MAJOR SPOILERS!
Ok, that was different. The Walking Dead has gone to weird places but I think seeing Rick talk on the phone to the dead members of the group was one of the weirdest. And how great was it that they got the actors back to play (or voice) Jim, Jacqui and Amy? Anyway, on to the review!
The episode started off with Merle and some more of the Governors lackeys hunting Michonne down in the woods. They come across a message from Michonne, “Go Back” spelt out in walker limbs. I wonder if this method of communication (dubbed a”biter-gram” by Merle) will catch on? Just as Merle and the gang begins to get cocky, Michonne jumps out of a tree and becomes the bad-ass we’ve been waiting for, she decapitates one guard and uses the other as a human shield. It was great to see more of this ass kicking Michonne that has been sort of teased before. This just leaves Merle and Gargulio (or ‘Neil’ as he’s sometimes known by Merle).
The action then shifts back to the prison where Rick is talking to the first person (Amy) You sort of get the impression that something is not quite right but you can’t be sure. Rick then tidies himself up and goes to speak to the group. What’s interesting is that he completely ignores his newborn baby, he’s not quite recovered yet. We soon see Andrea back in Woodbury, and I wish she’d just make up her mind! She hates the fights, she likes them. She’s a confusing lady. But she manages to get the Governor to let her guard the wall. Here she ends up talking to a women called Haley, a woman who is so bad with a bow and arrow that it’s embarrassing. It’s made worse by the fact that she talks for a while about how GOOD she is with it, (“Yeah this bow, this bow was worth more than my car.“)
Andrea gets as annoyed as us and just jumps over the wall to take down the walker. The Governor doesn’t like this and attempts to talk to her. I’m just going to say it, this subplot ends with sex.
Between the scenes with horny Andrea we see more of Rick talking to more dead members of the group. First there’s Jim, who sounds like a real dick. Later Hershel comes to visit Rick, and he examines the phone. It’s when Hershel looks at the phone that you know something’s up (if you haven’t already suspected) He offers to sit with Rick, but Rick declines.
Back with Merle and Neil, they’ve jut caught up with Michonne. There’s a cool fight between Merle and Michonne, then walkers show up. There’s an awesomely disgusting scene in which a walker is standing above Michonne and she slices at its stomach, sending all its guts falling on top of her. She uses the walkers as a distraction to then escape and soon realises that zombie guts mask her scent. Neil/Gargulio wants to keep going after her, Merle uses the classic line of “She’s as good as dead” but Neil/Gargulio is having none of it. Finally Merle shoots Gargulio in the head. THIS is the Merle Dixon we’ve been waiting for, I mean it was cool to see him being kind to Andrea but we never really got the feeling that this guys was truly evil. We know now. Merle only gets worse after this. Glenn and Maggie bump into him whilst making a run for ammo and most importantly; baby stuff. They both get captured by Merle and taken back to Woodbury.
Elsewhere in the episode, a small group containing Oscar, Daryl and Carl are clearing out more of the prison. There’s a really touching moment where Daryl is talking to Carl about his own Mother’s death. Well, it’s touching in a Daryl sort of way. Daryl then finds a knife stuck in a walker; Carols knife. This leads him to find Carol, hiding in a cupboard. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the point was in getting rid of her in the first place.
Back in crazy town, Rick speaks to Jacqui then Lori on the phone. The sight of Rick, in tears, rocking back and forth gives you an idea that he may have gone off the deep end. After speaking on the phone he goes to see the group, and his (or Shane’s?) baby. The moment Rick walks outside holding the baby, you see that Andrew Lincoln can do over-the-moon as well as he does bat-shit insane. It’s one of the happier moments from the series. But alas, the happiness does not last. Rick spies something near the fence, it’s Michonne! Covered in zombie guts. Ah well, at lest we got a moment of happiness. The episode ends with Rick looking at Michonne with a ‘What the hell?!’ expression on his face.
Overall, I really liked this episode. My favourite part was the ending scene of Rick with the baby (then Rick looking at Michonne). But any scene with Michael Rooker as Merle is always going to be a winner. It was a risky episode, it wasn’t quite the same as usual. Despite the fact you could see the twist coming a mile off, I loved it.
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