The Walking Dead: Season 4 Episode 7 WDF Review

Episode Synopsis and Review:

Section 4.7.1
The opening sequence flips back and forth between a conversation between “Brian” and Megan and the turn of events at the walker pit where episode 6 left off. Brian is washing clothes in a tub while Megan is playing chess. She is thinking about what move to make next in the game. Back at the walker pit, Martinez and Brian help Megan out of the pit where she then runs to her mother. Martinez stands there for a moment looking at Brian before throwing a rope down to help him. Back at the chess game Brian is coaxing Megan to make her move in the game while he hangs the laundry on the clothes line. Megan comments that he never lets her win anyway. He replies that it wouldn’t be winning and that is what his father used to say and that his father used to beat him at chess too, along with everything else. Back at the walker pit, Brian climbs out with the help of Martinez. It’s evident that they know each other. Back to the chess game Megan asks Brian if his dad was mean and if it was because he was bad. He replies “sometimes” to both questions.  Back at the walker pit Martinez is asking him if he’s been on the run all that time. Back at the chess game, Megan asks if she is bad because her dad was always mean to her. Brian reassures her she is good. Back at the walker pit, Martinez says they have a camp and If they want to join the camp they need to know that Martinez is in charge and no dead weight. Contribute or be cast out. He asks “Brian” if he can live with that. Back at the chess game Brian is reassuring Megan that they were all going to be ok. Megan asks if it’s because they are all good. Brian doesn’t reply. He goes back to his laundry. Megan makes her move and says it’s his turn. Brian says he’s thinking. The scene pan out to a shot of the Governor standing at the clothesline to reveal a tank beside their trailer as the title music begins to play.

• Gen: They are hinting heavily that there is going to be a struggle between good and bad this episode based on the conversation he was having with Megan. I was really hoping that he had turned over a new leaf and that he wouldn’t be making the same mistakes that he made with Woodbury. At this point I thought it was a possibility… until I saw the tank. That definitely implies that we haven’t seen the last of the good ol’ Governor. I also liked that we got a bit more insight into the Governor’s background from the discussion about his father.

Section 4.7.2
Brian and Lilly are talking in their trailer. She’s asking if he is going out today and he says on a supply run with Martinez, Pete & Mitch. Lilly is going to set up a nurse’s station for the camp. Brian apologizes and says he wanted something better for them as he eyes the leak in the roof of their trailer. Out on the supply run they are following a map to a cabin that might contain supplies. They come across a decapitated body tied to a tree that has a sign on it that reads: “Liar”. They move on. Back at the camp Lilly is patching up a cut on Alisha’s finger. Tara starts up a conversation with her about weapons. Back on the supply run, they come across another body tied to a chair in a field, also decapitated with a sign on his chest: “rapist”. They keep walking. They make it to the cabin where they find a man with a sign around his neck “murderer”. He shot himself in the head, leading the men to believe he was the one responsible for the dead men they found on their way there. They proceed into the cabin where they hear a noise in the back and figure it is a walker that has gotten stuck and can’t get out. Brian goes in first.  Slowly they make their way to the back of the cabin where a walker jumps out and attacks Pete. Brian beats the walker to death. They find the heads of the 2 dead men they saw on the way there. Another walker comes out and Brian beats him to death as well with his flashlight.

• Gen: The first thing I thought of when I saw the first decapitated body was Crazy Clara’s husband! After all, she was just carrying around his head in a sack. Obviously it wasn’t him since we see the 2 walker heads on the floor in the cabin. I think this is where we first start to see that the Gov doesn’t have faith in Martinez’s ability to lead the camp. He was the one who had to step up and kill the walkers.

Section 4.7.3
Later at the cabin Martinez admits to Brian that if it was just him in the pit and not for the people he was with, he wouldn’t have taken him into the camp. He says that he seems different now, asks him if he has changed. Brian says yes. The other guys come back with a box full of canned goods and beer that they found in the cabin. They briefly discuss their back stories. Back at the camp after they returned, Martinez and Alisha are having dinner with Brian, Lilly, Megan and Tara. Lilly says being at the camp is the first time she has felt safe since the beginning of the apocalypse. The women start asking about their previous “camp” and that it sounded pretty sweet. Lilly wants to hear about it but says Brian won’t talk about it. The party breaks up as Tara and Alisha leave, followed by Martinez. Megan tells Brian that the roof is leaking again and Martinez tells him he should fix it. Brian is in the trailer with duct tape about to patch the hole when there is a knock on the door. Martinez says he has a surprise for him. They are now up on a trailer hitting golf balls into the walker pits and drinking. We find out that Shumpert is dead. He got killed by a walker and martinez was the one to put him down afterwards. Martinez says they should share the power in the camp. Brian then hits Martinez over the head with a golf club, pushes him off of the roof and drags him to a walker pit. The Governor keeps saying “I don’t want it!” as he holds martinez over a pit of walkers, where he is eaten alive.

• Gen: Welcome back Governor! Thank you, writers, for shattering my hopes that he could actually turn out to be a half decent guy. He couldn't just beat him to death either; he had to go and feed him to the walkers. Do you think that was a little bit of revenge for Martinez ditching him or just purely to get him to shut up?

Section 4.7.4
Back in the trailer Brian is upset as LiIly and Megan come home. Lilly asks Brian what is wrong and he says he had a bad dream. She asks him what it was and he says he can’t remember. Next morning they come together in a group to say they found Martinez in the pit. They blame the alcohol and that he fell in. Pete says he’s taking over leadership of the camp. The other’s want a vote. They are going to vote in the next couple of days but for now it’s business as usual. Pete and Mitch take Brian out on a hunt. Pete asks Brian for help with leading the camp. They come across another camp of survivors in the woods, living in tents. They guess there are maybe 10 people and a lot of supplies. Pete suggests they take them in and his brother says they don’t have enough to go around as it is. Mitch suggest that they rob them. Pete refuses and says they need to find their own supplies. Brian stays quiet.  After finding some squirrels and condensed milk, Brian wanders off to find to find the camp they were previously at has been ransacked and the people all killed, supplies taken. Mitch is angry because they could have had the supplies. He stabs a survivor in the head that was coming to on the ground. Pete is angry and says he might have lived. Again, brian stays quiet. Back at the camp Lilly and megan are in the trailer when Brian comes in and tells them to pack their stuff and that they need to leave because it’s not safe anymore. Megan begins to pack immediately while Lilly says they can’t leave because she’s the only nurse and now Tara has Alisha. Brian says things are going to go bad and he can’t put them through that “again” and asks her if she trusts him. They are out on the road in a car and Alisha is questioning what they are doing. Suddenly the car stops. Brian gets out. We see a group of walkers stuck waist deep in the mud, blocking the road. Brian stands and watches them for a moment and turns back to look at a frightened LiIly and Megan in the car.

• Gen: I bet the Gov was wishing he had that tank right about then! I think he was really struggling with his demons. He was trying so hard to resist the urge to be The Governor again and the only thing left that he could think to do was run. Personally I think it was too late the moment he killed Martinez. There was no turning back for him after that.

Section 4.7.5
The next morning the car is back at camp and Brian is getting ready. Lilly is waking up with Tara and Alisha beside her. She asks him what he is doing to which he replies “surviving”.
He walks over to Pete’s trailer and knocks on the door. Pete thinks he is there to talk about Mitch. After inviting him in, Brian stabs Pete and chokes him to death. Next he goes to Mitch’s trailer. Mitch answers and Brian is holding a gun to him. They sit down at the table and Mitch asks where Pete is. Brian says he’s dead. Mitch gets up and asks if he’s going to kill him too. Brian holds his gun on him and motions for him to sit down. Mitch asks why he killed Pete and his reply was that Mitch was right and that they should have taken the supplies at the other camp and that he didn’t care that he killed the man who had survived.  Brian says that he is running things now and that he will do whatever it takes to protect the camp. He wants Mitch on his side. Mitch goes along with it. Brian dumps Pete’s body in the pond, weighted down so he sinks to the bottom. Mitch asks what they should tell everyone about Pete and he says to say that he died on a supply run protecting them.

• Gen: I wasn’t surprised Mitch went along with him even after the Gov killed his brother. Also, I don’t think he went along because he is afraid of the Gov, but because he agrees with him. He sees an opportunity to run things the way he thinks they should be run and not by doing what is necessarily right.

Section 4.7.6
Back at the camp Brian is organizing the “troops”.  They are having a conversation about their supplies and that they need to conserve their ammo because they need to be ready not just to protect themselves against the biters but also other humans. If they encounter anyone on a run they are to make themselves scarce and report back to the Governor about where they saw them.  The Governor is back in his trailer looking over a map and circles a location. LiIly gets out of bed and he says maybe they can find a better place if they are willing to fight for it. She says they don’t need to find a better place, that the camp is home. The next morning Megan is out playing tag with Tara. Megan thinks she has found Tara behind a sheet hanging on the line but it is a walker who then goes after her as she tries to crawl under the trailer. Tara is trying to pull the walker away from Megan but the skin on his leg just slides off instead.  There is gun shot and the Gov has shot the walker in the head and saves Megan. He is then standing on the dock where he dumped Petes body looking down into the water where Pete has now turned into a walker. He is then driving his truck in the forest when he gets out and we see he has driven to the prison and is watching Rick and Carl in the garden. He then comes upon Michonne and Hershel outside the fence. He sees Michonne smiling and raises his gun to shoot.

• Gen: Poor Pete. The Gov could have at least stabbed him in the head first or something. Is the pond now going to turn into his new walker garden? No fish tanks for the heads so I guess the pond will do! I think it’s safe to say that “Brian” is no more and we are back to full on Governor. He’s always wanted to take that prison and now that he has his power back and a new group of troops, he can try. I love how they ended the episode with him raising his gun to shoot Michonne. They did a good job of filling in the blanks in the last 2 episodes to bring us full circle to where we last left the prison group. Although, I did feel that there was  A LOT of info crammed into the last 2 episodes. Needless to say, I’m super excited for the mid-season finale!