The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 4 recap
We spent last week in Woodbury, meeting the Governor and reaffirming that yes, Andrea has the worst taste in men EVER. This week we’re back at the prison, where someone is baiting the zombies inside. A mystery person (wearing slippers like the inmates) is trying to lead the zombies somewhere.
Group laugh at Glenn and Maggie’s expense—they’ve been boning in the guard tower and overslept. Well at least someone’s happy.
The two remaining inmates try to join Rick’s group but he’s not having it. After an impassioned speech from one of the men (I seriously cannot keep these guys’ names straight, which is a consistent issue with this show. See also: Luna Lovegood the farm cannibal), Rick looks to Daryl for his opinion. I really love the dynamic of Rick and Daryl working together. It’s like after three seasons, something has finally clicked into place. And now I can’t wait to see what happens when Merle inevitably throws a spanner in the works.
Daryl vetoes the inmates’ plea and then the group stands around and argues about it. It’s nice to hear from T-Dog, but everyone else is just stating the obvious. We know Rick’s opinion and really don’t need it reiterated three times from different people.
Cut to Woodbury and Michonne. How is everyone liking Danai Gurira’s portrayal of the sword-wielding badass? I’m into it. She’s silent and scowly but she’s like that in the comics, and she’s also perhaps the best translation of drawn character to human realization. The way Gurira carries herself, the way she’s framed in shots, she looks like a comic cell come to life.
Michonne and the Governor parlay. She sees the bullet holes in the Humvee the Governor’s men appropriated. She’s also suspicious of what happened to Wells (the soldier). The Governor tries to placate her, but Michonne is not having it. She’s got the Governor’s number. Which is good, because Andrea clearly doesn’t and one of them needs to be on their toes.
Herschel is up!
Michonne wants to go to the coast, but Andrea wants to try and stay. Because she’s a lunatic with horrible taste in men.
The group enjoys the sight of Herschel up and around, Rick and Horrible Lori have a little moment, but I feel dread becau—ZOMBIES!
Rick, Daryl and Glenn are cut off by fenced-in yard while all the others are trapped with the zombies that have (probably) been let into their compound. Oh no, T-Dog! He’s bitten and the group is totally under siege.
Back to Woodbury, where Merle hits on Andrea, who is helping him figure out where to find the group. Merle tells Andrea the Governor is a good man, which guarantees he is a horrible, murdering assh*le because Merle is hardly a good judge of character.
The alarm at the prison comes on because someone is clearly f*cking with Rick and his group. And Lori—because everything about her is horrible, including her timing—chooses this moment to go into labor. She’s isolated with Maggie and Carl and a bunch of zombies.
Woodbury again. The Governor practices his golf game on zombies. Merle asks to go on a scouting mission to look for Daryl. The Governor says no, unless Merle can get “more concrete” info on Daryl’s whereabouts. It’s totally creepy to watch how he works on people. He really doesn’t seem like a controlling jerk, but he is clearly a controlling jerk.
Great piece of editing—the Governor’s golf swing lines up with Rick blowing the head off a zombie back at the prison. He’s looking for Lori and Carl.
Lori’s like, “I AM HAVING THIS BABY RIGHT THE F*CK NOW.” And of course, something is wrong. Because everything about Lori is horrible, including the state of her pregnancy.
T-Dog sacrifices himself so that Carol can make a break for it. The zombies chow down. Was eating a Pop-Tart. Cannot finish the Pop-Tart.
The Governor and Andrea talk, and the Governor reveals some personal information. His wife died 18 months before the zombies, and he references a daughter. And his name is Phillip. He’s so working on Andrea and she’s all, “Big man to latch onto, derp.”
At the generators, we meet the saboteur, a rogue inmate survivor. The one that pleaded with Rick earlier (WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE’S NAMES???), saves Rick’s ass and kills the saboteur. Man, if that doesn’t prove some loyalty.
Maggie has to perform Lori’s C-Section. Because everything about Lori is horrible, including how she delivers her baby.
Andrea and Michonne argue about staying longer in Woodbury. Michonne is like, “Bitch please.”
Lori says her goodbyes to Carl as Maggie nuts up (ovaries up?) to do the C-section. Lori basically delivers Ponyboy’s “stay golden” speech. I get that this is supposed to be moving but I’m not feeling it. Maybe because I’ve known this was coming, or because Lori was such an unlikeable character, or because Lori’s death in the comics is a hundred times worse than an emergency C-section, this is not hitting the mark with me.
Nope, not even Carl flashing back to Rick telling him his childhood is over as he prepares to kill Lori to make sure she doesn’t zombify is doing it. It’s a well-constructed scene, it just isn’t close to as bad as I was expecting.
Rick and his group come across T-Dog (what’s left of him). Daryl assumes Carol was eaten too, but we didn’t see that. She’s another one cut off from the group.
Rick et al reunite with Herschel and Luna Lovegood when Maggie and Carl show up with the baby. Rick’s breakdown when he grasps what happened is awful. Lincoln is knocking this out of the park. I think this is the first time we’ve seen Rick break down like this since the pilot.
Status check:
Officer Rick – Up a daughter, down a wife, in meltdown mode.
Horrible Lori – Exiting stage left.
T-Dog – Exiting stage right.
Carol – ???
Andrea – Still has appalling taste in men.
The Governor – An appalling man.
Michonne – Probably going to murder Andrea in her sleep.
Worst thing seen/heard this week: T-Dog’s throat getting ripped out.
Zombie kill of the week: Daryl to the eye with a knife.
Photos courtesy AMC
