The Walking Dead Season 3 Liveblog! Episode 14: "Prey"

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!
(don't forget today is Billy Corgan's birthday!)

everybody loves some billy corgan, right?

We hope this means that you're already a few beers deep, and very much enjoying the spirit of the season, and that's why you're all green. It's food dye, right? Certainly not mold and gangrene  eh? No walkers around these parts, right?

oh, charlie day.

so after a string of something approaching decent episodes, last week was a bit of a clunker. sorta slow. sorta boring. lots of talking and whiskey, not so much... umm, excitement. they did come to one agreement, however.

rick is a real fuckin' leader. not like that governing guy.

so, where's this all leave us?

is merle still being a pain in the ass at the jail?

are glenn and maggie all sorted out i guess?

what happened to morgan? or tyrese for that matter?

are these two grown-ass white dudes really going to fight over michonne's ownership for the rest of the season? or are they actually fighting over andrea?

what in the bloody blue hell is andrea actually doing? like, seriously?

oh, and how much longer until rick, y'know, gets luke skywalker'd?

can't some people just die and this storyline be over?

i can't sit here and tell you you'll get the answers you're looking for over this here cut, but i'm sure as hell going to help you try to figure it all out.

8:15 - Welcome! You're a little early, but please join our hostess, Andrea, doing her best Rear Window impersonation.

Pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink, and say hello. We're sure to be in for some fun times tonight.

8:25 - it's incredibly important that you get any last second errands *cough*beer*cough*chips*cough done, because a whole lot of stuff is going to happen. stuff and things you might say. you don't want to miss these stuff and things 'cause of your own stuff and things, do you?

that really might be a better title for this isht.

8:40 - so with today being St. Paddy's day and all, we really do plan on having some drinks. Y'know, Rick and The Governor had their whiskey last week, and this week at prettymuchamovie, we're pounding back some beers (this is different, right?). Our brews of choice tonight are some James Ready 5.5 and a little bit of Shock Top. Not the fanciest, but we've never much cared for Guinness anywho.

So, drink up tonight. Walkers die? Drink. Bloodshed? Drink. Plotholes? Drink. Continuity error? Drink. Silly Sex Scene? Drink. Governor says stupid stuff? Drink. Andrea makes stupid decision? Drink. Stuff? Drink. Things? Drink. Stuff? Drink. We're serious, people. Please drink. It makes the show much more enjoyable.

trust us. we're experts.

8:50 - okay, time for wicked excitement now. right? right. better drink to cool that down. hey, think anything'll happen this week, or are we just going through more pseudo-pre-hostage-negotiation with the sheriff and the governor? ooh, that'd make a decent show, y'know, if they still had teevee.

8:55 - oh man, oh man, oh man.

hey, how many walkers are they going to off tonight?

i'm setting the over/under at 5. who wants to lay down some bets?

8:56 - man, last week's episode was effing grand.

and by grand, i mean slow, and sort of... well, is there a word for wet cardboard?

8:58 - the end of last week's episode is funny - rick seems to be asking hershel for advice, but not really taking it. quite funny. poor dude's shocked rick is even asking for his opinion on this, let alone questioning what his advice.

9:00 - so in the "previously"  we go over the gov's history and get reminders of their agreement.

9:01 - ooh, a walkers chained up to a tree? all armless?

flashback?

yeah.

andrea and michonne at a fire, michonne's boys in tow.

they share some beans. 

"girls night," michonne calls it.  i reiterate my request for an andrea/michonne post-apocalypse buddy comedy.

9:02 - andrea starts prying into michonne's walkers origins.

"you still haven't told me where you found them. did they attack? or, did you know them?"

they share a sad silence and andrea apologizes.

michonne sloughs it off.

"they deserve what they got."

michonne takes off.

what an interesting backstory.

we cut back to the chain, and fade over to the gov. sneaky, and a nice shot.

he's trying out some weirdo dungeon deal?

ooookay, that's going to end well.

he's clearly got someone in mind for that.

and not in a fun "pierce's playroom" type way.

we go to commercials from here

9:06 - Woodburians are loading up weapons with Martinez at the helm.

Milton questions there motives, but hey. Martinez isn't being effed with.

It appears as though they're readying to mount an offensive.

Andrea approaches Milton.

"I thought there was a deal on the table."

"I'm sure it's just a precaution, a show of force."

9:07 - the governor is loading up on medical supplies, packing 'em up nice.

Milton stalks in a doorway.

Gov catches him, and he tries to sneak away.

Governor stops him.

"what is that?"

"my workshop."

"and how is that supposed to help woodbury?"

milton goes on to explain that they wanted to claw back to civilization, and this doesn't help.

the governor asks milton about their old theories.

"do you still believe that the biters still have some spark in them? of who they once were?"

gov's still pissed about losing penny.  milton retorts that she doesn't matter anymore.  these guys are so mark and david healy!

9:09 - milton's run to andrea to warn her about what's up.

he eventually leads her to the governor's workshop.

"milton, this is sick," she starts.

she's not going to stand back and watch this.

they're interrupted by the governor entering his workshop.

he's got a sewing needle and a hooked suture. for stitching?

he whistles to himself, happily, then sits down in the chair.

he's listening to a playback of himself whistling as andrea lines up her sights.

she's going to shoot him!

fucking milton stops her!

9:11 - "how can you still protect him? he doesn't give a shit about you."

"i knew phillip before the governor. that man still exists."

milton says if they kill the governor, martinez takes over. problems still exist.

andrea wants her to take off with him to the prison.

milton feels like he belongs here.

"then if you stay, you can't keep looking the other way."

andrea kisses him on the cheek, of course, and takes off.

9:12 - there's a nice shot of her approaching the wall, and martinez eventually pipes up.

"andrea, andrea!"

she rolls her eyes and halts.

"governor wants all weapons collected, we need everyone armed."

"i think i'm more useful armed."

"don't be stupid about this."

she hands over her shit.

"you got a knife?"

"you want to frisk me?" she asks.

weird, they don't do that. not that i'm complaining - there's been enough of that business on this show for our liking.

anyway, the governor shows up, and says he just wants andrea safe. but he wants her to come with them tomorrow.

"if rick tries anything, you can talk some sense into him."

"tries anything?"

nice, andrea and ambiguity.  we've been waiting for this.

9:14 - tyrese and sasha on the wall.

we find out tyrese can't shoot. sasha can.

yay sasha.

tyrese keeps missing and sasha chirps him big.  this is really cute.

"you're wasting ammo."

tyrese eventually pops a good shot.

andrea shows up and tells them that martinez says a large pack of walkers was seen by the main wall and martinez wants them over there.

they don't buy it.  shocking, because andrea is like, the best liar!

she tries to leave and tyrese grabs her.

andrea pulls a knife on him though.

"relax," he tells her.

"this place, this place, i have to leave this place," 

"why?" tyrese asks.

andrea goes on the explain the governor is terrible.

tyrese tries to stop her, but they eventually let her go.

man, can all these people just kill each other/die/find other groups/just go away, so

we can have a show about tyrese and sasha?

they'd make a dope brother/sister buddy comedy. or dramedy. whatever. it'd be damn good.

maybe carl (and judith!) could be their debbie downer(s)?

just picture her with that stupid sheriff hat.

anyway, sasha thinks this was a bad idea, and tells tyrese so as we head to commercial.

9:19 - whelp, turns out tyrese and sasha went to the gov and told him.

"this isn't a prison camp, is it?" tyrese asks during his interrogation.

everybody's got coats and junk, eh? looks like winter is coming.

i mean, so much as liveblogs are spoilers.

so, governor lies to them a bunch about andrea being a weak woman, out there all alone and junk.

pretty junky.

then he goes on to ask about if she said anything.

tyrese says no, and hopes that this doesn't affect them.

"we heard she was with that prison group," tyrese starts. "i hope i didn't complicate things."

gov says they didn't. then in totally unrelated events asks them to go help with something not related to being summarily executed.

9:21 - captain governor pirate and milton have a walk and talk wherein milton begs for andrea's mercy.

"did you talk to her?"

"no."

"you did!"

governor gets up on milton, holding him against a fence, breathing heavily.

"did you tell her about the deal? did you tell her about michonne?!"

9:22 - cut to andrea frantically running through the woods.

9:23 - martinez tells tyrese and sasha to "be ready to roll in a few."

this situation sounds fishy. maybe they're going after andrea? maybe they're going off to kill tyrese and sasha? i don't know.

fuck, anyway, tyrese tries to tell his buddies want andrea said, but they're all "fuck you buddy. fuck the crazy cowboy and the chick with the sword."

anyway, i guess some shit is starting in tyrese's group. lady problems or something (these writers are so creative, right?)? i don't know, shit.

9:24 - well, anyway, tyrese and this dude are kind of arguing about a woman.

tyrese is pretty cool about it, but some shit happened with whoever donna is.

anyway, martinez beckons, and the men are in the truck.

9:25 - andrea is running down the road and we hear a truck!

she runs off into the shoulder of the road and hides in some brush.

the car drives by.

"now here comes a walker," says rasiqra/revulva, and she's right.

easily-telegraphed, or telepathic? 

you be the judge!

all of a sudden andrea is grabbed from behind by one walker.

then a bunch appear out of nowhere? seriously! directly in front of her, and then fuck.

everywhere!

so anyway, somehow andrea goes all berserker on them, killing them one by one.

one walker. ah-ah-ah!

two walkers. ah-ah-ah!

three walkers. ah-ah-ah!

9:30 - so, we're back at woodbury's walker repository.

this seems ominous.

tyrese is questioning what they're doing, and if it has to do with the prison.

tyrese isn't into this.

"i didn't think we'd be feeding people to biters."

whelp, tyrese is turning.  on woodbury, that is!  not like, into a biter.  walker.  whatever.

martinez tells them to talk it out with the governor when they get back.

"they'll send you packing. they'll send you all packing."

so, whitey gets pissed and says that tyrese doesn't speak for him, and can't send him and his son back out there. "i take care of him," whitey tells him.

"like you took care of donna," he asks?

two dudes get fighting and tyrese almost tosses him into the pit.

martinez tells other dude to "take them back to town. let 'em do some knitting."

yeah 'cause that sexist bullshit makes sense when two dudes just nearly fought to the death near a pit of walkers.

9:32 - andrea's walking through the field.

shit!

the truck is driving through the field.

she hits the dirt.

she might be safe?

nope. it's coming right for her.

it's the governor, and he's honking his horn as he chases her down.

wow, this show has such a good record of harassing and violently dealing with sexually active women.

let's count, shall we?

carol! intimate partner violence.

lori! attempted rape by shane; reproductive coercion by rick.

maggie! sexual assault by the governor.

andrea! violently hunted down by the governor.

michonne (although we haven't seen sexual activity from her on the show (yet?)!  implied violence by her walker-pets when they were human.

...am i missing anyone?

this is making me sad.

9:33 - welp, andrea gets to some brush and the gov lets her go?

she walks along and along and along.

she comes upon some sort of factory or summat?

dunno, but it's pretty much twilight, and she's got to be getting in places.

shit. gov pulls up right behind her.

aaand we go to commercial.

jeeze, dudes chasing ladies down in cars. where have i seen this before?

riiiight

9:39 - so we're in this creepy warehouse office thingy for an andrea vs governor showdown.

andrea clumsily walks about inside as we hear the governor drive about menacingly, then exit his truck.

he enters the building, all alpha-male, dressed fancy and armed-up proper.

9:40 - andrea walks around making as much noise as humanly possible.

governor whistles that tune again.

he's weird like that.  it...actually feels a little forced.  like, look!  he's a psycho!  he WHISTLES!

a walker comes up on andrea, but she knifes it like nothing.

9:41 - governor moves into a tool looking room, andrea moves along.

now she's in a room and hiding out, but gov sees her wasted walker.

he walks into the room

and whispers.

"andrea. come back to me. come back to woodbury. we need you, we all need you. that's your home now."

now sounds more like naoh.

"your people. your town."

your stuff. your thangs.

man, andrea picks the crazy fucks.

she says nothing, and he flips saying "suit yourself" and then smashing some glass, which apparently takes FOREVER to fall, according to the sound design people.

9:43 - this leads to some tasty-ass bear mcreary music and a the shining-esque showdown as gov stalks around with a shovel and andrea hides behind shit, continuing to make so much fucking NOISE!!

9:44 - governor starts whistling again, walking and dragging his shovel along.

this guy is effed up in the head, everybody.

9:44 - anywho, it looks like he's going to find andrea, but her hiding spot was just SO GOOD!

so he leaves, and she starts moving around again.

there's a walker, but he kills it.

remember to drink up, kiddies.

another walker gets shot, then another as the governor is exiting.

the second one isn't properly dead right away, so the gov kind of drops a shovel on it a bunch of times.

these skulls sure are soft, eh?

9:45 - anyway, andrea fucked up, and the governor HEARD HER MOVING AROUND UPSTAIRS during his joyous killing spree.

later, a walker attacks her, and she pushes it into a meat hook, then hits a door! she opens the door, and...

SURPRISE! dozens of walkers!

she closes the door and comes back out to the gov.

he stalks up to her quietly.

"time to go home, andrea."

andrea smiles at him, and opens the door to the giant stairwell of walkers. hiding behind the door, she watches as dozens of them converge on the governor. she makes her getaway quietly as the governor is overrun by walkers.

she leaves, leaving him presumably for dead.

good move, but yeah right.

9:48 - we cut back to woodbury's walker collecting area.

somebody's dousing all the walkers in gasoline and lighting a torch.

who is it?

the walkers are burning!!

lots of dead walkers now.

my over/under is effed.

the shadowy figure, obviously milton, drives away and we head to commercial.

hey, anybody else notice that these talking dead bumpers are always effed and never work well 'cause they're effing glitchy as eff? EFF!  fffffff.

commercials! they're fun!!  FFFF!

9:53 - Andrea's back! walking through the woods!

She comes upon the prison, smiling!

She's on the outskirts, raising her hand, and the Gov grabs her.

RICK SORT OF SEES IT! RICK DOESN'T BELIEVE IT CAUSE HE SEES STUFF AND THANGS, BUT HE SAW IT! DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!

9:54 - the governor's holding andrea to the ground.

9:55 - shit, come morning time tyrese et-al come upon a group of burnt-gross-disgusting dead walkers in holes. they reach out, and it almost looks like they're asking for help! fuck. that's creepy.

9:56 -we're back at woodbury. governor tells martinez he didn't find andrea. martinez tells the gov about the biters getting bbq'd. he thinks it was tyrese and sasha.

shit.

gov continues pretending he hasn't found andrea as he goes for a meeting with tyrese's group.

9:56 - "you got a beef with rick, that's fine. but you can't keep feeding these kids to biters," tyrese says. tyrese is great.

hey, guess what? time for the governor to lie again.

he pretends the biters are scare tactics.

tyrese wants to know why martinez didn't say that.

governor lies again.

"we don't really discuss tactics with people we, uh, don't really know."

"governor look. i shoot my mouth off sometimes, but the truth is, we want to stay. i saw red. it won't happen again."

fuck, great job tyrese. kiss this lunatic's ass. nice.

"where did you get the gasoline?" the governor asks tyrese on the way out.

"come again?" tyrese asks.

oh, milton, you crafty prick.

9:58 - governor finds milton.

"is she dead?" milton asks him.

"i hope not."

"are you okay?"

"never been better."

"it's a real shame about the pits."

"you heard about that, huh?"

"i hope you find out who did it."

"already have."

whoa, milton's growing up real hard. he doesn't ask who did it. didn't just walks away. we all know now.

great - time for the generic rock song at the end of the walking dead constructed and obtained for the purpose of selling sountracks? (admittedly this one isn't terrible, just generic.) where we reveal that andrea is being kept captive by the governor? seriously? andrea who's been made out to seem like an inconsequential sap for 2/3rds of the season is now going to get horribly tortured by douchebag governor? yeah? that seems like a completely not sexist or terrible idea. nope, not at all.

10:01 - so, the episode's over. meeeeeh.

i mean, good job with having another one-group story, guys. i like this format a lot more than popping back and forth between multiple groups. this feels a little more, in-depth, i suppose? but hey, it still works pretty nicely. what doesn't work nicely though? fuu, i don't know - most of it?

great, govvy-mcsexassault now has andrea tied up in his evil lab of horrors? yeah, that'll be handled properly. i don't know where they're going with this, but i doubt i like it. also, hey - you dudes had one flashback that didn't exactly go anywhere but was pretty cool? what the shit? at least andrea killed the eff out of most of the walkers for a period of time. still, that mostly sucked.

and milton is totally the governor's brother right?  i mean, we're all on board with this theory?

fuck.

Read More

The Walking Dead Season 3 Liveblog! Episode 13: Arrow on the Doorpost

Whoa, boy!

Wasn't last week's episode great?
Are you ready for what will likely be none of the same?

We know we are.

How're the cast and crew of The Walking Dead going to follow up on one of the better episodes in a few seasons? Who knows? We're ready to find out though.


Will tonight's episode feature just a single group again, or are we back to the ensemble cast?
How's Merle working out at the jail? How are preparations going?
How's the Governor's depth perception doing? He sure can still shoot. Is he planning to shoot again soon?
Daryl - we missed him for an entire episode. What's he been up to?

everyone loves some melissa etheridge, even after z-day.

We don't know, and you don't know, but if you hit the jump and we watch "Arrow on the Doorpost" (wtf does that mean?) then we're just to get at least a few answers. 

8:05 - wow - you really took that whole "hit the jump to find out" thing to heart, eh?

you know the show doesn't start for like, almost an hour, right?

you're that excited because of Morgan? I bet dude's not even in this episode. He's a busy man, y'know? He doesn't give a fuck.

seriously. The Governor wishes he was this chill.

8:20 - here's to hoping that the previous episode heavily featuring Rick and Michonne doesn't rule them out of this episode (who's kidding here? we've seen the promos) because we're quite enjoying the establishment of their friendship - that shit's important. It's already helping Rick along.

source: user kdoggt on tumblr

8:35 - by the by, word on the web is that some of you out there are hopping on the Rick and Michonne ship. This, by the by is against Intergalactic Standards of Protocol for PrettymuchaMovie Cannon, and is completely unacceptable in and about this area.

this is a no shipping zone.

8:45 - welp, make sure to load up on your drinks, 'cause this promises to be a doozy. here at the prettymuchamovie lounge we'll be sampling some maudite from unibroue, some steamwhistle, some mad tom from muskoka and some crazy canuck from great lakes brewery. we're fancy - oh, smoke 'em if you got 'em, too, it's just proper.

daryl's got a light.

8:55 - squee - 5 minutes! 

so glad we tuned in to rewatch last week!

9:00 - so, lots of stuff to remember from this season. people arming up, discussions about the gov, etc.

9:00 - we open to the sound of vehicles and an overhead shot of a cornfield with silos and junk.

Hershel and Rick are in one car, Daryl on his bike.

They run about, assessing this place, moving silently with hand signals.

Daryl's spotted walkers maybe?

Hersel is in the car with a new leg piece?

Oh, and a huge gun

9:01 - Somebody's been through recently and killed some walkers.

They continue searching on.

9:02 - Rick enters a dark building. Good move.

He cocks his gun.

This is where he meets the Gov, I guess.

He approaches a weird play setting, and the Gov walks out.

9:03 - So will they use this weird table, or no?

Gov saunters out and raises his hands, all innocent-like.

RICK JUST DO THE THANGS! PULL THE THANG ON YOUR STUFF! SHOOT HIM!

"We have a lot to talk about," the Governor says.

commercialz
well, sick theme song, then commercials.

9:06 "you attacked us. makes things pretty clear."

"I was trying to make things clear. I could have killed you all, but I didn't."

Rick raises his gun, and the Governor says he's going to disarm himself. All good will and negotiation.

9:07 - this is kind of homoerotic.
Gov, taking his belt off.

"See? No gun. Now you."

Rick choses the holster his shit

Anyway, Daryl is snooping around in the background.

Anyway, they take a seat at the table, and surprise there's a secret gun duct-taped to the gov's side.

9:08 - Daryl and Hershel discuss how suspcious this all seems and another car approaches.

Daryl draws his bow as Milton, Andrea and another dude come out.

"What the hell, why's your boy already in there?" Daryl asks.

"He's here?" Andrea asks

She bursts in.

9:09 - "what's going on here?" Andrea asks.

She wants this to end.

Rick's pissed about the heads, the raids, and what happened to Maggie.

Y'know, doing stuff and thangs to Maggie.

9:10 - Hershel says maybe he should go inside.

Milton thinks it best he not go.

"Who the hell are you," he asks Milton.

Okay, so now everybody starts getting all pissy, and it's furtherly homoerotic, but Hershel breaks it up.

9:11 - Back at the prison, they're distributing arms strategically about the prison.

Merle wants them to go attack Woodbury, not waiting around.

Michonne steps in an says he told Daryl he'd stay.

Carl says Rick's got the situation under control.

"Your dad's head may be on a pike real soon," Merle tells him.

This ain't no Game of Thrones, son.

and Rick is nowhere near as cool as ol' Neddy,

Anyway, Carl runs off and Maggie chastises Merle for it.

Glenn decides they're staying, and that's final!!

9:12 - Rick offers a treaty based on East and West of a river.

Governor starts laughing.

He's here for nothing but a surrender, and says Andrea's in no place to make any negotiations.

Governor wants Andrea to leave, and Rick agrees "I'm here to talk to him."

Rick makes sense.
Governor's being a prick.

This is totally going well.

This is really not going well, actually.

Anyway, Andrea leaves, and Rick sits down, and Governor's dude closes the door, and we go to commercial.

Man, Rick better go Han Solo on this shit, if you know what I'm sayin'.

(link)

9:17 - We're back.

"So you're the Governor?"

"It's their term, not mine."

"But still, they're your people. You're beholden to them."

So, Rick ends up talking about Merle, who the Governor throws under the bus.
None of this mess would've happened if Merle didn't take Maggie and Glenn, etc.

They go back and forth about who's a Governor and who's a Sheriff...

Oh shit, then Governor drops the baby bomb.
Andrea told him you see, about his baby, and how maybe it's Rick's former partner's.  you know, that douchebag from the last two seasons.  who also had sex with andrea.
Fuckin' Andrea.

"You failed to see the devil beside you."

"Oh, I see him alright," Rick says.  and still doesn't shoot the governor, because he is really boring again.  what if lori showed up right now and told him to do it?  i'd go along with that.

Gov smacks the table. "I brought whiskey," he exclaims.  this is a pretty weird date.

also,  rick!  don't drink the whiskey.  this isn't fucking Westeros - partaking of his bread and salt will not stop the Governor from stabbing you!

9:19 - Milton suggests the men outside discuss the issues at hand.

Turns out Milton recorded the attack on Woodbury. He does that. fancies himself a historian.

(link)

9:20 - Walkers are heard on the perimeter.

Andrea runs after with a knife.

Daryl and the Governor's handsome henchman (Martinez) play "whose dick is bigger" while Andrea takes the first kill.

jeeze guys, just bone already, you fuckin' hot dogs.

9:21 - ooh, Daryl kinda saves the one dude, and they get some smokes out of the deal.
Daryl offers one, but the dude prefers menthols.

"You army or something," Daryl asks.

"No, I just hate these things, after what they did. Wife, kids."

"That sucks," Daryl responds.

"Thanks."

(link)

This dude goes on about how this is a joke, and none of this is going to work out.

"They'll do their little dance, and next day, they'll give their word."

"I know."  Daryl delivers the classic Han Solo line.

aww, bros.

9:22 - Milton asks how Hershel lost his leg.  He's fascinated by the amputation.

"How long after the initial bite?"

"Immediately."

"And you didn't bleed out?"

"We have good people, they took care of me."

"Doctors?"

"Nope, we just learn by trial and error"

"Me too.

In a cute scene, Milton goes on to ask to see the leg. Hershel says no ("I'm not going to show you my leg!"), and that he should at least buy him a drink first.

9:24 - back with the "Leaders" I guess.

They discuss choice, and how they're faced with many.

"We're forced to decide what to fight for. Everything we've built in the last year. Do we want to kill everyone? Everyone back at the prison, in Woodbury? Everyone we love?"

Governor goes on to tell him about the day he lost his wife. This was all before the walkers. Car accident.

Fuck, I missed his name.

"She'd left a voicemail asking me to call her, and I didn't have a chance yet. And I sat there clenching that phone wondering, what did she want? Just to check in? To ask me to pick something up for dinner?"

"What did she want," Rick asks him.

Governor says nothing, and Rick just downs more whiskey.
Maybe drinking all this stuff from a random dude isn't a good idea?
Maybe he's rocking some poison?

(link)

Anyway, they head to commercial.

9:31 - back at the prison, Glenn's welding up a fence? Maybe? Yeah.

Inside, we look at the haul from Morgan's. Merle is gearing up.

"Hey, you're not going." Glenn tells him.

Merle's pissed and Maggie steps in.

"If you're going to live here you're going to do it under our rules. If Michonne can, why can't you?"

"'Cause of my brother, blah blah blah."

Merle goes on after Glenn.

"Nut up. This man cops a feel on your woman, blah blah."

They start fighting and it doesn't look good. Maggie and Michonne step in.

Beth stops the whole thing by firing into the air, and surprising us with her resemblance to Luna Lovegood.

(link)

Everyone stands stunned.

9:33 - Hershel excuses himself from his date to go talk to Andrea.

"How's it going in there?"

"They kicked me out."

they chatter a bit then she asks about Maggie.  it's a bit rough - she's obviously afraid to know, and one would hope cognizant of the awkwardness of asking Maggie's father for this information.  but things have gone so far that she can no longer sit with her own ignorance.

"He's a sick man," Hershel tells her.  I approve of this phrasing.

Now Andrea's crying and says she can't go back to Woodbury. What can she do? Where can she go, she wonders.

Hershel tells her she's family, and can come back. "But if you join us, it's settled."

"I know," says Andrea.  this dialogue is getting a bit repetitive.

9:34 - wide shot of the Gov and Rick.

Gov gets up and starts bemoaning his role as protector of these people.

He puts his belt back on.

"I know you got guns. That was quite the stash you brought back the other day. Now, my people may not be as battle trained as yours, but I've got more of them. And this fight will be to the last man."

He goes on to say they can end this today.

"You have something I want. One thing that makes this all alright."

Rick tells him he can't have the Prison.
And that they won't leave.

Governor doesn't want that.

"No use in you moving on, no you best stay where I can keep my one good eye on you."

Gov takes his eyepatch off in a rather nasty scene.

"I want Michonne. Turn her over and this all goes away. Is she worth it? One woman versus all those lives in your prison. Is she worth it? Is she?"

Rick seems to be considering it?
whoa, that's pretty gruesome.

What a bold-faced liar. He told Rick he needed to kill them all to prove a point to his people, what? 10 minutes ago?


so, back to that whole thing where products are explained and offered to us for money

9:41 - Merle and Michonne have a quick chat.

"These people here, they're strong, they're powerful, but they ain't killers."

"Rick is, Maggie is, Carl is. That boy killed his mother."

"Mercy killing."

"And what have you done," Michonne asks.

Merle lays down his plan. Contacting Daryl with hunting calls. They then gather up and Michonne "shoguns" the Gov.

Heh, she tells him he's on his own.

9:42 - Glenn's watching walkers.
Maggie comes out to say it's her turn to watch walkers.
Glenn says he's got it.
Maggie offers to keep him company.

They both watch weird old dead people shuffle in a field and talk.

"When we got back from Woodbury, I made it all about me, and you needed your space, and I didn't give you that."

"I didn't need my space from you," she says. "I just wanted you to see me. I'm with you. I'm always with you. You know?"

He apologizes and they hug.

Aww, Glenn tells her he loves her.

Who's going to die now?

They start making out, and Glenn's still kinda watching,

"hold up. no, no. I can't do this."

Maggie drags him back into the loading dock, throwing down the door so they can totally bang, apolcalypse style.
This is awesome, and cute, and pretty hot but super stupid.

Also, why in the hell are they removing so much clothing? It's completely unnecessary. They could bang with half that stuff on.

Anyway, away they go, all naked and porno all over the floor, switching positions and everything.
I think that's their first full sex scene.

Wait, nobody died?  I thought for sure that meant - was Lori just cursed or something?
I've got to admit, despite the obvious tittilating factor, it's nice to see a sex scene in an American tv program that serves a dramatic function (even if it's the narrative shortcut of "makeup sex").

9:45 - "I get it, you've got big plans."
Rick goes on about how Gov has plans and "thangs" how he could have a statue in the town square and everything, once he brings everything back.

"But killing Michonne, that's sort of beneath you, isn't it?"

ay, Rick.  James Bond you are not.

"You could save your son. Save your daughter. Save everyone. It's your choice."

"If I give you Michonne how do I know that you'll keep your word. That you'll stop?"

"You can have everything you want," Gov tells him. "I told you I don't care about you."

"You think about it. Two days."

wow, how evil supervillian. It'd be so much more interesting to give him to midnight or something.

9:47 - Gov leaves and everyone files out to their cars behind him.
Andrea looks at the Prison crew wistfully then gets in with the Governor.
Daryl has an awesome motorcycle.

Everyone drives away and we leave for commercials on an awesome shot of the street from overhead.
umm, so that gun the governor had taped to the table goes nowhere and nobody notices?
and umm, this whole sex in the loading dock isn't going to end well, is it?

relatedly, Maggie's on talking dead tonight?

9:53 - okay, so we're back at the prison with the tiny motorcade of Daryl and Rick and Hershel.

The Governor and his crew return to Woodbury as well, in one of these trendy pop music montages this show likes so much.

Everybody gets out of their car.

Rick tells everyone to get inside.

"I want you to set up shop around the perimeter. Keep an eye out for Michonne. You see them open fire. Kill everyone but Michonne.  Keep her alive."

Milton asks the Governor about the agreement.

The Governor says the is the best way to stop a slaughter.

"This is a slaughter," Milton says.

"Not on our side," Gov says.

He goes on to explain that they have to get rid of Rick sooner or later.

He explains to his Woodbury crew that's assembled "Rick and I set terms. We'll meet again in a two days."

"What sort of terms?" Andrea asks.

The Governor laughs.

"Hope it works out," Andrea says.

9:56 - Rick tells the group a lie.
Merle says he should have killed the Governor.

"He wants the prison. He wants us. He wants us gone. He wants us dead. Dead for what we did to Woodbury."

Rick pauses and looks about.

"We're going to war," he tells them, and walks off.

Daryl and Michonne look after approvingly. Everyone else looks around.

9:57 - Outside, Rick goes walker watching.

Hershel comes out to talk to him.

"The group's taking it as well as can be expected. Merle and Michonne think we should hit first. Carol and myself think we should take our chances on the road. But if we stay and fight, so be it."

"He gave me a choice. A way out."

"What does he want?"

"Michonne."

"He'd kill her."

"Then kill us anyway. What if he doesn't? What if this is the answer?"

"Why didn't you tell them?" Hershel asks.

"They need to be scared."

"They are."

"Good. That's the only way they'll accept it."

"She's saved my life. Glenn's. Carl's. Maggie's...She's earned her place."

He reminds Rick that she was the one who told them Maggie and Glenn had been kidnapped.

"Are you ready to sacrifice your daughters' lives for her?"

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because, I'm hoping you can talk me out of it."

Cicadas and Walkers ring out in the background, and we go to credits, 'cause hey - who likes closure.

10:00 - hey, this one was pretty damn good(-ish).
Not really amazing, but a pretty good response to last week.
Rick is sort of sliding out of his haze and re-establishing himself as leader, but one that his more willing consult his compatriots, and that's good. Umm, Andrea continues to be super confusing, and Michonne was pretty misused in this episode, but hey - it was good, and things with the Governor and Rick interacting was pretty interesting. It wasn't knocked out of the park as I had hoped, but it pretty much fit the role of what we figured had to happen, and they're continuing to develop things (in their typically incredibly slow manner).

not bad. almost sort of prettymuchamovie, and thangs.

Read More

The Walking Dead Season 3 LiveBlog! Episode 10: Home!

You're back!
You survived, good for you. You're doing a lot better than some of the chumps on this show.

Welcome back for another fanciful week of Walker-Geddon in the hills (plains) of Georgia, with the fine folk of The Walking Dead. Last week's episode "The Suicide King" offered up a lot of changes, and hopefully we'll see how these changes affect our characters in this week's episode, called "Home"

yeah, anytime i can put NIN in a post, i will. they have a song with the same name of an ep? boooooom

So, will the fine folks of Woodbury retaliate on Rick's Posse?

Will Ghost Lori be able to prevent Rick from killing teenage girls with machine guns? (man, he did that.)

How will the Whistlin' Dixons deal with brotherhood again so suddenly after all this time apart? And with their separate allegiances?

too much? not enough? let us know!

take off your shoes and coat and come on inside. we've got some drinks and snacks, and a whole bunch of walking dead ahead, so c'mon in.

8:30 - you're early, so you might have to amuse yourselves. hopefully you have more luck with that than carl.

is he trying to play risk?

8:45 - as per usual, you need refreshments during the walking dead. As such, we're having some tasty home-made bacon infused mac and cheese. During the episode? Our preferred beer will be James Ready 5.5 and our tea of choice will be Genmaicha from David's Tea.

9:00 - alright, here we go! another week, another gory, gross episode?
remember all that stuff that happened last week? well, they're trying to remind you. with clips of it.
rick was crazy, no?

9:00 - then we open up at the prison, ravens chirping in the background.

Rick is carrying around skids and scouting with binoculaurs.
Nothing but walkers and Michonne out there.
Michonne is living on the opposite side of the fence maybe?

Man, screw that. Oh, no, she's just outisde.

9:01 - whelp, then Rick sees Lori, all backless dressed up out in the fields.
He grabs a gun to go get her, lush ghost pads playing in the background.

9:02 - Lori might be standing at her own grave in her fairly sexy wedding dress.
Rick gets close to her, and obviously she's not there, so the camera gets all spinny, to imply his wackiness.

9:03 - oh, good - now Lori's out on the other side of the fence.
Naturally, Rick runs past Michonne, opens both gates (leaving them open) and chases ghost Lori.
Luckily Michonne is there to close his gates.

What, was this dude raised in a barn?

oh, right.

9:04 - At a creek, Rick meets up with Ghost Lori.
She touches his face, sorta, and he tries not to look at her boobs, it seems?
More crows and Ravens caw as Michonne looks on, realizing how whacked Rick is.

Michonne's wardrobe is tight.  Seriously coveting parts of it now.
The music there was pretty out of normal Walking Dead scope. Not the typical minor key scariness.  Well, until the familiar fugue comes in.

commercial!

9:07 - back at Woodbury's wall of tires.

ooh, that was an establishing shot.

we're actually with The Gov and Andrea. Well, The Gov has called on Andrea.

"That was umm, that was quite a speech you gave them. Exactly what these people needed to hear."

"What about the Prison," Andrea wants to know.

"While the leave us alone, nothing."

"So no retaliation?"

Why does Andrea buy any of this?  I honestly don't understand her at all.
The Governor says he won't attack the Prison, then goes on about how he's screwed up Woodbury and isn't fit to lead. He says Andrea is.
oh.  so this is why Andrea is still listening?

(link)

"So you're abdicating me?" says Andrea.

Well, that's fitting sorta, with the Pope and all. He's Jackson Lake, he's the Governor, he's the Pope, damn.  Fleeing upon the evidence of horrible corruption, and whatnot.

9:09 - the Gov goes on to beg Andrea to stay, because he and these people need her.
It's pretty sappy, and who seriously trusts this dude.

Hey, is there like, a barber in Woodbury?

9:10 - We're out in the woods with the Whistlin' Dixons.

"patience little brother, sooner or later a squirrel will cross your path."

Daryl tells Merle that's not enough, and suggests looting or fishing.
Merle is paranoid and thinks Daryl is trying to lead him back to the prison.
Daryl kinda is.

"Everyone will get used to each other."

damn, Reedus is a good actor.  His body language and demeanor around Merle are both very impressive.  Also, Merle is super-gross.

9:11 - Merle tells Daryl his friends are probably dead, and that the Governor has offed them all already.
Daryl spits as they go to start some fishing.

Reedus!

9:11 - okay, back at the Prison, Glenn and Carl are mapping out breaches in the Prison, planning security.

"If walkers just waltzed  in, armed men would have no problems."

Becky says they might leave them alone. Who knows?

Michonne finally speaks!

"He had fishtanks full of heads. Humans and walkers..."

Michonne knows he'll come for them. Glenn wants to go for the Governor.

"Rick would never allow this," Hershel tells him.

Glenn says Rick isn't fit to judge.  And I mean...who can argue with that?  Even before Rick started hallucinating on the regular, his track record was pretty dismal.

Hershel advocates leaving, but Glenn points out that Hershel is now down a leg, and the group is now up a baby. Maggie gets upset and takes off, upset with what Glenn's become.

Glenn decides they'll stay and defend.
The group is breaking down sans leadership. It's not good, but Glenn is trying

9:14 - back at Woodbury with Milton and The Gov.
Milton is zoned out at his desk with the Gov comes in. He's using alpha waves to induce a meditative state 'cause he can't sleep. Interesting.

"You've been invaluable," Gov says. "Do you intend to stay?"

"Leaving's never crossed my mind."

"Good, because I count on you. Not just for your expertise, but because I consider you a friend."

Gov goes on to play Milton like a fiddle, about the men he's lost, and what they'd give for him.

He tells Milton he's not sure where Andrea's loyalty lies, asks Milton to keep an eye on her.

Milton obviously agrees as we go to commercialz.

9:20 - on the wall at Woodbury, Andrea wants to know where Martinez is. Karen on the wall gives her sass. She doesn't know anything.

Gee. Did these guys go to the prison?

Andrea calls out to Milton, and there's a terrible random echo.  Aren't they supposed to be outside?

Andrea wants to know where the Gov is.

"He's out on a run," Milton says.

"Is that a question or an answer," Andrea says.

Milton claims that the Gov is out getting supplies.

"...getting supplies!"

dr. quinn came here for this, so.

(link)

Hmm, not suspicious at all.

9:21 - back that the Prison, they're having more difficulty keeping walkers at bay in the Prison, let alone  keeping attackers at bay. The group is scared of the fence giving way, hordes coming, or the Gov.

Glenn wants to check the far side of the prison, take a car with him. Axel offers to go with him, but he wants Maggie. Hershel asks if he thinks she's up for that.  I think that an important person is missing from this conversation.  Who could it be?

9:22 - Glenn's in Maggie's cell, telling her they need to find out how the walkers are getting into the tombs. Then he gets all douchey about Maggie's situation.

"Maggie we need to talk about this."
"I do, or you do?" Maggie asks.

She goes on to explain what happened to her to Glenn...

"Did he," Glenn almost asks.

Maggie can use words, so she goes on. "Rape me? No. No. Do you feel better? I had a choice, either I take of my shirt or he'd take off your hand."

She continues describing her experience; it is well-performed, and triggering enough that I'm going to stop trying to re-cap it.

Glenn apologizes and she shoves him. Telling him to go, "'cause he got [his] answer."

Good stuff.

9:24 - Axel and Carol are out in the yard reinforcing fences.
Axel is scared of guns and is also gross.

apparently he robbed a gas station with a toy gun.

"You said Oscar was the thief, and you were in here for pharmaceuticals."

Carol's smooth, and Axel is a bit of a quick talker, I think. Claims the cops found his brother's gun and not his. Claims he doesn't even know how to use a gun.

Carol starts showing him the basics of his piece.

"It's fully loaded," she says pulling out the magazine. "Let's hope it stays that way."

Axel tells her she's quite the lady, and they share a moment before we're back to the Dixons.  My reaction to this was basically: Carol, no!  Absolutely be flattered by his compliments, as you deserve all that and more - but please don't do anything stupid.  You've only just come back to us!

9:26 - "You know what I think? I may have lost my hand, but you lost your sense of direction."

Things are getting tense with the boys as they venture through the woods.

Daryl hears some noises, and they've come upon some people with a situation.

A group of people is stuck up on a bridge with walkers on them.

"Jump," Merle says, as Daryl goes to help. Merle laments this decision, because these people "ain't cooked me a meal..." or blah blah.

Daryl's running to help as commercials come.

9:30 - back on the bridge some spanish speaking people are fending off a small horde with but one gun. Daryl gets in there crossbowing walkers and stabbing others with the spent bolts, reloading and repeating. It turns out these men are defending a lady and her baby in a car. A walker is getting in there with the lady, but Daryl smashes its skull in the trunk.

9:32 - Merle makes a good shot to give Daryl an assist, who then goes back to clearning the bridge almost single handedly, now with his knife.

With the last walker dispatched, he gives the man an eye and goes to check on the woman.

Merle however is there, gun in hand threatening everyone.

There's a bit of a language barrier, to which Merle reacts with his particular blend of violent, racist glee and opportunism.

"Let 'em go," Daryl tells Merle.

"The least the can do is give us an enchilada or something," Merle tells him, and goes on to try to raid the peoples' shit.

9:33 - Daryl draws his bow on Merle - tells him to get out of the car.
Daryl tells the people to get in their car and go, and they do, running over heads and parts the whole way.

9:34 - the brothers angrily cross the bridge, Daryl retrieving more bolts.  We sure hope he attempts to clean them before shooting any potential food.

9:34 - Merle is pissed about Daryl helping people, asking if Rick taught him to help. Daryl says he helped because there was a baby. They start fighting about allegiances and what happened in Atlanta

"I didn't cut your hand off, you did. You were well on the way on to it before they locked you up there."

There's a bunch more arguing before "a bomb" is dropped that the brothers were planning on robbing the original camp outside Atlanta?

Merle attacks Daryl, ripping his shirt off to reveal a bunch of scars. There's some slightly veiled discussion about childhood abuse, and how Merle got out before it started with him.

"If I knew that I would have killed him," he tells Daryl.

Daryl decides he's going back, but Merle tries to stop him.

"I can't go with you. I tried to kill that black bitch. I almost killed the chinese kid."

"He's Korean," Daryl responds.

"Whatever," Merle says.

Actually a pretty great call-back to season one.

(link)

Daryl tells him that he's not leaving, Merle is, and takes off.

commercial-time.

9:41 - outside the Prison, Hershel is chasing after Glenn.

"You're not going back to Woodbury, are you?" He asks Glenn.

Glenn claims he's not. Hershel says he can't head out on his own.

"You went out on a formula run, and got the crap kicked out of you, and you had Maggie with you."

Hershel tells Glenn that he can't go on with this rage, that it'll kill him.

Glenn says that with Rick in "crazy-town" he's the next on charge.

9:42 - Glenn drives off and Carl closes the gate after him.

9:43 - Hershel looks to Rick wandering around outside the fence I think?

9:43 - Becky and Maggie have a scene taking care of little Asskicker.
The music is decidedly soft again. Becky is worried about Maggie and doesn't know how to show it.
They have a nice sisterly moment ultimately though.

The Greene's are so lucky to have their family mostly intact.

9:44 - Rick is wandering around out on the outskirts near the fence, with Hershel calling his name.

9:45 - Rick approaches Hershel, looking like a crazy cat, as per usual.

"You know I wouldn't have hobbled all the way down here if it wasn't important. Are you coming back soon? Glenn's on a warpath, he can't fill your boots. I'm afraid he's reckless. We need you."

"Well, if you're so worried about him, you lead"

whoa. Hershel asks him what he's doing out there.

"umm, I'm doing. I've got... stuff."

Rick shakes his head, but goes on the explain.

"I saw something."

He approaches the fence.

"Lori. I saw Lori. I'm seeing Lori. Look, I know it's not really her. But there's got to be a reason. It's got to mean something."

"Was it her on the phone?"

"Yeah, Shane too. And the town."

"Do you see them now?" Hershel asks.  "You're looking for them?"

Rick says he's just waiting. Because in time it'll make sense.

9:47 - "Rick, c'mon in. You need rest. It's not safe out here."

"I cant'. I can't. I can't," Rick says and takes off.

9:48 - Michonne watches all that from a distance.

Axel flirts with Carol.

He notes that Rick's losing it. He's seen plenty of dudes crack, but Prison worked for him.

"life was more simple."

"didn't you miss your brother?" Carol asks him.

"hell, no, son of a bitch had a money problem. in that he didn't lend me any."

Axel starts talking some more, but then he gets shot in the head.
Carl looks hilarious as he realizes this. We got reaction shots from everyone,
and then a look at the Gov, who's holding a smoking gun.

Glad his depth perception isn't too affected.  Except that I hate him.

Anyway, it was obvious that this was Axel's last episode, because they were doing as much as they could to humanize him and complete his face turn before that bullet went through his cranium. Cool to see that the writers were so glad how well this worked for T-Dog's death, and decided to reuse it as a result.

commercials, of course.

9:52 - back!

at the Prison, Rick and everyone is getting blasted at!
Carol covers herself with Axel.

Rick and Michonne begin returning fire, but they're actively surrounded.

Everyone has taken cover, and the Governor laughs and blasts some warning shots.

9:54 - Maggie comes out with reinforcement weapons.

Carol's up and armed now.

Michonne misses the Gov narrowly and he barely flinches.

The sound of a car rings out in the distance.
A large truck breaches the front gate of the Prison.

The governor is laughing. He loves this shit. Walker bombing and shooting into the air.

9:55 - everyone lies in wait as the engine lies idling in the middle of the yard.
a gate swings down on the back of the truck and a bunch of Walkers jump out.

Poor  Hershel is right in the line of sight of the loose walkers.

9:56 - A woman covered in protective gear gets out of the van and starts blasting, and gunfire rings out with Rick taking out Walkers, Hershel capping walkers, Maggie taking down Woodburians and the Governor (and presumably some cronies) taking off in their vehicle down the street, passing a returning Glenn on the way down... The governor left? Why? Drop a Walker bomb and leave? That's so Doctor Evil.

next there'll be walkers with frickin' lasers on their heads.

9:57 - Rick is cornered on the fence by about ten Walkers, and one of their skulls is suddenly pierced by an arrow! Daryl AND Merle are there!

Michonne is decapitating fuckers left and right.  We were kind of hoping she'd be the one to save Rick, so he'd finally shut up about her being a liability already.
Merle and Daryl and Rick smash.

The gates are closed, and the Prison may have gotten the situation under control.

9:59 - Daryl and Rick share a cute nod, assessing the situation at hand.

Rick, Daryl and Merle are trapped between the outer yard and the prison. This area is riddled with zombies. Rick looks crazy, and we cut to clips from next week.

10:00 - holy shit, that was one of the better episodes of this season.  Very fast-paced, and has me impatient for the next episode for the first time in almost years.  Hooray?

hooray!

(link)

Read More