottom first. He has a new purpose and it's to keep Megan safe. He's making up for what happened to Penny. Or maybe I'm just a sucker!
The Governor is driving the girls to an unknown destination in their father's delivery truck. Tara explains that she's not really a cop, but was in the academy. They stop to set up camp by a pond. That night, the four are sleeping in the back of the truck with Lily lying next to The Governor. She turns toward him and they begin sexy times while Megan and Tara sleep nearby. The next day they are unable to get the truck running, so they take off on foot assuming they'll find another vehicle on the road. Coming around the bend, they come across a small horde and take off into the woods, dropping their bags on the road to flee. Megan shows that she has regained her trust in The Governor by jumping into his arms and the group runs away. The Governor, still carrying Megan, falls into a pit with walkers in it. The Governor kills the walkers as rapid gunfire is heard overhead. He consoles Megan but looks up as Martinez looks down into the pit to see him.
- Sooz: Welp, I guess Lily was feeling The Gov more than she seemed to be at first. This is the second time we've seen a couple gettin' it on with the kid nearby (think Carl asleep in the tent with Lori and Rick, Season 1) so I guess it's just a reality of the ZA though I think I'd be a little more discreet about it since that's just embarrassing for everyone if they were caught. So who exactly was Martinez shooting at? If it was Lily and Tara, he missed... they're in the preview for next week. Maybe they ran up into a situation happening at Martinez's camp that we'll see next week.
- Gen: Martinez is back and with a whole new crew! Didn't see that one coming! Also, way to go Phil with the hands on zombie kills. Looking forward to seeing how this will play out next week!
Final Thoughts
- Sooz: While I've never been all yippy skippy about episodes that focus too much on one character, I thought this one was done very well in order to give The Gov back a little humanity. If we move forward with a battle between him and Team Prison, that can only serve to inject more drama and emotion. Clearly in the "current day" he's camped out in the woods still planning to attack them, and we'll likely spend all of next week's episode finding out the rest of the story that leads him there. But remember, there are only TWO episodes left before the winter hiatus... most speculation has the fall of the prison happening as the mid-season finale but at the current pace I can't see that happening. We've got a lot of ground left to cover before that can happen, and with only two episodes left I feel like it's not going to get there yet. Is it possible they will just use the first half to set us up for the conflict, and the last half to actually execute it? That seems like a very slow pace to me but so far I can't complain about the execution. Last season just didn't have enough progression to it; there was a lot of waffling over the same points over and over. Yes, we get that Andrea is torn between the two, Michonne is angry, The Gov is crazy, and that life at the prison sucks... we didn't need 16 episodes reviewing those few points. So far in season four we've crammed a lot of different points in and see a lot more coming. I'm pleased with Scott Gimple's job so far and hope they keep him as show runner moving forward. That said, is it any wonder that this guy's middle name is Milhouse?
*Snort* Poor kid.
Don't forget to visit http://www.WalkingDeadFamily.com Monday nights at 8pm eastern time to watch the episode again while chatting about it with other fans! Note: Depending on attendance the video playback may not be started until 9pm.
Don't forget to visit http://www.WalkingDeadFamily.com Monday nights at 8pm eastern time to watch the episode again while chatting about it with other fans! Note: Depending on attendance the video playback may not be started until 9pm.
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