3.7 When The Dead Come Knocking As we have seen, the Governor doesn’t take too kindly to challengers to his authority. Andrea is a follower – she goes with whomever the alpha dog seems to be, be it Rick, Daryl, Shane, or even Merle in the early days of the Atlanta group. Michonne isn’t that kind of person. She’s an alpha dog, too. Her respect can’t be bought, only earned. Michonne finally hooks up with Rick’s group this week, but it’s not exactly the easiest integration. We know Michonne is good, and we know that Rick is good, and the hope is that they will immediately take to one another and become loyal friends. This… is not the case. It’s a very revealing moment for the character of Michonne. Rather than simply wandering up to the prison as she did in the comics, she sees what happens to Glenn and Maggie, realizes why they were gathering supplies, overhears where they came from, and then completes the mission for them. She comes bearing gifts, bleeding and battered but there. It’s a clever bit of writing by Frank Renzulli to have the other characters figure out why Michonne is there and that she means the group no harm based on the things she was carrying with her, rather than her attitude or actions. Glenn’s scenes with Merle and Merle’s pet were the most effective of the episode, by far. The fight between a restrained Glenn and the zombie was brilliant, and director Daniel Sackheim seemed to be channeling a little of the Sam Raimi-cam during that particular scene, making the camera an active participant in the fight rather than a passive observer; he does the opposite in a scene with Maggie and the Governor, which makes that particular moment even harder to watch. In the comics, the Governor was straight evil, all the time. In the television show, they’re taking a different tack with the character, or so it seems. He’s still evil, but it’s a more manipulative sort of evil, a less enjoyable form of cruelty and torture. He’s evil to the extent that it helps him maintain his power, but he doesn’t seem to get any pleasure out of his treatment of Maggie this week. Or if he does, he keeps it buried beneath a layer of what seems like plausible disgust at the failure of his bluff. It’s a clever choice to make him not totally evil all the time. I doubt that meeting will be next week, if only because it’s only the half-season finale. That’s right, there are many more episodes of The Walking Dead waiting for us in February, and honestly? With the way the show has been going since season three started, the new episodes can’t kick off fast enough for me. Read Ron’s review of the previous episode, Hounded, here. US Correspondent Ron Hogan was always hoping for Glenn to meet Woodbury Glenn. Shame that won’t happen after what happened to Anti-Glenn in the forest two episodes ago Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here
